Surging Irish set sights on Panthers in tournament play
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
03/11/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After a surprising regular-season showing, the 16th-ranked and second-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers now begin their run in the Big East Tournament tonight against the seventh-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden. The victor of this contest moves on to the semifinals versus Cincinnati or West Virginia on Friday.
Picked to finish ninth in the Big East preseason poll, Pitt defied all odds and overcame a lack of experience for a second place showing at 13-5. The Panthers, who lost a majority of their production from a season ago, also won 24 regular-season games and moved into the Top 25 for the second part of the campaign. Winners of three straight and eight of their last nine games, the Panthers are now ready for another successful run in the postseason. Since 2000-01, Pitt has won a conference-high 19 games in the Big East Tournament, marching its way to seven of the last nine titles games. The team took home two titles during the stretch, with the most recent coming in 2008.
As for the Irish, they continued their late charge last night with a 68-56 besting of 10th-seeded Seton Hall in second-round play. It was the fifth straight victory for ND, which may have just locked up a spot in the NCAA Tournament with last night's performance.
ND's current winning streak start with a 68-53 upset of Pittsburgh on February 24th and that victory tied the all-time series at 27-27 between the programs.
Luke Harangody looked like himself last night, recording a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds to lift ND past Seton Hall. Harangody, who missed five of the last six games of the regular season with a bruised right knee, made 9- of-15 field goals for the game. ND continued its defensive improvement, holding Seton Hall to 56 points and a dismal 34.5 percent shooting performance from the floor. The Irish have now held five straight opponents to 64 points or fewer and that is remarkable accomplishment for a team that allowed over 71.0 ppg in conference play this season. The newly found stingy defense, mixed with a healthy Harangody, who averages 23.2 ppg and 9.7 rpg, makes ND a real threat for the title. Of course the Irish have other players to rely on, as Tim Abromaitis and Ben Hansbrough averaged 17.2 and 12.0 ppg, respectively, during the regular season.
Pitt's success this season is due in large part to the emergence of Ashton Gibbs, who earned the Big East's Most Improved Player Award. After averaging just 4.3 ppg as a freshman last season, Gibbs paced the Panthers with an average of 16.2 ppg this campaign. A second-team All-Big East selection, Gibbs is extremely accurate at the foul line (.890 percent) and he also shoots 40.4 percent from three-point range. Brad Wanamaker, a jack of all trades, adds 12.0 ppg and 5.7 rpg, to go along with a team-high 4.7 apg for the Panthers. Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown tack on 10.7 ppg apiece for Pitt, which has done a nice job holding foes to 61.7 ppg and 39.8 percent shooting from the field.
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams that have a history of playing close games meet in the quarterfinal round of the Big East Tournament today, as the fifth-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles battle the fourth-seeded and 10th-ranked Villanova
<< Orange and Hoyas clash in Big East quarterfinals
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-ranked and top-seeded Syracuse
Orange make their much anticipated debut in the Big East Tournament today, as
they lock up with the 22nd-ranked and eighth-seeded Georgetown Hoyas in the
quarterfinals at
<< Mountaineers and Bearcats collide in quarterfinal action
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-seeded and seventh-ranked West
Virginia Mountaineers begin their march towards a Big East Tournament title
tonight, as they face off against the 11th-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats in the
quarterfinals at M
<< Cornhuskers battle Red Raiders in Big 12 Tournament action
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 23rd-ranked Texas A&M Aggies are the
fourth-seeded team in the Big 12 Conference Tournament, and they will play a
quarterfinal-round game against the surprising 12th-seeded Nebraska
Cornhuskers today.
<< Vols open SEC Tournament against hapless Tigers
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 15th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers are set
to take on the LSU Tigers in the first round of the 2010 SEC Tournament.
The winner of this contest will move on to face Ole Miss, the West Division's
second seed,
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers will be out to halt a poorly-timed three-game losing streak in tonight's matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets from Nationwide Arena. Atlanta had put itself in the Eastern Conference playoff mix with
Report: Roberts out at St. John's >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Norm Roberts is reportedly out as head coach
at St. John's after six seasons with the Red Storm.
The New York Post cited sources within the university as saying Roberts won't
be back for the 2010-11 season.
Habs hope to stay hot against Oilers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Montreal Canadiens continue their push for a postseason
berth when the surging club continues its current homestand with tonight's
bout against the Edmonton Oilers from the Bell Centre.
Montreal has won its last three
Golf Tidbits: Where has Stuart Appleby's game gone? >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Once the top-ranked Australian in the
world, Stuart Appleby has plummeted in the world rankings as his winless
streak stretches into its fourth season.
Appleby owns eight PGA Tour titles, including three s
Blazers hit the road to Golden State >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoping to keep their playoff aspirations alive, the
Portland Trail Blazers will hit the road for back-to-back games starting with
tonight's showdown against the Golden State Warriors at ORACLE Arena.
Portland is e
MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect
LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.
Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.
Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.
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Sportsbook Betting Lines
Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?
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. “What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?
There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).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).
How the Opening Line Is Made
The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.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.
Why Sports Betting Lines Change
Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include: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.”
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