By Wlady Pleszczynski on 3.15.04 @ 12:07AM
March Madness is upon us -- for better or worse, depending on how much money you waste betting on what is priceless.
Ever timely, the Sopranos last night saw fit to include
the death of oldtime mobster Carmine Lupertazzi, not one of the
charmers. Could have fooled fat Bobby Baccalieri, who remembered
Carmine with awe. "He invented point shaving," he said in
tribute.
So here we are, smack in the middle of March but just at the
start of so-called March Madness. A lot of people will engage in
something crooked, though on an innocent scale, betting in pool
after pool on which of 65 teams will end up in the Final Four or
even win the entire NCAA men's college basketball championship. I
assume most such "betters" don't know the first thing about the
sport they're betting and that peer pressure is the main reason
they participate. Which is really too bad, since basketball itself
when played at the level it's now played at by top college teams
provides more highs than a winning bet ever possibly could. Point
shaving went out of style decades ago, if you don't include a team
or two at Boston College, which is where John Kerry attended law
school. Too bad betting pools haven't done so as well.
In any case, anyone looking to make a killing this month is
already too late. The tournament to bet on wasn't the NCAA
championship, but the Atlantic Coast Conference season-ender. Two
weeks ago the University of Maryland, with a young squad that
seemed chronically out of synch, was on the verge of going nowhere
this year. It had trouble defending its home court, let alone
hitting a jump shot. It had to win its final two games just to
qualify as the ACC tournament's number 6 seed. On Friday night it
won the fourth of four games played that opening day, beating the
#3 seed in a frantic game that ended at midnight. By three in the
afternoon on Saturday it was back on the court against a more
rested North Carolina State team -- and was on the verge of being
blown out.
NC State scored at will throughout the first half, and was about
to double the score to 48-24 at half-time, when Maryland decided to
start its comeback. A steal and a layup cut its deficit to 19
points at the buzzer. The second half was all Maryland, and it won
by 3. Nineteen hours later, in the championship game, it hit even
more rested and always godlike Duke with its best shots, absorbed
some in retaliation, but came back and won going away in overtime.
Duke hadn't lost one of these tournaments in 6 years. Some team had
to beat them and it did. Basketball aficionados will be talking
about this Maryland team for years -- precisely because all bets
were off.
Six ACC teams made the final 64 this year. All are talented and
hard-playing enough to win it all, but so are Kentucky, Oklahoma
State, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Stanford and maybe one or two
others.
Those who'd rather bet than observe and learn are encouraged to
direct their attentions elsewhere. There's the Republican
administration of state of Maryland itself, which wants to bring
casinos into an already famously disreputable state. Or they might
get in touch with the father of one of the grooms featured in
yesterday's hoity-toity New York Times weddings page. He's
described in the item as "a consultant on establishing lottery and
gambling systems overseas." No word yet if that's a form of
outsourcing the Times supports. Or if Dad will replace
Carmine on The Sopranos.
topics:
Law
