Saturday was another exciting sports betting day in the Tuley Takes home office with wall-to-wall college basketball, the NBA All-Star Saturday activities (though I didn’t personally take part in that), hockey, golf, auto racing and even some MMA.
The highlight of my day was hitting yet another best bet with the Blues-Maple Leafs First-Period Over, and just like Friday, it didn’t matter if our followers bet Over 1.5 goals or Over 2 as the two teams combined for 3 goals in the opening period.
The better news was a couple of readers informed me that we hit our best bet every day this past week. I hadn’t realized that myself (as we’ve lost a few secondary plays on days when we had multiple plays), but we’ve hit our top play the last 7 days from the Bengals + 4.5 on Super Sunday to NBA winners on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday wrapped around Wake Forest in college b-ball on Tuesday and then NHL 1P Overs on Friday and Saturday.
Our last losing top pick was Blue Jackets-Canadiens 1P Over 1.5 a week ago Saturday, though we still made money that day as we went 2-0 with our secondary plays in the NBA with the Blazers and Hornets.
All in all, we’re not missing football as much as we feared!!!
Let’s recap the overall betting results for Saturday and look for another best bet on Sunday.
Saturday’s recaps
CBB: Unranked Florida upset No. 2 Auburn 63-62, but it wasn't a huge upset as the Gators were just 4.5-point home underdogs and + 170 on the money line. No. 18 Ohio State was the only other ranked team to lose to an unranked team on Saturday, falling 75-62 to Iowa, which was a 5-point road dog. In games between ranked teams, No. 11 Texas Tech (+ 3.5) upset No. 20 Texas 61-55, No. 12 Illinois (-2.5) covered in 79-74 win at No. 19 Michigan State, No. 4 Kentucky (-6) covered in 90-81 win vs. No. 25 Alabama and No. 23 Arkansas (-2.5) covered in 58-48 win vs. No. 16 Tennessee.
NHL: Faves went 5-2 Saturday with the only upsets by the Blues (+ 180 in 6-3 win at the Maple Leafs) and the Ducks (+ 133 in 7-4 win at the Canucks). Overs went 4-3.
NBA All-Star Saturday Night: Karl-Anthony Towns won the 3-Point Contest as the longest shot on the board at 12-1. Obi Toppin won the anticlimactic Dunk Contest as the 2-1 second choice behind Jalen Green. Team Cavs won the Skills Challenge, also as the 2-1 second choice.
Sunday’s Takes
Wild-Oilers First-Period Over 1.5 -155: Let’s stick to the ice for our top play for Sunday. There are actually 3 NHL 1P Over plays I like, but this one is my favorite as both teams are in the Top 5 with 1P Overs this season, according to stats provided by @PSUOtto on Twitter, as the Wild is 30-16 and the Oilers are 31-18 for a combined 61-34 (64.2 percent). Again, shop around to get the Over 1.5, though as we mentioned in the intro, we’ve been having enough success with these plays lately that they’ve been cashing on Over 2 at plus-money. The other plays I like are taking place earlier on Sunday so I’ll have parlays starting with these and heading into Wild-Oilers at 8:05 p.m. ET/5:05 p.m. PT: Panthers-Blackhawks 1P Over 1.5 -160 (Over 2 + 120 at William Hill overnight) as the Panthers are 15-3 with 1P Overs in their last 18 games and these 2 teams combine to go 59-41 (59 percent) on the season and the Sabres-Blue Jackets 1P Over -1.5 -155 as these teams combine to to 59-39 (60.2 percent).
Rutgers + 12.5 at Purdue: With 5 ranked teams in action on Sunday, I was hoping for a couple of plays, but this is the only one where I feel I’m getting enough points to justify a play on the dog. For instance, I was considering Michigan vs. Wisconsin, but the overnight line is only Michigan + 2.5. No thanks,
Daytona 500: I’ve hit some long shots over the years at Daytona as restrictor-plate racing has always made the races at the superspeedways very wide open. We approach auto racing wagering the same as golf as we’ll only bet about what we would call 1 unit for a football or basketball game (or NHL 1P Over/Under!), but spread it around on a couple of drivers since the odds are higher. Let’s go with Denny Hamlin (11-1 at Circa), Bubba Wallace (22-1 at Westgate) and the two winner’s of Thursday’s duel races, Brad Kezelowski (16-1 at BetMGM) and Chris Buscher (25-1 at BetMGM).
Good luck today (and every day!).