Weekend Sports Gambler: NIT Set For Championship at Orleans Arena Next Week
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By Dan Behringer, LVSportsBiz.com Sports Betting Writer
The NIT Championship is coming! The NIT Championship is coming!
Yes, semifinals and finals of the National Invitational Tournament will be played at the Orleans Arena next Tuesday and Thursday.
After quarterfinal games this week, we know which teams will be vying for the title. The only thing we don’t know — since the games are still a week away — are the betting lines. But we can speculate and get pretty close.
In one semifinal game, No. 2 North Texas will play No. 2 Wisconsin. In the second game, unseeded upstart Utah Valley will square off vs. No. 4 UAB. Winners meet for the NIT trophy two days later.
In the first game we’ll make Wisconsin -3 point favorite vs. lesser-known North Texas. Coming from the Big 10, the Badgers have more of a national rep than the Mean Green and could have been playing in the NCAA Men’s Tournament except for a downturn at the end of the season. Considering the slow-paced styles of the two teams, we’ll set the total at 129.5. We’ll make No. 4 seed UAB a -3.5 point favorite vs. Utah Valley. This game will likely be faster-paced so our early and completely unofficial total is 140.5.
“Just really proud of this group,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after his team upset Oregon, 61-58, to earn a trip to Las Vegas. “It’s not been perfect. It’s not been pretty at times, but one thing that can never be denied is their perseverance and their unwillingness to quit.”
But regardless of whom eventually takes down the NIT trophy this year, there should be a sea of Badgers, Mean Green, Wolverines and Blazers colors packing the 9,500-seat Orleans Arena for two days next week.
Elsewhere:
— More basketball: The NCAA Men’s Tournament was pared by four teams on Thursday as basketball’s Big Dance trims its field of 68. Four more games on Friday will complete the field for the Elite Eight.
As of early Friday, futures odds at Station Casinos still had overall No. 1 seed Alabama favored at +280. Houston is right behind at +325, followed by UConn at +400. No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic is +1500 after upsetting Tennessee, 62-55, on Thursday.
“It’s awesome for our university, our athletic department and our community. We are extremely proud to represent them,” Owls coach Dusty May told reporters. “These guys have put a lot of work, elbow grease into building the program. For it to be at this point, it’s very rewarding, but we’ll focus on all that later after the season.”
No. 15 seed Princeton, which is +10 vs. Creighton later Friday, is +10000.
— Knights stretch drive: The Vegas Golden Knights, in the stretch drive of their NHL season, are next at the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. The VGK are coming off a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Thursday that paid bettors willing to put their money on the Golden Knights in the +120 range.
Goalie Logan Thompson made 37 saves in the win but left with six minutes remaining because of an injury.
“Right now, obviously concerned about Logan,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously, Logan missing that much time, we’ll have to look closely at that one.”
A very early line from OddsShark has the Golden Knights at +118. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
The game vs. Edmonton on Saturday is the first of 10 games before their season finale on April 13 at the Seattle Kraken.
— Saturday night boxing: The betting line hasn’t budged much for Saturday’s super middle weight showdown at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
David Benavidez is the -360 favorite, while Caleb Plant is the +280 underdog, The Sporting News reported. Station Casinos has Benavidez at -380 with Plant at +315.
If you like the fight ending in a draw, you can find +1400.
Benavides is 26-0 with 23 KOs. Plant is 22-1 with 13 KOs.
The Sporting News called Saturday’s fight “a grudge match with title implications” with the winner having a shot to take on super middleweight king Canelo Alvarez.
— Trends and statistics: Strange things happened during the week with NCAA, NIT and CBI basketball games all going. On Monday, for example, there were four CBI games — but the only favorite among the four to cover was Charlotte, who covered -5 in a 76-65 win over Milwaukee, and two of the four underdogs won outright.
In the NIT quarterfinals on Tuesday, two underdogs, North Texas and Wisconsin, won outright. On Wednesday, two favorites, UAB and Utah Valley, both covered.
So if you’re looking for a pattern, good luck.
