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There is a certain threshold toward where I start to care about putting my dollars into a big prize. That threshold for the Powerball jackpot, which draws at 10 p.m. tonight, was met.

Pictured are my $20 entries, 8 of the 10 games with hand-picked numbers.

Where did I come up with these numbers?

All of the numbers on the ticket on the right, as well as the first line of the ticket on the left, come from scores of basketball games I have covered so far.

Let’s look at the first line of the ticket on the right: I covered a basketball game where Rock Falls girls won 56-35, and AFC girls won 44-29. The “41” is the average number of these four totals. The “17” for the powerball is the average of the margin of victory in these two games, rounded up.

Newman’s 80 points put up against Paw Paw in a game I covered goes beyond the white ball matrix which ends at 69, so I counted backwards. Whenever numbers went beyond the end of the matrix, I count backwards.

Line B on the ticket on the left is the margin of victory combination from each of the six lines consisting of the games I covered, with the number representing the most recent two games being my powerball number.

Line C on the left ticket are simply numbers I tend to choose anyway. Lines D and E on that ticket are quick picks.

I recently had success with a number chosen as a result of a sports assignment. In tomorrow’s paper, you’ll find a guy who rolled a high game of 266. Since he rolled that game in a bowling meet which I covered, I played “266” as a Pick 3 number ($1 straight box), and sure enough it came in boxed … I won $80.

I’m hoping that sports connection rubs off once more.