- Wednesday night - take a late flight to Vegas
- Thursday - get up early, register for the handicapping contest, play handicapping contest, bet various parlays for myself and others, watch NCAA games
- Friday - get up early to handicap whatever races I hadn't handicapped yet for the contest, play contest, make more parlays, watch more NCAA games
- Saturday - get up even earlier because there was definitely not enough time to handicap Saturday's races on Friday, play contest, make more parlays, watch the NCAA games, catch a red-eye home
That was the plan and <spoiler> that is pretty much how it played out. As is custom for me, I had a horrific Day 1 in the handicapping contest. Hitting my parlay would have made me feel better, but after Gonzaga, Purdue, and Texas Tech all won (I played them on the money line), Virginia was not able to cover because they somehow missed 24 three-pointers in their game. I needed them to win by 9, they only won by 4. Bye bye parlay.
Friday went considerably better at the handicapping contest, but it still would have been nice to hit a parlay. As much as I pride myself in knowing the horses, I've never been much of a sports bettor. I watch a decent amount of college basketball, so I'd like to think I could do well at it, but the results say otherwise. Hence, even though sports betting is now legal in several states, I'll be sticking with the ponies.
[If you did want to know my parlay for Friday, it was: Michigan State (money line), Auburn (money line), Duke -7.5, and Houston (money line)]
That's right, I liked the Spartans, but I didn't trust them to cover against an inconsistent LSU team that looked like they could beat anyone in the nation one day and might not beat some of the remaining squads in the NIT on other days. They were a very tough read for me, so I went with the safe play. I was kicking myself when bad LSU showed up in the first half. The Tigers fell behind by 17 and I was wishing I had laid the points. But good LSU would eventually make an appearance, trimming the lead to 4 just a few minutes into the second half. However, just as Tennessee and LSU had similar experiences in round two victories, they would share similar fates in their round three losses. They both left themselves way too much to do and had nothing left in the tank once they got within range of winning. Michigan State would soon pull away from the Tigers and advance by the score of 80-63.
Need more SEC? We got more SEC for you! Auburn was taking on North Carolina in the first game from the Midwest region. Auburn was arguably the hottest team in the tournament, running wild through the SEC tournament before nearly blowing their 1st round game to New Mexico State and then demolishing perennial national championship contender Kansas in round two. North Carolina would be much tougher competition though. As great as Kansas usually is, it was an off year for them in 2019. North Carolina, on the other hand, was already being slotted into the national championship game for a battle with their arch-nemesis Duke. The Midwest was loaded, but they were considered the clear favorites.
The reason I picked Auburn in this game was because I knew North Carolina's Achilles Tar Heel was turnovers. They were a team that loved to run and gun and sometimes they didn't take care of the basketball. If a team was going to beat them, it would need to be a squad that caused a lot of turnovers and that was something the Tigers did very well. This was going to be a fun game with the potential to be even higher scoring than the Purdue-Tennessee tilt from the night before. Neither team could establish a large lead in the first half, trading the lead several times back and forth. It looked like they might head to the break deadlocked, but Auburn made a layup right before the buzzer to snatch a 2 point lead at the half.
The second half was completely different. The Tigers made a 3 to start the half, a prelude to what was in store for the next 20 minutes. Auburn got very hot from beyond the arc and the Tar Heels were suddenly on the ropes. North Carolina was down 19 and we were on the verge of seeing a #1 seed getting knocked out of the tournament. The Tar Heels were not going to go away easily though. They got within 10 and when Auburn lost one of their best players to a freak leg injury, it seemed like the Tigers might be in some trouble. But they knocked down a few more 3 pointers and North Carolina could not get within single digits. So much for Duke-North Carolina part four. Auburn would move on to the Midwest regional final after a 97-80 victory.
