Record, Round Three: 0-6 (fuck you)
Overall Record: 9-25
Total Outlay, Round Three: $800.00
Total Winnings, Round Three: $0.00 (fuck you twice)
Loss, Round Three: $800.00
Overall Loss: $1,027.16
I've seen spam forwards of people "drawing" middle fingers by taking up lines upon lines to carefully type in slashes and parentheses. Can I do that here? Because I want to, goddammit.
Let me say this: It was last night, Friday night, when my bracket officially busted, and that's a hell of a lot longer than it usually is. There is a time when my anticipation towards The Greatest Three Weeks In American Sport turns into absolute hate. That happened when I saw the losing score of Tennessee to Michigan, which destroyed any chance of winning any money in the big pool I'm in. Worse for me, the Volunteers were able to come back from a big deficit, far enough for them to cover the 2 1/2 point spread. Watching the two excellent late games I was thinking to myself, "Well, at least I got one right." And then I remembered that the line was 2 1/2, and I was absolutely fucking despondent that I lost all six wagers, and the hundreds of dollars I "bet" with them.
I still have a ghost of a chance of winning my friend's smaller pool, but I need Florida and Arizona to win today and, in order to eliminate the players that have more picks alive, Michigan and UConn to win tomorrow. Then there will be, like, a 15-way tie into the Final Four. The tie-breakers are complicated, but at least I'll have a chance. Regardless, this Sweet Sixteen sucked for me.
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Hey, have I mentioned that the odds for the first round I took from Covers.com, but the ensuing rounds I got them from Doc's Sports because they updated the odds for the second-day games of each round faster? You know what, I take that back. For some reason I can't find just a single page where I can see an entire round's odds on Covers because it seems as if they can or will only show odds for a day's worth of games, not a round's. I don't remember if I also used Doc's for the first round also, but for that reason it stands to reason that I did.
Here goes nothing:
1) Florida -10 (Does the Cinderella story of Dayton end with a crushing of the glass slipper under the squat foot of a Gator? This feels like one of those miracle, "Hoosiers"-type runs where it's at this stage the underdog finally loses, but only after one final, ingenious play at the buzzer where the ball just doesn't go in. I'm thinking Steph Curry and Davidson against Kansas, for example. What's going against the Flyers is that they survived close games against Ohio St. and Syracuse and finally romped over a Stanford club that was closer to them in seed. Florida is The Proverbial Kings Of The Hill, so much better than their previous three foes, and I don't think Billy Donovan's the kind of coach that will coach their players down to their opponents' level. If it is close late, the Gators will hit their free throws to, hopefully, reach the line. I'm not confident enough of any of picks to do Best Bets; I just need to make up some money with the number of games I have left) $150
2) Wisconsin +3 (Observation: Neither team can steal, so expect very little transition play, and there's a possibility that one or both teams will control the pace by holding the ball and draining the shot clock all game. Nevertheless I think both clubs have the chance to light it up on offense -- so much so that I wanted to bet on the Over, but of the seven betting sites giving lines on these games, three of them say 130 and another three say 130.5. By rule, tied O/Us mean I do not bet on them. So I take the Badgers just because I have Arizona in my bracket and I suck, so I'm Anti-Picking myself. Don't have much confidence, though) $100
3) Wisconsin M/L +140 (And if I'm taking the underdog with such a small line, I might as well play them Straight-Up, too) $50
4) Michigan St.-UConn Under 139.5 (Is it time to believe Kevin Ollie, the onetime Minnesota Timberwolves bench player? Can't believe he may very well take the Huskies to the Final Four, but playing at Madison Square Garden this is a virtual home game. And though I like Tom Izzo, and he's one step away from keeping his streak of getting every player who's been with the program through their senior year to the Final Four [think about that -- how hard is that to pull off??], their grinding, rebound-emphasizing plan will always keep their opponent in the game. What Izzo should do is make sure Shabazz Napier can't breathe without two Spartans on him. Assuming he does that, the game remains close, but low-scoring. Hopefully) $200
5) Michigan-Kentucky Over 137.5 (Well, fuck, I have the opposite problem here that I did in the Arizona-Wisconsin match-up: I want to bet on the Wildcats, who are favored, to beat the Wolverines going away, but two of the five sites that sport lines have them at -2 and two others had them at -2 1/2. So I have to bet on the total, which is all over the place; that 137.5 is a plurarity of two since the other three each have their own total. Gah. Anyway, Michigan's close one against the Vols was just the latest of a series of games this year where they blew big leads late. They can't, and won't, win doing that against a Kentucky squad that is finally gelling on the floor -- and finally matches the talent they show on paper. And speaking of that: The Associated Press preseason poll had the Wildcats #1 and Michigan St. #2 ... and look where they are now. Going by the AP preseason poll has become sort of a good predictor of who will survive through the Big Dance, which is odd, if you think about it. The writers who vote in that poll have been able to see which teams make it though the tourney just on the aggregation of talent, without that talent playing a single meaningful minute. In effect, the regular season is just noise -- that, in fact, it distorts one's perception of a team's ability to win the NCAA Tournament. That kind of renders the regular season is kind of worthless, doesn't it?) $200
6) I'm going to be senseless and parlay the two picks I didn't want to make together, because I think that's a sign from above. 2) and 5), for $150.
Good luck!
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