Starting tomorrow, will be out of town for the next 6 days, so things will be a little different on the site. There will be no Reader Emails tomorrow. Just have too many podcasts to record today and get set up for the rest of this week. Will have your regular Daily Roundup and Sports Daily tomorrow. But then Thursday and Friday’s Daily Roundup will be interviews with Jacqueline Trumbull and Jackie Maroney (one half of She’s All Bach), respectively. Hey, I just realized they both are Jackie’s. Totally unplanned. Wanted to get those recorded and in the can so I don’t have as many that I need to record my hotel room starting tomorrow. Just makes things a lot easier on my end to do it that way. Because I’m uploading everything on my laptop on the road, and using hotel WiFi, basically it takes double the time for everything to upload normally. And lets be honest, the last thing I wanna do is have to go up to my room at night in Vegas and have to record something. C’mon people. I’ve got dice to roll. Anyway, that’s the schedule for the rest of this week. Then Monday and Tuesday next week will be ones I have to record in CA, since I’m heading there Saturday from Vegas. A full day 6 days out of town which I think is the longest “vacation” I’ve had in probably 10 years. Even though is it really “vacation” if you’re still having to work? While the reason I’m going out of town is for pleasure, never stop working.
All right. What you’ve all been waiting 365 days for. My first round NCAA Tournment picks for this week. A little background: So here is my record since I started giving out first round plays 8 years ago. Every game I’ve bet has been an underdog and I’m 7-4 with 5 outright winners. It makes the most sense since we know there will be upsets every season, so, I try and focus on the underdogs who I think will win the game outright. Even a couple that lost outright but covered have been close to winning:
2017: UNC-Wilmington (+8 ½) vs Virginia – Winner (lost 76-71)
2018: Loyola-Chicago (+4 1/2 ) vs Miami – Winner (won outright 64-62)
2019: UC Irvine (+4) over Kansas St. – Winner (won outright 70-64)
2020: No tournament – COVID
2021: Ohio (+7) vs Virginia – Winner (won outright 72-68)
2021: BONUS PICK: UCSB (+7) vs Creighton – Winner (lost 63-62)
2022: South Dakota St (+2) over Providence – Lost (lost 66-57)
2022: BONUS PICK: Virginia Tech (+1) over Texas – Lost (81-73)
2023: Furman (+5.5) over Virginia – Winner (won outright 68-67)
2023: BONUS PICK: Kent St (+4) over Indiana – Lost (lost 71-60)
2024: Coll of Charleston (+9.5) vs Alabama – Lost (109-96)
2024: BONUS PICK: JMU (+5.5) vs Wisconsin – Winner (won outright 72-61)
Without any further ado, here are your two picks for this year. Both games tip on Thursday.
Yale (+7.5) vs Texas A&M
BONUS PICK: Drake (+6.5) vs Missouri
Other games that I like as well and will be betting (in no particular order): Clemson (-7.5) vs McNeese St (Thurs), High Point (+7.5) vs Purdue (Thurs), St Marys (-4) vs Vanderbilt (Fri), Wofford (+19) vs Tennessee (Thurs), & Akron (+14) vs Arizona (Fri).
If you look over all my picks since 2017, including the four bonus picks I gave in both 2022 and 2023, every single one of them has also covered an 8 pt. teaser. That’s 11 picks I’ve given in 7 years, and every single one of them stayed within 8 pts of the closing line. The 3 team, 8 pt teaser is something I enjoy playing, so that’s why I say while I like the plays I gave you, I always enjoy teasing the line 8 pts in my favor as well just for some added fun. You don’t have to. Or you can if you want to be a baller. If I had to give one 3 team, 8 pt teaser this year, I’d go with Yale (+15.5), Drake (+13.5), and Clemson (-1/2). Good luck everyone!
