Michigan State, a long shot to be in the Final Four, will enjoy essentially a home-court advantage in this weekend’s matchup against Connecticut.
The Spartans entered the basketball tournament with 25-to-1 odds to win, according to R.J. Bell of pregame.com. They’re not the most unlikely team to be left standing, though, as Villanova began play with 40-to-1 odds, he said.
Michigan State, which has updated 6-to-1 odds to win it all, will enjoy a lot of support since the Final Four will take place in Detroit, not far from the school’s Lansing home base. Should they make the championship game, look for locals to snap up the tickets being sold by the two losing schools, making for an even larger advantage. But don’t blame Michigan State – the title sites are determined years in advance, and they just advanced in the right year.
As for the other teams left, North Carolina has updated 3-to-1 odds to win while Connecticut has 3.5-to-1 odds and Villanova has 5-to-1 odds (note that they’re now given better odds than Michigan State even though the Spartans had better odds before the tournament began).
