Cashing In

Your "Bad Beat" for Wednesday is on:

Weber State (minus 3 1/2) vs. Montana.

Weber State was the small favorite and had doubled up Montana at the half 40-20. Now let's be honest here this game was over.

Or not.

Anthony Johnson went ballistic and poured in 34 of his game high 42 points for the Grizzlies in the final 20 minutes and the impossible happened. Montana came all the way back and won the game 66-65 to capture the Big Sky title and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

Oh and by the way Johnson netted his team's final 21 points of the game and broke the tournament record with the 42 points.

Up 20 freakin points, are you kidding me!?!?!?



Your winners for Thursday are on:

4* Georgia Tech (minus 3 1/2) vs. North Carolina.

3* Memphis (minus 6) vs. Houston.

2* Indiana (plus 8) vs. Northwestern.

Yet another winning day on Wednesday as the 4* play on Iowa State came through in the end thanks to a backdoor three with 19 seconds to go. I do have to say thanks for not fouling after that Cyclones, I owe you one!

North Carolina is a team that has shown absolutely nothing for the last two months and even in their home state should continue to show a whole lot of nothing. There is no more disappointing team in all of college basketball this season than the Tar Heels. They do have talent with Ginyard, Zeller and others and a Hall of Fame coach in Roy Williams but it just hasn't mattered. Sure Ed Davis is out but this team was fading away before that injury.

Georgia Tech has not been impressive themselves of late losing five of their last seven and limping into this thing but Paul Hewitt's team is square on that bubble and has to win the game. Derrick Favors is a great Freshman who has continued to improve and will dominate the boards alongside Gani Lawal.

The Yellow Jackets are a desperate team that has been playing better than their fate of late as they lost on buzzer beaters at both Miami and Maryland and is a team with a whole lot of talent and a high ceiling.

Look for the Jackets to look like the team that wants this game more and for them to take care of business going away against a bad team wearing uniforms that say "North Carolina" on them.



Josh Pastner's Memphis Tigers are certainly not the same team in any aspect as John Calipari's Memphis Tigers were but do not belittle this current squad. There is still a bunch of athletes and talented players on this team like Witherspoon, Williams, Sallie, Mack and Kemp and 13-3 in Conference USA is still not too shabby even if it is three more losses than usual.

Houston is a solid team but nothing more. The Cougars last week did beat the Tigers but that was at home, which makes a world of difference, and that will set up a matter of revenge today for Memphis. Plus Houston may have some wobbly legs after the win yesterday over East Carolina and it's never great to play a back-to-back no less against a team that can run the court which Memphis can.

I'm not calling this a 20 point burial but the Tigers in the end will win by double digits as they have everything going for them, everything.



No matter how much better some teams are than others there are certain squad that are not built to be heavy favorites and that is the exact case here with Northwestern.

Tom Crean's Hoosiers are miserable and a team that has pretty much packed it in. But just the other day they were able to muster something and at home beat the Wildcats in overtime. I don't expect that to happen again because John Shurna and the boys from Northwestern are definitely the superior team of these two making me believe that lightning striking twice is unlikely but Northwestern is just not a team that wins games going away, no matter what their opponent is like.

The Hoosiers are going to play the young kids to see what's there going forward andf that turned out to be a pretty good strategy in that last rare win.

Let's also not foget how this game is in Indianapolis which can only be a good thing here in this spot.

Northwestern is probably too good in the end in this revenge spot today but I'm backing the dog and daring the Wildcats to do enough offensively to beat me.

Your "Bad Beat" for Friday is on:

West Virginia (Minus 2 1/2) at Pittsburgh.

It turned out to be an amazing amazing game from Pittsburgh in yet another edition of the Backyard Brawl.

The Mountaineers were in complete control throughout and led 66-59 with only 45 seconds remaining. But Bob Huggins' squad forgot to close the game out and also forgot to make their free throws. That led to a major comeback that was capped by an Ashton Gibbs three pointer with 16 seconds left which sent the crowd into a frenzy and the game into overtime.

The Panthers continued the momentum into the extra session going up by five right off the bat. When laying three it makes it awfully difficult for the visitors to cover but somehow the Panthers choked down the stretch and allowed a late three as this game went into double overtime.

Pitt once again led throughout this extra five minute stint but allowed West Virginia back in it thanks to fouling Da'sean Butler shooting a three with 25 seconds to go. Butler made all three to tie up the game. Pitt then hit a phenomenal buzzer beater but the shot was ruled too late which it was by about .2 seconds max.

To a third overtime and the Panthers wound up pulling this thing out 98-95.

Look back to regulation, WVU was up 7 with 45 seconds remaining!?!?!



