Kansas, 21-0 in exhibition games under coach Bill Self, opens its season at home on Friday against the Hofstra Pride.

College basketball odds have not been released but you just know the Jayhawks will be double-digit favorites.

They dismantled Division II Pittsburgh State 103-45 on Tuesday night and their prize freshmen, Xavier Henry, Thomas Robinson and Elijah Johnson, are already playing better than expected.

The Pride has posted four 20-win seasons in the last five years and is poised this year to take a run at the CAA title, riding the wings of Charles Jenkins, voted co-Player of the Year with Old Dominion’s Gerald Lee.

Jenkins averaged 19.7 points a game last year to rank second to Eric Maynor in the conference and finished sixth to Maynor in assists. Jenkins also ranked among the top free throw shooters.

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That’s because the Heels’ opponent, the Florida International Golden Panthers, will be led by Isiah Thomas in his collegiate coaching debut.

College basketball odds have the Heels listed as large 31-point favorites.

A trip to the Dean Smith Center for the opener of the 2K Sports Classic won’t be the easiest way to start for Thomas.

The Golden Panthers faced two ranked teams last season, losing by 35 at UCLA and 38 at Georgetown.

No team could stay with the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament last season, as North Carolina won six straight games by double digits to earn the program’s fifth national championship.

Who will fill the voids left by departed stars Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, and Wayne Ellington this season in Tar Heel land?

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The SEC landed just three NCAA tournament bids last season, its lowest total since 1990. No team was seeded higher than eighth, which marked the first time since 1990 that the SEC didn't have at least one school earn a top-four seed. No SEC teams advanced beyond the second round. And no SEC players were selected in the first round of the most recent NBA draft. See a trend?

But the conference followed up a forgettable season with an offseason to remember.

Kentucky hired former Memphis coach John Calipari, who then brought the nation's top-ranked recruiting class to Lexington. Kentucky, an NIT team last season, opens this season in the Top 5.

The Wildcats are the favorite to win the SEC East this season, listed at -800. Check out Bodog for all your NCAA basketball futures odds.

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For starters, the league didn't have any coaching turnover on the sidelines for the first time since 2002-03. A conference-record eight teams won at least 20 games, and the Big Ten tied a conference record with seven teams in the NCAA tournament, including a national runner-up in the Michigan State Spartans (+190 to win conference).

The faces on the court will look familiar, too. Only the Wisconsin Badgers (+1300) and Iowa Hawkeyes (+3000) must replace their leading scorers from last season. All five members of the All-Big Ten first team return.

The Michigan Wolverines (+1000) should be on your futures radar. The Wolverines more than doubled their win total, from 10 to 22, and reached its first NCAA tournament since 1998.

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While the SEC dominates the football chatter these days, the same can’t be said for the conference’s basketball teams.

The SEC landed just three NCAA tournament bids last season, its lowest total since 1990. No team was seeded higher than eighth, which marked the first time since 1990 that the SEC didn't have at least one school earn a top-four seed. No SEC teams advanced beyond the second round. And no SEC players were selected in the first round of the most recent NBA draft. See a trend?

But the conference followed up a forgettable season with an offseason to remember.

Kentucky hired former Memphis coach John Calipari, who then brought the nation's top-ranked recruiting class to Lexington. Kentucky, an NIT team last season, opens this season in the Top 5.

The Wildcats are the favorite to win the SEC East this season, listed at -800. Check out Bodog for all your NCAA basketball futures odds.

Get your NCAA Basketball Futures in the Bodog Sportsbook!

The Jayhawks return their top nine scorers (and add star freshman Xavier Henry) from the team that went 27-8 and reached the Sweet 16 a year ago, losing to Michigan State – which just happens to be No. 2 in both polls. KU has been the coaches’ preseason No. 1 two previous times, in the 1996-97 and 2004-05 seasons, and they didn’t win the national title in either. The Jayhawks have been a preseason No. 1 in the AP poll just for that 2004-05 season.

Butler, at No. 10/11, is ranked in the preseason for the first time. The Bulldogs’ highest ranking ever during a season is No. 8. Dayton, at No. 22/21, is ranked in a preseason poll for the first time since 1967-68 season. Conspicuously absent from the polls: UCLA, which is only picked to finish third in the Pac-10.

