While I’m not sure you can call a go-ahead shot hit with over one minute left on the clock a game-winner, when St Mary’s upset Villanova earlier today, Mickey McConnell’s bank-shot 3-pointer with 1:16 left in the game was indeed a dagger. Or a back-breaker. Or one of the bigger display of “ONIONS” you’ll see today.

McConnell’s unlikely shot was aided by a slick, little crossover that left his defender flat-footed. It’s things like McConnell’s deadly three that makes March such an awesome time of the year.

In other news, how good is St Mary’s? After smoking Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tournament final, the Gaels have to be one of the hottest teams in college basketball. While Villanova got close down the stretch, it was clear which team earned the “better” designation. While St Mary’s will now be embraced as the 2010 Tournament’s Cinderella, that has as much to do with the fact the Gaels are an unknown commodity.

For those of you who at least watched the WCC final, their success shouldn’t be so surprising.

March Madness betting continues on Saturday and it’ll get us started with a busy weekend of sport betting action.  We’ll have more college hoops later today and tomorrow, as well as our betting analysis of Sunday’s UFC event.   In this post we’ll take a look at a 12:20 Pacific start game between Murray State and Butler.  Murray State upset Vanderbilt to advance to this game, while #5 seeded Butler took care of UTEP.  And once again we’ve got a cheerleader picture that the cropped version simply doesn’t do justice to–you can click here for the full sized photo.

MURRAY STATE VS. BUTLER:

Before the NBA trade deadline on the February 18th, the Cleveland Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry pulled the trigger on deal that would bring All-Star caliber forward Antawn Jamison to Cleveland. In exchange for Jamison, the Cavs sent big man Zydrunas Ilgauskas to the Washington Wizards where he never played a single minute and was eventually bought out and made a free agent.

One of the main reasons for making this deal, besides the fact that Jamison could be the missing piece to the championship puzzle for the Cleveland Cavaliers, is that that Cavs knew the Wizards would just buyout Big Z which would make him a free agent and available for Cleveland to sign in 30 days time.

The end of the NBA season is right around the corner and there has been a lot of speculation about what will happen this summer when some of the league’s biggest names like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh become free agents and are available to the highest bidder.

The one player that has gotten most of the attention, and rightfully so, is LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers as he is the arguably the best all around player in the NBA right now and could easily change a playoff team into a title contender. Despite LeBron almost certainly going into this summer without signing an extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers, there only seems to be a handful of teams that could actually afford to sign him to the kind of money he is worth. The New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat look like they could be the possible destinations for the league’s leading scorer, but LeBron has yet to give any hint that he is leaning towards any of these teams.

March Madness betting continues this evening as the first round of action comes to a close.  We’ll have more March Madness betting this weekend along with NBA, NHL, NASCAR and MMA.  For now, we’ll take a look at 9:55 Eastern/6:55 Pacific start time game between Louisville and California.  This morning all of the sports media was in a lather over the dismal first day performance of the Big East.  That’ll be the ‘hook’ among lazy sports media types for at least the next few days, and whenever a Big East team does something right they’ll talk about how they’ve avoided the ‘jinx’ that befell Georgetown, Marquette and Notre Dame on opening day.  They’ll wring their hands about how Villanova barely escaped Robert Morris–a very good mid-major program that could be to this decade what the College of Charleston was under John Kresse during the 1990’s.  There’s nothing wrong with the Big East, other that they were the beneficiary of the crooked NCAA selection process that gave them more bids than they deserved.   Louisville may not have really deserved a bid, finishing at 20-12 overall and 6th in the Big East but now that they’re here look for them to win a few games.  Cal finished first in the Pac 10 with a 23-10 record overall.