What’s better than March Madness? March Madness in Las Vegas

There is no better sporting event in the world that allows you to get together will your buddies or coworkers, put a couple bucks on the line and see who is the smartest (or luckiest) in predicting winners. The only thing that may come close to March Madness is fantasy football.

I thought March Madness couldn’t get any better. You take the day off from work, head down to Slugger’s with your buddies and watch the Day 1 first round games. Well, I learned for the first time what it seems thousand upon thousands of others already know. March Madness in Las Vegas is a no brainer. In fact, I don’t know why anyone would not go to Vegas to watch the NCAA tournament.

I spent the first five days of the tournament bouncing between Caesar’s Palace, The Venetian and The Flamingo – fueled by a steady diet of Bud in a bottle and Camel Lights in a box. It was the sports bettor’s Mecca. The sports books carry every game and most of the bars in the casinos set up the feeds so you don’t miss all the action (unless you’re in the Shadow Bar in Caesar’s Palace trying to watch the Purdue vs. Washington game … ahem).

Which brings me to the CBS telecast of the tournament. All in all, they do a fabulous job if you’re stuck with one TV without the Direct TV feed. What some enterprising billionaire needs to fund is CBS March Madness telecast for gamblers. If you had Kansas -10 against North Dakota State in the first round, you were stuck watching the tiny scoreboard at the top of the screen in the closing seconds to see whether or not Kansas would cover. The Jayhawks hit their free throws in the waning moments of the game and pushed, 84-74, but I didn’t see it.

Same thing with the second round game with Xavier and Wisconsin. I spent the last three minutes of the game refreshing my cell phone screen to see if Xavier would cover because CBS was busy with the Arizona game. The telecast could be anchored by guys who keep you up to date with the current spreads and money lines, along with the usual statistical analysis and treads. Instead of cutting away to watch the games that are close, they’d cut away to games where a team is in danger of not covering or to the games where the over/under is in range.

Until then, I have no recourse but to watch the first and second rounds in Vegas from now on. Bummer.