Duke hopes to continue dominance of Davidson
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
01/07/2009 - Durham, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-ranked Duke Blue Devils have won 21 straight meetings with the Davidson Wildcats and will attempt to extend that streak in a non-conference showdown at Cameron Indoor Stadium tonight.
Since dropping an 81-73 decision to Michigan in early December, Duke has run off four straight wins, including a 69-44 besting of Virginia Tech on Sunday. It as the ACC opener for the Blue Devils, whose average margin of victory during the win streak is 31.8 ppg. Now at 12-1 overall, Duke will look to continue its outstanding play at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where it has won 66 straight and 195 of its last 198 games versus non-conference opponents.
As for Davidson, it too has played well of late, winning eight of its past nine outings, including a 76-55 triumph of Samford on Saturday. The win improved the team to 10-2, marking its best start to a season since going 11-1 to open the 1969-70 campaign. The Wildcats though, are just 3-33 all-time against teams ranked in the AP Top-5.
Davidson also hasn't defeated Duke since 1981, dropping 21 straight decision since then. The Blue Devils hold a commanding 86-17 lead in the all-time series with the Wildcats and that includes a 30-1 mark at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Wildcats have had no trouble putting points on the board this season, averaging a healthy 82.3 ppg behind 44.3 percent shooting from the floor and 36.8 percent from three-point range. Stephen Curry is one of the elite players in the nation and he is turning in a hardy 29.2 ppg to pace Davidson. He also leads the team in assists (84), as well as steals (36) and he is shooting 37.5 percent from long distance. Andrew Lovedale has provided Davidson with a presence in the paint and he nearly averages a double-double with 12.8 ppg and a team-high 9.6 rpg. On Saturday, Curry dropped in 21 points and doled out eight helpers to lift the Wildcats past Samford. Curry made 5-of-6 three- pointers for Davidson, which went 12-of-23 from beyond the arc as a team.
The Blue Devils match Davidson with their 82.8 ppg average, only they have fared better on defense and the boards, holding opponents to 60.2 ppg and outrebounding them by 10.5 rpg. Kyle Singler has made an impact at both ends of the floor and he leads Duke with 16.5 ppg, 7.8 rpg and 29 steals. Jon Scheyer is next in line with 13.8 ppg and 22 steals, while Gerald Henderson contributes 12.3 ppg and 4.2 rpg. Nolan Smith round out the double-figure scorers, with 11.1 ppg. On Sunday, all four players reached double digits, as Duke prevailed over Virginia Tech in its league opener. Singler led the charge with an all-around effort of 19 points, eight boards and seven assists. Henderson logged 15 points and eight rebounds, while Smith and Scheyer chipped in 13 and 11 points, respectively. Duke controlled the boards, 38-28, and limited Virginia Tech to a sub par 36.7 percent shooting effort from the floor.
Chestnut Hill, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off a shocking victory over national powerhouse North Carolina, the 17th-ranked Boston College Eagles carry plenty of swagger into this evening's non-conference clash with the Harvard Crimson. Harv
<< Zags and Vols meet for second time this season
Knoxville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 15th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers of the
SEC will collide with the slumping Gonzaga Bulldogs of the West Coast
Conference this evening. These teams are meeting for the second time this
season, as the Bulldogs
<< Tar Heels seek redemption in clash with visiting Cougars
Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off their first defeat of the season,
the now third-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels will attempt to take out their
frustration on the College of Charleston Cougars in non-conference action
tonight from t
<< Udinese determined to keep Inler in Italy
Udine, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Udinese sporting director Pietro Leonardi has
again rubbished rumors linking Swiss midfielder Gokhan Inler with a move to
England to join Arsenal.
The 24-year-old defensive midfielder was a summer targ
<< Hildebrand hoping to regain place in German squad
Sinsheim, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand is hoping to
regain a place in the Germany national team by impressing at new club
Hoffenheim.
The 29-year-old has headed back to the Bundesliga after a disastrous s
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of teams off to completely difference starts in the Big East collide at the Carrier Dome tonight, as the DePaul Blue Demons tangle with the Syracuse Orange. The Blue Demons enter the game in search of t
Bulls to try and clip wings of 23rd-ranked Cardinals >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 23rd-ranked Louisville Cardinals open the Big
East portion of their schedule in Tampa tonight, as they take on the South
Florida Bulls at the Sun Dome.
With disappointing losses to Western Kentucky, Minnesota
Rutgers continues brutal schedule with home game against Marquette >>
Piscataway, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Rutgers Scarlet Knights encounter their
fourth consecutive Top-25 opponent tonight, as they host the 18th-ranked
Marquette Golden Eagles in Big East play at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
It has been a
Rangers, Habs clash in NYC >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Original Six franchises will clash tonight in the
Big Apple, as the New York Rangers welcome the Montreal Canadiens for a
meeting at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers have won two of their last three tests on th
Magic open home-and-home set with Hawks in Atlanta >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top two teams in the Southeast Division begin a home-
and-home series tonight at Atlanta's Philips Arena, where the surging Hawks
will attempt to gain some ground on the first-place Orlando Magic.
Atlanta enters tonigh
It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007.
As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season.
Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises.
Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres.
Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs.
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.
To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.