Nurse the Hate: March Madness Part 2

As expected it was a flurry of gambling activity that looked grim on Thursday, and improved significantly by Sat night. Like most of you, I sure enjoyed that meaningless bucket at the buzzer that took the Texas A&M/BYU game over and took jack out of my pocket. Then, my Internet went down for no particular reason, and I was flying blind on Sat. However, being as heavy as I was on Marquette and Xavier, everything was just peachy. So what about tomorrow?

Let's take a flier on Tennessee on the money line. While everyone you know around the office water cooler will be talking shit about how good Louisville is, I think they're overrated. (Plus those Rubes don't know shit. I don't either, but it may seem like I do if I say it with enough conviction.) Louisville loves to tank when they are big favorites, and CBS can show Rick Pitino looking dour at the end of the game. On top of that, Tennessee is 4-1 vs the Top 25 this year and is 8-1 as an underdog. These guys get fired up when they are "disrespected", and this is one of those games. Let's go Vols.

I'm on West Virginia -1. These guys are experienced, with the last 4 years going Sweet 16, Elite 8, NIT Champs, Sweet 16. Here's the big factor...Xavier hasn't played anybody that plays "D" and WVU Ds up all game. Xavier's record vs. teams with a better D than WVU is 5-4 SU, and 4-5 ATS. Xavier is 1-9 when they've been held under 67 points, and WVU has done that 28 of 36 games. That's enough for me. I'm on West Virginia.

Quick Note: Great CDs I picked up lately...The 2 CD Dead Moon "best of" on Sub Pop is great. You have to get past the often sketchy production and Fred Cole vocal, but this is pure rock and roll. These are really nasty garage rock songs one right after another. I would also pick up an early Hives record called Barely Legal. Tons of energy without some of their annoying tendencies. It ain't easy to find good rock, but trust me on these...