Worst bad beats of week: Refunds that feel like losses

In one of the strangest weeks ever in the sports world, bets that will likely be refunded provided the biggest blows.

Here are our picks for the worst bad beats of the week:

5. Northeastern -9 (Monday)

The Huskies took control immediately in their Colonial Athletic Association semifinal against Elon and cruised to a 16-point halftime lead. The Phoenix got inside the number a couple of times in the second half, but Northeastern mostly maintained a double-digit lead and was up by 11 with 27 seconds left.

Elon’s Seth Fuller missed a 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining, and Northeastern’s Shaquille Walters corralled the rebound, seemingly ending the game. But Elon’s Hunter McIntosh was playing to the buzzer. He punched the ball away from behind, and Hunter Woods snagged it in the air and passed to Marcus Sheffield in the corner.

Sheffield rattled in a 3 with 10.6 seconds left, Northeastern dribbled out the clock, and Elon finished its season with a cover in a 68-60 loss.

4. Under 132½ Miami-Clemson (Wednesday)

It would have been hard for under backers to see this one coming.

Only 44 points were scored in the first half of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament game, allowing 88 points of cushion in the second half. There were 74 points scored with 10 minutes left, and 99 points with five minutes left.

With two minutes left, the game sat on 112 — still 20 points to play with.

Then it all went wrong. A flurry of points, including three 3-pointers, had the game up to 127 points (Clemson leading 68-59) with 30 seconds left.

Miami’s Dejan Vasiljevic scored with 18.1 seconds left, and under backers went from nervous to crushed in less than four seconds. Miami’s Isaiah Wong snagged the inbounds pass and hit a 3 to cut the lead to 68-64 with 14.5 seconds remaining, and the over was all but inevitable.

Two missed free throws offered one last cruel tease, but Clemson’s Aamir Simms made a foul shot with 10 seconds left to provide the Tigers the final margin of 69-64.

That’s 133 points, including 89 in the second half.

3. Baylor, Dayton and San Diego State futures

We’ll never know if any of these surprisingly elite teams would have cut down the nets in the NCAA Tournament. But bettors who bought into these upstarts early saw value-laden futures go up in smoke when the tournament was canceled Thursday because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Baylor opened as high as 500-1, and Dayton and San Diego State could be found at 1,000-1 at some shops.

All were projected to be top-two seeds in the tournament. What might have been.

2. Red Wings under 76½ points

Oddsmakers expected Detroit to be bad this season, and it was worse.

The Red Wings are a mere 17-49-5 this season for 39 points. If they won their final 11 games, they would finish with 61 points, 15½ under their preseason total.

But that appears to be a moot point now. Even if the NHL season resumes, it appears unlikely the entire regular season will be finished.

That means all season point total bets will be refunded, and bettors who knew Detroit would be awful get nothing but their money back.

1. Warriors under 47 wins

Golden State was a bit of a mystery coming into the season. The Warriors lost Kevin Durant to free agency and Klay Thompson to injury, but they still had Stephen Curry and Draymond Green leading a team that had been to five straight NBA Finals and won three titles.

However, any optimism disappeared when Curry broke his hand in the fourth game of the season.

Under bettors had a lock. The Warriors went from the best team in the NBA over the past five years to the worst, with a record of 15-50 when the season was halted, a maximum of 32 wins.

Now those bettors will likely just get their money back. Some other NBA win totals had been clinched, including over 32 for Oklahoma City (40-24) and over 27½ for Memphis (32-33), but Golden State probably stings the worst for bettors.

Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.