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03/07/2010 - 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.
Erlich and Ram fought back for a 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (11-9), 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over a Chilean tandem of Jorge Aguilar and Paul Capdeville.
Monday's reverse singles will decide the winner here, as Chilean Fernando Gonzalez will take on Dudi Sela in the first match and Nicolas Massu is scheduled to face Harel Levy in a possible deciding rubber.
On Saturday, Massu got the Chileans going with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Sela and Gonzalez doubled the hosts' advantage by overcoming Levy 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on the red clay here in Coquimbo.
This week's matchup started a day late -- Saturday instead of Friday -- because of the tragic earthquake and tsunami that struck Chile last week, killing about 800 people. The Enjoy Tennis Center was unaffected by the disaster and the local airport was open, but transportation problems delayed the arrival of players and officials.
The Chileans are captained by Hans Gildemeister, while Eyal Ran is serving as the Israeli skipper.
Chile and Israel have split two all-time meetings, with the Chileans prevailing in 1960 and Israel, a surprise Davis Cup semifinalist last year, coming out on top three years ago.
The Chile-Israel winner will meet the Czech Republic in July's quarterfinals.
<< Xavier edges Charlotte to reach A-10 tourney final
Upper Marlboro, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tyeasha Moss finished with 15 points,
as fifth-ranked Xavier held off Charlotte, 51-49, in a semifinal matchup in
the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
Ta'Shia Phillips added 11 points, 14 rebounds and f
<< Kentucky fends off Gators to wrap up perfect season at home
Lexington, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darius Miller and Eric Bledsoe each scored
14 points, as third-ranked Kentucky held off Florida, 74-66, to complete a
perfect season at Rupp Arena.
Patrick Patterson added 13 points and John Wall ended
<< Dodgers C Martin out 4-6 weeks
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Russell Martin
will miss four to six weeks of action due to a pulled groin muscle.
The injury will sideline Martin for the remainder of Spring Training and
Opening Day.
<< Young scores 32 as Sixers down Raptors
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thaddeus Young scored a career-high 32 points
and Jrue Holiday had 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists, as the
Philadelphia 76ers snapped a five-game losing streak with a 114-101 win over
the Tor
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
Leuer and Taylor lead Wisconsin over Illinois >>
Champaign, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jon Leuer and Jordan Taylor each scored 20
points to lead 15th-ranked Wisconsin to a 72-57 victory over Illinois at
Assembly Hall.
Trevon Hughes posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 reboun
Northern Iowa claims second straight MVC crown >>
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-
K-State signs Martin to contract extension >>
Manhattan, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kansas State signed head men's basketball
coach Frank Martin to a three-year extension on Sunday.
Martin, who had two years remaining on his original deal, is signed through
the 2014-15 season.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting
So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.
Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?
If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)
Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).
In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.
Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.
| The Bubble Breakdown | |||
| CONFERENCE | LOCKS | SHOULD BE INS | AT-LARGES TAKEN (assuming no auto bid outlier) |
| ACC Betting Odds | 6 | 0 | 5 |
| Big East Betting Odds | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Big Ten Betting Odds | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Big 12 Betting Odds | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Pac-10 Betting Odds | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| SEC Betting Odds | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| MVC Betting Odds | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| MWC Betting Odds | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 28 | 5 | 25 |
As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.
(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)
If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech
The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.
Work left to do:
Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.
Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).
Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.
For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com
Additional basketball lines can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
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