What Does It Feel Like to Lose $1,000 On A Missed FT?

Not good. Nooootttt goooood. I can tell you that.

So, as you may know by now, Nik Stauskas – that yellow bellied, weak kneed Canadian loser – is dead to me.

Dead!

All he needed to do, was sink two calm free throws (Mr. 82%! My sweet ass!) and my otherwise rock solid bet of Michigan -2.5 vs. Tennessee would be saved like a superhero swooping in to grab the lovely lady before she fell to her death.

Nope.

So how did that feel, you ask? Interestingly, not as bad as I might have thought. For one thing, I didn’t need the G to pay my rent. For another thing, if I had WON that bet, I would have likely just squandered it anyway before we left Vegas.

In short, a $1,000 bet wasn’t going to change my life, or even my monthly balance sheet, in any significant way.

So why bet that much?

Because my BIG MOUTH got the better of me prior to our departure for CzabeVegas and I made a boast/promise that I would go “One LARGE” on a single game.

Stupid.

It wasn’t like some binding contract. I could have just weaseled down to $500. Or $100. Hell, I never bet that much money on ANYTHING. I play $10 blackjack, $15 if I have no other options, and on a rare occasion will squeamishly sit at a $20 table.

But I really DID like Michigan minus that “short” line, and it looked as golden as their uniforms for much of the game. The lead ballooned to 15 at one point, and there were plays where Michigan threw away easy layups on 3-on-1 breaks, or gave up uncontested layups.

I started to think: “What if this thing unravels entirely?”

The second half saw Beilein’s boys get way too passive, on both ends. Trouble, I thought. It didn’t help that it seemed like the Wolverines entire defensive strategy was to try to draw charges. Fail. One after another. Blocking foul. Blocking foul. Blocking foul.

Hell, by the time Tennessee had to foul on purpose, Michigan was NOWHERE NEAR THE BONUS! I mean, how often do you ever see a team leading by double digits, NOT get into the bonus in the second half when the trailing team is playing in desperation, usually fouling at a higher rate than normal?

Then, there were 4 straight turnovers late. Including an utterly inexplicable NON-reversal of an out-of-bounds play in which to my eyes, it was CLEAR that the Tennessee batted the ball out of bounds.

So much for replay “getting it right.” I guess the easy fallback of “inconclusive evidence” is already here in full force in college basketball replay.

Still, I had a golden moment at the end. Dead-eye shooter on the line. 2 seconds left. No reason to make one, miss one (as what happened with Gary Harris Jr. to AGAIN screw me on Michigan State -2.5 later in the night). He needed both. He wanted both.

But he missed the second.

Bastard.

But hey, my fault. No need to bet that much money. Lesson learned. A $1,000 lesson. A $1,000 “story” to tell for years to come.

I’ll just print up a little “payment” booklet for $25 a month, like a car payment. Mail it to myself every month to remind me – as Furio so famously cautioned – “bet wit yo head, no o’er it!”

The silver lining of the entire debacle is simple: never again. I will never again bet that much money on anything. I don’t need to. Like I said, I am a working man with 2 daughters who need college educations and will get married someday. $1k on a game, win or lose, is nothing in the big picture. So why even bother!?

I’d say $100 per game is more than enough to have some juice, and add some thrill.

But Stauskas, you are still dead to me. Sorry. It’s the way it has to be.