00:00Glad to have you with us here on a Friday afternoon. Mike is away today. I am the Bulldog.
00:04Joining us now on the Western Hotline is our good friend Sam Panionovich, Sammy P from the
00:10Chicken Dinner Sports Wagering Podcast. Sam, what's going on? I feel like it's been a few
00:16weeks for me. I was not here last week and I don't know, maybe you were away the week before.
00:21I feel like it's been a minute. How are you? I feel like I'm here every Friday, but yeah,
00:25it's been a couple of weeks for us. Yeah, I agree. I'm trying to pull the room right now.
00:31I just got to the bar. I'm back in Chicago. I'm trying to pull the room on what bet they
00:36like tonight in college basketball and then we just go the other way.
00:42We are, it is that time of the year. The room, you guys made the room somewhat notorious
00:49on your previous incarnation. I'm sure the room has continued to be the subject of derision
00:55on the Chicken Dinner Podcast as well. And this is a time of the year where the room
01:00really shows up, is it not? Because what do most people do with college basketball?
01:06I'm sure there are, of course, fans who watch it all year long feverishly, but the vast
01:12majority of us are like, oh, there's conference tournaments on during the day while I'm at work?
01:16Cool. All right, let's go. Oh, I like this team. Time to wager, right? And that's probably
01:22not the best way to do it. No, it's not. But it's okay. I mean, you never want to be
01:27that person that gets late to the party. And it could be a betting party. It could be
01:32a music party, a drinking party, whatever. You want to get there early. You want to set up shop,
01:37right? But I think there are a lot of people that sort of deter the market because they start
01:42watching games this week. And they have all their assumptions made and they have all their dots
01:48connected because they've watched four days of college basketball and they have all the answers.
01:54So there's a game tonight, you know, it's in the ACC. Virginia is, you know, a top 10 team in
02:00the
02:00country. But if you look at the market, Bulldog, you know, most of the bets, like seven of every 10
02:06bets are on Virginia. The line opened four and a half. The line is now three and a half against
02:12Miami.
02:13So while all the bets, the physical bets are on Virginia, the line has moved against Virginia.
02:21So that it just tells you market wise that there's respected play on Miami. Now, look, I mean, we did
02:27we bet Miami? Yes. I, you know, I think, I think the game should be closer to a pick them.
02:34But people will watch what Virginia has done. And most importantly, people will look at the rankings
02:39and all Virginia's 10th and Miami's unranked. And I only got to lay three and a half or four. So
02:46it's a very casual appetite when we get to conference weekend, because most bettors,
02:52they sweat and grind college football and the NFL. They do it from the end of August through the
02:58Super Bowl. And then when that's done, it's like, oh, now what? Oh, oh, now I know college basketball.
03:04And it's just, it's not that easy to pick it up this late in the game.
03:07Well, I know we obviously don't get brackets until Sunday. And then the tournament fires,
03:13you know, well, whatever, there's the play in games, but Thursday, Friday, the traditional,
03:16you know, start of the tournament. And we're, we've got games in Buffalo on Thursday and Saturday
03:21here. Mike and I are doing our show from a casino downtown next Thursday while the games
03:25will be going on. So that should be a fun time. What can we do right now with that without
03:31having
03:31the bracket yet? Like, can I, can I pick final four teams already? Can I like, and is there anything
03:36you like sweet 16 or is that stuff all wait until the brackets are out?
03:41No, you can bet this stuff. Now it's fluid. Let me raise your like to love. I love Houston to
03:48make
03:48the final four. Houston's my squad this year. They're so good defensively and they've got,
03:54you know, a top five pick at point guard. They've got size, speed, length all over the court. They guard
04:00the hell out of you. But all you hear about is Michigan and Duke and Arizona. And that's fine.
04:06But that also sort of inflates the market on those teams. So I think Houston at two to one
04:11to make the final four is a really good bet. And I love this bullet because I'll send,
04:16I'll send a bet to my buddies at, at two to one, like plus 200. And they're like, ah, I
04:22want more.
