The John R. Wooden Award is handed out every passing season to the college basketball player of the year. Recent winners include Iowa’s Luka Garza, Dayton’s Obi Toppin, Duke’s Zion Williamson, Villanova’s Jalen Brunson, and KU’s Frank Mason III. Early on, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis got all the pub, but recently it’s been all about Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe with the Wildcats’ big-man averaging 16.9 points and over 15.0 rebounds per game. He’s now the decided favorite to walk away with the award after initially hitting the board at +6500 to do so. Congrats if you got in early! There is no betting value left in backing No. 34 at the current price offering. However, BetRivers Sportsbook currently has the best number in the market for the future NBA lottery pick, so I’d recommend going there if you still want a piece of his pie. But with the college basketball betting season entering the month of March and there being an entire NCAA Tournament yet to play out, it’s possible another player sneaks in through the backdoor and steals the award away. With that, here are my favorite, underdog and longshot selections to possibly pull of the feat with the provision that Tshiebwe has been taken out of the equation.

Wooden Award Odds at BetRivers Sportsbook

Oscar Tshiebwe -230

Keegan Murray +750

Johnny Davis +775

Ochai Agbaji +1400

Jaden Ivey +5000

Chet Holmgren/Jabari Smith +5500

Bennedict Mathurin +7000

E.J. Liddell/J.D. Notae/Drew Timme +8000

Collin Gillespie +9000

Paolo Banchero/Trayce Jackson-Davis +12500

JD Davison/Hunter Dickinson/Johnny Juzang +20000

James Akinjo/Gabe Brown/Julian Champagnie/Kennedy Chandler/R.J. Cole/Tari Eason/Zach Edey/Isaiah Mobley/Jahvon Quinerly/TyTy Washington +30000

Armando Bacot/Alex Barcello/Keion Brooks/Jayden Gardner/Jaime Jacquez Jr. +40000

Darius Slay/Adam Flagler/Kellan Grady/Andrew Jones/Walker Kessler/Caleb Love/Wendell Moore Jr./Justin Moore/Courtney Ramey/Jaden Shackelford/Julian Strawther/Santiago Vescovi +50000

Favorite to Bet: Ochai Agbaji +1400

Though Keegan Murray is in the midst of a heater and racing up the Wooden Award leaderboard every passing game, I don’t ultimately foresee the Iowa Hawkeyes doing much in the Madness. You either need to be on a team that makes a deep run or wins it all to take home the hardware, and I’m not so sure Fran McCaffrey’s kids got it in them. If it does, Murray could give Tshiebwe a run for the money since I got Kentucky penciled into the Final Four; provided John Calipari’s roster is 100 percent healthy. That said, Bill Self has got a good one in Ochai Agbaji who’s continued to put up career-best numbers across the board in points (20.4), rebounds (5.2) and 3-point shooting percentage (.433). A surefire lock to take home Big 12 Player of the Year accolades, I think he could do even better should Kansas find its way back into the Final Four if not the title game. If they win it all for the first time since 2008, then it’ll be steak dinners all around for those that rode him all the way back to the betting window to cash that 14-1 ticket in!

Underdog to Bet: Collin Gillespie +9000

Villanova has already seen one point guard win the Wooden Award after Jalen Brunson helped lead Nova to the national championship back in 2018. His 18.9 point and 4.6 assist per game averages allowed for him to take home the hardware that season. Gillespie is the heart and soul of the 2021-22 Villanova Wildcats, and he’ll undoubtedly be the driving force of the team’s success in both the Big East and NCAA tournaments over the next month. He’s currently averaging a career-best 16.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while also shooting a scorching .426 from beyond the arc while attempting 7.3 long range shots per game. If Nova is to make noise in the Big Dance – which I assume they will – Gillespie’s odds of winning this award will plummet; as they should. He’s just as integral a piece to the Wildcats puzzle as Agbaji is to the Jayhawks, yet linemakers got him paying off at 90-1. I’ll gladly take advantage of the line value and look for Gillespie and the Wildcats to defy the odds!

Longshots to Bet: Isaiah Mobley +30000

The Mobley twins have tremendous basketball DNA entrenched in their souls. Even with brother Evan now tearing things up in the NBA evidenced by being the runaway chalk to take home Rookie of the Year honors, Isaiah Mobley continues to be a steadying force for the USC Trojans who still find themselves in the thick of the Pac-12 regular season title race. Monday night’s showdown at home against Arizona is huge! Though he hasn’t put forth anywhere near the counting stats as that of Tshiebwe, he’s still one of the elite big men in the country that’s being grossly undervalued on the Wooden Award odds. Should USC potentially win the Pac-12 Tournament and follow it up with a deeper run than Kentucky in the Big Dance, I can’t help but think Mobley would’ve played a crucial role in the success. Should it come to fruition, you can bet your bottom dollar his odds of winning this award get painfully shorter. Nothing more than a beer money investment is required to cash in big with this lottery ticket!