Cashing In

Your "Bad Beat" for Saturday is on:

Washington State (plus 11) at California.

A huge consolation prize to anybody who played Dartmouth on Saturday as the Big Green actually led by eight at the half at Yale and were catching 11 1/2 only to get outscored 40-19 in the second half and not cover.

Also anybody who had Auburn plus right around 10 is rather perturbed. The Tigers led pretty much the entire way. Mississippi State though found a way to get into overtime late and then rolled to the 10 point victory. Yikes!

But the winner for the day goes to Washington State. If you backed the Cougars all I can say is wow!

State was the dozen or so point dog and yet led outright 45-34 at the half thanks to Klay Thompson pouring in 23 points in the first 20 minutes. To be up basically 23 points (with the points) and half of the game already in the books should have made for an easy cover, right?

Cal did come back as one would expect them to and led by a point, 71-70 with 3:10 remaining. But the cover still was easily in the hands of the visitors, right?

Wrong, and Wrong!

The Golden Bears ended the game on a whopping 15-0 run and won the game 86-70.

Nothing more needs to be said I guess.



Your winners for Sunday are on:

4* Northwestern (plus 1) vs. Minnesota.

2* DePaul (plus 13) at Seton Hall.

A dismal 0-2 Saturday as I flat out sucked, period. Some days you are as pathetic as they come and Saturday's calls on Indiana and Stanford were just that.



I am just not all that high on Minnesota this season as they have been a lot worse than I thought they were going to be. Tubby Smith's squad had high hopes but these guys have only won two of their last seven games and frankly they are not as good as today's opponent in the Wildcats and the Golden Gophers are on the road which is always a ton more difficult.

Bill Carmody has a team that has been very good this season compared to in most years past and still have a shot to make the Big Dance. Guys like Shurna and Thompson are no joke and this team at home has already beaten the likes of Purdue and Illinois.

On the road a few weeks back the Wildcats covered easily in Minnesota and almost won outright as the 11 point dog. It's all about revenge here as Northwestern continues to prove they are not a fluke and Minnesota continues its downward plunge.



Seton Hall is clearly the much better team on the court here but they have no business ever laying such a price. Jeremy Hazell always scores 20 plus and the Pirates should win the game but this DePaul team has fared much better under Tracy Webster and right now are not all that terrible.

Walker and Koshwal can play and the Blue Demons have actually covered their last six games. They also outplayed Syracuse a few weeks back and should have beaten the Orange but lost late covering the 15 in beyond easy fashion.

The Demons will hang around because the Pirates just do not really blow out many major d1 programs and in the end DePaul will do enough to grab that cash.