Picks for Saturday and an early look to Sunday

March Madness takes time off for nobody. Money is touring worldwide gambling centers in the hopes of finally finding a place to sit down, bet and watch every game during the tournament. No luck so far.

BOSTON COLLEGE -5 vs. Clemson
Clemson, who started the season out smoking, has little chance to make the tournament now. BC is fighting for their lives, and will put up a good fight and coast to a 10 point victory in this game.

CREIGHTON -6 vs. Wichita state
The Blue jays face a must win situation here losing 3 of their last 4 games. The apple of everyone’s apple last year, Wichita state, is preparing for an NIT run.

CAL +10 vs. Usc
I don’t expect the Bears to win, but do think they will keep this game close. USC gets up for the big games and coasts through the “easier” ones. Not sure why, but Cal is still playing hard.

Sunday games (Money’s best guess lines)

MARYLAND +2 vs. North carolina
Maryland pulls off the upset and cements a big into the tournament.

WISCONSIN +4 at Ohio state
The buckeyes, like Arizona, are an incredibly talented team, but suffer from chemistry issues, which will be their downfall in this game and the NCAA tournament.

Huge Saturday, Early Ideas

With Money traveling the world, B. Anthony will help to keep you
informed. I will continue to work on my disciplined picking for Saturday.

Some of these teams really do qualify under the rules that we have
laid out here at the Truth, so they need to be included.

Hangover Games:

Virginia Tech -13.5 vs Miami Florida. This game is both a mismatch
for VaTech, and a hangover game for Miami. The Hokies are very good
at home and Miami can only play one good game a week. Virginia Tech is
playing for a top 3 seed in the tournament, and after embarrassing
Boston College, this will be easy. I smell Route !!!

Il Chicago +10.5 vs Loyola Chicago. Classic Hangover, Loyola beat Butler on
Thursday, and will not get up for this game at home. They will win, but only after
being down early and making a comeback. Take the points.

Bounce Back Games:

Florida State -7.5 vs NC State. Florida State needs to recover from their earlier
loss this week, and the Wolfpack is exhausted and dehydrated like their coach.
Watch out for the Chop!

Washington St. -6.5 vs Oregon State. Cougars should have won at Oregon. They
will not mess around with this Beaver team who shot their wad against Washington.
Cougars defense will allow less than 50 points!

What's wrong with this line games:


Boise State +1.5 vs Nevada. This line should be higher, except can you say Trap!
Take Boise at home, they will be playing on Blue Parquet! Every idiot in the gambling
world will look at this and say " Take the #11 team in the country -1.5 against Whom!"
That's why we are on the other side.

Kansas -22 vs Iowa State. I know this line seems really big, but it should be 40. Iowa
State mailed it in years ago, and Kansas is one of the few teams that really is very good!
They also love to beat the hell out of this team, can you say Nebraska?

Many others peak my interest, and I may be back with some late Saturday games, so check
in for the next post!

B. Anthony

(64-51-1)

Friday night Fights

B. Anthony doesn't really follow the NHL, but a 6 v 6 fight in a game last night has to make all fans of the Hansen brothers and "Slapstick" happy. I predict at least one more fight in the next couple of nights just to show people that Hockey will let you get away with this. Additionally, with no real college hoops tonight, B. Anthony often finds him self watching the pugilistic science on ESPN!

Ivy league has a few winners tonight, so let's get to it!

Penn-10 vs Harvard. Harvard has not been the same since the likes of Mark Harris and Mike Gilmore of Crimson lore have moved on. They also sorely miss their 7-footer. Did someone say, study time? 79-60. This will get ugly early.

Cornell+ 7 vs Yale. This is a battle of 2 teams who actually still care, but Cornell is hungrier, because most of these guys didn't get into Yale. Take the points.

Out

B. Anthony
(63-50-1)

If not Florida, then who?