04:22And I'm like, that's me. I'm, I'm, I'm this guy. Right. But like, if you're betting a point
04:31spread or a total, you're laying minus one 10 every bet. Right. So you'll lay minus one 10,
04:36but Oh, two to one's not good enough. Like I just, I think it's so funny guys get in their
04:41heads and all that. I think Houston to make the final four, you can find like a plus two
04:45or five right now on the Cougars. I think they are bound to make the final four. All right.
04:50I'm, I am filing that away. Uh, I will do what I can do there. What is going to happen
04:55to Miami of Ohio after they lost for the first time? Are they not going to get in?
04:59They should get in the bubble. So soft this year. I, I don't have a hot take for you. Um,
05:05and you didn't prep me on this question. I, I think if you go 31 and Oh, you should make
05:12the tournament. Now I do agree to, I mean, like, can you imagine a 31 and one team not making
05:18the tournament, like how dumb does that sound on the surface? Um, no, no, where do you see
05:24them? Look, here's, I think what they're going to do. I think they might put them in the, uh,
05:27the first four games. They might be one of those 11 seeds, you know, that plays on Tuesday or
05:33Wednesday. And that's fine. Like, but you should, if a team goes 31 and Oh man, how, how do you
05:40not
05:40make a field of 68? I think that's a good question. It's a good question. And my answer,
05:47I think should be, they have to be in. Uh, so I, I just know that I saw some, you
05:52know,
05:52like, Oh no, they may not make it. So I hope you're right. Uh, we'll see where it all goes.
05:57Sam Pani out of its chicken dinner, sports wagering podcast host co-host on the Western
06:02hotline with me here on WGR. So the, it was another week where our buddy Greg Wyshynski
06:08with ESPN.com, their senior hockey writer, he's been posting, I don't know if he's doing it
06:12monthly or, or bi-weekly or what it is, but sort of forecasting the NHL awards market and still
06:22polling. I don't think it's voters. I think it's just cause it's, I think it's a different
06:27group that votes for coach of the year than what, who he's polling. But anyway, John Cooper
06:32still, according to that information is the leader for coach of the year. What are the betting
06:39odds telling us about Lindy Ruff and John Cooper? Cause I think those are the only two options,
06:43right? Well, when we talked last week, Mike and I, we were talking about Lindy Ruff is
06:47the even money favorite to win. And then we all saw the game last week, right? I mean,
06:54what a game, huh? I'm sure you guys talked about that for three days. Pretty much. The
06:58Sabres beat Tampa. Three days. I'm still trying today. Yeah. You're still trying to like, Oh,
07:04I should probably shower again after watching that shootout. I don't, I don't, I don't
07:09understand how, and we've, you and I have talked about this before. Tampa Bay was one of the
07:15favorites to win the East. Like they, they should be good. Buffalo was supposed to be a fringe
07:23playoff team. If that is that. So I, I don't know. Like I, I understand, you know, the rankings
07:30and the columns and all that, but the betting odds still have Lindy favored and we have, what
07:35do we have? Seven to one on Lindy right now? Yeah. That's what I believe. I mean,
07:39you're the one who made the bet, but I'm pretty sure it was seven to one. I lose track. I
07:42mean,
07:43there's so many bets in so little time. Yeah. Well, like you, Mike and I have, we have a bet
07:47on Lindy. And I remember I was, I was standing outside a bar in Boston as I usually am on
07:51Friday.
07:52And I'm like, why are we not talking about Lindy at seven to one? And so now he's even money.
07:58So, you know, the $10, we bet wink, wink to win 70. Now you got to bet 10 to win
08:0510. So I think
08:06we relatively speaking, have a good bet. I just, the Buffalo Sabres could be one of the
08:11best teams in the East and it came out of nowhere. How does that guy not win the award?
08:15I don't know. There's a, there's a sentiment around NHL circles that John Cooper, the Tampa
08:20coach, they've, they've, they've, they've won in one and one. They've been almost, almost
08:24a dynasty, a two final two, two cup wins in a row. Um, he's a great coach, team Canada's
08:30coach. If you want that to, um, and he's never won coach of the year. So it kind of
08:35became a thing where it's like, Oh, it's career achievement time. Uh, you know, let's give
08:41it to Cooper this year because the team, you know, one of the best teams coaches never
08:45wins it. Um, so we'll give it to him. And I think what I think we might need Sam to
08:51cinch
08:51it is just simply whichever team wins the division and the Sabres have a two point lead in that
08:57department right now. Tampa still has a couple of games in hand, so that's not ideal. But
09:02I think if, if the Sabres come out on top, I would predict that we'll win our bet. And
09:07if he doesn't, I think it could be real touchy, but also like not to draw a direct comparison,
09:13but to me, John Cooper is sort of the Andy Reed of the NHL. He's got one of the best
09:21teams
09:22in the league every year. He's got multiple hall of famers. He's got all stars everywhere.
