Yellow Jackets and Buckeyes collide in second-round affair
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
03/21/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes and 10th-seeded Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets come together today in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The winner of this Midwest Regional pairing moves on to the Sweet 16 versus Tennessee.
The Yellow Jackets continued their late-season charge on Friday, as they upended Oklahoma State, 64-59, in the first round. Georgia Tech, which needed a good showing in the ACC Tournament just to earn an at-large bid to this event, improved to 5-0 in NCAA Tournament games played at the Bradley Center. The program is now one victory away from moving on to the "Sweet 16" for the first time since 2004.
On the flip side, the Buckeyes had a much easier time in their first-round game, posting a 68-51 win over 15th-seeded UC Santa Barbara on Friday. OSU, which won a share of the Big Ten regular-season title and then claimed the league tourney championship, are now 38-20 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. The team is hoping to move on to the "Sweet 16" for the first time since advancing to the final game in 2007.
As for the all-time series between these two clubs, OSU owns a 10-3 advantage, but the Yellow Jackets have won the last two meetings.
Georgia Tech converted 24-of-25 free-throw attempts and dominated the boards, 32-17, as it slipped past Oklahoma State on Friday. As expected, the frontcourt tandem of Derrick Favors and Gani Lawal overmatched the smaller Cowboys, and they combined for 26 points and 15 rebounds. Lawal led the way with 14 points and six boards, meanwhile, Favors posted 12 points and nine rebounds. For the season, Lawal heads the team in scoring (13.1 ppg) as well as rebounding (8.6 rpg), while Favors follows with 12.5 ppg and 8.5 rpg. Iman Shumpert chips in with 10.1 ppg and he is in charge of feeding the frontcourt tandem, handing out a team-high 3.9 apg.
The Buckeyes drained 10-of-22 buckets from beyond the arc and held UCSB to a dismal 32.3 percent overall shooting performance, as they cruised to victory on Friday. Jon Diebler was outstanding in the win, tallying 23 points on 7- of-12 shooting from downtown. William Buford added 16 points and seven boards, while Evan Turner tallied nine points, 10 caroms and five assists. A National Player of the Year candidate, Turner is one of the most versatile players around and he paces OSU with 19.9 ppg, 9.2 rpg and 5.9 apg. Buford is next in line with 14.5 ppg and 3.1 apg, while Diebler adds 13.1 ppg on the strength of 42.9 percent shooting from long range. David Lighty also gets into the mix, as he puts forth 12.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 2.9 apg.
Fort Myers, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan will reportedly have reconstructive elbow surgery and will miss the 2010 season. Nathan tried to throw Sunday morning in Florida after allowing his elbow to rest f
<< Wildcats claw their way into second round
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A'dia Mathies poured in 32 points to lead
the fourth-seeded Kentucky Wildcats to an 83-77 victory over the 13th-seeded
Liberty Flames in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Freedom Hall.
Victoria
<< Onuaku to miss Syracuse's second-round matchup vs. Gonzaga
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Syracuse center Arinze Onuaku will sit out
Sunday's NCAA Tournament second-round matchup against eighth-seeded Gonzaga
with a right quadriceps injury.
Onuaku suffered the injury in the team's loss to Georgetown
<< Quick helps Kings blank Isles
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jonathan Quick made 26 saves for his fourth
shutout of the season, and the Los Angeles Kings avoided their first three-
game losing streak in over two months with a 1-0 win over the New York
Islande
<< Franson's OT tally, Rinne help Nashville to win over Columbus
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Predators rookie defenseman Cody Franson
scored 1:54 into overtime to lift Nashville to a 1-0 win over Columbus at
Bridgestone Arena.
In the extra session, Franson snapped a shot from the rig
Spokane, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The ACC meets the Big Ten in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament today, as the fifth-seeded Maryland Terrapins battle the fourth-seeded Michigan State Spartans at Spokane Memorial Arena. The winner of thi
Top-seeded Duke takes on California in South Regional play >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After breezing through their first-round
game, the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils will face more of a challenge this
evening when they battle the eighth-seeded California Golden Bears in second
round action in t
Second-round tilt features Aggies against Boilermakers >>
Spokane, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-Round action in the South Region of the
NCAA Tournament will take place at Spokane Memorial Arena when the fourth-
seeded Purdue Boilermakers take on the fifth-seeded Texas A&M Aggies.
The Aggies pus
Upset-minded Big Red sets sights on Badgers >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 12th-seeded Cornell Big Red earned the
first NCAA Tournament win in program history two days ago, and they will
attempt to upset the fourth-seeded Wisconsin Badgers in the second round of
the East Regiona
Mountaineers attempt to tame Tigers in East Regional matchup >>
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers
and the 10th-seeded Missouri Tigers will collide in the second round of the
NCAA Tournament this afternoon.
The winner of this East Regional matchup will advance to
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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