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03/07/2009 - Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The title game of the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament is set to take place in Nashville, as the top-seeded Jacksonville Dolphins will take on the second-seeded East Tennessee Buccaneers as expected. Awarded to the winner of this clash will be a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Only two of the current members of the Atlantic Sun have ever won the league tournament, and our two participants in tonight's championship game are still in search of their first crown.
East Tennessee State beat Stetson in the first round and Belmont in last night's semifinal round, and both of those victories came by 14 points. The Bucs are 22-10 overall and ended Belmont's three-year run of Atlantic Sun titles.
As for Jacksonville, it rolled to an 88-72 decision over Lipscomb on Friday. The Dolphins lost to Belmont in the title game a year ago and hope for a better outcome tonight.
East Tennessee State owns a 5-4 series edge over Jacksonville, and the two teams split a pair of meetings during the regular season.
Senior guard Courtney Pigram stole the show for East Tennessee State last night, as the standout poured in 30 points to pace the Bucs. He eclipsed the 2,000-point mark for his career and is now the third-leading scorer in program history. Kevin Tiggs tallied 21 points for ETSU against Belmont, and Mike Smith posted 19 points. Adding further balance to the lineup was Tommy Hubbard with 10 points for the Bucs, who earned a 38-30 rebounding advantage and a 26-11 edge in points from the foul line. Overall this season, Pigram is scoring 17.9 ppg to go along with 131 assists and 55 steals. As for Smith, he checks in with 15.3 ppg and 7.6 rpg. They both take a back seat to Tiggs, however, who is pouring in 21.5 ppg on 53.9 percent shooting from he floor. Thanks mostly to the efforts of those three players, ETSU is scoring 78.4 ppg.
All five starters for Jacksonville reached double figures in scoring in the victory over Lipscomb last night. Lehmon Colbert led the way with 20 points, and Ben Smith pitched in 19 points. Ayron Hardy and Marcus Allen added 12 points apiece, while Travis Cohn pitched in 11 points. The Dolphins only turned the ball over six times and earned a 43-31 rebounding advantage. They also grabbed an 18-9 edge in points from the foul line. Smith is the team's leading scorer with 16.8 ppg, and he has dished out 120 assists. Colbert posts 12.1 ppg, while Hardy and Allen pitch in 10.2 ppg apiece. The Dolphins are scoring 74.4 ppg while allowing 68.0 ppg, and they own the same exact field goal percentage as their opponents (.451).
<< Tigers in College Station to tangle with pesky Aggies
College Station, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Texas A&M Aggies and the
15th-ranked Missouri Tigers will close out the regular season in what promises
to be an outstanding Big 12 Conference matchup.
Missouri has won eight of its last
<< LSU visits Auburn in regular season finale
Auburn, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The LSU Tigers have already clinched the
outright SEC regular season title, and they close out the schedule with a
matchup against surging Auburn today.
LSU finally said goodbye to a 10-game win streak, as they
<< Sooner State rivals square off in Norman
Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In-state foes collide in Norman this weekend, as
the fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners play host to the Oklahoma State Cowboys in
Big 12 action from the Lloyd Noble Center.
The Sooners let a golden opportunity slip
<< Cardinals hope to soar past Mountaineers in quest for Big East title
Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The sixth-ranked Louisville Cardinals can
clinch at least a share of the Big East Conference's regular season title
tonight, as they square off against the West Virginia Mountaineers in
Morgantown.
The Card
Germany leads Austria 2-1 in Davis Cup first-rounder >>
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The host Germans got
a doubles victory from Nicolas Kiefer and Philipp Kohlschreiber on Saturday to
grab a 2-1 lead over Austria in their best-of-five first-round Davis Cup tie.
Kiefe
'Hawks host 'Horns in pivotal Big 12 showdown >>
Lawrence, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The ninth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks close out
their regular season at home this afternoon, as they welcome the Texas
Longhorns to Lawrence for a Big 12 showdown from the Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks are coming
Huskies visit Panthers in clash of Big East titans >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In what could prove to be one of the best
games of the college basketball season, the top-ranked Connecticut Huskies
invade the Steel City for a Big East Conference showdown with the third-ranked
Pittsburgh Pan
Big East brawl pits Orange against Golden Eagles >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of strong Big East Conference teams
are set to close out the regular season in Milwaukee this afternoon, as the
13th-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles play host to the 25th-ranked Syracuse
Orange.
