Cashing In

Your "Bad Beat" for Saturday is on:

Mississippi State (minus $3, moneyline) vs. North Carolina.

Jarvis Varnado and the Bulldogs jumped on the Tar Heels early taking the 16-4 lead. Just like yesterday's "Bad Beat" early leads sometimes are dangerous but with that said North Carolina has become a disaster and as the touchdown dog coming back and actually winning the game on the road in Starkville was a bit much.

Or was it?

Roy Williams' Heels came all the way back to take the lead at the half and then erased a decent second half deficit as well. They then scored the game winning hoop with a second and a half to go in the semi shocking outright.



Your winners for Sunday are on:

5* Maryland (pk) vs. Michigan State.

3* Cornell (plus 4 1/2) vs. Wisconsin.

One Saturday play and it was 5* St. Mary's who won outright. Bang, that's how it's done!



I love the Turtle today! Greivis Vasquez and the Terrapins are going to win this game and do so in a major way.

The Spartand are experienced and very talented but they are a shell of themselves right now. Michigan State is not close to being what they were last season and Tom Izzo knows it. His boys are inconsistent and just not very good right now. Teams want to peak at this point in the season but Sparty is doing anything but as we saw once again last time out in the poor outing and semi lucky win over New Mexico State.

Izzo's team went to the National Championship game last season and they still do have players. Morgan and Lucas can be great. Throw in Green and Roe and Lucious and Allen and this team is experienced and pretty darn solid but they are just not playing very well right now. In fact they remind me of Villanova, limping into the second round not playing well and then bang, they just get smacked and put out of their misery.

Look for Vasquez and others like Williams and Hayes and Mosley to show how they were the ACC Co-Champs and roll over a team that is ready to be rolled over on!



Cornell is not a fluke and I really think they may win today. Bo Ryan's Badgers play stifling defense and are very good but they don't score that much and are up against the greatest team the Ivy League has ever seen.

Ryan Wittman is unreal and he has teammates that are no joke as well. Cornell can shoot the rock really well and just dominated a hot and very good Temple squad. Look back a few months when these guys went into Kansas and had the lead in the final minute. The Big Red are not your typical team from the Ivy League. These guys were screwed big-time with the seeding and are a top 25 team in the country.

Wiscy is probably the better defensive team and all in all may have more athletes but not by much and to be able to get a handful in this definite potential outright is enough for me to back Steve Donahue's boys in.

Your "Bad Beat" for Sunday is on:

Ball State (plus 5 1/2) vs. Ohio.

The Cadinals of Ball State led the entire game and I mean thee entire game, well save 2-1 that is. It was 7-2 right off the bat and then 22-13. Ball State had the 36-33 lead at the half and then liteally never trailed the entire half.

But Armon Bassett's layup with 54 seconds remaining tied the game up at 69 sending this thing into overtime.

I think you know where this is going from here.

It was 79-77 Bobcats with just over half a minute remaining. Then came the fouling game and Ohio nailed all six free throws and Ball State did not score in their final three possessions.

Final score: 85-77 Ohio!



Your winners for Monday are on:

3* William & Mary (plus 8) vs. Old Dominion.

2* Nets (plus 9) at Memphis.

One play on Sunday and it was a clear cut 3* loser on Michigan.



William & Mary has had an unbelievable season, for their standards, yet are being talked about by nobody. I am not saying they are as talented or as good as Old Dominion, because they're not, but the Tribe are now 22-9 overall and 12-6 in a decent enough Colonial Conference.

You may say yeah but who the heck has this perennial doormat beaten? How about Maryland, Richmond and Wake Forest! Pretty freakin impressive, huh?

Plus Tony Shaver's team plays solid defense resulting in low scoring games which we saw yesterday in the 47-45 upset of Northeastern. Bill and Mary have now won three in a row play games in the 50's and 60's when not in the 40's and are catching quite a number here.

Blaine Taylor's Monarchs are 25-8 and probably the best in the Colonial with Gerald Lee leading the way but they just played an extra five minutes yesterday in the overtime win over VCU and are going to have some trouble today and possibly some tired legs in this back-to-back tournament type setting plus the overtime.

This thing is going to be ugly but tight and that is the bottom line.



Memphis has not done much of anything over the past month and the Nets have got to win back-to-back games at some point. New Jersey just upset the Knicks at Madison Square Garden and I just cannot see New Jersey going a full season without winning two in a row.

The Nets have two studs in Devin Harris and Brook Lopez and are just not that bad. Throw in a Courtney Lee and a Kris Humphries along with a Jarvis Hayes and I will go to my Grave believing this team is better than 7-55 or whatever.

The Grizzlies are very talented and being at home won't hurt but things have gone south of late as they have lost 7 of their last 19 games after starting the season at 25-19 and looking like a possible playoff team. Zach Randolph has been great and OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay will fill it up but to get almost double digits in this spot with the underrated Nets is fine with me.

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!