Kentucky avenged a December loss to North Carolina yesterday, beating the Tar Heels 76-69 to earn its first National Semifinal appearance since 1998. The Wildcats joined a field that already included Connecticut, Butler, and Virginia Commonwealth. College basketball odds makers are favoring Kentucky, at +150 moneyline odds, in their early 2011 Final Four Point Spreads, but the other schools are not far behind. That is to be expected given the crazy, wide open nature of this year's NCAA Tournament.
The odds makers clearly prefer the winner of the Connecticut/Kentucky game to beat the winner of the VCU/Butler contest. 
The Wildcats and Huskies certainly have tradition and a number of other things in their favor, but they may not be any better than the Rams or Bulldogs.
Vriginia Commonwealth, which completed its destruction of most everybody's brackets by thumping Kansas on Sunday, is the least favored team of the four to win the National Championship. They are the highest seed, but the Rams have proven that means little at this juncture. What probably has the odds makers concerned in the case of VCU is the fatigue factor. Shaka Smart's squad has played one more tournament game than the other three schools as they had to face USC in a play-in affair before squaring off against sixth seeded Georgetown on March 18th.
The Rams showed signs of being gassed in Sunday's win over the Jayhawks, is a full five days enough for them to recover?
Butler is not flashy, they do not overwhelm with eye popping athleticism or highlight reel dunks, but they do know how to win. The Bulldogs play smart, but they also play as hard as any team in the country. If they can avoid going ice cold from three point range and the free throw line (like Kansas did), than the Bulldogs have all the tools to end VCU's epic run.
Kentucky is the deepest team left in the tournament and it has the most offensive options as evidenced by the Wildcats regional final win over North Carolina. John Calipari had five players score in double figures, and Brandon Knight, who tallied just two points in Kentucky's first round win over Princeton, led the team with 22.
And what does Connecticut have? Only the best player left in the field in Kemba Walker. Going back to the Huskies five game Big East Tournament run, Walker has averaged 26.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per contest. He is more than capable of leading UConn past Kentucky, as he did in November (84-67), or either team from the other side of the bracket.
Yeah, this looks about as wide open as the rest of the tournament.
2011 Final Four Point Spreads:
Kentucky +150
Connecticut +200
Butler +300
Virginia Commonwealth +400
