Oakland seeks upset of Pittsburgh in NCAA Tournament
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
03/19/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Riding an 11-game win streak, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies are in to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history as they confront the Pittsburgh Panthers in first-round action in the West Regional at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
Oakland, the 14th seed in the 72nd annual event, has lost only once in the last 21 outings, a 78-54 setback at IUPUI as part of a four-game road trip through Summit League foes back on January 28th. The squad has won a school- record 26 games thus far, thanks in part to capturing the Summit League Tournament title with a 76-64 triumph over that same IUPUI program 10 days ago.
As for third-seeded Pittsburgh, this is its 22nd appearance in the tourney, showing a record of 21-22 over that stretch. Guided by Jamie Dixon, who needs just once more win to tie the NCAA Division I all-time record for wins through seven seasons as a head coach (188), the Panthers are one of two Big East teams in this bracket along with top-seeded Syracuse. Playing in what many consider to be the toughest league in the country, Pitt finished 13-5 as it tied for the second-highest win total in Big East action since the school joined the conference back in 1982-83.
Only one of seven teams to advance to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last nine seasons, the Panthers own a 2-0 advantage in the all-time series against Oakland. The winner of this meeting heads to the second round on Sunday to challenge the winner of the Xavier/Minnesota contest.
Sporting three players who started all 34 games thus far, the Grizzlies are led on offense by Keith Benson who not only averaged a double-double with his 17.0 ppg and 10.5 rpg, he also logged an astounding 116 blocked shots to lead the league. The Summit League Player of the Year, Benson needs just 10 more rebounds to tie the single-season league record and considering he posted 18 double-doubles this season that's not out of the realm of possibility. Johnathon Jones (12.4 ppg) was not only tied for second on the team in scoring, he also was first with a staggering 219 assists and recorded 63 steals to lead the group at both ends of the floor. Derick Nelson (12.4 ppg) and Larry Wright (11.1 ppg) were also key factors in the team generating almost 77 ppg, considering no one else on the roster is putting up even seven points per game at this stage.
Pittsburgh, a team that fell to Notre Dame twice in the last month, only had a handful of games in which the offense took control. In fact, the team's most recent outing eight days ago is something the group would rather forget as the Panthers delivered a weak 45-point effort versus the Fighting Irish, a team that lost to Old Dominion in the first round of this tourney on Thursday. One of four players to have started every game, Ashton Gibbs is responsible for 15.8 ppg this season, having made good on not only 89 percent of his free- throw attempts but also 40.2 percent behind the three-point line. Brad Wanamaker (12.1 ppg) is a player who can do it all for the Panthers, from his team-best 149 assists and 39 steals, to 5.7 rpg which is second only to Gary McGhee (7.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg). Jermaine Dixon has had his moments coming up with 10.7 ppg, but considering he has made just 21.9 percent of his three-point tries, he'd be better off giving the ball to a teammate than taking a bad shot out on the perimeter.
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers are obviously heavily favored in this afternoon's clash with the 15th-seeded Morgan State Bears in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Awaiting the winner o
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Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The seventh-seeded Clemson Tigers and the 10th-
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Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 10th-seeded Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
and the seventh-seeded Oklahoma State Cowboys go head-to-head tonight in the
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Midwest Regio
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With teams from the Big East Conference an endangered species after just one day of the 2010 NCAA Tournament, the Syracuse Orange try to prove that they deserved their top seeding in the West Regional as they take
Top-seeded Duke opens tourney play against Arkansas-Pine Bluff >>
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Utah State and Texas A&M meet in South Regional action >>
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Buckeyes battle Gauchos in first-round action in Milwaukee >>
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advance to th
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."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
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.
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