Saturday Best Bets, Friday Recaps
Friday was mostly spent on the road as I left the Tuley’s Take home office and the Valley of Dollars for Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun for spring training games this weekend.
Last Saturday when my family celebrated Easter with both of my college-age kids home for spring break, my nephew Craig said we should plan a spring training trip next year and I replied “you only live once” or “there’s no time like the present” or some such platitude. So, we hit the road Friday and were making great time until there was a stoppage on Route 93 between Wikieup and Wickenburg in Arizona. We waited for an hour before hearing confirmation of multiple fatalities and that the highway would be closed for several more hours, so we backtracked and had to take smaller roads to get around to Wickenburg and turned an under 6-hour drive into a 9-year ordeal. But while that was certainly an inconvenience, the worst part of the day was getting to Phoenix just in time to witness my Best Bet on Princeton +10 in an 11-point, 86-75, loss to Creighton. I had made my bets before leaving Las Vegas, so I only got the Blazers +2.5 vs. the Bulls (closed +7.5 as Damian Lillard didn’t play, so I hope some followers passed) and also lost with Coyotes +1.5 in a 3-1 loss at the Avalanche. I certainly hope Saturday is a better day overall. Let’s recap the rest of Friday’s action (I was also bummed that I couldn’t make a case for San Diego State and Miami-Fla. in their respective upsets of No. 1 seeds Alabama and Houston) and then look for more Best Bets on Saturday.Friday Recaps
NCAA Tournament: Midwest No. 5 seed Miami-Fla. upset No. 1 Houston 89-75 as 8-point underdog and +300 on the money line (went Over betting total of 140 points). South No. 5 San Diego State upset No. 1 Alabama 71-64 as 6.5-point dog and +275 on ML (stayed Under 137). In later games, Midwest No. 2 seed Texas beat No. 3 Xavier 83-71 to cover as 4.5-point favorite (went Over 148.5) while South No. 6 Creighton beat No. 15 Princeton 86-75 to just cover as 10-point fave (went Over 141.5).
More NCAA Tournament: Faves/dogs split 2-2 SU and ATS Friday and went 4-3 SU and ATS in Sweet 16 with 1 PK (Gonzaga-UCLA). Faves still lead 38-17 SU and 28-26-1 ATS with that 1 PK. Overs went 3-1 Friday, finished 6-2 in Sweet 16, but Unders still lead 34-22 (60.7%).