The Kids Are(‘nt) Alright
Monday Morning, November 10, 2025
The college basketball season began and it only took three days of play for me to remember why I’ve often said:
“One day they’re going to find me on the floor, in front of the TV, dead from a heart attack. And if they match up my time of death to what was playing on TV at that time, they’ll find it was a college basketball game.”
My record sits at 5-6.
In just 11 bets I’ve already had two losses by the hook and a push.
That’s almost 30% of my games.
As in football, I enjoy the college game more than the pros. But while I love college football, I loathe college basketball.
As a sports bettor you have to have patience and tolerance. For example, I’m okay with WNBA players missing layups, free throws, and having so many shot clock violations it’s almost as if they don’t know the rule exists. It doesn’t bother me at all.
But for some reason, watching the college kids screw up and make stupid mistakes pisses me off no end — leaving me hurling Tourette’s-like streams of expletives at them. (Though they can’t hear me through the TV, it’s not for lack of effort and voice volume on my part.)
Which is why, someday, they’re going to find me, on the floor…
Tuesday Morning, November 11, 2025
I had one play last night, shared it in the PredictEm Forum: W Kent/E Kent Under 165.
With just under two minutes left in the game, they were sitting at 148 total points scored, meaning they needed 18 points for me to lose.
I know it’s college, and anything can happen with the kids, but if you give me an Over/Under of 18 points with 1:50 left on the game clock, I’m going to bet the Under every time — NBA, WNBA, and/or the kids.
With 47 seconds left they’re at 156, and it would take nine points to beat me.
W Kent was up by four points.
E Kent shoots and misses, the Hilltoppers gain possession.
They’ll dribble out most of the shot clock, and even if they score I should still win this one, right?
But… (you knew there was a “but” coming, right?)
WK’s Teagan Moore races up the floor as if he’s on a fast break. He drives to the basket and scores the layup.
On the next WK possession, Turner Buttry does the same thing, gets fouled driving to the basket, and makes both free throws (of course.)
One of the game announcers says, “Gee, you’d think they’d want to run off some of the clock in that situation.”
And I yell at my TV, “Yeah, no sh*t, Sherlock.”
Clearly, Buttry and Moore are disciples of the Burns Philosophy of Teamwork that I mentioned last week, which states:
“Teamwork will only take you so far. Then the truly evolved person makes that extra grab for personal glory.”
I got Under 165.
The game lands on 166.
My record lands on 5-7.
More than HALF of my losses are by a point or fewer.
Which is why, someday, they’re going to find me…
The overwhelming majority of my college picks will be given out in the PredictEm Forum.
There are just too many games and not enough time for me to do my handicapping work and get an article written and submitted before deadline.
Plus, I don’t know the teams, the players, and coaches well enough to flesh out a full article — there are just too many of them. For me to be effective, I need to know tendencies. To know tendencies, I need to watch games within the sport I’m trying to beat.
And as I’ve stated multiple times above,
Watching College Basketball is Detrimental to My Health!
Today’s Play
I do have a play for today’s article though.
Montana is 2-1 SU on the season, 0-1 ATS.
They’ve won two games against competition so weak the books didn’t even put a line on them. In their only game with a line, they lost by 23 points to Stanford as 12-point dogs.
The Running Rebels are 1-1 SU and ATS.
They dropped their opener to UT Martin, but followed that up with a 32-point win versus Chattanooga as -7½ favorites in their last game.
According to my stats and models, UNLV has a 75% chance to cover the spread against Montana tonight.
So I’m Running with the Rebels.
Since I happen to be in Vegas, I may ride over to the arena to catch the game live.
This way, if UNLV screws up, at least I’ll be close to medical facilities should I need help.
My Play:
UNLV -10 (the line is still at -9½ at a few houses, including some of our sponsors, but 10 is the WAN so that’s what I’ll use here.)