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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Month: February 2010
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.
Olympic Bet of the Day – Because everything is a competition, I’m going to put a mythical $100 per day on these Olympic bets and keep score. Feel free to make your own bets in the comments along the way. Things started out well on this front when Simon Ammann took down the ski jumping in dominating fashion. Splitting the $100 evenly between my two picks I wound up making a profit of $75. For today’s pick we’re going to go with biathlon. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is like the Tiger Woods of biathlon. He has a record 91 World Cup victories, and he won four golds at the last World Championships, including the 10 km sprint that is being contested today. He can be had at +210, and that seems like a solid price given all he has accomplished. I’ll put my money on him.
Olympic Bet of the Day – The first medal presented is scheduled to be in ski jumping, so it’s only fitting that it’s also our first pick. Pinnacle is the only place I have seen odds for the event so far. They list two jumpers – Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer at +243 and Simon Ammann of Switzerland at +250. You can take either of them, or take the field at -111. Amman has two firsts and two seconds in five starts this year, while Schlierenzauer has six wins in 2010 alone. My pick for today is to take both Ammann and Schlierenzauer. They’ll pay well over even money if one guy wins, and that sounds better than the field.
Programming note – Each day of the Olympics I’ll be posting an Olympic bet of the day. There will be some hockey, of course, but we’ll also throw in everything from biathlon to bobsled. It should be good fun, and hopefully it’s not too terribly unprofitable. The first medals will be awarded tomorrow, so keep your eyes open.
I’m fairly confident that there is going to be a Big Ten team in the Final Four. There isn’t a lot of depth there this year, but they have three very good teams at the top. I’m not sure which one of the teams is going to be the finalists, but we got a pretty good hint of what could happen today when Purdue headed to Michigan State and emerged with a very convincing win. They won the game by 12 thanks to a monster performance from E’Twaun Moore. Kalin Lucas didn’t start for the Spartans, but he did play 29 minutes, so they can’t use that as an excuse. Purdue unquestionably staked a claim atop the conference with the win. They’ve faltered down the stretch the last couple of years as they have had key bodies wear down. They seem reasonably healthy this year, so they will be fun to watch. They have the advantage of playing the Final Four very close to home in Indianapolis if they make it, so that stands as an added incentive. It will also be a huge incentive that the team knows that if they don’t get there this year then they won’t for a while because next year will certainly be a rebuilding year.
Some looking back, and some looking ahead:
1. Peyton Manning. There is no question – he lost that game with a pass he shouldn’t have made. That’s not the only reason that New Orleans won, of course, but it was the final straw, and he made the mistake when the team had a very legitimate chance of, at the very least, getting to overtime. I had a long debate with a guy at my Super Bowl party last night. It’s not that I really hate the guy. I don’t like because I haven’t since college, but I can respect what he does. What my issue is, though, is that he gets far more credit than he deserves – than any guy deserves. He’s a great regular season quarterback, but the fact is that he is just 9-9 in his career in the playoffs, and he has now made the Super Bowl twice and played well below his capabilities both times. I believe in giving lots of credit when it’s due, but I have a real issue with worshiping a guy just because he’s a good guy if the facts don’t back it up. The facts are this – if anyone other than him had his playoff record they would face serious criticism. All I’m saying is that he should, too.
What follows is my opinion only, and not necessarily the opinion of everyone else here at Maddux Sports:
The Saints are going to win the Super Bowl. I have many good reasons why I have come to this conclusion, but here are seven:
As the biggest of games inches closer here are some of the storylines and angles that are factoring into my thinking about a potential outcome:
1. The road to this game. I was pretty high on the Cardinals coming into their game against the Saints. New Orleans demolished them. Minnesota was a tough, dangerous team that New Orleans found a way to get past as well. Baltimore and the Jets are both teams that can do a couple of things well, but there was little doubt in either case that the Colts were the far superior squad. If you factor in the last two weeks of the regular season and the bye week and the week off you have to go back a long way to find a game in which the Colts played an opponent that could legitimately have beaten them barring some strange circumstance. This is going to be a new level of intensity for the Colts while the Saints are just facing more of the same.
I can’t put my finger one why exactly it is, but I’m not as excited about this Super Bowl as I have been in the past. It doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense. I mean, I have a whole lot of respect for both offenses, and both defenses have enough problems that there is a good chance that those offenses are going to be at their best. I love scoring. Both teams are also likable, hard working, well coached squads that are easy to respect and root for. You know that neither is likely to get themselves into trouble off the field, so there was no concern about the headlines being dominated by anything other than football this year. That’s a good thing. The teams were the class of their conferences all year, and unquestionably deserve to be where they are. There’s nothing to complain about in that sense, either. This should be a game that I am thrilled about. On paper it certainly is. I even think that it should be a good, entertaining game. So why am I finding it hard to care? Here are four possible reasons:
Continue reading “Super Bowl – I’m Not On The Edge Of My Seat”
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