Three years ago, just about to the day, I was in an Italian restaurant south of the Las Vegas strip when I won money on Bucknell - but not how you're thinking.
I don't bet on sports, period.
But some giddy patron at the bar at the Bootlegger Bistro obviously did, and he had just cashed in on Bucknell's miracle win as a No. 14 seed over Kansas in the opening round of March Madness. Loud enough to be heard over the piano, he lavished generous praise on those gutsy, undermanned Bison.
Just one thing bothered him, though. He had no idea where his new favorite university was even located and offered $20 to anyone who did.
With a sportswriter's grip on geography, I piped up: "Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, just south of Interstate 80."
I didn't take the 20 bucks. Too easy.
But it was an instructive experience on the immediate, if shallow, loyalties sports fans develop to basketball teams across the nation at this time of year.
If you have Texas-Arlington or Austin Peay or Siena as an upset winner among your bracket picks, well, you're cheering your heart out for the Mavericks or the Governors or the Saints.
In the next couple of days, the consuming madness for March will hit Las Vegas like a tidal wave. The sports books will be packed to the rafters.
"It's different from the pro football championship because people start showing up at the sports book early that day and they're certainly excited, but it's over in one day," said Robert Walker, sports and race book director for MGM Mirage casinos.
"With the tournament, the sports books all along the Strip will be packed from Thursday morning to Sunday afternoon. It's four solid days of craziness."
The first shot to be fired in what will be a nonstop volley of sports wagering will involve two local schools - Coppin State playing Mount St. Mary's tonight in the play-in game in Dayton, Ohio. The point spread on that has the Mount as a 7- to 7 1/2 -point favorite.
The winner has the distinction of playing North Carolina in the first round, and Walker figures the survivor will be a 30-point-or-so underdog. Right now, either one of them is a 5,000-1 shot to win the national championship.
Those are about the longest odds you can get on just about any sports event in a Vegas casino.
UMBC, by virtue of its No. 15 seed, has slightly better odds for winning the whole thing - 3000-1. The Retrievers are 17-point underdogs (give or take a half-point) in their tournament opener against Georgetown on Friday.
At the other end of the spectrum at the MGM Mirage casinos, UCLA is the favorite for the tournament at 3-1, followed by North Carolina (4-1), Kansas (5-1) and Memphis (6-1).
The big-money wagers won't start rolling in until the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight, Walker said. After all, who's going to risk a ton of dough on Memphis vs. Texas-Arlington when the point spread is 25 and Memphis would probably pull its starters when it gets ahead by 32?
But the first few days of the tournament at the end of this week are a "frat party," Walker said.
"It's $100, $50 bettors, even $20, but they'll take the game, the first-half [score] and again at halftime," Walker said. "They're here to see all the games and for the action."
bill.ordine@baltsun.com
