Cleveland State Wins - I Lose The Bet

(Cleveland State coach Gary Waters willed his team to victory tonight)

I don't want to talk about this. Cleveland State came up with a HUGE upset on Tuesday night, defeating a strong Butler team in the Horizon championship game by a score of 57-54. Unfortunately this means Phil wins the First Official March Madness bet. He has won 5 of my (us) dollars. The all-time series with this particular bet is now tied 1-1. Sometimes bets can be won or lost by sheer luck. In this instance, Phil was downright lucky with regard to his luck. If these two teams play 20 games...Butler wins 19 of those contests. I just got unlucky. Props go to coach Gary Waters and his Cleveland State team. They will be going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1986. It takes a lot to defeat the mighty Butler Bulldogs. Phil...congrats...you (somehow) won this time. I look forward to making this bet for years to come. You must report the $5 on your taxes by the way.

P.S.

I guarantee I win this bet next year.

0201

Conference Tournaments Starting March 3rd

The first three Conference Tournaments get underway tonight as things kick-off in the Horizon League, Big South, and Ohio Valley. Again, I'm printing out brackets for all Conference Tournaments and making my picks. For those of you scoring at home (or even if you're alone) that's 30 conference tournaments to keep track of, 30 brackets to fill out, 30 automatic bids to the Big Dance. (The Ivy League has no Conference Tournament. Cornell is in line to make the field of 65, thanks to a regular season championship.) The Cinderella stories don't start in the NCAA Tournament, they start in these little, under-publicized Conference Tournaments. The first of which, begin tonight. My predicted champions are in bold.

• Horizon League - Butler - Simply look back to my first official March Madness bet and you'll know who I'm taking here. Butler is not as dominant as they were last season, but they're still the clear-cut favorite to win this league. They have a league best RPI of 19. The next closest team is UW Green Bay at 69. I am a little worried because although Cleveland State got swept by Butler during the regular season, they lost both games by a mere two points. However...I'm still quite confident in this pick. I love the structure of this Conference Tournament. The #1 and #2 seeds get byes until the semi-finals...meaning those teams need only win two games to clinch a bid to the NCAA Tournament. This rewards regular season play and regular season dominance. Nicely done Horizon League. Notable Seeds: #1 Butler, #2 UW Green Bay, #3 Cleveland State, #4 Wright State, #5 UW Milwaukee, #9 Valparaiso

• Big South - Radford - Of note in this conference: 7-foot-8 center Kenny George put UNC Asheville on the map last season, but will probably not play college basketball again as he had part of his right foot amputated last fall due to a staph infection. Winthrop is probably the most recognizable school in this conference having made the NCAA Tournament each of the past two years and upsetting Notre Dame two years ago. Liberty is powered by the world-famous (thanks to this blog) Seth Curry, who led the nation in freshman scoring. The Flames and Mr. Curry would have a chance to win this conference tourney if they could avoid VMI, problem is...that second round match-up is all but guaranteed. VMI and Radford are the best teams and both can score a ton of points. Radford plays slightly better defense and will host the games throughout. Notable Seeds: #1 Radford, #2 VMI, #3 Liberty, #4 UNC Asheville, #5 Winthrop

• Ohio Valley - Murray State - Call this one a hunch...or a very uneducated guess. Murry State has won 10 of their past 12. They're hot. I didn't feel like choosing all of the #1 seeds on the first day of Conference Tournament predictions. I also didn't want to chose #2 Austin Peay, who won this conference tournament last season. Next in line was the Murray State Racers sitting there at the #3 seed. They also crushed #1 seed UT Martin 74-59 just over a week ago. Seems like a decent pick to me. And just to add some Dave Barry humor...none of these teams actually reside in the state of Ohio. Notable seeds: #1 UT Martin, #2 Austin Peay, #3 Murray State, #4 Morehead State, #7 Eastern Illinois

3 down...27 to go.

0201

First Official March Madness Bet

Sometimes in life, nothing feels better than the familiar. So it is with my first official March Madness bet of the season. Phil and I have a mild obsession with the Horizon League...he can't stop backing Gary Waters' Cleveland State Vikings...and I can't stop insisting that front-runner Butler is second to none in the Conference. The bet between Phil and I is as follows:

The Stakes: 5 dollars

The Goal: Choose the Horizon League Champion

The Picks:

• Me - Butler Bulldogs or UW Milwaukee Panthers
• Phil - Cleveland St. Vikings, UW Green Bay Phoenix, or Detroit Titans

This is basically last year's bet, with a few of the throw-in teams being different. The principles are still Butler and Cleveland St. Should a team not listed win the Horizon League...nobody wins the money. To entice Phil into the same bet this year, I offered him three teams (as opposed to the two from last year) and my number of teams would remain the same. Then Phil had the audacity to chose #10 seed Detroit as his third team. Detroit is playing Cleveland State tonight. Either way...a brilliant black coach is advancing in the tournament. Either way...Phil is losing one of his teams. It's good to be making bets again. It's GREAT to be making bets that are essentially guarantees. Go Butler.