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03/07/2010 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kwadzo Ahelegbe poured in a game-high 24 points to go along with five rebounds, as the top-seeded Northern Iowa Panthers punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament by taking down the second-seeded Wichita State Shockers, 67-52, in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game.
Jake Koch added 13 points for the Panthers (28-4), who beat Illinois State in last year's MVC title game. Jordan Eglseder ended with 10 points for Northern Iowa, which improved to 3-1 in conference title bouts.
Clevin Hannah finished with 12 points and six rebounds for the Shockers (25-9), who were trying to win their first MVC crown since 1987. Garrett Stutz chipped in 11 points and six boards in defeat.
Trailing 39-33 a few minutes into the second half, the Panthers put together a 23-3 run to essentially seal the victory. Ahelegbe had nine points during the stretch, which Johnny Moran ended with a trey for a 56-42 lead with five minutes to play.
The Shockers never got closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Panthers used a 7-0 spurt in the early stages of the first half to take a 12-5 lead with less than 12 minutes to go. Wichita State then made a trio of three-pointers during an ensuing 11-0 burst, which Demetric Williams ended with a trey to give the Shockers a 16-12 edge with about nine minutes remaining.
The remainder of the frame was a tight battle that saw Wichita State take a 31-28 margin into the locker room.
Game Notes
The Shockers have two MVC crowns...The Panthers became the first school to repeat as MVC champs since Creighton in 2002-03....UNI leads the all-time series with Wichita State, 23-18...Northern Iowa shot 43.5 percent from the field, while the Shockers made just 32.7 percent of their shots...UNI outscored Wichita State, 39-21, in the second half.
<< Duke downs N.C. State for ACC title
Greensboro, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jasmine Thomas scored a team-high 18 points
and added six rebounds and six assists as ninth-ranked Duke defeated N.C.
State for the ACC women's title.
Karima Christmas chipped in 13 points, while J
<< Irish reach Big East semis with win over St. John's
Hartford, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Skylar Diggins scored 21 points to help
sixth-ranked Notre Dame defeat No. 16 St. John's, 75-67, in the quarterfinals
of the Big East Tournament.
Devereaux Peters had 13 points and Lindsay Schrader
<< Israel stays alive against Chile in Davis Cup
Coquimbo, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Israeli doubles specialists Jonathan
Erlich and Andy Ram posted a big victory on Sunday, as the Israelis pulled
within 1-2 of the host Chileans in their best-of-five first-round Davis Cup
matchup
<< Second period blitz helps Wings down Chicago
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pavel Datsyuk's breakaway tally capped a five-
goal eruption in the second period and proved to be the game-winner, as
Detroit overcame an Andrew Ladd hat trick and held on to beat the Chicago
Blackha
Mallorca moves level with Sevilla in La Liga >>
Mallorca, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Julio Alvarez, Victor Casadesus and Pierre
Webo scored and Mallorca topped Sporting Gijon 3-0 on Sunday at the ONO Estadi
to move level with fourth-place Sevilla in Spain's La Liga.
Mallorca won for the 11
Mid-American Conference Tournament Recaps >>
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Max Boudreau scored 18 points off the bench to
lead the fifth-seeded Buffalo Bulls to a 72-54 victory over the 12th-seeded
Toledo Rockets in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Calvin
Pate wins in Bogota >>
Bogota, Colombia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former PGA Tour winner Steve Pate parred
the second playoff hole Sunday to defeat Aaron Watkins and win the inaugural
Bogota Open.
Pate, the third-round leader, only managed an even-par 71 in the final rou
Inter held to scoreless draw by Genoa >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan was held to a 0-0 draw at San Siro
by Genoa on Sunday, the third time in its last four Serie A matches is has not
scored.
Inter has tied four of its last five matches in Italy's top flight, with th
MySportsbook.com Favors Fighting Irish to win College Football betting odds
According to odds makers at MySportsbook.com, on January 8, the Fighting Irish faithful may be toasting their 14th national title in Arizona – Notre Dame’s first national championship in close to 20 years.
Although MySportsbook.com has listed Notre Dame as the 5-1 favorite to win thecollege football College Football betting, fans in Columbus do not need to cancel their tickets to Glendale just yet. The Ohio State Buckeyes, listed right behind the Irish at 7-1, are also heavy favorites to win college football’s most coveted prize, while West Virginia, USC and the 2007 National Champion Texas Longhorns - all listed at 8-1 – are strong contenders as well.
MySportsbook.com has also posted gambling odds on the conference championships for the ACC, Big 12 and SEC. In the ACC – it could be anyone’s title, particularly for the two schools from the Sunshine State. Florida State and Miami, both listed at 2-1, are favored to win the ACC Championship Game odds, with the ‘Noles hoping to finish in the nation’s top 10 for the first time in five years, and the ‘Canes looking to avenge their 10-7 loss against FSU in last year’s ACC Championship betting.
Moving west to the Big 12, MySportsbook.com has betting lines listing Texas as 7-5 favorites to repeat as conference champions, even though the Longhorns lost their national championship-winning quarterback Vince Young to the NFL. In the south, the Auburn Tigers – led by Heisman-hopeful senior running back Kenny Irons – have been given the best odds to win the SEC Championship odds at 5-2.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Visa needs.
| Notre Dame Ohio State West Virginia Texas USC Florida California Auburn Oklahoma Iowa Louisville Florida State Michigan Miami (FL) LSU Penn State Virginia Tech Nebraska Tennessee Georgia Arizona State Oregon Clemson Texas A&M Texas Tech Alabama Arkansas Boston College Michigan State Maryland South Carolina Colorado Purdue Georgia Tech TCU UCLA Arizona Pittsburgh Iowa State Wisconsin North Carolina State Virginia North Carolina Fresno State Hawaii Northwestern BYU Oregon State UNLV Field (Any Other Team) |
5-1 7-1 8-1 8-1 8-1 12-1 15-1 15-1 18-1 20-1 20-1 20-1 20-1 20-1 25-1 40-1 40-1 50-1 60-1 60-1 60-1 70-1 70-1 100-1 100-1 100-1 100-1 100-1 150-1 200-1 200-1 200-1 200-1 200-1 250-1 250-1 300-1 300-1 300-1 300-1 300-1 300-1 400-1 500-1 500-1 500-1 500-1 1000-1 1000-1 40-1 |
| Miami (FL) Florida State Virginia Tech Clemson Georgia Tech Boston College Maryland Virginia North Carolina State North Carolina Wake Forest Duke |
2-1 2-1 3-1 7-1 15-1 15-1 15-1 30-1 30-1 30-1 50-1 500-1 |
| Texas Oklahoma Nebraska Texas Tech Colorado Iowa State Texas A&M Kansas State Missouri Kansas Baylor Oklahoma State |
7-5 9-5 9-2 12-1 14-1 15-1 15-1 30-1 30-1 35-1 100-1 100-1 |
| Auburn Florida LSU Georgia Tennessee Arkansas Alabama Mississippi South Carolina Mississippi State Kentucky Vanderbilt |
5-2 11-4 4-1 6-1 7-1 7-1 9-1 20-1 28-1 75-1 100-1 300-1 |
For complete NCAA football odds please visit Mysportsbook.com.
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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