Aztecs and Lobos mix it up in Mountain West semis

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/12/2010 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Continuing to build on one of the best seasons in program history, the eighth-ranked New Mexico Lobos find themselves in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament tonight and will be facing the always tough San Diego State Aztecs at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

UNM, the regular-season champions in the conference and the top seed in the tourney, was pushed to the limit once again by an over-achieving Air Force squad on Thursday afternoon, just barely getting by in a 75-69 decision. The victory was the 15th in a row for New Mexico, a squad that began the MWC schedule this season with two straight setback to SDSU and UNLV.

As for the Aztecs, the fourth seed in the event, they too had their hands full in the quarterfinals and needed strong play down the stretch to come away with the narrow 72-71 victory over the Colorado State Rams. SDSU, which now has a record of 11-8 in this event over the years, played in the title game in 2009 and lost by a mere two points to Utah, 52-50.

SDSU nearly pulled off the season sweep of the Lobos as it posted a 74-64 win at home in the conference opener back on January 5th and then took New Mexico to overtime in The Pit a month later before bowing in an 88-86 final in Albuquerque. With the split it means UNM still leads the all-time series by a count of 38-28.

The winner of this meeting will be into the title game on Saturday and will face the survivor of the UNLV/BYU contest for the right to move on to the NCAA Tournament.

A pair of free throws by D.J. Gay with 23 seconds remaining proved to be the difference as the Aztecs held on for the one-point win against a pesky CSU squad that played most of the game without Andy Ogide who was ejected in the first half for throwing an elbow. Handling most of the scoring for the Aztecs were Malcolm Thomas, Chase Tapley and Billy White with 15 points apiece, followed by Kawhi Leonard who delivered 12 points and six rebounds before picking up his fifth personal foul. As one of the weakest free-throw shooting teams in the nation, SDSU nearly let the game slip away as it made only 17- of-28 at the charity stripe, not to mention a disappointing 1-of-10 beyond the arc. After 31 games Steve Fisher's group has managed to put up 23 victories in spite of an awkward 60.8 percent effort at the free-throw line. Leonard leads the group in scoring with 12.6 ppg and is also tops with 9.5 rpg, followed by Thomas with his 11.2 ppg and 7.9 rpg as the group holds a huge 6.8 rpg advantage over the competition.

With absolutely nothing to lose, ninth-seeded Air Force came out with guns blazing on Thursday and nearly turned the MWC Tournament upside down, but in the end the height of the Lobos was simply too much for the academy in the six-point decision. Darington Hobson, the first player to be name the MWC Player of the Year and the league's newcomer of the year in the same season, electrified the crowd with his 28 points and 15 rebounds, almost single- handedly beating Air Force (22 rebounds) on the glass by himself. Dairese Gary added 20 points as he made good on 14-of-15 shots at the charity stripe. Hobson, who at times allowed his emotions to get away from him versus the Falcons, has been an incredible performer for the Lobos this season with his 16.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, not to mention his 145 assists and 40 steals. Slowly developing his touch out on the perimeter, Hobson has also converted 37.8 percent of his three-point tries, but it is Roman Martinez (13.9 ppg, 6.2 rpg) who handles most of the perimeter shooting with his 91- of-216 accuracy thus far.

Luckusurf NCAA Basketball Betting News


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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

You can find these lines and all of the NFL betting lines , so be sure to login and get your wagers down before kickoff!

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines .
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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

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.

How to Read Point Spreads

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:

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