Saturday was a fun day away from the Tuley’s Takes home office as I spent it in Flagstaff, Ariz., visiting my oldest child, Jordyn, at Northern Arizona University along with my son, Maddux.
I don’t think I mentioned the weather in yesterday’s column, but we left behind 70-degree weather back in Vegas for temps in the 10’s and 20’s here in Flagstaff. Having grown up in the Chicago suburbs, I’ve always been able to handle cold temps and didn’t even need my jacket on Saturday. My desert children have apparently inherited this trait from me. I guess it’s a “dry cold” if you know what I mean.
Besides spending time with my kids, the highlight of Saturday for me was meeting a sports bettor and VSiN fan at the NAU-Weber State game. I heard him talking with his friends about the 8-point spread and Over/Under of around 145 (Weber State and the Under easily cashed in the 73-49 rout), so I struck up a conversation with him. When I mentioned that I work for VSiN, his face lit up and he recognized my name right away. He said he was a longtime bettor (certainly way before Arizona legalized our favorite activity this past summer) and I told him he was representative of all the sports bettors from coast to coast that Brent Musburger and his nephew, Brian, were thinking of when they created VSiN in 2017 to bring sports betting coverage to the masses, more than a year before the Supreme Court overturned PASPA. It was a fun conversation.
Of course, the other highlight was that I won with our best bet of the day on USC + 4.5 at Oregon as the Trojans not only covered but pulled the minor outright upset as we improved to 12-1-1 ATS with our top best bet the past 14 days. Upsets were prevalent on Saturday as you’ll see below in our betting recaps. Dogs were also barking in the NBA. Dogs didn’t fare as well in the NHL, but we did hit our secondary best bet of the day with the Oilers-Panthers First-Period Over 1.5 and also hit our recommended parlay play with the Avalanche-Golden Knights 1P Over 1.5.
Let’s get to those overall recaps of Saturday’s betting action and try to keep the winners coming on Sunday.
Saturday’s recaps
NBA: Faves went 6-1 Saturday but dogs led 5-2 ATS. The only outright upset was by the Nets (+ 9.5 in 126-123 win at Bucks), but the Pistons (+ 12.5 vs. Celtics), Spurs (+ 13 at Heat), Wizards (+ 8.5 at Cavaliers) and Kings (+ 8 at Nuggets) all covered as dogs in SU losses. Overs went 4-3.
CBB: No. 23 Saint Mary's upset No. 1 Gonzaga 67-57 late Saturday night as 11-point home underdogs and + 450 on the money line; but Gonzaga wasn't alone as the Top 6 ranked teams all lost on Saturday (and all 6 on the road). Colorado (+ 9.5) upset No. 2 Arizona 79-63, No. 17 Tennessee (-3) beat No. 3 Auburn 67-62, Michigan St. (+ 4.5) upset No. 4 Purdue 68-65, No. 10 Baylor (-2.5) beat No. 5 Kansas 80-70, No. 18 Arkansas (-2) pushed 75-73 vs. No. 6 Kentucky and TCU (+ 4.5) upset No. 9 Texas Tech 69-66. No. 7 Duke (-7.5) beat Syracuse 97-72 and was the only team in the Top 9 to win Saturday (No. 10 Baylor won, but at the expense of No. 5 Kansas as noted above). No. 8 Villanova was idle.
NHL: Faves went 7-3 Saturday with the only upsets by the Oilers (+ 180 in 4-3 win at Panthers), Flyers (+ 134 in 2-1 win vs. Capitals) and Canadiens (+ 140 in 2-1 win at Senators). Unders went 6-3-1 with the push in the Oilers-Panthers game with a betting total of 7 goals.
Sunday’s Takes
Jazz + 1 at the Suns: This is an anti-swagger play against the Suns, who had their 8-game winning streak snapped Friday night by the Pelicans. I was hoping to get a few more points with Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Company, but the oddsmakers are pretty much saying the Jazz are the better overall team right now and would be favored on a neutral court with Chris Paul out for the Suns.
Blues-Blackhawks First-Period Over 1.5 -145: Even though there’s 8 NHL games on Sunday, there are no standout 1P Over plays. This is the best option for a straight play with the teams combining to go 56-46 with 1P Overs, but Blues are on a 13-1 run so we have recency on our side. If looking to do a 2-team parlay, my preference is using the Oilers-Hurricanes 1P Over 1.5 -150.
Good luck today (and every day!).