A Reflection on Inflections with Anthony Cashman : America East Tourney

Sterile, quick, and clean has become a majority of our communication thanks to the digital medium.  Texts and emails transfer the data we wish but not in enough dimensions.  It takes a great deal of time and correspondence to tell how one person uses an ! while another might just use it in passing.  Passion and emotion are often missing.  This robs us of a dimension of excitement and interest that say a phone call, Skype, or a face to face can provide.  I had one such occasion yesterday to reflect on inflections with an America East expert deep in New England.

Before We Begin – Rehash

Two items of note roared to our attention yesterday.

• Our Patriot league companion nailed Holy Cross on the head with a double digit win beating the spread easily.
• -500 on Tampa Bay in the NHL.

The Lightning line interrupted the normal conversation at lunch.  This NHL line against the lowly Sabres caused us to pause. -500 in a regular season hockey game.  Merits or not, could this much chalk be profitable in the long run.  We could not come up with a rationlization to break money management rules by laying 500 to win 100 in a regular season game.  Even though TB won 3 – 0, we were not trapped in hindsight bias in saying “yes we saw this!”  We sat on the side lines and are convinced that this was the proper play.

Six Long Years

2009 was the last time the number one seed one the America East tourney.  This got our fingers tapping and we reached out. A tiny burg called Colchester is where we found our Vermont expert.  He expressed dismay at the large spreads for the top three seeds in their opening round games.  -20 and – 18 1/2 for the top two make it almost worth your while taking the points.  Few teams want to avalanche their foes in the post season tourney but with garbage time this is more dart throwing than he likes.  However he points to where two all conference players butt heads tonight.  Cody Joyce for UMBC has double digits in scoring in all but one of his games.  Vermont has Ethan O’Day that can score, board, rebound, and block shots. He shoots near 58 percent from the floor but Joyce should pose enough of a presence inside to contest shots.  The under is rarely glamorous but makes money none the less.  He sees a low scoring affair and he advises the under 121 1/2.

• UMBC at Vermont 7PM Under 121 1/2

Had this been in an email, it might have been put on the back burner.  Having that short phone conversation, this man was talking a tad faster than he normally does.  His pitch was off a little like he could not hold himself in.  It was excitement like sharing a stock tip with a close friend.  This is what is missing from those sterile emails and what will make us money tonight.