Madness, mayhem and mania. Sin City has a serious case of hoops hysteria. "I think everybody's coming to the Palms," bet shop boss Rich Baccellieri said. "It's nuts around here." Bookmakers across the valley may dispute Baccellieri's first claim, but there'd be little quibbling about the second. It's March and that means one thing in Las Vegas: the NCAA Tournament. The three-week event, which climaxes with the crowning of a national collegiate basketball champion, is on par with the Super Bowl when it comes to luring crowds and accounting for dollars in company coffers. "It's close to Super Bowl figures if not bigger," Nevada Gaming Control Board statistical analyst Frank Streshley said. Seats began filling up as soon as stores opened Thursday and Friday mornings; earlybirds grabbed the best vantage points. The fabled Stardust Race and Sports Book was still full Friday night as a diverse, raucous and sentimental St. Patrick's Day crowd counted down second-half clocks and slapped another coat of paint on the green felt jungle. "We've been pretty consistent both days, up and down," Eric Viggio, a Stardust night shift supervisor said. "We were a small winner Thursday and we'll see how these late games go tonight." The Stardust will fade into history later this year, a subject that was on the tip of everyone's lips at the Strip resort. "You have long-time customers who have been coming here for years," Viggio observed. "They're not upset, but many of them have had it in their plans each year to be here and suddenly that's changed. "A lot of people have been going nostalgic on us." Top-seeds Duke and UConn sputtered and failed to cover large pointspreads on Thursday, while Villanova fell ATS versus play-in game winner Monmouth and Memphis held off Oral Roberts, whose underdog numbers plunged considerably after opening at plus 16. The four No. 1s were 4-0 straight up, but 1-3 against the spread. "The public doesn't like betting the Dukes and UConns and laying the big pointspeads," Viggio continued. "They shy away from those games, so they were only small winners for us." The tournament saw a pair of 12s (Montana and Texas A&M) oust two No. 5s, two No. 11s (Oklahoma and George Mason) eliminate a pair of No. 6s and a No. 10 (Alabama) bump a No. 7. The stunner Friday, though, was Northwestern State's buzzer-beater triumph over Iowa. "Oh yeah," Viggio said. "You have a No. 14 seed taking out a No. 3. "That's the biggest surprise so far, by far." The North Carolina State-Californiagame was a "flop." "We opened Cal as a point favorite and North Carolina went off a 2-point choice," Viggio said. Bacellieri noted that even though Syracuse was a No. 5 and Texas A&M a No. 12, the game actually was pick'em. "That may have been regarded an upset from a seedings perspective, but from the oddsmaking view it was pick'em," he said. Nothing on Saturday's card caught Bacellieri's eye, but a Sunday game did: Bucknell, underdog victors over Arkansas, versus mighty Memphis. "I'll watch the number and see where it goes," he said, without tipping his hat. "Memphis should open as a 7, 7 1/2-point favorite." |
