Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

 I keep updating these posts every year as I take off work for the first couple days of the men's NCAA basketball tournament. Here's what I posted through 2022: https://mattholthe.blogspot.com/2022/04/march-madness-2001-through-2022.html In 2023, I went on a trip to Iowa to watch the games. We chose Iowa because we could be closer to home, we could meet some people there, and the state of Illinois has restrictions on betting in-state teams. If we stayed in Illinois, we couldn't bet on Northwestern or Illinois. We did discover that Iowa has restrictions on betting individual players, so we couldn't bet certain players to go over or under point totals, for example. Now, keeping everything updated, here is what I have done for the first weekend of March Madness every year going back to 2001: 2001 - at home in Colorado 2002 - trip to Illinois 2003 - trip to Las Vegas 2004 - trip to Las Vegas 2005 - trip to Illinois 2006 - trip to Las Vegas 2007 - trip to Las Vegas 2008 - tr...

We finally planned our first camping trip of 2022. Normally by the middle of May I'd have a few camping trips figured out. I don't know what it is about this year, but everyone seems to be rather busy and summer is coming up quick. Hopefully it doesn't completely get away from us this year.

Tonight in the NCAA National Championship game featuring North Carolina (an 8 seed who beat 2-seeded Duke in the semifinals and ended the coaching career of Coach K) against Kansas (a 1 seed who beat 2-seeded Villanova in the semifinals). This year, after tonight of course, I will have managed to watch at least part of every single tournament game, including all "first four" games. I think that's a first for me. I was at home for most of the games and I now have a 4 TV setup that I can use in the basement to watch all the games on Thursday and Friday.  I need to update my history of trips going back to 2001 for watching the first and second round games of March Madness. I have several posts that go back to 2001 for the history: 2001 through 2009 2010 through 2012 2013 and 2014 2015 through 2019 The last post states "In 2020, I will be going to Tunica, MS, to watch and bet on the games." Well, that was before the pandemic. The 2020 tournament was canceled and did...

 This coming up Saturday will feature Kansas against Villanova in the Final Four, followed by Duke against North Carolina. The winners will play Monday for the national championship. Duke and North Carolina is by far the best rivalry in college basketball. It might be the best rivalry in all of sports. In the last 99 games (since coach K took over, who will be coaching his last rivalry game this Saturday) the teams are 50-49 and the total number of points is nearly identical. All time the records and points are close as well.  I can't possibly imagine how a fan of either program is feeling. For Duke, they made it to the final four in coach K's last season. For North Carolina, they made it to the final four in Hubert Davis' first season. Each school would be thinking reaching the final four would make for a tremendously successful season. But, one of these teams is going to lose to their arch-rival and then have to watch their arch-rival potentially win the national champion...

Illinois beat Iowa last night on the final night of the regular season to end up tied with Wisconsin for the Big Ten Conference championship. It's their first conference regular season title since 2005. Wisconsin opened the door earlier in the day by losing at home to Nebraska. Illinois won the tie-breaker with Wisconsin and will have the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament which starts Wednesday. Illinois will play their first game Friday at 10:30 AM Central time against either Indiana or Michigan.

I had my best single day sports betting in terms of victories last night. The "big" one was a 5 team parlay that I won. I have won bigger parlays in the past, but those were always money line parlays on big favorites, so the favorites only had to win and not cover. Last night was 5 line bets where teams had to cover. I did 4 favorites and 1 underdog, and they all came through for me. In addition to that 5 team parlay, I also went 5-0 on other straight bets. There were 2 additional line bets, 1 team total bet (one NHL team getting under 2.5 goals, without regards to the team they were playing), 1 player bet on their points (over 16.5 points), and 1 combination player bet (points + assists + rebounds over 40.5). All of them winners. Can't say that I did all these on my own. The parlay was on my own, but the 5 straight bets came directly from a show called Daily Wager on ESPN where they talk about sports betting. I like that show, and when I watch it, I try to bet along with...