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Butler battles Duke for National ChampionshipNCAA Basketball Betting Lines04/05/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It all comes down to this. One game to decide the NCAA Division I men's basketball championship, as the nation's darlings, the Butler Bulldogs, take on the mighty Duke Blue Devils tonight in Indianapolis. Butler, the No. 5 seed out of the West Region, is riding a 25-game win streak dating back to a December 22nd loss at UAB, and the Bulldogs have knocked off UTEP, Murray State, Syracuse, Kansas State and Michigan State to reach their first-ever NCAA Championship Game. Butler is led by 33-year-old coach Brad Stevens, who has amassed an eye- popping 89-14 record in his three years at the helm, setting a new Division I standard for the most wins in his first three years. The Bulldogs went 18-0 in the Horizon League this season, and won the conference tournament as well. Their 33 wins on the year is both a school and league record. Butler, one of only four teams to hold their first five NCAA Tournament opponents below 60 points, has won 118 games over the past four seasons to set a school and Horizon League mark for most wins in a four-year period. The Bulldogs are playing in their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament and their seventh in the past decade, and they own an all-time tourney record of 13-9 (6-2 under Stevens). Duke, which is playing in its 34th NCAA Tournament and has won three national titles (1991, 1992, 2001), is making its 10th Championship Game appearance. The Blue Devils, who are an impressive 34-5 on the year, won both the ACC regular-season (shared with Maryland) and tournament titles, thus earning their 11th No. 1 seed all-time in this event. The Blue Devils, who have won an NCAA-best 64 games over the past two seasons, are coached by Mike Krzyzewski, who is the winningest coach in NCAA Tournament history (76-22). Coach K's club took care of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, California, Purdue, Baylor and West Virginia to get to this point. Duke is 13-4 this season against teams that made the NCAA Tournament, and it has won 12 straight neutral-site affairs. The Blue Devils are 20-1 on a neutral court over the past two seasons. Duke and Butler have met just one time previously, with the Blue Devils prevailing in an 80-60 verdict in Durham, North Carolina on January 30, 2003. Butler's strength during its record-setting season, and in particular during this tournament, has been its play at the defensive end of the court. Foes have found it difficult to score easy baskets, as the Bulldogs swarm to the ball better than most. Case in point, BU logged 12 steals in the Final Four victory over Michigan State (52-50) -- just one shy of its season high. It was the second time in this tourney that the Bulldogs came up with a dozen steals, doing so against Syracuse as well. Butler had a rough shooting night on Saturday against Michigan State, hitting a mere 30.6 percent of its field goal attempts, which included a dismal 5- of-21 effort from three-point range. But what the Bulldogs lacked in [offensive] bite, they more than made up for with defensive tenacity, limiting the Spartans to 22 points in the second half. BU outscored MSU off turnovers, 20-2, and Gordon Hayward led the Bulldogs with 19 points, nine rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Shelvin Mack added 14 points for Butler, which claimed a 17-10 edge in points from the foul line. Coach Stevens, while obviously pleased with the outcome, knows his team can't shoot the ball the way it did on Saturday and hope to win tonight's game. "Well, obviously I didn't think 15 for 49 was a great way to approach the game, and I never would have dreamed we would have won if we shot 15 for 49. But our guys did a great job defending in the last 30 minutes of the game. Really locked on, made it difficult," Stevens stated. "We had a lot of guys that had to dig in and did a great job. You know, this team and this program has been built on guys ready to come in and contribute to the good of the team. It makes me proud to be their coach." Starting forward Matt Howard suffered a head injury on Saturday, and he will be a game-time decision. Otherwise, the Bulldogs are poised to play their brand of basketball in hopes of earning the school's first national title. Stevens is well aware of the press his team, and the university, are receiving, and he has embraced it. "You know, this is all about promoting Butler. That's my job. That's our players. Came to be part of a special program," Stevens continued. "You know, we've talked about this a little bit last week. We might not have believed it when we said it, you know, in our first team meeting in the fall, but, you know, if we focus and do our jobs, then why can't we play for a national championship? That's been our focus all along." Save for a seven-point win over Baylor, Duke's road to the title tilt has been a relatively easy one. The Blue Devils hammered West Virginia on Saturday night, 78-57, getting 23 points from Jon Scheyer, 21 from Kyle Singler and 19 from Nolan Smith. Brian Zoubek grabbed 10 rebounds, and Singler another nine for Duke, which shot 52.7 percent from the field, nailing 13 three-pointers along the way. The Blue Devils held the Mountaineers to 41.3 percent field goal accuracy, and dished out 20 assists while committing only six turnovers. Like its counterpart tonight, Duke's play at the defensive end has been exemplary in the tournament, yielding a mere 56.4 ppg and allowing foes to shoot just 27.6 percent from three-point range. Coach Krzyzewski touted his team's effort after the win over West Virginia. "Our team played really well tonight. Thought our defense was outstanding. Our care for the ball was excellent, to get 20 assists and only six turnovers," Krzyzewski remarked. "All three of our perimeter guys had outstanding shooting games. So I thought we were difficult to guard as a result of that. And we guarded well. Zoubek really asserted himself on the board. Some of his offensive rebounds really turned into, you know, big plays for us when he kicked it out. So, you know, we beat a really good team. And I thought we played an outstanding game." Smith knows that he and his teammates will have a dogfight on their hands tonight. "People are calling Butler the Cinderella and, of course, Duke the big-time program. But it's going to be a fight," Smith said. "You know, both teams are very good. I just can't wait to play." Coach K added that it will be his job to make sure his team knows the Bulldogs aren't just some little-known program that has caught lightning in a bottle. "They'll [his player] find it very intriguing after we give them the scouting report and tell them they've won 25 in a row," Krzyzewski stated.
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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya 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. 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.
Betting FootballNFL Football Betting OnlineIs there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL? I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants. Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said. There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans. Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal. For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though. A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup. The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games. Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff. So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action. Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns. “I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said. Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season. “Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said. It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties. Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples. The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left. “The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits. “These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.” Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough. The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday. “Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.” Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach? “It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.” Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines. |
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