Mostly NCAAB with a Pinch of NBA

By Dan Rodgers

Tonight is a huge night in the world of college basketball. A few conference tournaments get underway or continue tonight (Atlantic Sun and WCC) and three top 25 teams play tonight, including No. 1 Kentucky. They face Georgia at home, and while they may not cover the huge spread on the game (19.5), they shouldn't have any issue retaining the No. 1 spot.

As you might know, I'm a Virginia Tech fan. They play in Clemson tonight and basically need to win out the regular season and win the ACC tournament if they want to go dancing. They've gotten screwed a lot this season and been on the short end of a ton of close games (lost 9 games by 5 or less, 5 games by one possession). I'll be rooting for them as always (6.5 underdogs tonight), but it sucks to see them so close to making the tournament every year and getting screwed.

On to my game of the night.

There is one game, from a spread viewpoint, that stands out to me: Washington -7 @ USC

USC lost in Washington by 28. I'm sorry but I don't think that USC should be getting 21 extra points just for being at home. USC is the worst team in the Pac-12 and Washington is in first. Two of Washington's three conference losses were on the road and they were to three out of the other top five teams in the conference. USC hasn't won a game in over a month, hasn't scored over 54 points in over a month, and Washington averages more than 20 more points per game than USC (74.9 - 53.3).

I honestly see no way that USC covers this and wouldn't be surprised if Washington had this covered well before halftime and cruised from there.

Washington 72 (-7) USC 49

NOTE: I'm not going to do units right now, I'm just going to make picks.

There aren't many games going on tonight in the NBA, but there is one really good one: Oklahoma City Thunder @ Orlando Magic

The late game on TNT (the early one is above) is Miami Heat @ Portland Trail Blazers. That is definitely not a bad game and I think the Blazers will give Miami all they can handle. I'm not a big fan of any of these games, unlike the Lakers last night or the Pacers two nights ago (I felt the same about them as I do about Washington). So I'm just going to sit back, relax, and enjoy the games.

Rodgers That

NOTE: This is not a gambling website, nor does it promote gambling.

Tourney Talk

By Dr. Jekyll

This was supposed to be an article about how to pick tournament winners. How to avoid the suckers bet and walk away from your bracket with your head held high. About knowing what upsets to call, how to root against a 5 seed, and understanding that your completely understandable hatred of Duke is fine, but they won’t lose in the first round.

And then some team from Northern Iowa shot my bracket in the foot, and just as it started hobbling St. Mary’s took out Villanova.

But despite the fact that there’s no hope for getting the right champion, I still have 7 of the elite 8 hanging around. So what are the keys to tournament success?

I’ll tell you.

1. Pick upsets early. Other than giving all of the 1, 2, and 3 seeds a free pass (Georgetown not withstanding). After that, seeding really doesn’t mean much. Every year some 12’s come out of nowhere (Murray State and Washington this year) and “shock you”. When in doubt, just pick the cooler mascot.

2. But don’t listen to experts. More than anything, everyone is a bandwagon fan. A team like UTEP goes from a nice side pick to suddenly a magic 8-ball that you can’t turn away from on ESPN. The moment you hear them talking about some special team, dump em.

3. Same for Cinderella. Double digit seeds push their way into the Sweet 16 every year, but don’t get cute. With the exception of George Mason, it’s never a good idea to throw a bunch of 9’s and 10’s into your Final Four.

4. On that same note, always have at least a 1 in your Final Four. They’re ranked as the top teams in the country for a reason. No matter what else happens, they earned that seed at some point, and the chances of the four “best” teams dropping out are pretty poor.

5. Watch the injury reports early. If you do nothing else with college basketball, pay attention when players go down during their respective Conference Tournaments. Basketball injuries linger.

6. Pray. Let’s be honest, you’ve watched maybe five college basketball games all year. You spend about three days reading every column you can find on trendy picks, and ultimately you have no idea what you’re doing. But there’s nothing more fun in the world than screaming at your TV for some mid-major that you’ve never heard of (GO BAYLOR!) to make it to the finals and show everyone else just how much of a champion you are.

So go curl up a comfy seat for the last few days of the tournament. Angrily yell at kids who aren’t even able to legally drink to win your $400 pool. And always bring your bracket.