Cashing In

Your "Bad Beat" for Saturday is on:

Kansas (minus 4 AND total of 153) at Kansas State.

In some ways this is not really a true "Bad Beat" in terms of the side at least because the Wildcats clearly deserved to cover this game but in the end any Jayhawk backers and under players are cursing up a storm.

The game went to overtime tied at 69 and that eventually destroyed the under players. That in its own right was a terrible beat. Now to the side. It was back and forth pretty much throughout and Kansas had the one point lead and the ball in the waning seconds. The game clock was 41 and the shot clock was obviously 35.

Frank Martin opted to play it out instead of fouling. With 9 seconds remaining Kansas' Sherron Collins drove the lane and scored plus the foul to go up three. The free throw was missed badly short but Cole Aldrich scooped it up and eventually Brady Morningstar was fouled with just over four seconds to go. He made both free throws to extend the lead to five and all of a sudden it looked like KU had the very very lucky frontdoor cover.

But in "meaningless" backdoor fashion Kansas State' Jacob Pullen nailed a 30 footer at the buzzer and this thing ended 81-79 in a Kansas State cover.

Wow!



Your winners for Sunday are on:

4* North Carolina (minus 8 1/2) vs. Virginia.

2* Maryland (plus 5) at Clemson.

A phenomenal 2-0-1 Saturday led by the 4* on SMU outright against Memphis as the 7 1/2 point pup! Then my 3* on the Georgetown Hoyas pounded Duke and I feel like Nostradamus right about now.



Can you say cheap? The Tar Heels have struggled mightily at times this season but do not doubt Roy Williams' team. There is a boatload of talent with guys like Davis and Thompson and Ginyard and others and to basically only lay single digits at home against Virginia is a deal and a half.

The Cavaliers have played better overall than most people thought they would as Tony Bennett has done a nice job but a whacking is in the cards here in Chapel Hill.

North Carolina may not repeat as national champions as they lost a ton to the NBA but don't think that this current team is not good. I can't explain why they have looked so feeble at times but the tide is turning as we just saw at NC State and today is going to be another solid solid victory for the Heels.



Maryland right now is flat out better than Clemson!

Littlejohn Coliseum can certainly be a beast for a visitor and Trevor Booker is a beast himself but I am not really all that impressed with the Tigers right now. Somehow they did pummel North Carolina about a month ago and nailed a bunch of three's in the process but that game was a total aberation.

Oliver Purnell's Tigers were horrendous offensively against Duke in that last home game and looked terrible in that last overall game at Boston College.

Clemson has actually dropped three straight and four games ago were horrific in the second half blowing basically a 20 point lead at NC State.

Maryland on the other hand is a house on-fire right now. I am not going to belittle going on the road here because that could make any team wilt but Gary Williams' squad is playing at a higher level than I have seen the Terrapins play in a long time. Greivis Vazquez always had the potential but was too inconsistent. Now the guy has been money leading the way and Milbourne, Mosely and Hayes are quality experienced guys that will bring some game today.

The turtle have been blazing, covering game after game of late. This is a tough spot for sure but right now I do fear the turtle and will therefore back them plus a handful!