Gambling Thread

It was no fluke, either. Irish should have probably lost by 30. Missed layup after layup. Couldn't defend. They were truly awful.

 

He is an interesting cat. Also 100% anarchist.

 

I'm watching this. Kinda fun. I wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't "liked" by somebody upthread. More comedic than dark.

 

(Psst both these hit)

 

Tonight's "Really? Really?" college basketball team is UConn. No. 5 in the country, taking a road trip to Seton Hall, laying a modest 8.5.
Huskies get blown out by 15.
Really guys? Really?

I did two cheap $5, four-team parlays mostly for shits and giggles. The first one went 0-4, and I wasn't even close on any of them (picked three favorites who lost outright). Then UConn shit the bed and stopped the second one in its tracks.
At least it's reminding me why I hate betting on basketball.

 

College hoops in general might be the biggest dumpster dive of all. You truly never know what you're gonan get. Seton Hall had one top-100 win in non-league play and UConn looked unbeatable outside of a narrow road loss to Kansas. But these are 18-to-22-year-olds (with the occasional 27-year-old thrown in for good measure) and sometimes they play out of their minds and sometimes they just don't show up.

 

To be fair, I was more or less picking these games at random. I'm not going to be able to go to the casino for a couple of weeks (no online betting here, you have to do it in person) so I was putting in all of my NFL and bowl bets, and figured I might as well throw in a couple of parlays on afternoon basketball. It's the gambling equivalent of drinking Boone's Farm from a paper bag while sitting on a stoop at 2 p.m.
It didn't help that I was in the casino at 10 a.m. because that was the most convenient time to go.

But I have really soured on basketball for anything more than the occasional stab in the dark or fun play. It's just too volatile. You have a team that's beating the ever-living shit out of an overmatched opponent for 36 minutes, then it puts in the scrubs, gives up a 12-0 run to end the game, and doesn't cover the spread. Or you back an underdog that runs out of gas down the stretch, and that one-possession game at the last media timeout becomes a 14-point loss when they were getting 10.
Football has a better flow and I have a better feel for it. Basketball, no matter what the spread or the score is, it's like nothing matters until the last 6-8 minutes (especially the NBA, where they mostly turn laps until the fourth quarter and then get serious). It's maddening.

 

Predators at 7 pm ET

Senators at 9 pm ET

back on the horse.

 

Micah Shrewsberry lit his guys the fuck up after that Notre Dame loss.

 

Sounds like me once a week in the reporter meeting when they don’t have story ideas and we do the news equivalent of losing by 20 points. Which we do pretty much every day.

 

Agree. I think it's mentioned on the TV thread.
Really, the gambling aspect is just a conduit for the typical, guy trying to balance family/work in a not-always-cooperative environment type of TV show.