Bubble watch (& Gotham Stakes)

Two weeks from tonight -- Selection Sunday!

Where are we on our brackets and bubbles?

First, I have to open with this -- Purdue for a bid?  They beat Wisconsin in Madison today.  Handily.  Isn't that good enough?

Of course not.  But I had to put it out there.

Let's look at top seeds -- it was a bad week for my four.  Indiana, Duke and Miami all lost.

I'm going to stick with the one who didn't lose -- Louisville.  Every seems to be jumping on the Georgetown bandwagon, and, yes, they are hot.  But Louisville will beat them in the Big East tournament.  Or not play them.  Georgetown, as has been their habit for years, goes cold on offense too much.

I'm keeping IU, even with the loss at Minnesota.

I'm picking up Gonzaga.

And sticking with Miami.  A two point loss at Duke doesn't bother me.  Duke's loss at Virginia on Thursday does.

Although it does help Virginia, who we've been watching.

We've also been watching Temple and LaSalle, who look safely inside the bubble.  Maybe one will get to play in Philly opening weekend.

Villanova is right now designated to play the play-in game v. Kentucky, who lost yesterday and maybe shouldn't make the tournament.  Their loss today at Pitt doesn't hurt, but it was a chance to help.  They didn't help.

Our other watchee is Maryland.  The loss on Wednesday to Georgia Tech hurts; they shouldn't have lost that game.  They finish with North Carolina (not your father's big blue) and UVA, winners over Duke last week.  Two wins might push the Terps into field.  Might...

Our other watchee is Valpo.  Still one game up in the Horizon.  But no one seems to think there are two bids out of the conference & the Crusaders are seeded 13 or 14 in the proposed brackets.  They aren't in till they have the automatic bid.  Or not.

Now, about yesterday at the Gotham.

If you followed this blog, you would not have bet successfully yesterday.  None of my "longish shots" won in 11 races, and Overanalyze, who seemed to stumble or step sideways at the top of the stretch and  lose his mo, hurt the Gotham picks.

But I hedged some and had Vyjack in a couple of exotics that paid poorly, but put me ahead for the day.

It was a day of favorites winning -- so much so the three day Pick 6 pool ended up paying less than $5,000.  It's not like Vyjack was a long shot.  Though the exotic tickets with the other longshots down the ticket were worth having.

Now we look to the Wood.  The post-race interviews have both Vyjack and West Hills Giant returning.  We'll see if Overanalyze can return, too.  Along with several other interesting imports.

Looks like a great race, just four weeks ahead of the Derby.