Betting on college basketball is always a bit terrifying, whether you’re betting sides or totals, and it is the sport that most consistently produces horrendous beats late in games.
There are a few reasons for that. You have the crazy number stoppages we tend to see in college hoops that make the final two minutes of games take forever to play, the propensity to play the foul game early to extend things which only adds to that, and the general unreliability of 18-22 year olds to make good decisions (which is not unique to the basketball court, of course). On Wednesday night in Morgantown, we got an all-timer as the West Virginia Mountaineers hosted the Cincinnati Bearcats as 3.5-point favorites and after a hard-fought game, it looked like the home team was going to cruise to Covertown after pulling ahead by nine late.
And then, this happened.
— 🤙🤙🤙 (@burnacity2025) February 20, 2025
Cincinnati banks in a prayer of a three to cut it to six with 7.9 seconds to play, but all the Mountaineers need to do is get the ball inbounds and they’ll get fouled. Naturally, they lob up a wild pass that gets tipped out and eventually leads to another three to make it a three-point game with 4.5 seconds to play. Now they’re not covering, but again, just get the ball inbounds and you’ll be going to the free throw line. Instead they go for the ol’ pass to the corner inbounds that hits off a Mountaineer’s hands and goes back out of bounds for a turnover.
At this point, you’re actually hoping for Cincy to hit a three to force overtime to keep your chances alive, but of course the magic has run out for the Bearcats by this point and their best look at a three goes begging of the iron and the clock runs out for a 3-point West Virginia win just to make it hurt even more.
