I SUCK! - missed two plays

Apparently I missed two Plays this past weekend while I was away. Cal was underdogs at Stanford and the Cardinal won and covered, and Minnesota was getting 1.5 points at Northwestern and the Wildcats were able to beat Minnesota handily on Sunday. Sorry about that. Being away and being that we have been on such a bad run, I didn't pay much attention to the games this past weekend. I will try to be more on top of the potential Plays this week.

Illini Came Through

I figured the Illini would break through and win one for us. Alex Legion gets the picture posted up here that I would normally have given to him last night. But between being a Wolverine fan and the line being up over 5 points, I lay off games like this. Better safe than sorry. Similar situation in a game tonight. Minnesota is ranked in the Top 20, playing great basketball, and Tubby Smith's youth movement has paid off with fast returns. They are also playing at a tough, grizzled, veteran team that absolutely owns the Kohl Center. They rarely, if ever, lose at home. But a -6.5 point line makes this very tough to play. Again, I recommend laying off, but if you were to play it, Wisco is the only play. I can't see taking Minnesota here at all. Money line may be the play to safely have Wisco at home, but to not worry about laying the 6.5 points. Also, keep a watchful eye on USC tonight at 10:30pm, as they host a hot Arizona State team. USC is getting 1 point at home, but that could easily flip-flop by game time for USC to be favored by 1 point.

Update - Apparently I missed the Xavier/Rhode Island game, but Xavier is ranked and only 1.5 point favorites at Rhode Island. Probably not enough time before tip or money one way or the other to move the Rams to favored, but still something to look out for. Over 70% of the wagers are on Xavier too, for those who like to bet with House and against the Public. Tends to also be a strong strategy.

Unreal...picking against Michigan (NOT!) - ILLINI -7

Technically the play tonight is Illinois. Technically it fits, as 24th ranked (25th in other poll) Michigan comes into Champaign, IL to face off with the streaking Illini, who they just beat in Ann Arbor less than 2 weeks ago. Normally the above picture would have been of some Illini player or coach (possibly former Wolverine committed recruit Alex Legion, who now plays for Illinois) and stating how they will beat Michigan and cover. But two reasons I cannot do so tonight:

1) I am a WOLVERINE! So no way I am betting against my own boys, who have come a long way this year!

2) The line is 7 points! Way too big. We generally do not play anything with a line over 5. And even that is pushing the upper limits of the line tolerance.

So if you want to play this, it sort of, more or less, qualifies. But I would lay off and I will not be counting this towards any offical records. I wanted to point out to folks that it might be a good game to play (if you aren't emotionally tied into it by being a fan of one team, like I am).

IOWA -2

I don't have much to say here. Iowa has 4 guards who average 10 points per game or more. I have never heard of any of them though. In fact, all I know about them is their coach, Todd Lickliter, was solid when he was at Butler. Hopefully that is enough to beat Tubby Smith and his Golden Gophers - go Hawkeyes!

More Garbage on the Way Tonight - BYU -3

No write-up here. Good luck to the Cougars! I really hope that you cover the 3 point line. Pull the official record back to 2-3 (Tomae's version), as both of today's plays are original Tom Tomae System Plays!

This System is Garbage! - KANSAS -3

I cannot even believe this is happening. Stanford got crushed last night. Two more plays today. I will keep following this, more out of curiosity's sake than for anything else, but apparently this year the System has completely flip-flopped and the ranked road teams are winning at tough venues. It sucks! I am keeping these write-ups short, as I don't have time to waste on a bunch of losing bets. At 2pm Kansas is favored at home vs. Bruce Pearl and his ranked Tennessee squad. Later tonight #6 Wake Forest travels to unranked BYU (off to an 11-1 start) and their Princeton style. I'll make that a separate post. Good luck to you if you play them, but I think I may be done playing and may just watch for remainder of year. We will see...

Can Johnny Dawkins get us on a 2 game win streak? - STANFORD -1

Well, Johnny Dawkins took the Stanford job this offseason after years of being a well-respected player and assistant coach at Duke under his coach and mentor, Coach K. He finally got the opportunity after many years to take over a major BCS conf program and flew out West to the Pac-10 to take the job in Palo Alto. Now he has Stanford off to it's best start in over 60 years and is currently 10-0 and one of 6 remaining undefeated teams in D1 hoops. Not a bad start to his first head coaching position!

What I was waiting for with this game has come to pass. The spread has moved from a pick 'em to Stanford by 1 point. The System Play is ON! I don't know much about this group of Stanford players with the Lopez Brothers now in the NBA. They return Lawrence Hill, Anthony Goods, and Mitch Johnson from last year's tournament tested team. They are tough at home, traditionally, and so far this year. Arizona State is a very good team too though at 11-1 so far this year. Their lone loss is too a very talented Baylor squad earlier this season, but have since reeled off 7 wins in a row. Herb Sendek coaches his Princeton style offense and slows the games down for low scoring, defensive minded affairs. James Harden is a sensational sophomore. Heck, he's probably a lottery pick in the next NBA daft. Jeff Pendergraph is also a very talented forward who can rebound well and score effectively. Bottom line is, I like Stanford to cover the 1 point at home and defeat the Sun Devils to open both teams Pac-10 conference schedule. Marquette got us off the schnide - Stanford's gonna get us back on track!