NCAA Men’s Basketball: Elite 8 begins
Uh, we’re at Jody’s Club Forest in Staten Island, New York. I mean, I think when people talk about starting it, we didn’t, it wasn’t the brackets we started, we just started ***, *** winner from each region and you know, the champion and total points. From what I was told *** million times, you know, from my father, you know, before he passed was. That you know they were just hanging one day and he was *** creative guy and you know he would like to come up with some things to add business in *** way so that was his whole beginning of it and the first year they did it it was 1977 and there were 88 people to get in it and it was at $10 *** ticket. So the total prize was $880 in 1977. The word of mouth just really took it to *** level where we never in *** million years would have ever imagined where it got. Our last year was 2006. We had 1.6 $160,000. That final prize was $1.6 million. The day, the cutoff day for submitting tickets was as big as any other holiday around here. And Saint Patty’s Day is *** big day around here, but I mean it was, everybody came out, wives, you know, families came out. It was *** good time. Did you know? I used to have *** table lined up along the back and you’d have people collecting money collecting money and there were multiple different people, you know, we had elected officials getting in it we had, you know, we had which we knew everyone knew everyone was getting in it like, you know, Mike and the Mad Dog were getting in like people were like, that’s how popular it was like we were getting calls from California, uh, when the war was going on in Iraq. They were, there were tickets being sent to Iraq. In December of ’06, we were, uh, it was like *** Tuesday morning I believe, and two agents came in. They questioned my dad about running the pool and this and that and they said you’re under investigation. Um, fast forward, um, I would say about right then and there the pool was over. There wasn’t even *** debate amongst. My parents like, oh we’re gonna run it, we’re not gonna run it. We were, it was over right there, right that day in December. Now you could look up on the TV and I can watch *** game and my son could say, what’s Vandule and what’s this and that, like, to me, it’s just like. That’s crazy because gambling is just so accepted now. I’ve been asked like if we would ever start it up again. I just don’t even know if I could, could legally do it. I don’t, you know, but if I did it, it would, I think it would skyrocket right away. Yeah.
NCAA Men’s Basketball: Elite 8 begins
Updated: 11:56 PM EDT Mar 29, 2025
The Big Dance takes another step forward.
Elite 8 action started Saturday evening with two exciting matchups.
1Walter Clayton Jr. rescued top-seeded Florida with two late 3-pointers, and the Gators rallied from nine points down late to reach the Final Four with an 84-79 victory over Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region final.
The Gators trailed 75-66 with less than three minutes to play before staging a furious rally against the third-seeded Red Raiders, who had done the same in the Sweet 16 against Arkansas.
Clayton dribbled out of the paint and hit a fadeaway 3 with 59 seconds left to give Florida a 78-77 lead, and the Gators held on from there.
The game was tight most of the way with neither team able to build a lead bigger than six points for the first 30 minutes as Texas Tech capitalized on turnovers and second-chance points and Florida repeatedly got to the foul line.
Clayton got fouled twice on 3-pointers early in the second half, leading to five points on the six foul shots.
The Red Raiders went on a 12-2 run to go up by 10 but couldn’t hold on late.
2Duke’s stream of NBA-ready standouts used smothering defense and other options on offense to paper over Cooper Flagg’s rough shooting night and lift the Blue Devils to the program’s 18th Final Four with an 85-65 victory over Alabama.
Flagg made only six of 16 shots, including a brick that got stuck in the flange of the rim, but still finished with 16 points. Kon Knueppel, another potential lottery pick, led the Blue Devils with 21 points.
Alabama failed to crack 70 points for only the second time this season.
Khaman Maluach scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and Duke shot 53.6% despite its best player’s rough night.
Flagg was hardly bad in this one. He had nine rebounds, three assists and one mega-block that sent Mouhammed Dioubate’s floater flying over press row.
