Da Popa

Thu 2/28 Who will be the next Pope? (all-in)
03:00 AM 1051 Marc Ouellet +485
1052 Peter Turkson +304
1053 Francis Arinze +1005
1054 Angelo Scola +480
1055 Leonardo Sandri +1241
1056 Gianfranco Ravasi +1634
1057 Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga +1634
1058 Angelo Bagnasco +1417
1059 Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran +1789
1060 Tarcisio Bertone +394

Northern Trust Open

I have entered a golf pick em league where each week the goal is to pick someone who is going to finish super high up on the leader board.  Apparently leader board is two words.  This week I am going with a rather bland, pedestrian pick of Bill Haas who has done very well here in recent years including winning it last year.  Side action bets for 5 units

Charl Schwartzel at roughly 20:1

Sergio Garcia at roughly 19:1

Let’s watch!

NFL Plays

Saints ML +112
Jax Jags +3.5 -106
Bills +3 -115
Browns ML +116

Just looked at those last 3 picks.  Jags, Bills, Browns ML.  That is Murderer’s Row, ’27 Yankees type stuff.  Was my keyboard laughing at me while I was typing that?  Likely more lunacy to follow.

NCAA Picks

Had a solid day yesterday.  Pretty sure I went 4-1 which should bring things back around .500 for the season.  Let’s keep the mo’ going.

Clemson (-9.5) @ Furman *

Manhattan (+8) @ Harvard

Pacific @ Fresno St (-4.5)

South Dakota St @ Hofstra (+13)

Southern @ Wyoming (-19)

UNC-Wilmington (+19.5) @ Ohio

* I did about 10 seconds of research and it seems the rule of thumb for home court advantage in college bball is roughly 4 points.  Something to keep in mind moving forward.

 

NCAA Picks

Five picks today, and only a slight majority of them are underdogs.  I will get a hang of this…

Baylor @ Boston College (+12.5)

Dayton @ Colorado (-2.5)

N Colorado @ Cal Poly (-2.5)

NC State @ Penn St (+12)

Wichita St @ W Carolina (+17)

NCAA Picks

Pretty sure I went 1-2 after I wiped the W Virginia silliness off.  Let’s see what underdogs I am infatuated with on the 24 hour day…

Florida Atlantic (+6) @ Mississippi St

Georgia St (+13) @ BYU

Texas Southern (+16) @ Northwestern

Of the bunch I really like the Florida Atlantic pick over Miss St.  FL Atl may very well win the game.  See what happens.

 

 

 

NCAA Picks

4 Plays tonight on the eve of the 24 hour marathon session.  Again, mostly dogs.

Fordham (+21.5) @ Pittsburgh

UPenn @ Delaware (-8)

Troy (+16) @ Texas A&M

West Virginia (+10.5) @ Gonzaga  (SEE UPDATE…)

Of the 4 I really like the first 2, and especially the Delaware play.  With that said I will go 0-2 on those, push on the Troy bet, and cover W Virginia, the one I like the least.  God Bless America.

UPDATE

I was strolling around today and I realized I had screwed up my pick on W Virginia.  The W Virginia pick is null and void.  This only further guarantees not only W Virginia covering but now they may possibly win the game outright.  WV, you are welcome.

NCAA Picks

So primarily because it is a football Sunday I forgot to post my NCAA picks.  I am going to post what I had primarily so that I have a written record of it.

Florida International (+14) @ Boston College

Manhattan (+17) @ Louisville

Milwaukee @ South Carolina (-5)

Oakland @ LA Lafayette (+4)

Tennessee-Martin (+27) @ Cincinnati

UC-Riverside (+10.5) @ Illinois-Chicago

Again, just looking at my picks I clearly am not giving dogs their due, at least in relation to Vegas.  And the survey says…4-1-1.  4-7 record the first 2 days puts me at 8-8-1.

 

NCAA Picks

Rankings, momentum, recruiting classes, new coaches.  These are all super things that people can look to to try to gauge the relative strengths of a team as a new season starts.  But is there honestly a better determinant in figuring out just where a team lies in the pecking order, than by asking a team one simple question?

Coach : Well, we are really fired up about our team this year.  We have some strong guys coming back from last year, combined with a new crop that we are just all kinds of excited about.  We are confident in our abilities heading into this year.

Reporter : That’s great, coach.  Now, I’m sorry, I just don’t have the paperwork in front of me.  Do you open at home, or on the road this year?

That’s what it really boils down to.  Of the 18 games pinnacle has lines up for today so far, exactly 3 of the teams are road favorites.  This is a little misleading since it’s college bball there are mini tourneys going on where no one is technically home, but you get the point.

Went 4-6 yesterday on picks.  Let’s see what I like today…

Portland (+15.5) @ Ohio

I am trying a new technique with the early season so far, which obviously was decidedly mediocre last night.  But the point is that of the 18 games this is the only one that fits.  If pinnacle posts some more lines I’ll have more to play with, we’ll see.

 

 

NCAA BBall

College Bball!  No matter where you live, if you follow gambling lines there are always a change of seasons.  College basketball is the truest gambling winter sport if you think about it.  Played from mid-November til around April 1.  Here’s what I have for today…

Bryant (+33.5) @ Indiana

Denver (+3.5) @ Iona

Georgia St @ Duke (-20.5)

Maryland (+11.5) @ Kentucky

Mississippi St @ Troy (+5.5)

North Dakota (+20.5) @ Kansas St

Southern Utah (+24) @ Gonzaga

Towson @ Charleston (+16)

UC Riverside (+18) @ Depaul

UC Santa Barbara @ LSU (-8)

Scrutinizing my own picks it looks like I do not have a healthy respect for college bball faves at the moment.  See how things play out.