The terms Sleeper and Dark horse seem misleading this year, because a case could be made that Florida is the team to beat. Knowing that, everyone else is a sleeper or dark horse. Florida has the best starting five in the country, with likely 3 lottery picks in Noah, Horford and Brewer. Humphrey is shooting just under 50% behind the arc, and Green is a solid point guard. Sometimes it appears that they coast by some of the teams they play, but they have proven they have the ability to pour it on when needed. This style (and their lack of depth) may prove to be their Achilles heel, but only time will tell. Money does not like taking the obvious pick, and Florida is obvious. So I ask you, if not Florida, then who?

Dark horse national contender:

Kansas – Given the Jayhawk’s history of flubbing things up in the first round, this is a risky pick. Money believes this will be the team cutting down the nets in April. The biggest reason for this pick is freshman point guard, Sherron Collins. He might be their best player, and he comes off the bench. Their rotation will be rectified come tournament time and these guys will be the team to beat. The biggest weakness for this team is all the head-cases, namely Brandon Rush. They have the total package.

Texas A&M – Money has been pimping this team for the last two years. They have arguably one of the best defenses in the country, and one of the most Money players in the country in Acie Law IV. Final four team for sure!

Memphis – Who have they played? That is the question everyone will be asking. In reality, they have not had a challenging schedule. But that did not stop them from making the great 8 last year. The lost some key players from last year’s team to the NBA but an argument could be made that as a team, they are better off without them.


Dark horse Final four:

Maryland – This team wins games by defense which will be helpful in the tournament. They also have a lockdown defender in Strawberry to eliminate/neutral an opponent’s stud player.

Va Tech – An up and down team, but when they are up, they can be very, very good. All five starters from last year’s team are in place.

Tennessee – Amazing what a healthy Chris Lofton can do for this team. They are becoming a very dangerous team right now.

Villanova – Great players still exist on the team from last year. Plus, the emergence of super Frosh, Scottie Reynolds, has helped tremendously.

Washington State – The PAC 10 may get one team to the Final Four and it won’t be UCLA. My bet is Washington State, with USC being a close second.

Texas – Is Kevin Durant 2007 the Carmelo Anthony of 2002? No, he is better but with less help.


Thursday night

USC -5.5 vs. Stanford
The Trojan will look to bounce back from a disappointing loss to ASU. They can ill afford to lose two games in a row and will be better prepared to take on Stanford tonite at home.

Disciplined Gambling (oxymoron)

B. Anthony has been advised by outside sources that 5, 6, 7, and 10 games a day will make it impossible to maintain his once gaudy statistics. He begrudgingly, agrees. Watching the board, and every T.V game is fun, but not lucrative. Those are activities best saved for the first 4 days of March Madness.

Enough said, lets get some winners:

Washington State +2.5 vs Oregon. Two teams going in opposite directions. Defensive teams like WSU travel well, and Oregon no longer has the legs to make big shots the entire game. WSU also has 8 days of rest and has "revenge on their mind." Take the Cougars!

Stanford +5.5 vs USC. I generally don't like the Tree, but this team has 3 trees, Hill and the Lopez twins. If they are one of my picks, it is probably a good thing, because I generally try to find a reason to play against them. Money and I discussed how some teams just don't match up well. If you saw the first game at Maples, USC simply could not get a shot over Brook Lopez in the paint. These type of things tend to repeat themselves. Take the points and expect a barn-burner!

Wright State -2.5 vs Youngstown State. This Wright State team is on a roll. 9 straight wins, and Youngstown State is someone we like to play against. Wright State will win this game to continue the streak, and 2.5 is a safe number. They are a winning program who makes freethrows. Take them to the bank! (late addition thanks to Cosmo Kramer)

Additional Dislocations:

I will closely watch Butler and Memphis. Butler is favored by 10 points and the line should be more like 14. I will stay away from this game, because something is fishy here. Memphis is my favorite team to continue blowing out the weak Conference USA, but at 22 points I think it may be wise to just watch and count how many dunks are out there. If they decide to defend Morris Almond, they will cover this huge number. If not, he will get 38 points and keep it close.

Out,

B. Anthony
(62-48-1)

Blowout specials

As the B noted, there are a couple of blowout specials tonite, namely Florida and Virginia Commonwealth. It should be noted that not all blowouts are created though. I do not think that Ohio State will blowout Penn State. They played each other close the other night, or at least the final score was close and the Buckeyes will be hard pressed to not look ahead to the showdown against Wisconsin on Saturday that will put one of these teams in position for a number one seed. Take Penn state if you have the guts. Money does not.

