Davidson Odds to Win the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Could Pay $20,000

The Davidson Wildcats odds to win the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament could result in a massive payout for a few lucky folks.

Friday night, they dismanteld the Wisconsin Badgers.

It was unclear at press time how many bets were placed on Davidson to win the 2008 Men's Basketball Tournament Championship, however, it can easily be assumed that students and alumni of that school had placed early bets when the odds were as long as 200 to 1 for a payout potential of $20,000 for every $100 bet.

Stephen Curry is the big star of Davidson.  Curry, the son of former NBA 3-point specialist Dell Curry, wanted to play for his father's alma mater, Virginia Tech. But the big schools shied away from the baby-faced Curry, who has grown four inches to 6-foot-3 since signing with Davidson, and now has put the Wildcats into the second round of the Midwest Regional against the Georgetown-Maryland-Baltimore County winner.

Alex Lazaridis, a 19-year-old Davidson sophomore, was one of the hundreds of students who took advantage of the North Carolina college's offer of free transportation, lodging and a ticket to see the men's basketball team continue its run in the NCAA tournament at Ford Field in Detroit.

"This is amazing," Lazaridis said Friday, looking at the sea of fans clad in Wildcat red populating one side of the lower portion of the converted football stadium.

"Davidson wasn't as well known before this" on a national scale, the economics major said. "This will make a big difference."

Two days earlier, Davidson's trustees made the pledge to offer any student bus transportation, two nights lodging and a ticket to see Davidson play Wisconsin in Detroit, 650 miles to the north.

Lazaridis said many students on his bus made it through the ride by yelling out cheers, watching movies and napping. The caravan stopped for lunch in Ohio, he said.

Davidson is an academically rigorous private school with about 1,700 students located 20 miles north of Charlotte. It was making its first round of 16 appearance in nearly four decades.

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Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com (The Associated Press was referenced in this article)

Originally published March 28, 2008 9:02 pm EST