 |
 Basketball Betting |
 |
||||
|
 |
||||
|
||||
Hoosier State rivals square off in West LafayetteNCAA Basketball Betting Lines02/04/2012 - West Lafayette, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of in-state rivals jockeying for position in the competitive Big Ten Conference meet at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette this evening, as the 20th-ranked Indiana Hoosiers tangle with the Purdue Boilermakers. Indiana was one of the top teams in the country through the first two months of the season, but the Hoosiers have come back to Earth since the start of conference play, logging a 5-6 mark against their Big Ten brethren. Still, at 17-6 overall, coach Tom Crean's club has enjoyed a solid season, and one that would be deemed even better if it can win tonight. IU is coming off a 68-56 loss at Michigan, which dropped its record in true road games this year to 3-5. Purdue is a solid 15-7 on the season, and the team has won five of its first nine Big Ten bouts. The Boilermakers are 10-2 at home in 2011-12, and they will try to earn a little redemption following a 66-64 setback to visiting Michigan in their last game in front of the PU faithful. Coach Matt Painter's squad picked up a 58-56 win at Northwestern earlier this week for just its third win in the new year. Purdue leads the all-time series with Indiana, 112-84, and the Boilermakers have won the last five meetings. It is their longest winning streak over the Hoosiers since capturing seven in a row from 1968-72. Jordan Hulls drained four three-pointers in scoring 18 points, and Cody Zeller logged a double-double consisting of 11 points and 12 rebounds, but those efforts went for naught as Indiana dropped an eight-point decision to Michigan on Wednesday night. The Hoosiers shot 44.7 percent from the field, compared to 47.8 percent by the Wolverines, and the visitors were guilty of 14 turnovers while also suffering a 15-9 deficit in points from the foul line. UM outscored IU in the paint (24-18) and off turnovers (17-6), and the Maize and Blue had three players finish in double figures as the home team dropped nine three- pointers in the game. Zeller (15.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 32 blocked shots) continues to pace the club in scoring, rebounding and blocks, while Christian Watford (12.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg), Hulls (12.2 ppg, 3.3 apg) and Victor Oladipo (10.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg) join him as members of Indiana's double-digit scorers' club. The team as a whole is putting up 78.5 ppg in hitting 49.9 percent of its total shots, which includes a 43.5 percent showing from three-point range, while at the same time permitting 65.9 ppg on typical shooting efforts of .426 overall and .332 from beyond the arc. Purdue got 14 points from Terone Johnson, 12 from D.J. Byrd and 11 from Robbie Hummel, and needed every one of them as the Boilermakers slipped past Northwestern on the road earlier this week. Both teams shot 44.4 percent from the field, but the Wildcats committed 16 turnovers to just five for the Boilermakers, who won the game despite being outrebounded (37-23) and outscored at the foul line (8-4). Hummel (15.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 26 blocks) leads his team in the same categories Indiana's Zeller does his, and Lewis Jackson (10.2 ppg, 3.9 apg) is PU's only other double-digit scorer on the season. Ryne Smith (9.4 ppg) is close to joining the ranks, and he is the team's top three- point sniper (56-of-134, .418). As a collective unit, the Boilermakers are netting 70.9 ppg behind 43.7 percent field goal efficiency, which includes a 35.2 percent showing from downtown, while the opposition produces 62.8 ppg in hitting 42.5 percent of their total shots and 36.3 percent of their long-range bombs. Purdue takes very good care of the basketball, committing just 9.4 turnovers per game, compared to 14.3 tpg by its opponents.
<< Bluejays go in search of 12th straight win
Cedar Rapids, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 13th-ranked Creighton Bluejays take aim at their 12th straight victory, as they fly into Cedar Rapids for today's Missouri Valley Conference showdown with the Panthers of Northern Iowa. Creighton picke
<< Tigers and Bulldogs square off Starkville
<< Ward, Hurricanes try to shut down Kings
<< Bulls charge into D.C. to take on 14th-ranked Hoyas
<< Minus Howard, Red Wings visit healthy Oilers
Waves hope to crash down on 24th-ranked Bulldogs >>
Malibu, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - West Coast Conference foes meet in Malibu tonight, as the 24th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs pay a visit to the Pepperdine Waves. Gonzaga was recently re-admitted into the AP Top-25 after winning four in a row from J
Sixth-ranked Bears battle Cowboys in Big 12 affair >>
Marquee matchup pits Jayhawks against Tigers >>
Irish set sights on Golden Eagles >>
No.5 UNC takes on Maryland in College Park >>
SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?" A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook. In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small. "Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets." But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?" Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year. This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here. Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions. In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries. No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning. And that's all any bettor can ask for. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. |
|
