Ultra Sports Bet

There are four games in tonight’s holiday college basketball action that stand out for me as providing some value:
Xavier (+2.5) at Rhode Island – Xavier has struggled a bit lately, but they have still won seven in a row even if the margin hasn’t been as big as it could be. This is a battle for A-10 supremacy, and I truly believe that Xavier is the better squad. That makes them attractive here.

Austin Peay (+1) at Tennessee State – Austin Peay is the better team by a wide margin, and they are playing reasonably well. The edge isn’t huge …read more

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As is usual, there are a million college games this weekend. Here are the five that stick out as the best values on Saturday:
Louisville (-5.5) at Providence -  I love how Louisville is laying, I think that they match up well here, and I think that Rick Pitino gets a little more fired up than usual(which is saying something) when he goes back to Providence. The Cardinals seem attractive.
Drake (-1.5) at Northern Iowa – Drake had a long winning streak snapped last time out. If they are going to bounce back then this is a great spot for them to …read more

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The NBA Skills part of the All-Star weekend isn’t as good as it used to be, but it still has its moments. More importantly, though, it is something we can bet on. That’s always a good thing. Here are the three most interesting bets on the board in my mind:
Winner of the three-point shootout – Daniel Gibson – 7/2 – Gibson played in the Rookie Challenge on Friday night and he nailed 11 threes. It would appear that he is pretty dialed in. He seems like as good a bet as any.
Slam Dunk contest – Rudy Gay – 7/2 – …read more

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As I was writing about NBA Championship futures for a client this morning I found myself thinking that NCAA Futures were way more interesting. Maybe that’s because the tournament is much closer than the NBA playoffs, or maybe that’s because college basketball is about a million times more interesting than the NBA. Either way, there are some interesting values and some terrible prices on the board for the road to the Final Four.
Bargains
I’m not saying that these teams are a lock to win or anything, but I think that their chances are better than their price:
Stanford (35/1) – The Cardinal …read more

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There was a truly fascinating situation involving Cleveland yesterday. On Sunday night the Cavs were crushed by the Nuggets in Denver. They lost by 30, and it wasn’t that close. In an ugly quirk of scheduling the team played the next night in Orlando. They settled onto their plane for the long trip but were grounded by mechanical troubles. That meant they wouldn’t be able to leave until the next morning, and they wouldn’t be able to arrive in Orlando until mid-afternoon. The game started at 7:00.
The public noticed this news and they panicked. The line was sitting with Orlando …read more

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This is a column I do every week for Doc’s Sports. You can, and should, check them out at docsports.com for all sorts of information, insights and picks. I do a lot of writing for them.
A – Ascension. Few would be able to name the team at the top of the Big Ten standings at first guess. It’s Purdue. It  might seem like they are upstarts compared to the four other likely tournament bound teams in the conference, but the Boilermakers proved they belonged this weekend by completing a season sweep of Wisconsin. Add in a sweep of Illinois, a …read more

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I am the worst Kentucky Derby handicapper in the world. It’s not that I don’t put the time into it. I start following the two year olds in the summer and get more and more obsessed as the first Saturday in May draws near. My problem is that I fall in love with a horse or two at some point in the process, and then odds or value are irrelevant to me. Sometimes I get lucky, like I did last year with Curlin. More often I don’t, with a long list of also-rans having my love and affection through the …read more

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There is a whole lot of interesting horse racing going this weekend, as the Triple Crown trail reaches a new level and some golden oldies come back in action. I’ll be watching it all, but one horse that I am especially excited to see is Grasshopper (on the rail in the Travers when he wasn’t quite good enough against Street Sense). He was terrible last time out in the Super Derby, but he is well rested and quite a bit older now, and I am very curious to see if he is better off for it. He runs in the …read more

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Key Saturday games. As I write this it is Friday afternoon, so there are no lines out for Saturday’s games. There are, however, several games of interest that I will be keeping a close eye on when the lines come out. Here’s the cream of them:

Boston College at Duke – If the price is right I’ll be looking for a post-UNC letdown for the Blue Devils that could allow Boston College to stay close enough to cover what should be a pretty big spread.
USC at Washington State – The Cougs are in a freefall, and USC has covered six …read more

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Now that football is over here, our focus here will shift in other directions. We’ll hit lots of sports along the way, but college basketball will likely get the most attention over the next six weeks or so.
Which brings me to an announcement of great sadness – coach John Brady has been fired by LSU. As a sports bettor that is perhaps the saddest news of the year (And I mean the whole year, even if it is only February). Brady was probably the worst recruiter on the planet, and he was only barely better as a coach. His team …read more

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