By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
From the Sweet Sixteen to the Elite Eight to the Final Four, we are down to the Titanic Two: No. 1 seeds Baylor and Gonzaga.
But it might have been UCLA and Baylor had not a 19-year-old Gonzaga freshman, Jalen Suggs, banked a shot from half-court off the tempered glass before the horn blared to give the Bulldogs a 93-90 heart-pounding win in overtime.
It was the Shot Heard Around the Tournament, the Shot That Launched a Thousand Tweets, the Shot That Inspired Every Sports Columnist to retool shopworn clichés that involve buzzer beaters and instant classics and revisit their Best Game Ever hypothesis.
Though it didn’t really decide much. Gonzaga’s victory bailed out the foolish few who bet them the money line, burned opportunistic bettors who played the Bruins on the money line — as high as +975 at Circa — and rescued countless office pool brackets from being unceremoniously crosscut in home and office shredders.
But by the waning minutes, it was evident UCLA was going to cover +14.5 points as well as the second half line of +8.5. And well before overtime, the total of 147.5 had gone over.
Imagine that: Drama in the game itself vs. the point spread. Doesn’t happen every day.
Which brings us to the National Championship Game between Gonzaga and Baylor at 6:20 p.m. PDT Monday. The line: Gonzaga -4.5. The total: 159.5. The chance it will be anything like UCLA vs. Gonzaga in terms of ties, lead changes, shooting percentages and buzzer-beating, jump-on-the-scorers-desk mania: +1250.
But tickets will be paid out and office pools will be decided. Expect a crowd at your favorite race and sports book. Drinks and casual opinions, as always, will be complimentary.
Elsewhere:
— The Vegas Golden Knights are streaking. But not in the way you usually think.
The Las Vegas team has burned bettors three straight times, starting with a game several days before Easter in which they laid a colossal egg against the Los Angeles Kings, losing 4-2. A 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild followed on April Fools Day. The third straight loss came Saturday when the darlings of the ice at T-Mobile Arena lost again to the Wild, 2-1.
“When you let a team hang around and don’t finish those opportunities and put them in a hole when you have that chance, they were real opportunistic in the third,” coach Peter DeBoer told reporters after the Saturday game.
Next up for the Golden Helmets is a road date with the St. Louis Blues on Monday. The puck drops about an hour before the Basketball Game That Everyone Will Probably Watch. The VGK are currently -125 with a total of 5.5.
— Major League Baseball is in full swing with games lighting up the betting board and tickets being written very day.
Opening Day itself teased gamblers’ bankrolls with the first two games won by the underdog Toronto Blue Jays (+170 vs. Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees) and the Detroit Tigers (+160 vs. Shane Bieber and the Cleveland Indians), on the strength of a Tigers home run barely visible in swirling snow. There were other payoffs for ‘dog bettors during the day including the Rockies (+195) in their 8-5 win over the Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
— In a week of tipoffs, puck drops and opening pitches, the first tee shot at the Masters golf tournament will be heard at August National Golf Club on Thursday morning.
Dustin Johnson at +900, Bryson Dechambeau at +1000, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas at +1100, and Jon Rahm at +1300 head the favorites. You can bet 24-year-old Las Vegan Colin Morikawa at around +2900.
— The Las Vegas Aviators open the season on Thursday when they host the Sacramento River Cats at the Las Vegas Ballpark. It’s the first of a six-game series against the Cats. No betting line yet for that game but expect the Aviators to be heavy favorites with a total around 14 or 15.