March Madness: Vegas Style

What’s better than March Madness? Only March Madness in Las Vegas where every game matters, no matter the time or the score. The 2013 NCAA Tournament kicked off bright and early Thursday morning at the Cosmopolitan auditorium. With seating at a premium, men of all ages (and a few women) waited outside the gate looking forward to rushing in as though they were at a real live sporting event. In year two of the staggered start times, the initial fury of watching four games at once to start the day has disappeared, but that didn’t mean the viewing was any less intense. 

At 9:15am PST, the first jump ball of the tournament was tossed (the real tournament, not the play-in games) and action began in Auburn Hills, Michigan. While both Michigan State and Valparaiso started off seeing which team could miss the most jumpers, those that bet the under were secretly smiling. A 35-18 halftime lead for Michigan State began a long string of 1^st half under plays on the day. Despite the monotonous first half, big boy Derrick Nix decided to come out and dominate the second half while helping the Green and White build an insurmountable 49-22 lead. With a 27 point lead in the 2^nd half, most Michigan State fans breathed a sigh of relief. However, if you were a fan of Michigan State winning by 10 points or more, the game still had your undivided attention. Soon enough the lead was cut under 20 and Ben Boggs (who?) came alive for the Crusaders dropping three pointers and getting to the foul line at will. Boggs scored 12 points in the last three minutes and cut the Spartan lead to 11 points with eight seconds left with a dunk. The Boggs dunk got everyone in the auditorium off their feet with loud chants of “FOUL, FOUL” and “DON’T FOUL, DON’T FOUL” as the clock wound down. Luckily for Spartan fans Bryce Drew did not motion for additional fouling and a potential backdoor cover scenario by the Crusaders was avoided. 

As this game ended, the Butler / Bucknell game was crawling toward a 21-14 halftime score. Bettors that took the first half under were cashing their tickets while bettors who took the under 122.5 for the game were cashing their tickets mentally. Unfortunately for those people, a scoring spree was ready to ensue. Despite both teams trading jump shots, it was still a 49-42 game at the final TV timeout (3 minutes and 91 total points). Bucknell had no intention of waving the white flag though and after Bryson Johnson hit a three pointer with 2:15 to go, the foul fest was on. Soon enough 24 points were scored by both teams and Butler’s Kameron Woods stood at the line for two shots and the 122.5 total hanging in the balance. While bettors frantically tried to add up the two point totals, Woods calmly drilled both shots to give Butler an eight point win and ruined the “under” bets that were mentally cashed only an hour before. The rest of Day 1 continued on with Southern threatening to become the first 16 seed to knock off a one seed and Matthew Dellavedova trying to cap a furious and improbable comeback. Gonzaga bettors quickly realized they had no shot of covering a 22 point spread and quickly turned into Southern fans, while Memphis fans and bettors tried to hold on for dear life as their first round win and -1.5 cover was in dire straits. Once again with the crowd on their feet, Southern found it too difficult to overcome a Pangos three and Dellavedova could not pull any magic from his hat. The rest of Day 1 featured a Marquette buzzer beater, HAVOC, and a bunch of angry customers who could not bring their Secret Pizza purchases into the auditorium. While Day 1 was exhilarating, it was Day 2 that brought out the surprises. 

Duke kicked off Day 2 and avoided losing to a 15 seed for the second consecutive year, but not before letting Albany cover the 18 point spread. Meanwhile, a 5-12 upset was taking place in Kansas City. All week the talking heads on ESPN and twitter said that poor Ole Miss didn’t have a shot going against the disciplined and methodical Bo Ryan led Wisconsin badgers. As the spread steadily moved up from four to six in favor of Wisconsin spread, a funny thing happened, Marshall Henderson caught fire. With Henderson knocking down jumpers, the slow methodical offense of Wisconsin could not keep up with the Rebels from Mississippi. A slow tempo favorite going down at the beginning of the day was just a sign of things to come.

FGCU ML

UNC -4

Two big east teams kicked off back to back afternoon games with Georgetown going off in Philadelphia as a two seed and Villanova facing UNC as a nine seed in Kansas City. At the start of the Georgetown game, it was sophomore Brett Comer of Florida Gulf Coast University trying to do what his high school backcourt mate, Austin Rivers never could….win a tournament game. Comer opened the game with a jumper and an assist as the Eagles looked to do their best Davidson / Ohio / VCU impression. While FGCU entered the half up two, Villanova was down 20 points to the hot shooting Tar Heels. At the same time, FGCU began their massive 2^nd half run to blow things open it was Villanova who came all the way back from 20 points to take a 2^nd half lead and put a scare into Tar Heel fans and bettors simultaneously. While FGCU continued their run of three’s and alley-oop dunks it was UNC who turned the tables on Villanova and rode their own three-point shooting to a win. FGCU ruined brackets while UNC held on to cover the four point spread for a fantastic Vegas afternoon.

The games continued on throughout the night and despite several blowouts fans still remained until the last game’s final buzzer which also turned out to be the final win for Tubby Smith in his Minnesota career. With two days in the books, there were only 12 hours left until a rush on seating was made for Day 3.  March Madness in Las Vegas. It can’t get much better than that.