Zach Edey Tops NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player Odds

The 2024 NCAA Tournament is down to its Final Four, and we break down the updated college basketball odds on the winner of the Most Outstanding Player Award with Toronto native and Purdue centre Zach Edey as the +210 favourite on our NCAA Tournament Odds board.

NCAA Tournament MOP History

If you happen to be lucky enough to know which team is going to win a given Super Bowl, then you should never bet on a player to win MVP from the losing team to win it because that has happened just once. We could say the same thing about betting on the winner of the Most Outstanding Player Award of each NCAA Tournament, but the thing is: This season is feeling a lot like 1983.

Back then, the University of Houston was clearly one of the best teams in the country led by an incomparable centre in future Hall of Famer and NBA MVP Akeem Olajuwon – he didn’t change his first name to Hakeem until his NBA career. Houston was the heavy favourite to win that year’s NCAA Tournament title game over a surprise finalist in NC State. We all surely remember that the Wolfpack stunned the Cougars on a buzzer-beater with late coach Jim Valvano running around all crazy looking for someone to hug. It was one of the most iconic moments in the sport’s history.

Olajuwon did win Most Outstanding Player of that Dance as he was clearly the best one. While no player since has won it from a team that didn’t win it all, there is a route for Purdue incomparable centre and Toronto native Zach Edey to do the same next Monday from Phoenix after the 2024 title game … with NC State playing a role again in its first Final Four since ‘83.

Zach Edey NCAA MOP Odds Favourite

At 7-foot-4 and about 300 pounds, Edey will become the largest player to ever play in the Final Four in terms of height and weight – Ralph Sampson back in the day was listed at 7-foor-4 but was maybe 225 pounds. Edey is the two-time Big Ten Player of the Year and is going to join Sampson as the only players to win the Wooden Award (National Player of the Year) twice.

The last first-team All-American 7-footer to win a national title was another legend in Patrick Ewing for Georgetown in 1984. If Purdue wins it all next Monday, Edey is 100 per cent winning MOP, let’s be clear on that, and he’s the +210 favourite. Purdue is in its third all-time Final Four but has never won a title and thus has never had an MOP. A Big Ten school somehow hasn’t won it all since 2000.

Edey has been truly unstoppable all season but has turned it up in the Big Dance. He had 40 points and 16 rebounds in the Elite Eight win over Tennessee and played all but about 40 seconds. He became the first player with at least 40 and 16 rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game since Bo Kimble of Loyola Marymount had 45 points and 18 rebounds in a 1990 contest against New Mexico State.

The Midwest Region Most Outstanding Player, Edey is the fourth player ever to average at least 30 points and 15 rebounds through four NCAA Tournament games, joining legends Elvin Hayes, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain.

His Boilermakers are 9-point favourites for Saturday’s Final Four matchup against No. 11 seed NC State, which might be on the most unlikely run ever as the Wolfpack were not a Big Dance team until winning five games in five days to capture the ACC Tournament, and they have kept rolling in this event. Saturday will offer a fascinating matchup between Edey and 6-foot-9, 280-pound NC State big man DJ Burns.

We presume Purdue will advance. If so and the Boilers lose very close to either Alabama or defending national champion UConn in the title game next Monday, it is possible Edey wins MOP if he dominates in the semifinals and title game.

UConn is a double-digit favourite over the Crimson Tide and should move on. The thing about the Huskies is they aren’t a one-man show at all and that might open the door for Edey. Three UConn players follow Edey on the MOP odds: 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan (+225), Tristan Newton (+400) and Cam Spencer (+500), and then there’s a huge falloff to the Wolfpack’s Burns at +2000 and Bama star Marc Sears at +2500.