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01/28/2007 - Athens, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 21st-ranked LSU Tigers are in danger of falling out of the Top-25, and they desperately need a victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in SEC action this afternoon.
LSU has lost back-to-back games to fall to 13-6 overall and 2-3 in league play. The Tigers are struggling mightily at the offensive end, as they followed a 52-point effort against Arkansas last weekend with a 53-point showing in a loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday. That 64-53 home defeat to the Commodores may have shaken the team's confidence.
Georgia has won four of its last five games to move to 12-6 overall and 4-2 in league action. The Bulldogs showed a great deal of toughness in Wednesday's 78-69 triumph over Kentucky in overtime, and they carry a 9-2 home record into today's meeting.
LSU has won the last three meetings with Georgia and owns a 57-39 advantage in the all-time series.
It is hard to imagine LSU playing any worse offensively than it did at home against Vanderbilt earlier this week. The Tigers shot only 32.3 percent from the floor in that contest, including a 5-of-22 effort from three-point range. They were also outrebounded by a 42-36 margin, as nothing seemed to go right. Glen Davis is counted on to be a dominant force for the Tigers on a nightly basis, and he scored just 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Vandy. Garrett Temple also had 12 points, and Tasmin Mitchell paced LSU with 16 points. Davis is averaging 18.2 ppg this season on 48.8 percent shooting from the floor, and he is grabbing 10.4 rpg as well. Mitchell checks in with 14.2 ppg, and Terry Martin adds 10.5 ppg. The Tigers are posting 69.6 ppg while limiting foes to 59.1 ppg on 38.7 percent overall shooting. Unfortunately, the positive scoring differential is not indicative of the team's play recently.
Mike Mercer and Takais Brown are currently tied for the Georgia scoring lead with 14.6 ppg apiece. Brown is shooting 59.4 percent from the floor and is second on the team with 5.4 rpg. The third and final double-digit scorer on the roster is Levi Stukes with his 12.1 ppg. The Bulldogs have had absolutely no trouble generating offense this season, as they are racking up 80.3 ppg on 48.9 percent shooting efficiency from the field, including 40.3 percent from three-point range. Defensively, they are limiting foes to 67.4 ppg. Brown scored 20 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor against Kentucky last time out. Sundiata Gaines posted 19 points, six boards, five assists and three steals, while Terrance Woodbury tallied 16 points. Georgia earned a 43-31 rebounding advantage in the tilt, including a 17-8 edge on the offensive glass.
<< Sonics wrap up homestand vs. Clippers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle SuperSonics close out a seven-game homestand
this evening when they welcome the Los Angeles Clippers to KeyArena.
Seattle is 4-2 so far on the homestand and posted a 102-100 victory over the
Minnesota Timb
<< Canucks try to end slide against streaking Sharks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Western Conference contenders will get together
tonight at Vancouver's General Motors Place, where the Canucks entertain the
formidable San Jose Sharks.
San Jose comes in as one of the league's hottest
<< Pacers pay a visit to Pistons at The Palace
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Pistons will try and get back on the winning
track when they host the division-rival Indiana Pacers this evening at The
Palace of Auburn Hills.
Detroit had its three-game winning streak come to an end
<< Celtics welcome Wizards to Beantown
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Wizards take on the struggling Boston
Celtics this evening at TD Banknorth Garden.
Washington has won five of its last six games and owns a three-game lead over
the Orlando Magic in the Southeast
Badgers put nation's longest win streak on line at Iowa >>
Iowa City, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-ranked Wisconsin Badgers tied the
best start in program history with their most recent win, and they can
claim the record outright with a victory today over Big Ten Conference
rival
Duke hopes to continue mastery of Boston College >>
Durham, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of teams coming off buzzer-beating
victories collide at Cameron Indoor Stadium this evening, as the Boston
College Eagles tussle with the 10th-ranked Duke Blue Devils from Durham.
BC was
Surprising Hokies visit Yellow Jackets in ACC action >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 24th-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies try to
keep pace for first place in the ACC standings today, as they take on the
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
The Hokies are on
Clemson seeks quick turnaround against Virginia >>
Clemson, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coming off a heart-breaking loss, the 19th-
ranked Clemson Tigers try to pick up the pieces and rebound today against the
Virginia Cavaliers in ACC play from Littlejohn Coliseum.
On Thursday, Clemson wa
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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 online football betting 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.
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