We’re usually good with anniversaries in the Tuley’s Takes home office, but we missed the fact that Thursday’s column was the 200th straight edition of this daily exercise. No foolin’ – for those on the lookout for April Fools’ jokes today.
Technically, yesterday’s column was the 199th day since the first “Tuley’s Takes Today” on Sept. 13, 2021, the day after the opening Sunday of the NFL season, so today’s column is 200 days since then (and this is assuming you can have a “day anniversary,” which is usually just reserved for young couples before they’ve been together for a year).
But we digress.
The more important numbers for yours truly is that Xavier upset Texas A&M 73-72 as 5-point underdogs on Thursday night as our Best Best, improving our record to 32-14-1 ATS (69.6 percent) over the past 47 days, nearly a quarter of all the days we’ve been doing this.
We also won with our top NHL First-Period Over play as the Bruins scored just 57 seconds into their game with the Devils, who tied it 1-1 with just under 9 minutes to play in the opening period to put us Over 1.5 goals. For those who had to go Over 2 (and even those who went Over 2.5 goals at DraftKings – full disclosure, DK owns VSiN.com), the Bruins went up 2-1 with 3:51 in the period to go Over all 1P totals. For parlay players, we split our other two recommended plays with Penguins-Wild going Over 1.5 goals at 1-1 while the Blackhawks-Panthers coming up short with the Panthers leading only 1-0 after the opening period.
Let’s do our regular duty of recapping the rest of Thursday’s betting action across the major team sports and try to keep the good times rolling on Friday and into the Final Four weekend.
Thursday’s recaps
CBB: Xavier beat Texas A&M 73-72 Thursday night to win the NIT Championship Game at Madison Square Garden. The Musketeers did it after closing as 5-point underdogs and + 180 on the money line. The game went Over the betting total of 137.5 points.
NBA: Faves went 3-2 SU but dogs led 3-2 ATS as the Lakers (+ 13.5) covered in a 122-109 loss at the Jazz. The upsets were by the Bucks (+ 2 in a 120-119 OT win at the Nets) and the Pistons (+ 9.5 in 102-94 win vs. the 76ers). The Hawks (-6.5 in 131-107 rout vs. Cavaliers) and Bulls (-2.5 in 135-130 OT win vs. Clippers) covered as faves. Overs went 3-2 .
NHL: Faves went 7-2 with upsets by the Kings (+ 255 in 3-2 win at the Flames) and Penguins (+ 110 in 4-3 win at Wild). Of the 7 winning faves, only the Stars (-170 in 3-2 OT win at Ducks) failed to cover the -1.5 puck line. Over/Unders split 4-4-1 with the push in the Avalanche’s 4-2 win vs. the Sharks in a game with a betting total of 6 goals.
Friday’s Takes
Coyotes + 115 vs. Ducks: We usually reserve our “swagger” plays to the ATS sports where we’re getting points in addition to having a team aim for a second straight win after a losing streak, but we’re jumping in with the Coyotes after they snapped their 6-game skid against the Sharks on Wednesday. We’re also emboldened because they’re getting plus-money against the Ducks, who are on an 11-game losing streak of their own.
Blues-Oilers First-Period Over 1.5 (-165 at BetMGM): None of the hot 1P Over teams are in action Friday night (the Oilers rank just No. 5 at 43-25, according to the NHL betting stats from @PSUOtto on Twitter), so that’s another reason that I went with the Coyotes as my Best Bet of the day as this is a lukewarm recommendation. The Blues are just 35-30 with 1P Overs for a combined 68-55 (55.3 percent when we usually prefer at least 60 percent if laying this high of juice).
Saturday
North Carolina + 4.5 vs. Duke: This is Duke -4 at the majority of books, but there are a few + 4.5s available (BetMGM and WynnBET), so I would recommend to shop around and lock in the Tar Heels at 4.5 if you can as I’ve written in Point Spread Weekly and the Best Bets file at VSiN.com that this is my preferred side in the Final Four..
Villanova + 4.5 vs. Kansas: This is more solid at 4.5 (though WynnBET was dealing + 5 on Wednesday but it disappeared on Thursday), so grab that if you can as some books are down to 4.
Good luck today (and every day!).