Maddux Sports Blog

I’m later than normal writing this because that incredibly dull broadcast of the Oscars put me into a coma and I am just waking up. That was a lot of things tonight, but entertaining is not one of them. The Hurt Locker was a good movie, and I am glad it beat Avatar wherever it mattered, but I thought that Up in the Air was better and should have won more. Or at least it should have won something. This is the second year in a row that my favorite movie got totally shut out – I liked Frost/Nixon best last year. Oh well.

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Rough break for the Spurs tonight – pun intended. Tony Parker broke his hand, and he’s out for up to six weeks – the rest of the regular season, in other words. The Spurs aren’t exactly locked into a playoff spot – they are just one game out of eighth place in the West, and though there is a gap between them and Houston, Memphis, and New Orleans – the teams out of the playoffs – but it’s not an insurmountable lead if the Spurs don’t keep their act together. Without Parker this isn’t the same team (obviously), so this will be very interesting to watch. There’s a very good chance, though, that the public will overcompensate for this injury – at least in the short term. George Hill is a competent player who is putting up some solid numbers (11.7 ppg), and he’s more than capable of stepping up, playing more, and doing it well. The Spurs have already had to play 10 games without Parker this year thanks to various ailments, and the team is 5-5 in those games. The Spurs aren’t likely to self-destruct in the short term without Parker, so there could be value.

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Very interesting result last night with Maryland beating Duke by a solid margin at home. The number one seed was Duke’s to lose, and a win in this game would have come close to clinching it for them. Now it is back in play – though the Blue Devils are still in decent position to grab it. More significant than the fact that Duke couldn’t clinch that, though, is the fact that they were unable to rise up in a game like this and come out on top. Maryland is a decent team, and the game was further proof of just how special Greivis Vasquez is, but the clear fact is that Duke is the better team, and should have been able to win this one. There have been some toughness issues raised around Duke this year, and this game did nothing to dispel those. They will have a bracket position soft enough t advance a few games, but this win does nothing to ease my questions about whether this is a team built to go deep.

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1. Still giddy about that hockey game yesterday. That’s going to be the case for a long while.

2. How crazy was Canada for this game? There are 34 million people in the country. 22 million were watching when Sidney Crosby scored his goal. That’s two-thirds of the freaking country. Freaking crazy.

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Olympic Bet of the Day – Another day of coming close. I won three of the four events I played and was only let down by Canada’s women curlers. Losing at curling doesn’t make me happy, but I am happy to forgive considering my boys will be playing for gold – and kicking the crap out of the Americans – on Sunday. What a game that’s going to be, but more on that tomorrow. Today we’ll have one last shot at a big parlay. The events will be: Canada (-1.5 -150) in the men’s curling final, Slovakia +194 over Finland in regulation time in the bronze medal hockey game, Jasey Jay Anderson (-125) over Benjamin Karl in the snowboarding, and Silvan Zurbriggen (-130) over Michael Janyk in the slalom. That will pay $1460.

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Olympic Bet of the Day - Alright, enough fooling around – it’s time to do some winning. Like my fellow Canadians I am underperforming so far during these Olympics, but like my Canadians I plan to close strong. We’re going to start this road back to redemption with a nice, hopefully winning, five event parlay. It will include: Russia (+138) to win women’s biathlon relay, Sven Kramer (-510) to win the men’s 10,000m speedskating, Didier Cuche (-165) to beat Bode Miller in the giant slalom, Canada (-4.5  -114) over Germany in hockey, and Switzerland (-1  +110) over Belarus in hockey. That will pay $1702 if and when it wins.

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Olympic Bet of the Day - That was just a bad, bad day all-round. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Tomorrow is the quietest day of the games, and absolutely nothing of interest pops out, so the bet of the day is going to be to not make a bet. Tuesday’s a much more interesting day.

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Olympic Bet of the Day – We got back to the winning ways thanks to the dominance of Lindsey Vonn. She paid off at even money (less by post time), so she netted me $100. That means I’m down just $125 and climbing. Happy days are ahead. To try to keep up the winning spirit I’m going to go right back to the well. Lindsey Vonn skis again today – this time in the Super Combined. That event involves one run of the downhill and one run of slalom. Vonn is far from the best slalom skier out there, but she is competent, and I think that her downhill competence and current form gives her a good chance of opening up as much of a lead as she’ll need. She pays +240 to win, so she’s worth a shot.

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Olympic Bet of the Day – We came darned close yesterday – our Japanese skater finished second by a very small margin. That means that we are down $125 after three days of betting. We’re going to get it back today by betting on women’s curling. I may get my passport taken away here because Canada loves their curling, but I am going to bet against them. Canada is the favorite in the tournament, and I like their chances of hitting the podium, but they have no international experience and little experience dealing with the pressure of large-crowd tournaments. Their first game is against he Swiss. Mirjam Ott has the distinction of being the only curler to own two curling medals – both silver. She’s a wily veteran and will be more settled early than Bernard and Canada. The Swiss are at +175, and I see a lot of value there.

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