Saturday Locks! Saturday Locks!

Before the tournament started, I mentioned--among other things--Stanford being my lock of the first round. It hit. Easily. I feel smart.

My smartness didn't end there.

Probably like you, I have friends who travel to Vegas every March. Maybe like you, these friends ask me for my locks in the NCAA tournament. I love this. I love living vicariously through my gambling people, especially since I'm no longer an active bettor. But anyway, this year I've been on fire.

Thursday night I ended up 3-0. After Stanford hit, I gave my buddy Fletch the over of USC-Kansas State and the same for Arizona-West Virginia.

As for Friday, I gave Fletch Butler and Georgetown before dinner and the St Joes-Oklahoma over immediately after. The late session saw me split the pair: I accurately called the Memphis-UT Arlington over, but Boise State came up three-and-a-half points short for me.

7-1 against the spread for the first round. Take that, Jim Feist.

Instead of standing pat and bragging from now until eternity over my .875 winning percentage, I'm releasing my second round picks to the world.

Saturday picks (in order of start time)...

1. West Virginia-Duke OVER (148) (Note: Joe Alexander gets healthy on whoever guards him.)

2. Purdue-Xavier OVER (132) (Note: This is my lock of the day. I see both teams scoring in the 70's. First team to 75 might triumph.)

3. Notre Dame (+2.5) vs. Washington State (Note: White guys are prevalent.)

4. Stanford (-2.5) vs. Marquette (Note: Stanford is a really good team from the best conference. For whatever reason they flew under the radar all season. Marquette doesn't have a shot Saturday unless they get bloody hot from long range.)

5. Kansas-UNLV OVER (135.5) (Note: Kansas will score 80+; UNLV should be able to touch the mid-50's.)

6. UCLA (-10) vs. Texas A&M (Note: This is one of those games where you see a big conference team as a double digit underdog and you might back away from wagering on the best team in the country. No worries...UCLA rolls, 72-52.

That's all for now. Hope I'm smart in ten hours.

-Brad Spieser (Brad@TwinKilling.com)
3/22/08