FLORIDA -19.5 vs. South Carolina
The stars have aligned themselves for this one. Florida is coming off their first league loss, and South Carolina beat up Tennessee in their last game. Plus they played each other already in SC and the game was not close. No reason to think this one will be either.

VA COMMONWEALTH -19.5 vs. James Madison
B. Anthony and I are just trying to train our subscribers to bet on this team now so we all will feel comfortable come tournament time. This team can score.

VIRGINIA TECH -5 vs. Boston College
Is Boston College really that good? I don’t believe they are. They are certainly not capable of beating a team this good on the road. The Hokies are still numb from their embarrassing loss at NC state on Sunday.

Smash Wednesday!

B. Anthony is not advocating any sacrilege here, but on Ash Wednesday there are some significant mismatches on the hoops docket!

The timing couldn't be any better for Greg Oden to continue his coming out party. This is the Buckeyes chance to beat up on a bad Penn State team, and prepare for the weekend show down by getting their confidence up. I am going to leave them off my blow-out specials, but I expect 22 points, 15 boards, 7 blocks from Oden.

(All lines from Skybook.com at 8:36AM PST)

Blowouts:

VCU -19.5 vs James Madison-The other blow-out special is in the Colonial league. VCU was embarrassed over the weekend, but in limps James Madison to help them feel better about themselves. This is a mismatch and the line should be closer to 25.

Florida -19.5 vs South Carolina- This is just a bad match up for the Gamecocks. They can't compete at this level. They lost by 34 at home, and now they are playing at Florida against a team coming off their first league loss. I smell route!

Revenge game, but this is still too many points:

NC State +20 vs North Carolina: North Carolina is good at home, and has been blowing people out, but NC State has Sidney Lowe pride and will stay in the game for a while, and won't give up down the stretch when Roy Williams has all 5 starters in during the last 2 minutes of a game he is winning by 17. Take the points.

Dogs:

Indiana State +8.5 vs Southern Illinois: This is a home team getting almost 10 points. They are playing the first place team in league and the fans will be going crazy. It is Senior night, and this is the biggest game of the year of ISU. SIU is coming off a big win against Butler and will have a little hangover.

St. Johns +12.5 vs Louisville: Louisville is playing great, but they are still Louisville. They are cocky enough to believe they can sleep walk through this game. St. Johns has some athletes who attack the rim, and they need one more win to qualify for the Big East Tourney. I see a close game here.

Two more for a teams that have been good to me:

Tennessee-5 vs Alabama: I don't like Bruce Pearl, but he keeps covering for me. He knows how to win at home, and his players pick up the pace in games like these. Alabama has dominated the series with Tennessee, but this game is more important to the Volunteers.

Texas A&M -4.5 vs Oklahoma State: This is a great Aggie team that will execute for 40 minutes to beat a sinking OSU team. I hope we don't have to watch Eddie Sutton in the stands during the game, he never looked good, and now looks worse by the minute.

Out,

B. Anthony
(59-44-1 to Date)

Super Tuesday!

ESPN will have these monikers for the rest of the year, so let's continue to borrow them. B. Anthony is dedicated to bringing knowledge and winners to the Truth! That said, we will search high and low for the best information. One thing for sure, the good teams are starting to separate, and all the other teams are staying close. This means, many dogs will cover, and only a few will dominate and cover. We will find some of both.

My favorite players who will make a difference come tournament time.

K. Durant- Simply a force. He can and will put up 30+ as long as his team is in the tournament. And he will accidentally pull down 15 boards.

Corey Brewer- Silent Killer for this Florida team. His ability to slash will make the difference.

Greg Oden- He is not at his best yet, but will dominate the paint, and any team that cannot score close to the basket, does not win. Buckeyes will advance a long way because he does not allow easy buckets.

Alando Tucker- Just a horse. Does it all, doesn't talk smack, and will just give you whatever you need.

