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03/15/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas Jayhawks began the 2009-10 college basketball season atop the preseason polls, and so far the voters have been spot on, as the Big 12 champs will carry that top ranking into the NCAA Tournament.
The Jayhawks (32-2) are the top-seeded team in the tourney's Midwest Region, which will play its final games at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. If Kansas is to win its second title in three years, though, it will have to motor through some heady competition to gain its 14th Final Four appearance and fourth NCAA crown.
Bill Self's club does have one major factor going for them going into the first round: experience. Several of his players have been there and done that, defeating Derrick Rose and Memphis in the 2008 title game. The two leaders this season, senior guard Sherron Collins and junior center Cole Aldrich, were both on that squad, and both figure to have a major say in who comes out of the bracket.
"It was anti-climatic to know that we would be a No. 1 seed because we basically knew that going into the day," Self said. "To be the overall No. 1 it is good even though it doesn't mean anything. It will be a good recruiting mail-out this week. We are excited but know that we have a lot of work ahead of us."
The Jayhawks will face off against 16th-seeded Lehigh (22-10) in its opening game Thursday night in Oklahoma City.
Staring at the Jayhawks on the opposite end of the bracket is second-seeded Ohio State (27-7), which boasts National Player of the Year candidate Evan Turner. Turner recently led the Buckeyes through a gauntlet to win the Big Ten Tournament, making an incredible three-point shot to beat Michigan before a double-overtime victory over Illinois and a rout of Minnesota in Sunday's final.
OSU has also tasted some recent success in the NCAA Tournament, and the last time the team won the conference tourney, it finished as the runner-up to Florida in 2007.
The 15th-seed in the Midwest and Ohio State's first-round opponent is the Big West Champion UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (20-9).
The third seed in this region is the traditional power Georgetown (23-10). The Hoyas, who were seeded eighth in the Big East Tournament but managed to come within seconds of beating West Virginia in the title game, are looking for their second Final Four appearance in four years after joining the Buckeyes in the 2007 quartet.
Georgetown's first-round opponent tilted the NCAA field as possibly the biggest bracket buster of Championship Week. That is 14th-seeded Ohio (21-14), which, as a ninth seed, captured the MAC Tournament title. The Bobcats survived an overtime test in their opening round matchup before downing top- seeded Kent State, fourth-seeded Miami-Ohio and third-seeded Akron to earn their first NCAA tourney berth since 2005.
The Bobcats, who have not won a game in the NCAA Tournament since 1983, will get that chance Thursday night in Providence.
"You can't get to this part of the year and overlook anyone," head coach John Thompson III said. "The teams are too well-coached, too poised. They won their league or they're playing well to get an at-large bid - that's what makes (the NCAA Tournament) so special."
Sitting fourth is surprise ACC regular season co-champion Maryland (23-8), which earned its third fourth seed since the 2003-04 season. Since the Terrapins won it all in 2002, the team has advanced past the second round just once.
The Terrapins will play Friday in Spokane against Houston (19-15), which is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1992 after a shocking run to the Conference USA title. The Cougars are widely known for the successful "Phi Slama Jama" era from 1982-84, which was highlighted by two runner-up finishes thanks to now-NBA Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
This Cougars team doesn't figure to make as deep of a run, but should they upset Maryland, it would be the first tourney win for the school since Olajuwon's and Drexler's run to the title game in '84.
Last year's runner-up Michigan State (24-8) is the fifth seed after sharing the Big Ten regular season title. Tom Izzo has had numerous successes with the Spartans during his time in East Lansing and has won at least one NCAA Tournament game in three straight years.
The Spartans will battle with 12th-seeded New Mexico State (22-11), which was a surprise winner in the WAC Tournament over Utah State on Saturday. The Aggies are making only their second tournament appearance since 2000.
In a twist of irony in the Midwest Region, the sixth and seventh seeds -- Tennessee (25-8) and Oklahoma State (22-10) -- represent the only two losses Kansas has endured this season. Luckily for the Jayhawks, those two squads are on the lower half of the bracket and would likely have to beat Ohio State and/or Georgetown to have another shot at the top-ranked team in the country. Having those two teams in the Midwest, though, shows the enormous depth in the region that all these teams face.
Tennessee's opponent in the opening round will be 11th-seeded San Diego State (25-8), which beat a top-10 team in New Mexico before topping the UNLV for the Mountain West Tournament title. The Aztecs are making their sixth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2005. SDSU has never advanced out of the first round.
Seeded 10th and facing Oklahoma State is ACC Tournament runner-up Georgia Tech (22-12), which is making its first tourney appearance since 2007. The Yellow Jackets have not tasted any success in the NCAAs since a surprise runner-up finish in 2004.
The 8-9 matchup features a pair of mid-majors in UNLV (25-8) and Northern Iowa (28-4). The Rebels, who used to be one of college basketball's big powers, won the entire tournament in 1990 amid a stretch of three Final Four appearances in five years. The team has made somewhat of a return to prominence in recent years, as this is its third NCAA Tournament appearance in four seasons.
Should UNLV get past the ninth-seeded Panthers, who are looking for their first NCAA tourney win since 1990, the Rebels will likely have an opportunity to avenge its 2008 tournament loss to Kansas.
<< Kentucky garners No. 1 seed in the East
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Kentucky, which
scorched the Southeastern Conference in the regular season and won the
conference tourney crown in a tense overtime contest, was named as the top-
seeded
<< Syracuse-Vermont rematch highlights West
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Despite losing in the quarterfinals of the
Big East tournament and staring at an injury to starting forward Arinze
Onuaku, Syracuse is the No. 1 seed in the West Region as the Orange head into
a much-
<< NCAA Capsules-East Regional
Lexington, 32-2.Nickname: Wildcats. Coach: John Calipari.Conference: Southeastern. Bid: SEC champion.Region: East. Seed: No. 1.Tournament Record: 100-45, 50 years. Last appearance: 2008.Scoring: Team (79.2); John Wall 16.9; DeMarcus Cousins 15.3; Pa
<< NCAA Capsules-South Regional
Durham, N.C., 29-5.Nickname: Blue Devils. Coach: Mike Krzyzewski.Conference: Atlantic Coast. Bid: ACC champion.Region: South. Seed: No. 1.Tournament Record: 88-30, 33 years. Last appearance: 2009.Scoring: Team (78.4); Jon Scheyer 18.7; Kyle Singler
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WASHINGTON (AP) -Gilbert Arenas says he deserves to be punished for bringing guns to the locker room.The suspended Washington Wizards guard tells Esquire magazine he wasn't using ``longevity thinking'' when he took out four guns in what he says was
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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).
Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.
A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.
Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.
"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.
De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.
The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.
The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.
De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.
Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.
But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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