Overall Record: 18-22
Outlay, Round 5: $650.00
Winnings, Round 5: $572.73
Loss, Round 5: $77.27
Overall Loss: $694.64
I would have liked to have seen the ending of the San Diego St.-Florida Atlantic Game, in retrospect. I was watching soccer all day Saturday and missed Lamont Butler's Game-winning, buzzer-beating shot for the Aztecs. This tournament hasn't had one of those yet, a bucket to win with absolutely no time left. That's what makes March Madness so special.
And yet there's a part of me that isn't too crushed about missing it, and would probably do it again if I didn't know that's how it would end. For one thing, I have money on it through the two pools I'm in, and I would be too damn anxious to watch a Game I had money on because I would be angry at myself for losing money if I were wrong. Also, and this is a secondary factor, I yet again raise my objection that watching this tournament has been appreciably worse ever since CBS split the package with Turner and the NCAA increased the field to a disharmonious 68 teams. While I knew the Semifinals would be on Channel 4, sometimes I have to see whether a particular Year's Final Four will be on CBS or on TBS. It would suck to be on the latter, not only because it's cable, but also because TBS does not carry men's college basketball Games throughout the season, and thus has no legitimate right to broadcast the most important Games of the season in even Years.
Well, I went off on a tangent by cutting open a vein. Anyway, I would have loved to have seen that ending even though the Aztecs failed to cover at -2 1/2, thus also blowing my parlay. And so I come to the NCAA National Championship Game with a big (albeit hypothetical) hole I want to dig out of.
So, what is my play?
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1) Connecticut -7 1/2 (The line scares me. It opened at a pretty high -6 1/2 and the public has bet on the Huskies anyway. I will say that UConn has been the Borg through The Big Dance while San Diego St. has had to pull a couple Houdini acts. To play devil's advocate, Defense does win championships, and it's hard to remain prolific in scoring six Games in a row. Can it happen? Sure, in which case the margin for error for the Aztecs widens. But damn, the Huskies are deep and flexible and can beat you in so many ways. Really, the only way for Connecticut to lose is if they beat themselves, most notably through cold shooting, which San Diego St. can have a big hand in. But I will rely on the five-Game sample size of UConn and predict they'll dominate SDSU, cover the spread, win another title and become a blue blood in top-flight men's college basketball -- and let me finish in the black) $800
Good luck! And since this Game starts at the stupid time of 8:20 Central, hope you can stay awake for the whole thing!
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