Too much to expect this Louisville team to beat a 4.5 point spread up 7 with 17 seconds left. Not only did they blow the spread, they just about blew the game.
Completing my race back to mediocrity. 1-3 so far today for -1150.
I stand at +90 on the year now.
Wow, props to NYBri on a fantastic day!
This is about the highest praise I can give out: I actually think you're sharp when it comes to these ACC-only contests, NYBri. The results don't lie. You've won two years in a row and are now in 1st place this year.
8-2-1 today...but a little low on my wagers. Pitt's last miss cost me another 500....
I went 4 - 1 for 1,950 yesterday. Louisville not covering was my one loss.
I am not a degenerate gambler so the nuances of "beating the spread" or a "bad beat" are foreign to me...
However, I have an observation. If a team does or does not "beat the spread" we seem to "blame the team". Perhaps the experts who set the spread don't have a clue what they are doing...
Just trying to understand some comments based on last nights game.
Duke wins by 16 and the spread is 17. The "team" some how underachieved by not winning by 18. From a team perspective they are just supposed to win, so a 16 , 17 or 18 point win does not matter to the team but does in the gambling world.
First of all, this is just fun. If you lose sight of that, you've totally misunderstood the degenerates thread. That term is meant sarcastically, BTW. Thus, and secondly, a lot of the commentary is self deprecating or sarcastic as well. Third, "frustration" at a team for blowing a free throw or easy basket or what have you that flips the winner/loser of the bet is also done tongue in cheek.
If you can't accept those explanations, then you haven't yet understood the comments.
Agree that whether we win by 16 or 18 shouldn't determine how well a team played. However, if we only beat NCST by 2 at home I will feel a lot differently about the win than if we beat UVA by 2 at home. And I'm sure the team would as well.
To me the Vegas spreads and the KenPom/T-Rank-like predictive models from which they are built set a rough baseline for a "good" performance on a given night. Worrying about whether we beat the exact number (or even really about +/- 4 because of randomness) doesn't really matter to me.
Coach K on Kyle Singler - "What position does he play? ... He plays winner."
"Duke is never the underdog" - Quinn Cook