Syracu
March Madness odds and printable March Madness brackets
With the field of 64/65 set, MySportsbook.com has the Florida Gators as the 4-1 favorite to successfully defend their National Championship. Men’s Division-1 College Basketball has not seen a team repeat as National Champions since Duke won back to back championships in ’91 & ‘92. After losing three out of four late in the season, the Gators are full of momentum as they won their last four games by an average of 18 points. Not surprisingly, right behind the Gators are the other three top seeds: Kansas 5-1, UNC 6-1, and Ohio State 7-1. Many consider Kansas to be the hottest team in the country, having won 11 straight. With Kansas, it is hard to ignore all of the early exits from the “dance” in recent years. With an impressive ACC Tournament, UNC ensured themselves the other top seed. UNC has about as much talent as any other team in the tournament but with a team that’s best players are primarily freshman and sophomores, could youth be a concern. Behind freshman sensation, Greg Oden, OSU will look to do what their football team failed to do just a few months earlier. OSU seems to have peeked at the right time, as they currently have a 17 game winning streak. Since the tournament field was expanded in 1985, there has never been an instance where all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. It is obvious that each of the top seeds have the talent to make it through to Atlanta. But as everyone knows, when makes the NCAA Tournament so special are all of the spoilers and “Cinderella” stories that knock off the favorites on a daily basis.
Be sure to logon to MySportsbook.com to see check out all of the early lines and “March Madness” props. Also be sure to enter the “$10,000,000 Perfect Bracket Contest”. If someone has the skills to predict every winner, they will be set for life and walk away with $10,000,000. Even if no one can cash in on the Grand Prize, with a $35,000 guaranteed prize pool and a Mazda RX-8 to the first prize winner, Sportsbook.com’s bracket is a must for all “March Madness” fans.
MySportsbook.com’s odds to win the Championship and Regions:
| EAST | National Championship | Region |
| Arkansas | 300-1 | 50-1 |
| Belmont | 1000-1 | |
| Boston College | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Eastern KY | 1000-1 | |
| George Washington | 75-1 | |
| Georgetown | 10-1 | 3-2 |
| Marquette | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Michigan State | 100-1 | 25-1 |
| New Mexico St. | 500-1 | 200-1 |
| UNC | 6-1 | 6-5 |
| Oral Roberts | 500-1 | |
| Texas | 15-1 | 5-1 |
| Texas Tech | 200-1 | 5-1 |
| USC | 75-1 | 20-1 |
| Vanderbilt | 100-1 | 30-1 |
| Washington State | 40-1 | 15-1 |
| WEST | ||
| Duke | 50-1 | 10-1 |
| Florida A&M | 1000-1 | |
| Gonzaga | 200-1 | 40-1 |
| Holy Cross | 300-1 | |
| Illinois | 300-1 | 60-1 |
| Indiana | 75-1 | 40-1 |
| Kansas | 5-1 | 13-10 |
| Kentucky | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Niagara | 1000-1 | |
| Pittsburgh | 40-1 | 8-1 |
| Southern Ill. | 50-1 | 12-1 |
| UCLA | 10-1 | 3-2 |
| VCU | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Villanova | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| VA Tech | 50-1 | 15-1 |
| Weber St | 1000-1 | |
| Wright St | 1000-1 | 300-1 |
| MIDWEST | ||
| Arizona | 50-1 | 30-1 |
| Butler | 40-1 | 30-1 |
| Davidson | 300-1 | |
| Florida | 4-1 | 4-5 |
| Georgia Tech | 75-1 | 25-1 |
| Jackson State | 1000-1 | |
| Maryland | 30-1 | 6-1 |
| Miami-OH | 300-1 | |
| Notre Dame | 100-1 | 20-1 |
| ODU | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Oregon | 40-1 | 6-1 |
| Purdue | 300-1 | 60-1 |
| Texas A&M CC | 1000-1 | |
| UNLV | 100-1 | 30-1 |
| Winthrop | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Wisconsin | 15-1 | 7-2 |
| SOUTH | ||
| Albany | 200-1 | |
| BYU | 200-1 | 40-1 |
| Central CT St. | 1000-1 | |
| Creighton | 100-1 | 35-1 |
| Long Beach St. | 500-1 | 200-1 |
| Louisville | 40-1 | 10-1 |
| Memphis | 30-1 | 4-1 |
| Nevada | 75-1 | 35-1 |
| North Texas | 500-1 | |
| Ohio State | 7-1 | 6-5 |
| Penn | 500-1 | |
| Stanford | 200-1 | 50-1 |
| Tennessee | 100-1 | 20-1 |
| Texas A&M | 12-1 | 11-5 |
| Virginia | 75-1 | 18-1 |
| Xavier | 100-1 | 40-1 |
About MySportsbook.com MySportsbook.com is the largest sportsbook and casino on the planet, where millions of adult Americans bet on sports, play poker and enjoy blackjack and other casino games online in a regulated and licensed jurisdiction. Named the "Best US Sports Book" by the industry's top magazine, eGaming Review, MySportsbook.com has been leading the online gaming industry since 1996. Dwarfing its nearest competitors in the US, MySportsbook.com has been the first to achieve every significant industry milestone, from record turnover to active users to number of bets--achieving a peak of fifteen bets per second. As the US online gaming leader, the firm and it's products have been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, ESPN, Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Financial Times, USA Today and in every major newspaper in the US.
To bet on March Madness games this online sportsbook accepts credit cards.
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.
To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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