Awake Now??

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is over, finally.  It feels like it goes on forever now with all the whining after the selections are announced and the four "opening round " games before we even get to the weekend action.  Why can't the NCAA just call those games for what they are, play-in games?  The teams playing one another have identical seeds so it's pretty obvious to everyone what is happening.  Quit trying to make those teams feel better about themselves and call them play-in games already.  As for the real tournament, Thursday morning started off well with some close games and a major upset as Morehead State knocked off Louisville.  Then things got extremely boring for two days.  There were some close games, but no major upsets that sent you running to the television to watch what would happen next.  Even the Butler-Pitt game was tough to watch with the awful play at the end of the game by both teams.  When did college basketball players lose their basketball IQ?  The two ridiculous fouls in the final seconds of that game made me feel like I was watching a YMCA youth league game.  Even with the close games between San Diego State and Temple along with Wisconsin and Kansas State, the favorites still covered in 7 of the 8 games.  But then we had Sunday's action.  The day started with close games for both North Carolina and Duke, in which neither covered.  Then THEE Ohio State University blew out George Mason before the dogs really took over.  Arizona beat Texas in a thrilling game while VCU blew the doors off of Purdue and Florida State easily handled overrated Notre Dame.  In the other two games Marquette beat back Syracuse and Kansas pulled away late to take out Illinois.  When the day ended, the dogs were 6-2 ATS with four outright wins.  While the day saved the sportsbooks, it may have also saved the tournament for this season.

Hopefully you ignored the game under .500 record and followed my games last week as we were 3-1, with the only loss coming by the hook after a meaningless three pointer from Wofford.  But I'm not here to whine about the one loss but enjoy the three wins to bring the overall record to 20-19-1.  For this weeks picks let's jump right to the sweet sixteen games on Thursday night.  At the moment, Connecticut is a pick 'em against San Diego State.  The game looks to be pretty even down low, but the Huskies have a huge advantage in the backcourt.  Also taking into account the three final four appearances for Connecticut saw them come out of the west bracket, I'll be happy to take the fighting Kemba Walkers.  As for our second pick, I'll stay in the same bracket as Duke takes on Arizona.  Both teams can score points and the total reflects that as it is at 145.  I'll play the over and hope that neither team has a tough time adjusting to the rims or the shooting background.  Good luck, and remember, never bet what you can't afford to lose.