Let’s be honest here. A Florida-Houston national championship matchup doesn’t quite have the same juice as if Duke were in the game. It is widely known throughout the college basketball community that whether you love or hate them, Duke brings eyes to the screen.
It also brings more college basketball betting interest to the sports books. While the books made out well with Houston beating Duke, they made out even better with Florida beating Auburn. However, there was a 25-30% increase in betting interest for the Houston-Duke game over the Florida-Auburn one.
Nevertheless, I believe we are in for a high quality championship matchup. In Florida, we see a team of talent and experience that has been put together via analytics, recruiting, and the transfer portal. The Gators top three scorers are comprised of two seniors and a grad transfer. None of them started their collegiate career at Florida. Walter Clayton Jr. came from Iona. In 2023, he was the MAAC Player of the Year. Will Richard came from Belmont where he was part of the Ohio Valley All-Newcomer Team. Alijah Martin came from Florida Atlantic, where he was the 2023 Conference USA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, 1st team All Conference USA in the same season, and 2nd team All-American Athletic Conference in 2024.
Houston is built different. The Cougars leading scorer L.J. Cryer is a graduate student that spent his first three years at Baylor. Outside of that, the other top three scorers, Emanuel Sharp, Milos Uzan, and J’Wan Roberts joined the U of H program directly from high school. As head coach Kelvin Sampson has mentioned in the past, there is a “culture” at Houston and it seems his recruiting efforts and ability to retain players shows that it is certainly a strong one.
Not many people had this as the championship game in their brackets. I did. Not because I am clairvoyant or hit 88 miles per hour with my flux capacitor working. This was a bit of luck. Better to be lucky than good when it comes to doing bracket competitions.
Let’s see who the luck favors on Monday Night.
Below is the info for the Florida-Houston game:
NCAAM Championship Game
San Antonio, Texas
1 Florida vs 1 Houston
Spread
Florida -1 (-106) WINNER
Houston +1 (-111)
Total
Over 140.5 (-108)
Under 140.5 (-108) WINNER
Moneyline
Florida (-112) WINNER
Houston (-104)
Player Points
Walter Clayton Jr. Under 19.5 (-135)
L.J. Cryer Over 17.5 (-115)
Emanuel Sharp Under 13.5 (-120)
Alijah Martin Under 12.5 (-110)
Milos Uzan Under 12.5 (-110)
J’Wan Roberts Under 11.5 (+105)
Will Richard Over 11.5 (-110)
Thomas Haugh Under 10.5 (-120)
Alex Condon Over 7.5 (-120)
Double Result
Florida / Florida (+150)
Houston / Houston (+165)
Florida / Houston (+550)
Houston / Florida (+600) WINNER
Tie / Florida (+2900)
Tie / Houston (+3000)