One thing I forgot to mention in the open is this weeks weekly podcast (that I’m recording today) is with Mark Walberg, host of “Temptation Island.” For the first time in its history, it moved to streaming on Netflix AND they dropped the whole season at once. And I watched the whole season this past weekend. In the past when the show was on USA Network and aired one episode a week, I’d have Mark on at the beginning of the season to preview and then sometimes after the season. But since the whole season is out, I wanted to have him on after I watched the full season so we can discuss everything. By the way if I’m being honest, I think this is the best season they’ve ever had. I’ll get into more details in the interview because I don’t want to spoil anything here if you haven’t watched it yet, but, it really is the best one they’ve done and Mark proved once again why he’s the best reality show host on TV. And I’m not just saying that. I think part of it is that the role requires him to be a bigger part of the show than say Jesse Palmer, Chris Harrison back in the day, Phil Keoghan, Jeff Probst, etc. Probst is probably second just because of how much screen time he gets per episode, but just watch this season (like any season) and Mark just gives a master class in empathy, compassion, and overall sensitivity at the bonfires. He was on his game this season and I want to commend him for that. So check that out come Thursday.
Thoughts on last night’s overnight dates…
-The new thing we’ve seen the last couple seasons on the Bachelor is having past women show up the week of hometown dates to give “advice” to the remaining 3 women. On Joey’s season, you had 3 women from the Golden Bachelor show up to talk to Kelsey, Daisy, and Rachel. And now last night, Daisy, Rachel, and Kaity Biggar showed up to speak to Grant’s final 3. One thing we learned from these talks? Litia has never watched the show before. Kaity spoke to her and told her all about the mess that was Zach’s “Sex Week,” and Litia had never heard any of it before. Jaw on the floor. Couldn’t believe what had happened and was asking questions to Kaity clearly as if she had no idea what ever happened during overnights week. And that was only 2 seasons ago.
-If Juliana is gonna get dolled up, do the hair and makeup, and try and look all good for Grant for their date, lets be honest, the last thing she wants to do is go 4 wheeling in mud. Couldn’t we give them a waterfall to make out under or something? I’m sure she rolled with the punches and didn’t bitch about it, but geez, in that setting, I highly doubt any woman wants to go 4 wheeling for their date where there’s a serious chance for injury. Just a bad choice of things to do.
No overtime pay for you, production. Oh wait, you don’t get that anyway. My bad.
-Haven’t heard anything new in regards to where the Grant/Juliana relationship stands right now. I know so many of you are convinced after last nights episode that the spoiler must be wrong, or how can he even be contemplating who to pick next week when he told Litia he loved her and he said he’s almost there with Juliana, etc. Editing. Best way I can put it. I will say, I haven’t had many details about the finale since I announced the spoiler, but one thing I did hear back when I was told was that Litia was blindsided by Grant’s decision. After watching last night’s episode, yeah, that makes perfect sense now.
-I know a lot of people don’t understand how any woman that he chose could be watching this back and be fine with him saying what he did to Litia then being with her. I think you just gotta remember, this was 4 months ago. Numerous conversations have happened since then. Not to mention, I think a lot of them understand this is a TV show. Did Grant HAVE to say he was in love with Litia? No. I’m sure Juliana didn’t feel great about it after the fact. And shit, maybe it did ultimately lead to their demise. I haven’t heard either way. I’m just saying, while it seems preposterous to people watching at home, I just don’t see it as a big of deal as most do because this isn’t normal dating life. It’s certainly possible to fall for multiple women on this show. We see it practically every season if we’re being honest. Some just express it differently.
-I honestly think that whether Grant and Juliana are still together doesn’t have anything to do with what he said on the show to Litia. I just don’t see that being the case. Sure, back in November when this happened, I’m guessing he prepped her and prepared her for it. But if they’re not together, I just don’t get the sense it was because of that. Not to mention, I have no idea if they even are broken up. They might still be a couple and happy as clams. Who knows? We’ll all find out next week. But this whole notion that none of these women can get over the fact that the lead might’ve had strong feelings for more than one woman I think is a tad overblown. In the real life if a guy did this? Absolutely some woman would have a right to go off on him. In this setting? Eh. The waters are a little more murky if you ask me.
Daily Roundup transcript begins on Page 2…
