A look at changing Duke national title odds after Zion Williamson’s injury

The Duke Blue Devils suffered a tough loss on Wednesday in their 88-72 defeat at the hands of North Carolina. Star forward Zion Williamson suffered a knee sprain less than minute into the ACC showdown, and was unable to return.

The injury looked bad when he literally blew out his shoe, and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game. Fortunately, after the game, Mike Krzyzewski told the media the injury is a mild knee sprain and the knee is stable.

After the injury and the blowout loss, oddsmakers dinged their national title odds. Caesar’s Palace lengthened Duke’s odds from +200 to +250, per ESPN’s Dave Purdum. They also improved Gonzaga from +700 to +500 and Kentucky and Virginia from +800 to +700.

However, shortly after Coach K offered the good news about Williamson, Caesar’s bumped Duke’s odds back down to +200. This likely came due to a combination of the good news and getting some quick money from people looking to take advantage of worse Duke odds.

Duke will update Williamson’s status following an MRI on Thursday, but the injury may not be the most important question at this point. Rather, even if Williamson can recover from the injury before the end of the season, he might choose to sit out the rest of the year in anticipation of the 2019 NBA Draft.

If healthy, Williamson is a lock to go No. 1. He’ll have to decide if he wants to play for a national title at risk of injury and a potential impact on his draft stock, or call it a career at Duke and think about the bigger picture. If that’s the case, Duke’s national title odds could take a hit again.

Now might be the time to invest in one of the teams a little further down the odds. Here are the top ten teams for national title odds.

Duke: +200
Gonzaga: +500
Kentucky: +700
Virginia: +700
Tennessee: +1000
Michigan: +1200
Michigan State: +1200
North Carolina: +1500
Louisville: +2500
Marquette: +3000