Your winners for Saturday are on:

4* Stanford (plus 3 1/2) vs. Washington.

3* Indiana (plus 17) at Wisconsin.

One play on Friday and it was a fairly lucky 3* winner on Pittsburgh.

How can a team that has been dreadfully underachieving all season long and a team that is a pathetic 0-6 both SU and ATS on the road be laying points to a decent enough Pac-10 opponent?

I don't know? And also I don't care if the Huskies took care of business in the first meeting by 30 plus. That game was a long time ago and it was at home.

Lorenzo Romar's Washington Huskies are wrongly given too much respect here and are therefore the dreaded road chalk. Sure UW can run the court and score with Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter but so what? Things have not worked out all season as these guys were supposed to compete for the conference title but instead have competed for a while lot of nothing.

The Huskies had a chance to finally step it up on the highway and tie Cal for the lead in the conference but instead they crapped on themselves once again in the double digit loss on Thursday at Berkeley.

Stanford is not very good, I fully understand that but Landry Fields is a playa and at home I fully believe the team with the tree as a mascot will prevail as they have done all season long. Johnny Dawkins' group is not terrible and to be the underdog here is wrong with a capital W!

It's almost as if the oddsmaker still believes that Washington will flip that switch and turn it on.

Um, no they won't!



Wisconsin is just laying too much, period! Of course the Badgers at home are always great defensively and will beat a poor Indiana team but the UW offense is not very good to begin with and still without big man Jon Leuer won't help things.

The Badgers just finally lost at home against Illinois which snapped their forver winning streak in Madison against unranked conference foes. I definitely do not see a second straight loss at all but thinking this thing will get ugly as the number states is a bit much. Bo Ryan is all about the defense and his teams are not really all that equipped to win by such a margin.

Wiscy will be too good and may be up by double digits at the half but they don't boast an offense that can sustain all that much and therefore this price is just too steep.

Every now and then Tom Crean's team surprises and if they can show a little something, anything than that will be enough to grab that cash.

Your "Bad Beat" for Tuesday is on:

Predators (minus 135) at New York.

The Predators were up 3-2 very late in the game against an Islander team that had lost seven straight games. Losing would be remote as the game was in its final minute.

But Martin Erat took a dumb boarding penalty with 46 seconds to go and after the Isles pulled the goalie they had a six on four advantage. That would prove to be very fruitful as Mark Streit lit the lamp for the eighth time this season with only 12 measley ticks on the clock.

The game wound up going to a shootout and then an extra shooter as it was still tied after the shootout. John Tavares of the Islanders scored and the Preds lost the game despite the very very late lead.



Your winners for Wednesday are on:

3* North Carolina (plus 6) vs. Duke.

2* Connecticut (plus 11) at Syracuse.

2* Indiana (plus 10) vs. Ohio State.

A great 2-0 Tuesday for 7* of winnings as 4* Illinois wins outright in Wisconsin and the 3* on Vanderbilt was literally never in doubt!



Three solid dogs that are getting too many points and even if I am backing some ice cold teams they have got to be taken on-principle alone.

I know that North Carolina has been beyond atrocious of late and are not in the slightest resembling anything like the National Championship team from just a season ago. Roy Williams' squad has quit at times and have been so bad that it is unfathomable to be honest with you.

The Tar Heels are a team searching for an identity right now and are pretty awful. Meanwhile Duke comes in here having overall been very good. There have been some slipups as they certainly are not a great team and they have problems defending big men at times but all in all the Blue Devils have been very very good with a stud in Jon Scheyer leading the way along with Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler.

With all of the above said UNC plus half a dozen at the Dean Dome in this heated rivalry is just too much. The Heels still have a ton of talent with Davis and Thompson and others and will wake up one of these days. With their main rival from seven miles down the road in town one has to believe this will be that time!



Another game that I just cannot pass up for on-principle alone. Syracuse is a one loss team that is rolling as much as one team could be rolling. Rautins, Onuaku, Jardine and the rest of the Orange are a great team right now unlike the pathetic piece of dung in UCONN that I am backing. But the Huskies, no matter how underachieving and terrible they have performed, are still a squad with a boatload of talent and going to the Carrier Dome could be the wakeup call that they need.

Even without Jim Calhoun at the helm the Huskies should be playing a lot better. Dave Blaney is fine and with Edwards, Robinson, Walker and other blue chip type players UCONN is just too good for this nonsense.

The Orange have been great but I do not yet view them as a juggernaut that cannot be stopped. They almost somehow lost at DePaul a few weeks ago and can see them slip up a bit here as the Huskies finally remember how to play some basketball and compete.



