College basketball, James Harden’s Clippers debut and more in the week ahead

Basketball season is officially back in full swing with college hoops tipping off this week. But I’m not here to offer any betting advice, as college basketball isn’t exactly my area of expertise and I don’t want to steer you wrong. Instead, I’ll just point you to a few things you should know as we get started.

First off, the consensus favorites to win the men’s national title are the Kansas Jayhawks, who have +1000 odds at BetMGM. They’re followed by Duke, Purdue, Michigan State and Kentucky.

On the women’s side, the reigning champion LSU Tigers are favored to repeat at around +300, with UConn and Iowa usually the next two teams to follow.

But good luck trying to bet on those odds. Women’s basketball isn’t exactly front and center on many sportsbook apps, and if any of Monday’s 15 games involving top-25 teams are available for betting, those are hard to find too, which is just a shame. Especially with three ranked-versus-ranked matchups on the slate, including No. 10 Notre Dame playing No. 6 South Carolina in Paris. And four more later in the week, including Caitlin Clark and No. 3 Iowa taking on No. 8 Virginia Tech.

There’s so much warranted hype going into this women’s college basketball season, but sportsbooks don’t seem to be leaning into it, which is only to their own detriment.

That problem doesn’t exist on the men’s side, even with none of the 21 ranked teams in action Monday playing another ranked team.

Of those games, No. 21 USC is most likely to suffer an upset, as 2.5-point favorites with -155 moneyline odds against Kansas State. The majority of other games carry double-digit spreads, including No. 9 Tennessee as a massive 32.5-point favorite over Tennessee Tech.

The biggest early-season showdown takes place Friday when No. 12 Arizona visits No. 2 Duke.

Here’s what else I’m looking forward to this week.