Betting madness started early, ended late in NCAA Tournament
Most of these stories will sound like lies. And the best one begins with R.J. Hunter, son of the coach, sinking a 28-foot jumper to cap an improbable comeback win for Georgia State.
With less than three minutes to go, the Panthers trailed by 12. Baylor never scored again. Hunter’s 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds remaining beat the Bears 57-56 in an absolute thriller.
That was one of five Thursday games decided by one point. Another was decided by three in overtime. Underdogs covered the first six games of the day. Three Big 12 Conference teams were knocked out by midafternoon, including Iowa State as a 14½-point favorite.
North Carolina and Notre Dame barely survived and advanced.
“It does seem like over-the-top madness,” MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood said. “But we probably say that every year.”
There is some truth to that. I recall writing a similar column on the first day of the NCAA Tournament a year ago. But this opening day seemed to top them all.
It was a college basketball circus with everything. Bettors were juggling their emotions and walking a tightrope. Somewhere, there probably was a bearded lady putting in a three-team parlay. If so, hopefully she was playing ’dogs early in the morning.
In a game that tipped at 9:15 a.m., Northeastern, a 12-point underdog, made the third-seeded Fighting Irish sweat out the final seconds of a 69-65 win.
“Notre Dame was really the game,” Rood said. “That kick-started the day and sent them back to the windows.”
Shortly after that one ended, so did the season for the third-seeded Cyclones, a team loaded with veterans. Alabama-Birmingham, the youngest team in the tournament, wiped out a late four-point deficit to stun Iowa State 60-59. It’s probably depressing enough to live in Ames, so imagine going back there after losing as a double-digit favorite.
Rick Barnes might not be welcomed back to Austin. The Texas coach soon could be the former Texas coach. The Longhorns were seeded 11th and favored by 2½ over sixth-seeded Butler. Kellen Dunham, a shooter straight out of the movie “Hoosiers,” hit a late 3 and scored 20 points as the Bulldogs hooked the Longhorns 56-48.
Arizona, a 24-point favorite, appeared ready to run away from Texas Southern. But the point spread is a great equalizer, and the ’dog covered in the Wildcats’ 93-72 win.
That made it nine straight for the underdogs, after all four covered in the Tuesday and Wednesday games in Dayton, Ohio. The streak reached 10 when UCLA upset Southern Methodist 60-59 in a bizarre finish.
The Bruins, 4-point ’dogs, faced a nine-point deficit after the Mustangs ripped off a 19-0 run. But Bryce Alford, another coach’s son, hit four 3s in the final four minutes. He connected on 9 of 11 in the game, and the last one never touched the rim.
Alford’s desperation shot with 13 seconds left was ruled goaltending when SMU’s Yanick Moreira jumped to grab the ball near the rim. It was the correct call, yet a heartbreaking way to lose a game.
“I have never, ever seen that before,” Jimmy Vaccaro, an oddsmaker since the 1970s, said as he walked through a jam-packed South Point sports book. “Anything can happen. That’s what makes this so exciting.”
UCLA, ripped by critics as a team not worthy of the 68-team field, could not celebrate the ending until the Mustangs’ Nic Moore missed a 3-point try, got a second chance, then missed an 18-foot jumper at the buzzer.
Not every game was a cliffhanger. Xavier blew out Mississippi 76-57, and Villanova shot down Lafayette by 41. Kentucky, favored by 35, failed to cover in a mundane 23-point win.
There were two overtime games. The first was rather routine, as Ohio State, a 3½-point favorite, outlasted Virginia Commonwealth 75-72 behind 28 points from star freshman D’Angelo Russell.
In the next one, Purdue, which was bet from a 2-point favorite to a 2-point ’dog, blew a seven-point lead with 48 seconds remaining in regulation and fell to Cincinnati 66-65 in 45 minutes. Troy Caupain’s layup circled in the rim and dropped in at the buzzer as the Bearcats forced overtime, and the Boilermakers’ Vince Edwards missed a potential winning 3 as time expired.
Wofford, a 7½-point ’dog, missed two open 3s in the final seconds of a 56-53 loss to Arkansas. Utah, favored by 6½ to 7, pulled away in the final minute to beat Stephen F. Austin 57-50.
North Carolina State, a 2-point favorite that trailed by 16 in the second half, shocked Louisiana State 66-65 when BeeJay Anya threw in a left-handed hook in the last second. No lie.
It was after 10 p.m. when Georgetown beat Eastern Washington, a popular 8-point ’dog, by 10 and covered on a classless last-second breakaway dunk that capped a big winning day for the books.
“With two minutes to go, everything is on the number,” Vaccaro said. “It’s hard to fathom, but it’s exciting. These endings, you can’t script it. It’s a magnificent four days.”
Today brings 16 more games, but it will be impossible to top the madness witnessed Thursday.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports betting columnist Matt Youmans can be reached at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. He co-hosts “The Las Vegas Sportsline” weekdays at 2 p.m. on ESPN Radio (1100 AM). Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.