Holiday Observations, Winning during the Holidays....... 1. Xmas Day is a good day for NBA 'unders' especially in the marquee games. The best spots are when the league puts their best "marquee" teams vs. each other during the day.
Boston 78 ORL 86. Mia 96 LAL 80.
Small sample, but what easy wins. Lakers simply don't do well on Xmas Day period, does Phil Jackson purposely look to not focus on thes games (and play slowly) to send a message to the league (don't schedule us on Xmas!).
2. Tbay is something like 2-27 SU in games below 32 degrees. The lesson? Look to fade teams from nice warm climates in frigid weather. We missed a key bet this year in the "Sun" Bowl when Mia FLa froze in the ice in El Paso to the Catholics. The Mia qb wore a hooded sweatshirt during the game, and looked to have lost feeeling in his hands.
3. When looking at big spreads in College Bowl Games, let's not worry about the dogs, they are all motivated, the key is whether the favorite is motivated. Always easy after the fact, but the poster childs would be
a) Nebraska, with their qb fighting with their coach, off a disappointing year, facing a Washington team they had beaten 123-5 ealier in the year. Situation: UNfavorable.
b) Oklahoma, off a string of somewhat excusable losses in big bowl games, now facing a cream puff. Situation: FAVORABLE.
c) Boise, their season wrecked, facing Utah.....ok, had to put a loser in there.
d) Familiarity to home is likely more important than fan volumes. SDST destroys Navy in their home stadium, despite a whole bunch of Navy attendees.
e) Low lined big games go 'under'. $$$ in the Rose Bowl POURED onto the 'under' from 58.5 down to 54. Final TCU-Whisky, 40.
