Tuley: Friday Best Bets in college basketball, NHL; Thursday recap of NCAA March Madness, etc.
 

 

Friday Best Bets, Thursday Recaps

Thursday was everything we’ve come to expect from March Madness in the Tuley’s Takes home office and around Las Vegas and the city is again full of college basketball fans and bettors.

When the dust had all settled, favorites and underdogs split 8-8 against the spread on Thursday’s opening day of the first round while Unders led 10-6 (and 10-5-1 with first-half Unders).

As we’ll also go over in our regularly scheduled recaps below, the day started with seemingly every game coming down to the wire. The opening game was a No. 8 vs. No. 9 game between Maryland and West Virginia, so that fittingly came down to the end with Maryland pulling out the 67-65 victory and then No. 13 Furman following with its unbelievable 68-67 upset of No. 4 Virginia on a steal and 3-pointer with less than 3 seconds to play. But that wasn’t the biggest upset of the day as No. 15 Princeton busted even more brackets with its 59-55 win over No. 2 Arizona.

As for my posted Best Bets, I won my top play on Missouri +2 over Utah State as the Tigers pulled away for a 76-65 victory, but then I suffered a “bad beat” with College of Charleston +5.5 as the clock went to 0.0 and an apparent 61-57 loss for a point-spread cover; however, a ref called a foul and they put 0.7 seconds back on the clock and San Diego State player made both free throws for the 63-57 final score. Ouch!

I still had a winning overall day with some other underdogs, but it would’ve been a banner day if Charleston had covered.

I did lose my NHL play on the Canadiens +1.5 +125 as they scored first to give me brief hope but then were blasted 7-3 in the first period on the way to a 9-5 loss.

Let’s recap the rest of Thursday’s action and look for more Best Bets on Friday. I have just one official play for Friday, but other dogs I’m considering (but thought the lines were too short to call them Best Bets) include Drake +2 vs. Miami-Fla., Iona +9 vs. UConn, FAU +2 vs. Memphis. I also have an NHL 1P Over parlay for Friday and an XFL play for Saturday.

Thursday Recaps

NCAA Tournament: Favorites ended up going 11-5 SU on Thursday (after going 7-1 in the night session), but split 8-8 ATS with 5 outright upsets (Maryland, Furman, Missouri, Princeton and Penn State). Unders went 5-3 in both early and late sessions for 10-6 overall.

More NCAA Tournament: No. 8 Maryland beat No. 9 West Virginia 67-65 as 2.5-point underdog and +130 on the money line (despite being the higher seed) in the first game of Thursday’s opening day, followed by No. 13 Furman upsetting No. 4 Virginia 68-67 as 5.5-point dog and +205 on the money line. Then, later in the early sessions, No. 15 seed Princeton upset No. 2 Arizona 59-55 as 15-point underdogs and +850 on the money line. In the night sessions, faves were 7-1 SU but 5-3 ATS as Louisiana (+11.5) covered in 58-55 loss to Tennessee and Northern Kentucky (+19.5) covered in 63-52 loss to Houston. The lone upset was by Penn State (+2.5) in a 76-59 rout over Texas A&M.

  
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By VSiN