Kentucky, under new coach John Calipari and with a stellar freshman class, Georgetown and Georgia Tech were the only teams in the preseason poll not to play in the NCAA Tournament last season. 

So here are both polls, with Bodog college basketball odds to win the national title on the ESPN/USA Today version:

ESPN/USA TODAY COACHES POLL
1. Kansas (27 first-place votes): 4/1
2. Michigan State (3): 12/1
3. Texas: 12/1
4. North Carolina (1): 15/2
5. Kentucky: 5/1
6. Villanova: 12/1
7. Purdue: 22/1
8. Duke: 10/1
9. West Virginia: 18/1
10. Butler: 60/1
11. Tennessee: 25/1
12. California: 50/1
13. Washington: 45/1
14. Connecticut: 18/1
15. Michigan: 70/1
16. Oklahoma: 40/1
17. Ohio State: 40/1
18. Minnesota: 100/1
19. Mississippi State: 100/1
20. Georgia Tech: 35/1
21. Georgetown: 20/1
22. Dayton: 200/1
23. Louisville: 12/1
24. Clemson: 50/1
25. Syracuse: 20/1

ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25
1. Kansas (55)
 2. Michigan State (5)
 3. Texas (1)
 4. Kentucky (3)
 5. Villanova
 6. North Carolina (1)
 7. Purdue
 8. West Virginia
 9. Duke
10. Tennessee
11. Butler
12. Connecticut
13. California
14. Washington
15. Michigan
16. Ohio State
17. Oklahoma
18. Mississippi State
19. Louisville
20. Georgetown
21. Dayton
22. Georgia Tech
23. Illinois
24. Clemson
25. Minnesota

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An eternal investigation by the NCAA Committee of Infractions has revealed that former Tiger and current Chicago Bull Derrick Rose cheated on a standardized test to gain entry into the school. As a result the basketball program has been placed on a three-year probation and their entire 2008 season has been wiped from the record books.

Memphis must also repay all the postseason revenue they made that year. They will not lose any scholarships or face a postseason ban however.

In 2008 the Tigers were the second-best team in NCAA Basketball, winning 38 games before falling to the Kansas Jayhawks in the championship game.

How does this affect the Memphis Tigers this year? Get your NCAA Basketball Futures in the Bodog Sportsbook!

Congratulations if you had the No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels at the very top of your March Madness bracket – North Carolina (-7.5) got the job done Monday night by stunning the Michigan State Spartans 89-72 to go 6-0 ATS at the Tournament.

How did your earlier picks pan out? The first round had its share of landmines, like VCU (+8.5) nearly upsetting UCLA before losing 65-64, and No. 13 Cleveland State putting an 84-60 hurting on No. 4 Wake Forest (-7.5). We hope you chose wisely with the No. 12 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, who eclipsed No. 5 Illinois (-5.5) 76-72 in the first round and came up a bucket short of Gonzaga (-11) in the second round.

Forget the game at Ford Field earlier this season, when they beat the Spartans 98-63 on Dec. 3. Both teams are playing at their very best and the 7.5-point favored Tar Heels can expect a tougher battle.

North Carolina is not as deep as expected because of injuries and a suspension, but this team’s top six players are better than anybody else’s top six. This is an athletic group that excels in transition, thanks to Ty Lawson, and the 3-point shooting ability of Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green also makes the Heels effective in a half-court set.

This is due to the Tar Heels’ superior athleticism and will allow them to get good looks if the Spartans choose to play their normal slow-down style.

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Michigan State will have to win with defense, which has been a constant this season. The 7.5-point underdog Spartans are a physical group, both inside and on the perimeter. The Heels are not a finesse team by any means, but Michigan State’s physical nature really bothered UConn. If it bothers UNC as well, the Spartans could pull off the upset.

State will have a sea of green and white behind it among the 75,000-plus spectators watching the game about 90 miles from the East Lansing campus. The Spartans were in the Top 10 for all but three weeks this season, but their worst loss of the year was the game at Ford Field against the Tar Heels.

For the best in 2009 NCAA Tournament betting check out the Bodog Sportsbook.