Cashing In

Your "Bad Beat" for Wednesday is on:

Mavericks (under 205) at Memphis.

A small consolation prize right here to any LA Clipper backers who watched their cash go up in smoke. The Clips led outright by five at the half, and when combined with the 10 points they were getting in the game were up by 15 with only 24 minutes of basketball to be played. But in typical NBA fashion they then were pummeled in a despicable second half loser in Toronto.

The "Bad Beat" of the day comes also from the NBA hardwoods where the Mavericks were in Memphis tangling with the Grizzlies. This game had under pace written all over it. Memphis led 73-67 after three quarters and after only 40 points were scored in the fourth the game accumulated only 180.

Oh yeah, small problem though, as the game was tied up at 90 meaning an extra five minutes of overtime. The offenses then started clicking and in the end Dirk and the boys won the game 106-102 pushing this thing over that total and also covering the small road favorite number.



Your winner for Thursday is on:

2* North Carolina (plus 3) vs. Dayton.

A very poor 0-2 Wednesday as the last week or so has not been as planned.



One play on this extremely small Thursday slate as I'll grab whatever I can with the North Carolina Tar Heels. The regular season was an unmitigated disaster but it appears that Roy Williams' Heels have grown up and finally become an alright team. Zeller, Ginyard, Drew, Henson and a few others are starting to click and show us a glimpse of what North Carolina basketball is supposed to be.

The Heels won at both Mississippi State and UAB and just won in overtime against a very game Rhode Island squad that almost made the NCAA Tournament.

Dayton is a quality squad and Brian Gregory has his boys playing very well also. They went on the road and took care of business in hostile environments, like UNC, at Illinois and Cincinnati. The Flyers can bring it and will bring it after they ended the regular season in poor fashion as well but here at Madison Square Garden I can't help but scoop up some points with the Heels.

Look for a rough and tumble affair in which both teams have a chance to walk off the court as the victor and for the points to be huge in a potentially one or two point final.

Your "Bad Beat" for Monday is on:

Old Dominion (minus 8 1/2) vs. William & Mary.

There were no real terrible beats for Monday that I know of but I can tell you that I got very lucky with the Tribe.

Old Dominion was the right side and should have won this game going away. The Monarchs were up early and often building the 27-14 lead 13 minutes into the contest and owning the 41-26 lead with about 14 to play.

Bill and Mary did tighten things up and were within 56-51 in the final minute. The free throw game would then evolve and ODU missed three of their final six and this thing ended in a Tribe cover at 60-53.



Your winners for Tuesday are on:

3* George Washington (plus 11 1/2) at Dayton.

2* Penn (plus 13) at Princeton.

A 2-0 sweep for 5* of profit on Monday as both William & Mary and the Nets snuck in their respective numbers in the end.



Who is Dayton right now? I'm not even sure the Flyer players know the answer. Things have not gone well at all for Brian Gregory's team. The season started out great and Dayton appeared to be headed straight for an at-large berth in the tournament but that appears to no longer be the case.

The Flyers are a talented squad that at home can be very good with Johnson and Wright but this team has done little of late if anything at all. They just lost outright at home to St. Louis as a very similar favorite to today and have dropped four of their last five overall.

Dayton is 19-11 overall and 8-8 in the A-10 which is clearly better than GW's 16-13 mark and 6-10 in-conference but Karl Hobbs has done a solid job this season and his Colonials are not terrible. Joseph Katuka has been on-fire of late and the team is 5-1-1 ATS in its last seven. That's good enough for me to back this semi live dog.



The Penn Quakers have had an awful season compared to the last 15 or so years where they were either the class of the Ivy League or second best behind Princeton but in this rivalry spot against a low scoring Tiger offense I'll grab a Baker's dozen or so.

Jerome Allen's team has improved of late and just played Harvard down to the wire in an easy cover but one point loss last Friday. Then next day they beat up a terrible Dartmouth squad and with Zach Rosen filling it up as usual should be able to stay in range today. The Quakers have covered three of their last five and I really do believe we will see four of six soon.

Princeton is an upper eschelon squad in the conference as they are clearly behind Cornell but right there with Harvard for second best. Sydney Johnson's squad is 19-8 overall and 9-3 in-conference. They should win here for sure but rivalry type games are usually tighter than expected as Penn-Princeton really is a rivalry type game. Plus the Tigers are far from being an offensive juggernaut and really should not go too far north of 60, if they get that high.

The Tigers will win the game but with the Quaks semi improvements and this game being for very little I'll grab the number.