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03/05/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2009 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament will take place in Richmond, Virginia, beginning with the first round on Friday and wrapping up with Monday's title game.
The top four seeds each receive a bye for the opening round, and the winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Virginia Commonwealth grabbed the top seed after picking up its third consecutive CAA regular-season title. However, the Rams know all too well that they've got some more work to do, as they missed out on a NCAA Tournament invite last year after losing to fifth-seeded William & Mary in the semifinals. VCU is led by CAA Player of the Year candidate Eric Maynor, who leads the league in scoring (22.4 ppg), and also broke the school's career scoring record in the season finale. George Mason, last season's CAA Champion, has the No. 2 seed. The Patriots have won four of their last five games. The No. 3 seed belongs to the Northeastern Huskies, who faded a bit down the stretch, losing four of their final six games. The final first-round bye belongs to the fourth-seeded Old Dominion Monarchs, winners of five straight and nine of their last 10 overall.
Kicking off the first-round action will be the eighth-seeded Georgia State Panthers and ninth-seeded Delaware Blue Hens on Friday at noon. The winner gets a date with VCU in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Georgia State (11-19, 8-10 CAA) and Delaware (13-18, 6-12) split the season series. This marks the Panthers' highest seed since joining the CAA four years ago, as they closed out the regular season by winning four of their final five games. Leading the way for Georgia State is guard Joe Dukes, who averages 12.3 ppg to go along with 4.4 rpg and 4.4 apg. He is complemented in the backcourt by Trae Goldston (11.0 ppg), the team's top three-point shooter at 34.6 percent. Shooting hasn't exactly been the team's strong point throughout the season. They are putting up just 60.8 ppg on 42.1-percent shooting from the floor. They've even struggled at the free-throw line, shooting just 61 percent.
Delaware has gone with the same starting lineup for all but two games this season, and while four of those players are scoring in double figures and logging 30-plus minutes per game, the team doesn't have a whole lot of depth beyond that. Marc Egerson is averaging 15.5 ppg and 10.4 ppg, and he is also a 39-percent shooter from beyond the arc. Jawan Carter is good for two three- pointers per game (34.1 percent) and is averaging 15.3 ppg. Other key contributors include Alphonso Dawson (14.2 ppg) and Brian Johnson (10.2 ppg). As a team, the Blue Hens are knocking down 7.4 threes per game, though they attempt more than 20 per game, which also waters down their field-goal percentage a bit (41.7 percent).
Game two pits the fifth-seeded Hofstra Pride against the 12th-seeded UNC- Wilmington Seahawks. The winner will advance to face fourth-seeded Old Dominion in quarterfinal action. Hofstra (20-10, 11-7) and UNCW (7-24, 3-15) played a pair of tightly-contested games in the regular season. The Pride notched a two-point victory at UNCW on Jan. 28, then beat the Seahawks in overtime in the season finale this past Saturday. In fact, it marked the fourth straight season these two played in an overtime game.
Hofstra was able to reach the 20-win mark for the fourth time in the past five seasons, thanks largely to guard Charles Jenkins (19.2 ppg). One of only two sophomores in school history to eclipse 1,000 points, Jenkins recorded a career-high 35 points on Saturday, including what turned out to be the game- clinching bucket late in overtime. His previous career-high was 33 points, set against those same Seahawks in late-January. Cornelius Vines is scoring 10.6 ppg on the season.
As for UNCW, the offense filters mostly through Chad Tomko, who leads the team with 15.8 ppg. A 31.8-percent shooter from beyond the arc, Tomko launches an average of nearly eight three-point attempts per game. Johnny Wolf (13.7 ppg), a 34.3-percent shooter from beyond the arc, also gets plenty of looks in the back court. In the low post, Dominique Lacy is averaging 10.6 ppg and 6.0 rpg. However, the Seahawks are often at a disadvantage on the boards, as they are a -6.9 in rebounding margin this season. And while they do have a few guys who can score, defensive stops have been few and far between, with opponents putting up 83.7 ppg and shooting 50.7 percent from the floor. Still, you can't sleep on a program that has more tournament wins than any other school in the CAA.
Seventh-seeded James Madison (18-13, 9-9) will take on the 10th-seeded William & Mary Tribe (10-19, 5-13) in Game three of the first round. The winner moves on to face George Mason Saturday night. JMU swept the season series for the first time since 1999-2000. Last year, William & Mary lost to George Mason in the CAA Championship game. So, while the Tribe enter this year's conference tourney as the 10th-seed, they've got some players who have proven they know what it takes to win in postseason play. The Tribe prefer to slow the tempo down and operate out of their half-court offense. They've held opponents to 63.2 ppg, but are scoring just 61.9 ppg and shooting 41.5 percent as a team. Guards David Schneider and Danny Sumner headline this group. Schneider leads the team with 14.4 ppg and Sumner is scoring 13.2 ppg, though neither is shooting better than 40 percent from the floor. In fact, Schneider has taken more shots than any player on the team, but is shooting a rather ugly 34.7 percent from the floor.
As for the Dukes, they need to find a way to rebound after closing out the regular season with losses in three of their final four games. Juwann James leads JMU with 15.4 ppg despite starting only three games this season. He is shooting a scorching 59.4 percent from the floor. Kyle Swanston (11.9 ppg), Julius Wells (11.8 ppg) and Devon Moore (10.1 ppg) are each key figures in the offense. One of the team's main strengths is its foul shooting, as the Dukes have four players who rank in the top-six in the CAA in free-throw percentage. Should the game come down to the last few possessions, JMU has the advantage here.
In the night cap of Friday's first-round action, sixth-seeded Drexel will take on 11th-seeded Towson, with the winner advancing to face Northeastern in the quarterfinals. Drexel won both regular-season meetings against Towson. The Dragons (15-13, 10-8) rank dead-last in the CAA in field-goal percentage (37.9) and three-point percentage (29.7) although they rank second in field- goal percentage defense (39.6). The team sputtered down the stretch, losing three of its final four games. The Dragons closed out the season with a 48-47 loss to William & Mary, which followed up a 47-46 loss to Northeastern three days earlier. Scott Rodgers is the only player averaging double figures, with 13.8 ppg to go along with 5.0 rpg. He averages a team-high 12 shot attempts per game, and is shooting just 35.6 percent from the floor.
Towson (10-21, 5-13) didn't fare too well down the stretch, either, dropping four of its final five games. As a team, the Tigers are shooting just 40.1 percent from the floor and are being outscored by an average margin of 6.1 ppg. Still, they've got one of the league's top big men in Junior Hairston (12.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg). Josh Thornton is scoring 11.2 ppg and is a threat along the perimeter, where he has knocked down a team-high 74 three-pointers (36.5 percent). Jarrel Smith is tallying 10.4 ppg and 4.9 rpg and is the only player to have started all 29 games this season.
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<< Report: Denver signs QB Simms
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2009 Southern Conference Tournament Preview >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 88th-annual Southern Conference
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Once again the top team in the Southern Conference was the Davidson Wildcats,
who finished w
2009 West Coast Conference Tournament Preview >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The West Coast Conference Tournament will
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The Gonzaga Bulldogs, the only ranked team in
Dayton visits Xavier in pivotal Atlantic 10 battle >>
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Xavier sits atop the A-10 standings with an 11-3
Nittany Lions seek upset of 23rd-ranked Fighting Illini >>
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Penn State Nittany Lions hope to
impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee with a Big Ten Conference
victory over the 23rd-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini.
Illinois carried a modest two-game w
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.
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