Columnist Jeff Haney: Many bettors ready to burn brackets

Wednesday, March 22, 2000 | 10:11 a.m.

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or haney@vegas.com

It's a different sport, but a fitting comparison.

For incurable chalk bettors (and their enablers), this past weekend felt like one long flashback to an infamous Sunday afternoon last September, when underdogs went 10-4 against the point spread in Week 1 of the NFL season.

The NCAA basketball tournament provided the tableau this time around, but the results were similar: plenty of beaten favorites, and once-promising parlay cards gone the way of Jackson State and Lamar.

There were 16 second-round tournament games played Saturday and Sunday, and underdogs covered the spread in 14 of them. 'Dogs won 11 of those games outright for good measure.

Score this round for the sports books.

"Whether it's football, baseball or basketball, most of the public bets on the favorites," said Joe Lupo, sports book director at the Stardust. "And we had many, many people in here over the weekend. It was like a football crowd, or a New Year's crowd -- the kind of crowd that's going to bet a lot of favorites."

Of course, America's growing fascination with the NCAA Tournament -- and with gambling -- means good business for Las Vegas sports books regardless of how favorites fare.

"People from all over the United States have been coming here for years for March Madness," Lupo said. "If you can't be at the game, this is considered the second-best place to be for the tournament."

At the Fiesta hotel-casino in North Las Vegas, which has one of the most popular locals-oriented sports books, the scene mirrored that on the Strip.

"We get a lot of people in here who you don't see the rest of the year," Fiesta sports book director Marc Nelson said. "They come in for the Super Bowl and the tournament, and those are the only times you see them."

Nelson said the underdogs' hot streak was a bonus for the house.

"Especially in a locals place, when so many favorites go down, 90 percent of the time you're going to have a good day," he said.

The stage was set for the underdogs' big weekend in a business-as-usual first round, in which no team seeded 12th or lower advanced -- meaning the tournament's mid-level and highly ranked teams were forced to face a better caliber of opponent in Round 2.

The two favorites who covered were Iowa State, which went off at minus 7 and beat Auburn 79-60; and Oklahoma State, a 6-point choice that eased past Pepperdine 75-67.

Totals betting was more equitable, with 10 overs and six unders in the second round.

Two of the most shocking covers also turned out to be straight-up wins for the underdogs: Seton Hall beat Temple in overtime as an 11 1/2-point underdog, and North Carolina surprised Stanford as an 8-point 'dog.

"Stanford losing and Temple losing were both very surprising, but there were so many games in which the underdogs covered that it's hard to single out any in particular," Lupo said.

Traditionally, NCAA "Cinderella" teams tend to run out of steam in the tournament's later rounds. But that's not stopping bettors from putting their money on UCLA, a No. 6 seed, or even Gonzaga, a No. 10 seed, in the Stardust futures book.

Gonzaga, which opened at 70-1 at the Stardust to win the tournament, is currently 20-1, while UCLA is an 8-1 shot at the north Strip resort.

"Gonzaga is a very popular team with the bettors, and one of the reasons is that the regional they're in has seen a lot of the top seeds fall," said Lupo.

In the West Regional, which includes Gonzaga, No. 1 Arizona, No. 2 St. John's and No. 3 Oklahoma have made early exits.

Michigan State is a 2-1 favorite at the Stardust to win the tourney, followed by Duke at 5-2 and Iowa State at 5-1.

Seton Hall is the longest shot on the board. The Pirates, a No. 10 seed in the East Regional who opened at 100-1, were listed at 35-1 this morning.

In the tournament semifinals Thursday and Friday, Lupo said the heaviest action was coming in on UCLA, down to a 1 1/2-point underdog against Iowa State; Gonzaga, up to a 2-point favorite over Purdue; and on both sides in the Michigan State-Syracuse game.

Bettors are backing UCLA and Louisiana State in the Fiesta futures book, according to Nelson.

"We've been getting quite a bit of play on UCLA," Nelson said. "They've been on fire lately."

* NOTABLE: The Imperial Palace sports book has posted odds on which player will hit the most regular-season home runs in the 2000 baseball season. Mark McGwire is a 2-1 favorite, followed by Sammy Sosa at 3-1 and Ken Griffey Jr. at 7-2. At 6-1 are Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle and the "field." A total of 25 players are on the board in addition to the field bet. ... One interesting possibility is San Francisco's Barry Bonds at 25-1 (down from 30-1). Bonds finished with 34 home runs last year despite missing nearly two months due to injuries. And the Giants' new stadium, Pacific Bell Park, appears much more hitter-friendly than 3Com Park. In fact, the right-field fence at Pac Bell stands just 307 feet from home plate, which could really help the left-handed Bonds. ... Pete Sampras is an 8-5 favorite to win the men's singles championship at Wimbledon, according to the Regent Las Vegas. Andre Agassi of Las Vegas is a 4-1 shot, and Yevgeny Kafelnikov is 6-1. On the women's side, Lindsay Davenport is 5-2, followed b y Venus Williams (7-2) and Martina Hingis (4-1). Wimbledon is set for June 26-July 9.