Betting on Timme, Bacot, or Tshiebwe to win the Wooden Award

• The trio of Drew Timme (+700), Armando Bacot (+850), and Oscar Tshiebwe (+950) are in a tier of their own on Wooden Award winner odds boards.
• Each player has a few key strengths working to their advantage, with Timme separating himself because of the few questions surrounding his candidacy.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 2022-23 college basketball season tips off tonight, with reigning Wooden Award winner Oscar Tshiebwe headlining a group of three returning big men who are the favorites to win the award.

2022-23 Wooden Award Winner Odds

• Drew Timme +700
• Armando Bacot +850
• Oscar Tshiebwe +950
• Marcus Sasser +1600
• Caleb Love +1800
• Jaime Jaquez Jr. +2800
• Trayce Jackson-Davis +2800
• Nick Smith +2800
• Hunter Dickinson +2800
• Adama Sanogo +3500

Tshiebwe, Drew Timme, and Armando Bacot have already separated themselves from the rest of the pack at Bovada, as they are the only players with odds of +1000 or less. Focusing on those three players may be a smart way to begin betting on the Wooden Award Winner.

Betting on Drew Timme

Drew Timme enters his junior season at Gonzaga as the preseason betting favorite at college basketball sportsbooks to take home the Wooden Award for the second straight season.

A few key reasons stand out as to why this season may end up better for Timme bettors than last season:

• No Chet Holmgren: Drew Timme was the driving force behind Gonzaga’s regular season success last year, but future second-overall pick Chet Holmgren dominated the spotlight. With Holmgren and point guard Andrew Nembhard out of the picture, this is Timme’s team.
• Scoring Prowess: After leading Gonzaga in scoring last season at 18.4 points per game, Drew Timme may very well average 20+ points per game this season. Holmgren (14.1 ppg) and Nembhard (11.8 ppg) were second and third on the team in points per game and are gone and Timme is more than likely to pick up some of their scoring responsibility. An underrated aspect of those two players leaving is that Gonzaga is likely to be in closer games this season and Time will likely average more than his 28.0 minutes per game total from last season.

Timme is likely the best bet in all of college basketball to win the Wooden Award, and his odds as a +700 favorite indicate that. His candidacy for the award also does not come with a clear question mark(s) like the other two favorites.

Betting on Armando Bacot

The player with the shortest odds on the preseason AP number one team, Armando Bacot’s candidacy is strongly based on the incredible performance that he put on during March Madness last year:

• March Madness: Bacot averaged 15.3 points and 16.5 rebounds per game in the tournament last season, with those incredible numbers coming even though the star center rolled his ankle twice during the tournament. That March Madness run by North Carolina was powered by Bacot, with UNC making it to the National Championship game despite going into the tournament as an eighth seed.
• Returning Core: North Carolina returns four starters from last season’s team: Bacot, Caleb Love, RJ Davis, and Leaky Black. That veteran experience likely means that the team already knows its identity, with that identity revolving around Bacot. The returning team that is the preseason number one team is the key argument for bettors backing Bacot.

The main question that must be answered by Bacot bettors concerns that same March Madness run:

• Was the March Madness run a flash in the pan for North Carolina last season? UNC barely made it to March Madness last season, with a key win against Duke down the stretch as the main reason they made it. March Madness is a single-elimination tournament so those flash-in-a-pan moments can be spectacular but also fluky.

Betting on Oscar Tshiebwe

The reigning College Basketball Player of the Year, Oscar Tshiebwe is coming off a spectacular season for Kentucky that saw him average 17.4 points and 15.2 rebounds over the entirety of last season. With Tshiebwe coming off such a stellar year, it may surprise some that he is not the betting favorite at legal sportsbooks to become the second-ever back-to-back Wooden Award Winner (Ralph Sampson).

With Tshiebwe already having won the award, the case for him to repeat is fairly straightforward. He needs to do what he did last year but likely do it better.

His ability to improve on his performance from last season is one of his main questions:

• Ability to Improve: Oscar Tshiebwe is just the third-ever Wooden Award winner to return to school, which begs the question of why. The answer is that he is a non-shooting center who is not of typical center height in the NBA (6’9″). Tshiebwe may have to show off improved shooting skills to make it to the NBA, with that desire to show off shooting range likely to negatively impact his statistics.
• Injuries: Coach John Calipari recently said that he did not expect Oscar Tshiebwe to play in the first few games of the season. Oscar is coming off a minor knee procedure, but with his availability already in question, it can be concerning. The injury status of Oscar Tshiebwe is the single biggest factor influencing the Wooden Award race this season.

News tags: Andrew Nembhard | Armando Bacot | Bovada | Chet Holmgren | College Basketball | Drew Timme | Gonzaga | John Calipari | Oscar Tshiebwe | Ralph Sampson | Wooden Award