Evan Turner may be the best player in the country and this Ohio State team is really really dangerous. Clearly the Buckeyes are far better than the Hoosiers who have been ridiculously feast or famine as of late but plus double digits at home? Too darn much.

I like what Tom Crean is preaching and we have seen great strides this season from Indiana. Sometimes things don't always work out as in that last game where IU was whacked at Northwestern but for every one of those we have a rising to the occasion much more competitive than expected type of a game ala at Illinois or at home vs. Purdue in the past week or so.

The Hoosiers are not dreadful like last season. These guys in Bloomington should pretty much stay in any game and it's not like the Buckeyes are an elite team just yet.

No doubt this is a tough tough game for Crean's crew but they have proven their upside a lot lately and I can see a tighter than expected final tonight!

Your "Bad Beat" for Wednesday is on:

Evansville (plus 12 1/2) at Creighton.

The Purple Aces of Evansville were a 12 1/2 point underdog at Creighton. Shockingly though the underdog, who had lost 12 straight games coming into the contest, had nailed seven of their first eight three pointers and was leading 38-32 at the half.

But the Blue Jays opened up the second half on a 15-2 run and wound up winning the game 84-71 after a 52-33 second half.

You do the math!



Your winners for Thursday are on:

3* Indiana (plus 12 1/2) vs. Purdue.

2* Georgia Tech (plus 12) at Duke.

A sweet 2-0 sweep on Wednesday as 2* Arkansas won outright at Georgia and 3* DePaul cashed the ticket at Marquette!



The Indiana Hoosiers may not longer be a national power with Bobby Knight but Tom Crean has slowly but surely started to put his stamp on this program and the boys from Indiana are not that bad right now, not good but not bad.

Indiana had two straight double digit upsets of Minnesota and Penn State and then crapped the bed against Iowa. But in that last game Indiana played toe-to-toe in Illinois in a two point loss and to be honest with you are alright right now.

"Alright" won't win the game against the very very tough and borderline great Purdue Boilermakers with guys like Moore, Hummel, Grant and others but to get a dozen or so in Bloomington is enough for me for sure.

Matt Painter's squad is senior laden and extremely dangerous but I still don't view this team as one that can go on the road in-conference like this and just lay a big number and win going away.



Paul Hewitt's Yellow Jackets are much improved this season from the debacle of last year and have already beaten Duke. Of course winning at Cameron is almost impossible for a visitor but the Blue Devils have issues right now. They were just manhandled at Georgetown and do not have what it takes to stop opposing big men.

Georgia Tech has a big boy in Gani Lawal who has really come into his own this season and freshman stud Derrick Favors is no joke as he improves and gets ready fro the NBA next season.

The Dookies at home should control the pace and shoot the three-ball with a great player in Jon Scheyer leading the way but it's going to be tough for the home boys in the paint. Zoubek and Singler cannot stop Lawal and in the end that will keep Tech in this game as the visitors grab the cash.

Your "Bad Beat" for Monday is on:

Panthers (total of 5 1/2) at Pittsburgh.

You see this scenario a lot in the NHL but it still doesn't make a losing gambler feel any better. The Hurricanes and Penguins had a total of 5 1/2 and after Mike Rupp scored 6:49 into the second period Carolina had the 3-2 lead.

Five goals were scored in less than the first 27 minutes of the game. Therefore only one more goal was needed in the game's final 33 minutes.

It was over right? I mean there is no way neither team will light the lamp in that time frame? Right? Especially when it's involving the world champions with Sidney Crosby at home, right?

Wrong!

3-2 final!



Your winner for Tuesday is on:

2* Indiana (plus 8) vs. Pittsburgh.

It's been a rough last week as the 3* on the Ravens was clearly not a good call.



I've ben slumping there is no doubt about it. The poor addicted gambler would try to double up and get it all back but that is the worst thing that one can do in this spot. I am patient and going to wait to hit my spots and those spots are just not here today on the hardwoods. There is one game that I do like and that is it.

The Indiana Hoosiers are still not very good as the days of Isaiah Thomas and Damon Bailey and Alan Henderson are long gone. Right now it is still a rebuilding mode for Tom Crean but things have gotten better of late and after all of the success at Marquette I do have confidence in him.

Pittsburgh no longer is even good. Do not let the name on the jersey fool you. This team lost a ton after last year with DeJuan Blair and Sam Young leading the way and right now the Panthers are not even a top 50 team. These guys just scored 15 points in the first half against New Hampshire and have shown nothing at all this season against a bunch of patsys. How can this fairly non talented team be laying a number even to Indiana?

I will take my chances with the Hoosiers even if they are not very good themselves.