By: SBR Staff

A team that has dominated the recent past and a storied program from years gone by that has recently been revived are among the favorites pegged by online sportsbooks to win this season’s NCAA men’s Division-I basketball title.

The Duke Blue Devils and the UCLA Bruins are both listed at +1500 at TheGreek.com to win this year’s college hoops championship. Only Roy Williams’ North Carolina Tar Heels (+500), the defending national champion Florida Gators (+600), the Kansas Jayhawks (+800) and the Ohio State Buckeyes (+1200) are listed above the Dukies and Ben (Howland)’s Bears on TheGreek.com’s championship betting board.

Duke looked like it was on its way to another national title last year when they won their first 17 games. The Devils stumbled a couple of times from there on out, but still won the ACC’s regular-season title and the conference tournament. Then Duke’s final surge toward the NCAA title was snuffed out by LSU in the regional semis.

UCLA, in just Howland’s third season sitting in the Wooden Seat, somewhat unexpectedly won first the PAC 10’s regular-season title, then the conference tournament. Then, in the Big Dance, the defensive-minded Bruins went on a great run that ended only in a national championship game loss to a very good Florida Gators team.

This season, Coach K and Duke (32-4 last season) will have to replace 46 points and 13 rebounds per game, now that guard J.J. Redick and forward Shelden Williams have moved on to the professional level. But as we know, the Blue Devils never seem to run out of ammunition; they just reload year after year after year.

UCLA (32-7 last season) got some good news and some bad news over the offseason. Point guard Jordan Farmar (13.5 points and five assists per game last season) opted to enter the NBA draft after his sophomore season and went to the Lakers late in the first round. But the Bruins’ leading scorer from last season, guard Arron Afflalo (16 points per game), withdrew his name from the draft and opted to return to the college game for his junior season.

Very fast sophomore guard Darren Collison (5.5 points, 2.3 assists per game last season) is set to replace Farmar at quarterback for the Bruins.

In injury news, early reports indicate that Josh McRoberts, Duke’s leading returning scorer this season, is expected to be ready for the start of the season despite undergoing back surgery earlier this month. The 6-foot-10 sophomore forward averaged 8.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game last season.