We are a week into the month of April but March Madness is still going strong. Yesterday was semi-final Saturday and all that remains in the battle for the National Championship on Monday night. The final four saw two fantastic matchups with some teams that we never expected to see. Auburn and Texas Tech went on some pretty epic runs to push their way into the final four. The only #1 seed remaining, Virginia came into the weekend looking to erase the nightmare of last year and make people forget about the 1st round embarrassment they suffered last year.
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The games yesterday were just as exciting as the ones leading up to them and we are finally down to two teams. Auburn did all they could to continue their magical run in what might have been the most exciting game of the entire tournament. It was a back and forth battle until about 5 minutes remaining in the second half when Virginia opened up a 10 point spread to lead 57-47. Nobody would have blamed the Tigers for packing it in at that point but instead, they went on an epic 14-0 run that put them in front 61-57 with 12 seconds left. It looked like Auburn was about to punch their ticket to the finals. That's when the drama came to an epic head and after a huge three-pointer by Virginia it would come down to free throws. With just 0.6 seconds on the clock, Auburn was all but through until Virginia junior guard Kyle Guy was fouled on his desperation 3-point attempt. This put him on the line with 3 free throws and down two points. He would drain all three to break the hearts of the Tigers and their fans and propel Virginia into Monday's Championship game.
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Texas Tech will join the Cavaliers in the Championship game after they continued their strong tournament play against the #2 Michigan St. Spartans. The first half was a back and forth defensive battle with only 44 total points being scored. The Red Raiders led by two at the half. Texas Tech was able to pull out in front and take a 12 point lead midway through the second half and the Spartans were never able to get closer than 3 again. In the end, the Texas Tech defence and perimeter shooting proved to be too much for #2 Michigan St. The Red Raiders are heading to the NCAA finals to take on #1 Virginia.
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Big Texas Tech Bet Update
The other day I posted about a bet that was made way back in November by a Savvy bettor who had a hunch about a long shot. This person put $1500 down on 200-1 odd Texas Tech to win the NCAA National Basketball Championship. This was before the season was even in full swing and with a boatload of other teams who experts were predicting to take home the big prize. The ticket pays $300,000 and it was down to only two more wins by the Red Raiders for the ticket to come through. The owner of the ticket had put the ticket up for sale on a ticket exchange site called Proswap. Proswap allows owners of futures tickets to sell the ticket to someone else. This allows them to make some profit on the ticket and put the stress of the outcome on someone else. The potential $300,000 was offered up for a mere $65,000 through the exchange site.
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As you can imagine, $65,000 would be a tough sell for anyone but there was one huge offer on the table before the games were played on Saturday. Not only was it a big offer, but it also came from a big name in the sports world. Apparently, Dez Bryant has a lot of confidence in the Red Raiders chances of winning the whole things and he put his money where his mouth was by offering a whopping $50,000 for the ticket. $50,000 to take a chance on Texas Tech winning two more games. In the end, Dez did not get the ticket and the chance at $300,000. The owner of the ticket stood firm on his price of $65,000 and kept the ticket for himself. WHAT??? There is no chance that I would have kept that ticket. I don't care that he was offered only $50,000. He was offered $50,000!!! For a ticket that he paid $1500 for and still is not guaranteed to come in. Besides the fact that I would forever be able to say that I sold my ticket to none other than Dez freaking Bryant! Now, Saturday has come and gone and the Red Raiders have made it to the title game. This guy is one more win away from a MASSIVE payday. I really hope it works out for him and that he won't be left regretting his decision. Tonight's game will be so stressful for him. I know that I couldn't have passed that offer up. No way, No how!!
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300 SCR March Madness Pool Update
The Saturday games had HUGE implications on the March Madness Pool. There were a couple of teams in the hunt that were riding high on the tournament success of #5 Auburn. Not only were they a surprise final 4 team, but they had also earned a bonus point as well. Then there was another group that had Texas Tech and their hopes rested on the success of the Red Raiders. The other teams in the final 4 were inconsequential in terms of the pool standings. As we know, Texas Tech was able to win and advance while Auburn fell just short in that heartbreaker of a game and this means that we have our March Madness Pool Champion!! The result of the final game does not matter at this point because the top teams all have Virginia and Texas Tech. Our pool champion is:
bamamama - March Madness Pool Champion!!!!
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Congratulations bamamama!!!!!
No matter who wins tonights National Championship game, bamamama will finish with 164 points and no other team can catch her. What a great job of picking teams. I know she must be happy that Auburn didn't end up ruining her chances although ti would have been fun to see Texas Tech take on Auburn in the final and have that be the game that decided the pool winner.
300 SCR March Madness Pool Scores and Leaders
Now, the fight for 2nd and 3rd is going to come down to the tiebreaker. Unfortunately for thesportsguru, Auburn losing knocked him out of contention and down to 5th place. Both agfnzn10 and ronaldo420 are tied for 2nd place and they have the same teams in the final. thebull came up just a single point short of the top 3. The score of tonight's game will determine who takes home the 100 SCR 2nd place prize and who will settle for 3rd and 50 SCR. agfnzn10's tiebreaker score total is 155 while ronaldo420 has 141. The tiebreaker rules were as follows.
Tiebreaker
The goal is to have the closest score. If two people are equally close, the person who did not go over the total will be the winner.