09:26Yep. You know, you could coach Tampa Bay and they make the playoffs, right? I think what
09:33Lindy has done. And again, I'm a, I'm an adopted Buffalo diehard hockey fan here. I don't, I
09:40don't know how Tampa's story is better than Buffalo's story. Big picture. Yeah. I agree.
09:46I think we'll, we'll see how that evolves here over the next month. We got just about a month
09:51to go in the regular season. Um, so we'll see moving on quickly. I wanted to
09:56pick your brain a little bit about major league baseball division winner futures. I mean,
10:02we're, we're closing in on the beginning of the season. The world baseball classic is going
10:06on. I was looking at the odds today and found it, I guess not surprising, but if people haven't
10:12looked yet, the Dodgers are like minus six 50 to win the NL West and everybody else is close
10:18like plus money and maybe Seattle is like minus one Oh five, but everybody else, you know, all
10:23the other divisions, even the favorite is plus money. The Dodgers are just that good. That's
10:28pretty stunning to me. They're just so stacked. And I think there'll be a lot of people, but
10:33the books are doing there is they're, they're dealing you the Dodgers. So you don't bet them
10:37because people don't want to lay, you know, the average better doesn't want to lay seven to
10:41win one. That's boring. They want to bet one to win 15. So what they're doing there fundamentally
10:48is just sort of, they're trying to guide you toward a bet on San Diego or Arizona or San
10:54Francisco or whatever. Like they want you to bet those teams because they, they know the
10:58Dodgers are going to win that the two sharp bets that I've heard so far are on the Detroit
11:03Tigers to win the central and granted they're, they're favored, but we've seen some sharp bets
11:08on Detroit. And then there have also been some bets, man, on the Cincinnati reds to win the
11:14NL central. Now the two teams that everybody talks about are the Cubs and the Brewers. And
11:20then Paul skeins helps the pirate flavor, but there have been some sharp bets on the Cincinnati
11:26reds to win the national league central in Las Vegas. How do you like the AL East?
11:33I mean, I'd probably, I can't bet the Yankees. That's Yankees, Jays, Red Sox are all pretty
11:42close. I think when I looked, I, I don't love this bet. I mean, I would sprinkle a little
11:48bit on Boston. I think Boston over 86 and a half is a decent bet. You're always going to
11:53pay the Yankee tax. And of course, Toronto just went to the world series. So everybody likes
11:58Toronto. I think Boston can be a 90 win team that might like, well, I'm not miss the playoffs,
12:05but I think Boston over 86 and a half is a good bet. I don't have a division bet for
12:10you.
12:10I think you fade the Yankee hype and the blue J hype and bet over the Red Sox win total.
12:16All right. Sounds good, Sam. Appreciate it very much. Love you making time when you're back home
12:21in Chicago, anything we need to know, like how often is the chicken dinner showing up? And I just
12:26want to make sure we're doing our best to hold up, uh, hold up our end of our relationship
12:30here. Sure. Yeah. We got a Sunday selection, Sunday spaces coming up this weekend. We're
12:35going to talk about the brackets and the lines. Once the bracket comes out, we're going to
12:38have a show up on Tuesday and, uh, we, uh, we bet Miami tonight, bulldog plus four against
12:46Virginia. Understood. And you're, and you're headed for Vegas for the start of the tournament.
12:49Are you not? Yeah. When we talk next week, I'll be in Vegas. Well, that will be fun. I'm
12:54sure. Sam, thanks for this. Appreciate it very much. And, uh, have a good visit in Chicago.
12:58Thanks buddy. See ya. That's everybody. Sam Paniatovich, chicken dinner. You find that
13:02on, uh, social media sites.