Aaron Afflalo & Darren Collison: Great clutch shooter in Afflalo, he will make the big shot, and Collison will find him, penetrate, or steal the ball. He is just a great leader who does what it takes.

Watch for all the players to win games down the stretch, and help cover some shrinking spreads!

The lines are looking tough, but I have put in some significant research to get the following games.

Texas Tech +6.5 vs Texas- This is just a lot of points, and Bob Knight was quoted this week regarding how much he hates the one year and done player. It makes good sense. Durant is now in his second semester and he cannot be ruled ineligible no matter what he does. My guess is that he eats, sleeps, and works out! And that is it. He is a pro, getting ready for the rest of his life. Why would he be going to class? His highest marginal utility is taking care of his body. Knight has a point, and he likely has a defense to slow down this sensation. Take the points.

Northern Iowa +8 vs Bradley- Bradley is improving, and showed that in the bracket buster this weekend. NIU has slipped and got waxed in the second half at Nevada. However, I am a big believer that league games are more competitive than that. This NIU team is a well coached, well established program. I am going to stick with them for one more game to compete, and I am sticking with my guns, that the Dogs are the play.

LSU +7.5 vs Kentucky- Two teams headed in the wrong direction. Neither one of them really knows how to win this year. People are writing off LSU, I am writing them both off. Big Baby will have a good performance and carry his team in a battle to the end. (Note of Caution, Big Baby is likely not playing. This line will move up to 8 or 9, so I will still favor LSU on the fact that they will play hard for their fallen leader)

UNLV -2.5 vs Air Force- This is an important battle out West, and I am going to take one home favorite! The Rebels will keep the Thomas &Mack center rocking after the debacle of an All-Star weekend!

Upon further review, I have to add the new # 1 team in the country.

Wisonsin -1.5 vs Michigan State- This is a trendous battle. But this team has done everything to earn a #1 ranking, they won't piss it away to Izzo. MSU does not have the athletes they usually have, and Drew Nietzel cannot win this game on his own. Wisconsin makes their FT's and holds them off down the stretch. 77-71.

It is a regular occurence that the new #1 will lose their ranking, I don't see that as the case tonight!

Out,

B. Anthony
(56-42-1 to date)

Four score and seven years ago

Today, on this President’s day holiday, Money wants to take the time to honor our fathers who provided the structure of this great nation. While giving thanks, I would also like to thank Jim Naismith, the “inventor” basketball. Without Jimbo, Abraham, and our corrupt bookies in the Cayman Islands, we would not have this wonderful time period we are about to embark on.

This is the time of year that Money tunes out his family and thinks only of spreads, brackets and conference tournaments. Although I have to admit, that I do find my mind wandering a bit and thinking about catchers and pitching reporting for spring training too.

SETON HALL +9 vs. Pitt
The Panthers may be without Aaron Gray and will surely be looking past this inferior Big East opponent. Alternatively this is just the type of game/opponent that Seton Hall will get up for and fight against.

KANSAS -5 @ Kansas State
How you seen how ridiculously dominating the Jayhawks have been? Home. On the road. It does not matter for these guys. They destroy anyone in their tracks.

Get Back On the Horse

Yesterday was a perfect example of what the tournament has
in store for us. The Missouri Valley Conference showed how
strong they are. Bradley and Southern Illinois got big wins.
This does also validate the win on Friday by Winthrop. They
will play in the 2nd round this year.

Stanford is ugly, but effective, and someone stick a fork in
Ernie Kent. Early in the year, his job was at stake, after 18-2,
he was safe. Well they are 2-6 in the last few weeks, and they
need a coach who is established. This is Nike University, they
should be a top ten program, period!

On to the winners. B. Anthony is dedicated to taking a majority
of dogs for the rest of the year.

G.Tech +7.5 vs Duke. Points in a rivalry battle. I am not intimated
by Cameron Indoor Arena

NC. State +5.5 vs Virginia Tech. ACC battle, take the points.


Ohio State -11.5 vs Minnesota. They have a chance to be # 1 on Monday.
Let's see if Oden can dominate the paint and get a blowout win.


B. Anthony
(54-41-1 to date)