BRIEF SPORTS INTERLUDE
Lisa's happiest day edition

From the 1992 Simpsons episode "Lisa the Greek", in which Homer discovers that his daughter has an innate ability to pick the winners of NFL games:

The happiest day of my life was three Sundays ago. I was sitting on my daddy's knee when the Saints, who were four-and-a-half point favorites, but only up by three, kicked a meaningless field goal at the last second to cover the spread.
-- Lisa's essay, "The Happiest Day of My Life"

Yesterday I happened to watch the last 45 minutes of the NCAA semifinal basketball game between Duke and UConn. When I don't give a rat's ass who wins, my general rule is to root for the public school beating the private, thus, UConn. A free throw with 3.2 seconds left widened their lead to 4 points, effectively sealing the deal, giving the Huskies a shot at the national title, against Georgia Tech on monday. At the very last moment, Duke point guard Chris Duhon heaved a 40-foot desperation 3-pointer, which hit the backboard and, surprise surprise, went in, making the final score UConn 79, Duke 78. For a moment I had thought to myself, "I wonder if that 3-ball covered the spread", but since I didn't have a newspaper around, I let it pass.

But guess what:

It was a shot that meant nothing to some and everything to others.

When Duke senior Chris Duhon nailed a 38-foot three-point shot off one leg as time expired in the semifinal game against the University of Connecticut on Saturday night, the Blue Devils still lost the game. But to those who wagered on the blue and white, the fortuitous bank shot that made the final score 79-78 meant that the underdogs covered the spread, which was between two and three points.

Those who put money on the Huskies, who had a 12-point run late in the game to take the lead, suddenly had lost their bet. Those who put money on Duke to cover collected their winnings.

With approximately $100 million being bet on March Madness each year in Las Vegas and about $2.5 billion wagered online according to the FBI, the Duhon shot transferred anywhere from $30 million to $100 million from those who bet on UConn to cover the point spread to those who bet on Duke to cover, as estimated by those closely tied to the sports gambling business.

Since Duhon is a senior and will not be playing for the Blue Devils anymore (and probably isn't good enough to be a starting point guard in the NBA, otherwise he would've turned pro already), I'm sure he can relax and let various individuals from Vegas take him out to an endless string of fancy, congratulatory dinners, replete with lobster, cigars, and full-body massages, both with and without happy endings.

TFM isn't particularly interested in this year's NCAA Tournament, mostly because TFM has a level-7 case of Baseball Fever.