Boeheim, Syracuse have books feeling edgy

Not all underdog stories are heart warming for the masses. For many, Jim Boeheim coaching Syracuse to another Final Four makes skin crawl. His enemies call him a cheater and whiner. His friends just call him a whiner.

Still, he has been a winner for a long time, and he did win a few friends Sunday, when the Orange upset Virginia 68-62 to extend an improbable, long-shot run in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers were the third No. 1 seed to bite the dust over the weekend.

“It’s just a crazy year. It’s absolutely nuts,” William Hill sports book director Nick Bogdanovich said. “Any one of these teams can go down.”

Bogdanovich has said that all month. He said it before Michigan State, Kansas and Oregon went down, and he said it again while Virginia players were shedding tears. It remains to be seen if North Carolina, the sole surviving top seed, can be taken down.

So it’s a Final Four with three good-guy coaches — Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger, Villanova’s Jay Wright and the Tar Heels’ Roy Williams — and Boeheim in the black hat.

From a betting perspective, Syracuse is the team the bookmakers most want to see fall next weekend in Houston, and here’s why:

■ In early January, according to Westgate sports book director Jay Kornegay, four wagers, including one for $100, were placed on Syracuse at 1,000-1 odds to win the NCAA championship.

■ Two weeks ago, after the Orange slipped into the field of 68 as a No. 10 seed — much to the dismay of bracketology gurus and CBS analyst Doug Gottlieb — the Westgate posted Syracuse at 300-1 to win the title and William Hill posted 400-1 odds.

“Just a couple tickets at that number, no major dollars,” Bogdanovich said. “But Syracuse is our worst result.”

Orange backers appeared crushed when Virginia led 56-43 with 8½ minutes remaining. But Boeheim can make the right coaching adjustments on the fly and he knows X’s and O’s, so he sent full-court pressure at the Cavaliers, who committed turnover after turnover and suddenly could not crack Boeheim’s 2-3 zone.

Syracuse’s cause seemed so hopeless at times that its money-line price on William Hill’s live wagering soared as high as plus-1,600. One bettor wagered $350 at 14-1 odds and cashed for $4,900.

The Orange surged ahead 59-58 on Malachi Richardson’s layup with 5:51 to go. The stunning collapse of the Cavaliers, who closed as 8-point favorites, and their vaunted defense was complete.

“It was unreal watching Virginia melt down,” said Las Vegas handicapper Ken Thomson (SportsXradio.com). “When you have a double-digit lead, how does that happen to a veteran team?

“It’s not that Syracuse was not good enough to get on a run and compete, but with their body of work, they did not deserve to be in the tournament.”

Boeheim served a nine-game suspension this season as a result of an NCAA investigation. On Jan. 10, about the time that $100 wager was placed at the Westgate, Syracuse was 10-7 overall, 0-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and coming off an 84-73 loss to North Carolina. Boeheim had his team sitting at 19-13, with five losses in its last six games, going into Selection Sunday.

The Tar Heels are 9½-point favorites over the Orange on Saturday in Houston, where the NCAA will stage the most important games of the season in a football stadium with a poor shooting background, a factor handicappers must consider.

North Carolina was the only Elite Eight favorite to win, covering 9½ points in an 88-74 victory over Notre Dame on Sunday. Brice Johnson, the second-best player remaining in the tournament, totaled 25 points and 12 rebounds for the Tar Heels.

“Buddy Hield is the Steph Curry of college basketball right now,” Thomson said.

Hield will be the media star in Houston. He dropped 37 points as Oklahoma pounded Pac-12 champion Oregon 80-68 on Saturday. The Ducks, 1-point favorites, were blown out early but showed far more class in defeat than Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski did in the Sweet 16 round.

Ironically, Coach K became an expert on sportsmanship etiquette sometime after allowing his star player, Grayson Allen, to run around tripping opponents.

Kansas, the tournament’s top overall seed, suffered through its worst offensive outing of the season in a 64-59 loss to Villanova. But give the Wildcats credit for that, and the early money showed on Villanova as a 2-point favorite over the Sooners.

“Oklahoma didn’t look too shabby, either,” Bogdanovich said. “It looks like a dead pick’em game.”

On one side of the bracket, it’s Kruger, five years after leaving as UNLV coach, and Wright, a Rebels assistant in the early 1990s. It’s easy to root for both.

But lurking on the other side is Boeheim, a 71-year-old ’dog who just won’t go away and is threatening to beat 1,000-1 odds.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports betting columnist Matt Youmans can be reached at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. He co-hosts “The Las Vegas Sportsline” weekdays at 2 p.m. on ESPN Radio (1100 AM). Follow on Twitter: @mattyoumans247