College Basketball Betting Preview: Hollywood Love

UCLA Freshman Kevin Love looks to lead the Bruins back to the Final Four. (AP Images)

How could the rivalry between Greg Oden and Kevin Durant be topped?

By not only having the top two freshmen in college basketball play in the same conference, but in the same city. Throw in the fact that the city is Los Angeles and the two players' last names have headline writers reveling in puns, and you can see that the NCAA already possesses a bankable storyline for the next five months.

Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo would be living the pro-jock life if not for the rule that was adopted prior to the 2006 NBA draft that demands American high school players attend college for at least one year. Instead, the two phenoms have gone Hollywood, becoming the most talked about hoopsters in L.A. not named Kobe.

Love, a 6-foot-10-inch, 270-pound center, scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in No. 2 UCLA's season-opening rout of Portland State on Friday. His performance already has Bruins fans wondering about how they might rearrange the Pauley Pavilion banners to make room for the school’s 12th NCAA men's basketball title. UCLA's national championship odds are 7/1. Only top-ranked North Carolina (5/1) has higher expectations.

Read "Hollywood Love" in Bodog Nation Today!