Cashing In

Your "Bad Beat" for Monday is on:

Kohlschreiber (plus 310) vs. Djokovic.

I'm going against the grain today but there was a number and a Bad Beat so why not, even if it is tennis!?!?!?

Philip Kohlschreiber was a huge tennis underdog against a top five player in the world in Novak Djokovic. The match was on television and I happened to have put it on for a bit. Djokovic won the first set easily 6-2 and then was up 2-0 in the second. There was no reason to believe anything was going to change but it did. The huge underdog literally won the next 9 games to seize all of the momentum. It was almost impossible to believe.

Kohlschreiber was up 3-0 in the third and he appeared to be on his way to victory. But then Djokovic rose his game and took the 4-3 lead.

To make a long story short Kohlschreiber came back to take the 5-4 lead in the third and had triple match point on Djokovis' serve. That pretty much meant game, set, match.

Or did it.

Djokovic manned up and then won the next three points to send it to deuce and eventually won the game. The match went to a tiebreak and the cream rose to the top as Djokovic won the match in three grueling sets.

Three freakin match points!?!?!?



Your winners for Tuesday are on:

4* William & Mary (plus 8 1/2) at North Carolina.

2* South Florida (minus 3 1/2) vs. NC State.

A terrible call on the 3* Pistons on Monday as that team is truly a disgrace.



Can you say reputation? That is exactly what this line from Chapel Hill is based on, the names of the teams playing the game.

To get quite possibly the better team plus almost double digits is awesome! The Tribe are a team that had a great year but it's not a fluke at all. Tony Shaver's squad is really good. They beat Maryland, Wake Forest and Richmond, won 12 games in the Colonial and went to the Conference championship game.

I understand that the Colonial is far from being on the level of the ACC, even if the ACC is somewhat down but teams like Old Dominion, VCU and Northwestern are pretty darn solid and could hang with all of the ACC teams and that includes Duke at times.

Roy Williams' boys have been dreadful this season. Sure they are the more talented of the two teams but can the Heels really give a darn today? There were a ton of expectations this season after winning it all last year and now they are playing in the NIT against "William & Mary"? Come on, this team has played with little emotion all season long and today will once again just go through the motions.

Tyler Zeller is starting to play very very well and should dominate down low but after 40 minutes I will gladly back the visitors in this spot as Carolina stinks.



South Florida at home is always very good and we have seen that once again this season. Stan Heath's squad has been great this year compared to what the program has been in the past. Things truly are good down in south Forida as the Bulls may not be an elite Big East team but they are now on the level where they have a great shot at home against any of those teams, even the upper eschelon ones.

Dominique Jones is a star and Gilchrist and a few others form a solid nucleus.

Sidney Lowe's team just looked very good in the ACC Tournament winning a few games in upset fashion and then almost beating Georgia Tech in the semifinals. I like what the Wolfpack have with Horner and Smith and Gonzalez and Degand but I just do not see this being a good spot for them. I think NC State blew their wad a bit in the tournament and now is going to be in for a bit of a letdown.

We have seen the 'Pack look really good at times, just ask Duke about that, but have also watched Lowe's team look head scratchingly terrible and underachieve mightily. After the quality run last week I now see the bad team showing up in this spot as that would be par for their course.