Five Teamer Sports Betting Winner

We have a winner in our sports betting five teamer college basketball challenge. Congrats to Rory O'Brien.

Rory's slate had a bit of a late season run, though he was never out of it, always just in hailing distance. Luckily for him the Big Pool winner was no other than Redbone himself, Eric Johnson, whose second slate took down the main prize. He did not use that slate in our pool.

Let's take a look at the season in a distant rear-view mirror. As a Duke hater, I'm loathe to pick them, however, at the beginning of the season I thought they were a legitimate national title contender. I thought KU would win but I thought Duke had the horses to get there. They had three major talents, and sometimes major college talents (Reddick, Hansbrough, Laettner, Ferry, Never Nervous Pervis Ellison) is all it takes, though it's easier with NBA guys.

Singler, Scheyer, and Smith don't look like go to NBA guys though they all could get floor time in the big league. However, they are great college players. The entire team was also veteran and dangerous. I opted not to pick them because they were pricey, Duke always is, however, that didn't stop me from taking Kansas and it turns out it shouldn't have stopped me from Duke.

In the past I've veered away from Mid-Major giants no matter how talented they may be because they never seem to have final four or finals potential. Butler was proof that picking them was just as wise as picking any Major. In fact, their easier conference schedule and that they beat some major programs in their loaded non-conference only solidified their strength as a pick. Congrats to the one of us that did pick them Mr. Seven Gersztoff.

Texas was one of our biggest disappointments, if Georgia Tech didn’t have just 12 wins last year, they arguably would be too. They have a lot of talent. Good thing Georgia Tech is cheap and doesn’t want to buy out Paul Hewitt for Paul Hewitt’s sake. Nobody had a terrible, terrible year, sometimes players barely get over the 100 win threshold. Newcomer John Price can hold his head up that even though he came in last he was still 20+ games better than last year.

Will Rory have any NBA basketball
Basketball betting now that college basketball is in our distant mirror? That is the question my friends.

Though transitioning from March Madness to the NBA playoffs is a bit like divorcing Angelina Jolie and marrying Roseanne Bahr. Where is the mystic, the madness, the majesty, the passion, the pageantry, and the poignancy. A theme song to end the night “One Shining Moment,” brings some men to tears. The only thing that brings a fan to tears about the NBA is when they take a ball to the nose from an angry Ron Artest.

So, who does Rory like the Cavs, the Lakers, the Mavs, or the Bulls? Who really cares. Not about Rory’s expertise but about the subject matter. Isn’t the next best thing in sports going to be the World Cup tournament. Surely we’ll do a sports pool focusing on the World Cup and not the NBA playoffs. Besides paint drying, the NHL ice freezing, and just short of Astro Turf growing the NBA playoffs is entertaining.

Also, will this blog be used by our wager makers in the future? I've certainly taken it over with the five teamer madness but I trust the Lock of the Weekers will be back. Lord knows it’s fun to watch somebody on a Schneide and best against them.

5 Teamer Hoops Pool

The 5 Teamer isn't exactly sports betting but it's not far off. This blog is essentially devoted to sports betting so this is as good as place as any to put the updates. So here you go.

Anyway, ya'll know the rules pick 5 teams whose win total from last year can't exceed 100. The slate with the most wins this year wins. I haven't done my customary analysis and prognostications but now they conference play is almost here I feel it's a good time.

Here's the Leaderboard:

Playas W L Rank
Andrew Bird 64 4 2
Bill Phillips 61 6 6
Chris Brancati 64 2 2
David Bourg 64 4 2
Eric Johnson 65 5 1
Geoff Perry 55 13 10
Geoff Roswick 63 8 5
John Price 56 14 8
Steve Gersztoff 56 12 8
Rory O'Brien 61 5 6

Number 1 you'll see is Eric Johnson he's probably made the best sports bets of anybody. His slate is:

Eric Johnson LY W L
Kansas 27 13 0
Kentucky 22 15 0
Texas 23 14 0
Georgia Tech 12 11 3
Ole Miss 16 12 2
100 65 5

Kansas was picked by every single player in the pool which was the safe bet. Therefore this years 5 teamer works like a 4 teamer. Kentucky was picked by all but Steve Gersztoff (everybody is betting on the favorites). Their 15-0 record and a slightly weak SEC East probably has Steve wondering if he could do it over again. Texas was interesting as it was picked by 6 out of 10 players. Three players had the exact same slate (Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, Georgetown and Georgia Tech) and they all got it right by selecting Texas.

I would be stunned if anybody without Texas wins this pool. West Virginia was the same price (23 wins) and two players myself, and Rory took the 'eers instead of the longhorns. I'm embarrassed to say I thought Damion James left last year and didn't want to rely on so young a team that would have some freshmen as its best players. With all the hype Wall is getting at Kentucky there are a couple of Longhorns that are getting overlooked and are truly impact freshmen.

Texas will win a lot of games and lose few. They also play in the big 12 which is arguably a much easier road to hoe than the big east this year. Us Mountaineer "fans" better hope for a truly magical conference season but I suspect it won't happen.

Back to Eric Johnson's slate his fourth team is Georgia Tech which six players own. I view GA Tech as a suspect pick and selected Charlotte instead. Well, GA Tech is supect but Charlotte is probably more suspect. The A10 is loaded this year with 4 or 5 teams competing for at large spots and while Charlotte is good they are probably the least of the best. In the ACC, Georgia Tech is probably the third or fourth best team. Despite a loss to in-state rival, Georgia Tech will have a better chance to win more games than Charlotte.

His fifth team was Ole Miss, which I was the only other player to pick. I loved this pick in the preseason. I still like it. Miss St is good but I think teams like Ole Miss improved moreso than Miss St and they can win the SEC West with Bama, Auburn, LSU, and Arkansas all relatively down. Georgetown like Ole Miss also had 16 wins and many probably considered one or the other. And I'm not sure here if Eric made the right decision. The Big East is loaded but Georgetown is really firing on all cylinders. Sure they dropped one at home to ODU but that's a good mid-major team (that beat them at Georgetown in their recent final four year too--I think).

There are several rules I look to win doing this pool and one of them is to have as few of my teams play each other. Therefore I don't like conference mates. Eric's Ole Miss team definitely plays Kentucky once this year and might play them twice. As it's a split conference it's not as egregious a strategy flaw but it's still a mistake. Upside he'll get a least one win when they play, downside is he loses an opportunity for two wins.

The triumvirate is 2nd with the same slate as Eric (except for Georgetown over Ole Miss). Thus, I make them the favorites to win our pool. Odd, because the slate that jumped out of the magazine when I set about to do this was the five they chose. I wanted to be a little different but variation for variation's sake was a bad strategy. The best 5 is probably the most obvious.

Geoff Roswick is just behind with the same foursome but instead of Ole Miss or Georgetown he went with Denver. Denver got beaten up a little bit in noncon but if they can pull a Gonzaga on their conference, Roswick might be able to make up the difference. They'll hurt him in March but but if he can somehow get four games up on Gtown or Ole Miss he could win it (he's down two so that's at minimum a six game swing that'll he'll need to win so could be tough).