Louisville tried its best to give away another game. The Cardinals survived, but their bettors were stuck with a losing ticket. After [blowing a 23-point lead to Duke](https://www.betchicago.com/duke-stunning-comeback-at-louisville-live-line-bettors-win) with 9:17 to play on Wednesday (and a 10-point second-half lead in an overtime loss at Florida State the game before that), the 16th-ranked Cardinals gifted Clemson a chance to win at the buzzer, but 4.5-point spread was cooked at that point by a series of other bonehead plays for head coach Chris Mack's team. <a href="https://twitter.com/espn/status/1096853501710348289" class="embedly-card" data-card-width="100%" data-card-controls="0">Embedded content: https://twitter.com/espn/status/1096853501710348289</a> __MORE:__ [How the field of potential field of 68 is doing ATS](https://www.betchicago.com/ncaa-tournament-odds-betting-field-ats) | [NCAA teams to fade into March](https://www.betchicago.com/ncaa-tournament-2019-teams-bet-against) ## Clemson-Louisville bad beat Louisville (18-8, 9-4 ACC, 14-10-2 against the spread) won 56-55 after being up 55-47 with 35 seconds left. So what the heck happened? Well, Clemson hit a basket on the ensuing possession to make it 55-49. Louisville's Jordan Nwora then inexplicably threw the ball to nobody on the inbound pass. Clemson (15-10, 5-7, 11-14 ATS), which has its work cut out to get a tournament bid (though that's a story for another day) scooped it up, but that possession didn't even result in points. Louisville got the ball back with 21 seconds left up by six, so Clemson then had to foul. [Steven Enoch](http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/3934623/steven-enoch), an 83 percent free-throw shooter this season, missed the first and hit the second to make it 56-49 with 17 seconds to play. Remember, the spread was Louisville -4.5 (after opening -6). Clemson senior guard Marcquise Reed knocked down a 3 to make it a four-point game with nine seconds left. Still, all Louisville bettors needed was for the Cardinals to knock down two free throws and hope Clemson missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds. Nope. Louisville junior Dwayne Sutton got trapped in the backcourt by two Clemson defenders, who tied him up for a jump ball. Clemson had the arrow, and after another Reed 3-pointer, Louisville bettors were sunk. Yuck. <a href="https://youtu.be/s2YGBM_6Igw?t=76" class="embedly-card" data-card-width="100%" data-card-controls="0">Embedded content: https://youtu.be/s2YGBM_6Igw?t=76</a> Those who had UNDER 131.5 won easily. Elsewhere in the ACC, North Carolina cruised to a 95-57 win at Wake Forest as a 17-point favorite. But the game still went UNDER its 158.5-point total. In the 1 p.m. CT starts, No. 4 Virginia had no chance to cover a 16.5-point spread and nearly lost at home to Notre Dame before holding on for a 60-54 win. UNDER 125.5 was also a winner. And in Atlanta, No. 17 Florida State rolled to a 69-47 win over Georgia Tech as 7-point favorites, and the UNDER again hit. ## Michigan pulls away late to cover vs. Maryland The No. 6 Wolverines (23-3, 12-3 Big Ten, 14-12 ATS) earned a 65-57 home win over No. 24 Maryland (19-7, 10-5, 13-12-1 ATS) as a 7.5-point favorite (though they opened at -6). Michigan opened the game on a 16-4 run, but led by only six with 5:48 to play. Yet two dunks and a 3-pointer for 7-1 center Jon Teske stretched it to a 57-46 game with 3:16 left, and the Wolverines only grew the lead from there. The game fell quite a bit short of its 129.5 total. ## Kentucky manhandles Tennessee in top-five showdown It wasn't that Tennessee hadn't played in big games before, they took then-No. 1 Kansas to overtime on a neutral floor earlier in the season, beat Louisville on the same neutral floor and beat then-No. 1 Gonzaga on a neutral court as well. However, from the tip-off at Rupp Arena on Saturday night they looked overwhelmed by the moment. Facing a truly hostile environment in Kentucky, the No. 1 Volunteers were physically manhandled by their archrivals. No. 5 Kentucky outrebounded Tennessee 39-26 and had an offensive rebounding percentage of 41.4 percent. They also shot 54.7 percent from the floor while holding the nation's No. 2 team in adjusted offensive efficiency to just 40.7 percent shooting. For a half it was a physical and entertaining game, but in the second half the physicality became one-sided as Kentucky took their six-point halftime lead and turned it to a 24-point lead quickly. Tennessee made one charge late and cut the lead to 11 at one point, but Kentucky turned the comeback attempt away rather effortlessly. Kentucky backers giving Tennessee three points never really had a reason to sweat down the stretch and the OVER also hit rather comfortably after closing at 146. Tennessee is still projected as No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and Kentucky remains on the No. 2 line, but both teams could see national championship futures movement on Monday given the way the game played out. __PLAY:__ Our [free daily contests](https://betchicago.chalkline.com) for the chance to win a BetChicago prize pack.