We enjoyed another mid-week night with a college bowl – though we left the Tuley’s Takes home office to have dinner at the South Point with our horse racing friend, John Lauro – but have to say we missed having the NHL, which has been shut down due to too many teams being ravaged by COVID.
We had another bowl winner with Missouri covering in the Military Bowl. That was just a bonus Best Bet here as we added it in yesterday’s column after the Tigers went from + 4.5 to + 6.5 (and closed + 7), so our Best Bet record in the VSiN College Bowl Betting Guide and Point Spread Weekly remains at 2-1 ATS but we also improve to 10-1 ATS overall on the VSiN CFB Consensus page.
We hope to stay hot this bowl season (especially as we're continuing to use our Consensus page picks in our handful of bowl pools), but we don’t have another Best Bet until next Monday. Instead, we return to the NFL for Thursday night’s Best Bet as Week 16 action returns less than 46 hours after Week 15 ended on Tuesday night.
But first let’s recap Wednesday’s betting action, including the winners of the Westgate SuperContest’s in-season mini-contest on NFL Week 13-15.
Wednesday’s recaps
CFB: Army beat Missouri 24-22 on a FG as time expired in the Military Bowl, but did NOT cover after closing as a 7-point favorite. The game stayed Under the betting total of 54. Faves improved to 8-4 SU in bowls w/ith 1 game closing pick-'em (Western. Kentucky-Appalachian State), but underdogs lead 7-5 ATS. Overs dipped to 9-4.
NBA: Faves went 3-2 SU and ATS, including the Celtics (-6.5) covering in 111-101 win vs. Cavaliers to snap Cleveland's 6-game winning streak and 14-game cover streak. The upsets were by the Magic (+ 7.5 at Hawks) and Thunder (+ 6.5 vs. Nuggets). Unders went 4-1 and lead 248-214-6 (53.7 percent).
CBB: No. 19 Tennessee held off previously undefeated No. 6 Arizona 77-73 in the marquee game of the night, but it was NOT an upset as you might be hearing elsewhere as the Volunteers closed as 1.5-point home favorites. The game stayed Under 153.
Contest Corner
CHUNG CHUNG and REALPLAYAZ both went 14-1 in the 3-week “in-season” contest on NFL Weeks 13-15 in the Westgate SuperContest to win $50,000 apiece. REALPLAYAZ was among seven contestants that were 10-0 entering Week 15, but was the only one to go at least 4-1 while CHUNG CHUNG was 9-1 and went 5-0 to force the tie. Thirteen tied for third place at 13-2 and will collect $384 apiece.
Thursday’s Takes
Titans + 3 vs. 49ers: We gave this out in Point Spread Weekly, so hopefully you already grabbed the Titans + 3.5. There’s been sharp money on the Titans as the line dropped on Wednesday afternoon despite the public being on the 49ers. I still believe the Titans are the right side here, though I’m a little less confident after the news that they’ve lost two starting offensive linemen for the game, one to a COVID positive and one to injury, so I wouldn’t bet as much at the lower number. As always, shop for the best number as there’s a chance the hook could come back if the public loads on the 49ers at -3.
Good luck today (and every day!).