My parlay was 2 for 2! And surely Duke would come out wanting to prove that their near loss to UCF was a fluke. They were going to spank Virginia Tech, right? (That was my line of thinking anyways.) The last time these 2 teams met, the Hokies came out on top, but Duke didn't have Zion Williamson. Could Virginia Tech beat Duke when they were at full strength? It sure looked that way in the first half. The Hokies weren't intimidated in the least by Duke and outplayed them for the first 20 minutes, which saw them lead by 4. Things remained tight in the second half until Duke went on a 9-0 run. Momentum was on their side and they were finally going to put Virginia Tech away...or not.
While Duke has been touted as the most dominant team in the country, that really hasn't played out during the season. Undoubtedly they have the most dominant player in Zion, but they weren't blowing out teams throughout the year. They started off the season by embarrassing Kentucky by 34 and that image stayed in everyone's heads. The truth is that they played a lot of close games and came out on top of most of them because they're so talented. But dominant? Not really. That was proven out again at the end of this game. Virginia Tech stuck around even when it looked like Duke was going to pull away. They stayed within reach and as the clock ticked down, they had a real chance to win, just as UCF had the week before. Down 2, the Hokies had the ball and went for the win. Their first three-pointer was blocked out of bounds. A second one missed and was called out of bounds off of Duke, even though replay showed Zion Williamson never went out while saving the ball. With 1 second to go, it was desperation time for Virginia Tech. Amazingly, they got the best look they could have asked for. Virginia Tech's Ahmed Hill curled around a screen and headed to the hoop. The inbounds pass was thrown his way and he caught it about a foot from the hoop. All he had to do was lay it in. But his momentum carried him away from the basket and as he went to lay the ball in, the ball drifted to the side of the rim. Duke watched an opponent's short range shot roll off the rim at the buzzer for the second straight game. The Blue Devils survive again with a 75-73 win. My parlay was toast.
There was one game left to complete the Sweet 16 and it was an interesting matchup between Kentucky and Houston. Kentucky had advanced in a low-scoring affair against Wofford in round two and they were probably going to get more of the same here as Houston employed the same defense-first philosophy as Texas Tech and Virginia. The Cougars had a very tough time stopping Kentucky early on as the Wildcats shot 61% from the field, putting up 37 points in the process. They had an 11 point lead at intermission and if Houston didn't find a way to stop the hot-shooting Wildcats, they were going to be headed home. The defensive intensity was raised a notch in the second half and Kentucky's field goal percentage came back to earth. As a result, Houston drew closer. With 4 minutes to go, the Cougars finally tied the game. Kentucky only scored 12 points in the first 16 minutes of the second half. We were ready for yet another tight finish.
The key sequence would go down with about a minute remaining. Houston was up three, but Kentucky made a basket and was fouled giving them a chance to tie. They missed the free throw, with the Cougars grabbing the rebound. They came down the court looking to run some clock, clinging to their one point lead. After taking 20 seconds off the clock, Houston took a tough jumper that would get blocked. Kentucky grabbed the loose ball and headed the other way. The Cougars couldn't find Kentucky guard Tyler Herro in transition and he drained a three to take the lead. Houston would get one more chance to tie it, but they missed and the Wildcats sank two free throws to ice the game. Kentucky (like Duke) survives late again and will face a conference foe in Auburn in the Midwest regional final after beating Houston by a score of 62-58.
While my parlay may not have been successful, my bracket did alright and I have somehow made my way up to the top of the "My baby wants to go to USC" pool. (RIGGED!) Fred is still on top of the main pool, where I've crept into a tie for second. Here's how things look going into the Elite Eight:
Safety School:
- Fred Alcaro - 80 points
- Dave Nichols, Will Peerenboom, and Aiden Schweitzer - 77 points
Paid For My Kids SATs:
- Dave Nichols - 77 points
- Nate Heffner and James Dematteo - 76 points
Check out the full standings here.
Down to the Elite Eight! Time to send out some Save The Dates for the Final Four with regional final action on Saturday.
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