Friday Best Bets, Thursday Recaps
Thursday was certainly different from the way we spent Thursdays in the Tuley’s Takes home office during the NFL regular season as the main focus was on hockey.
The personal highlight of the day was having s’mores with the family in our backyard firepit before our two oldest kids go back to college this weekend (while following my action on my phone, of course). Unfortunately, I lost my first foray into the NHL First Period Over ice as I split with the Canucks-Lightning 1P Over 1.5 -174 and Flames-Blues 1P Over -145 (which is a loss with the way we bet these in parlays to turn them into a dog) at +166. We also lost with the Sabres +110 vs. the Jets, but at least won with the Canadiens vs. the Predators at +153 to cut out losses just over half a unit overall. Yes, we are 0-4 since Sunday with our top play of the day – as one troll of ours on Twitter @ViewFromVegas pointed out, but we’re happy there was only one as we trust the vast majority of our readers “get it” and have been very happy knowing we’ve been over 60% with our Best Bet of the day in the 70+ days since late October. As we’ve always said, no one hits over 60% in the long run in sports betting, though it’s certainly an admirable goal. Let’s get to the recap of Thursday’s action and then look at Friday’s menu to try to get back on the winning track with our Best Bets. And then, as has become our custom around here, we’ll rerun our Wednesday column and update our “takes” on the NFL wild-card playoff games this weekend based on how the lines are moving.Thursday Recaps
CBB: No. 8 Gonzaga beat BYU 75-74, but didn't cover as 6.5-point road favorite. No. 9 Arizona beat Oregon State 86-74, but failed to cover as 15.5-point road chalk. No. 7 UCLA routed Utah 68-49 and did cover as a 13-point home fave.
NBA: Faves went 5-1 SU and ATS with lone upset by the Thunder (+10, +360 money line in 133-114 rout at 76ers). Road teams 4-2 SU and ATS. Over/Unders split 3-3 with Mavericks-Lakers staying Under 236.5 in Mavs' 119-115 win despite 2OTs (Mavs also ended up covering -2.5).
More NBA: On the season, favorites lead 398-224 SU with 9 games closing pick-'em while underdogs still lead 315-289-18 ATS (52.2%). Home teams lead 384-247 SU and 327-287-17 ATS (53.3%). In totals wagering, Overs still lead 327-297-7 (52.4%).