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It has really been a interesting week with Olympics and of course basketball and even some tennis action here int he states. The big story though is basketball and we are moving closer o march madness and the NBA playoffs so lets start off with a look at Basketball.
With March Madness right around the corner, college basketball is truly starting to get interesting. This past weekend, each of the top 3 teams lost, and there really doesn’t seem to be one clear-cut favorite at this point in time.
The latest victim of a tough loss was Purdue, who was ranked 3 coming into their game with Michigan State.
This was Purdue’s first game without recently injured Robbie Hummel, and it was apparent that his absence hurt them. Purdue only shot 30% from the field, and they were out-rebounded 44-16.
Without Hummel, Purdue is going to need to find another player (maybe E’Twaun Moore?) to step up and carry the load for the Boilermakers.
But as Purdue tries to figure that out, there will be other teams climbing the ranks, in hopes of claiming a number-one seed when tournament time comes around.
Chances are, though, that whoever does claim that new vacant spot, will just fall like a ton of bricks. We have all seen it too many times before, and it is almost inevitable at this point.
In my opinion, a team’s best chance is to sneak up on the others and attack when nobody expects it. A team without a target on their backs can usually move. We really have seen some action over the past weekend.Losses by Kansas and Kentucky over the weekend have shaken up the college basketball polls, and Syracuse is left standing at the top.
For the first time since 2003, the Orange reached the peak of the national landscape with 23 first-place votes and 766 total points in the recent ESPN/USA Today poll. The last time Syracuse was no. 1, it was celebrating a National Championship.
The Orange were able to stay upright in a weekend of parody in which the Jayhawks lost to unranked Okahoma State, and the Wildcats fell to Tennessee. Syracuse beat Providence before shelling Villanova in front of a record crowd to maintain it’s Big East lead, and will enter the conference tournament with the top-seed and a bye in the first round. It was only the Orange’s second win in their last seven at home against Villanova.
Kansas, still favored for the title in College Basketball Sportsbooks, is second with seven first-place votes, and Kentucky fell to third in Monday’s poll. Duke and Kansas State round out the top-5. The Blue Devils were the only team other than the Jayhawks and Orange to receive a first-place vote.
Ohio State, which is a half game ahead of Purdue and Michigan State in the Big Ten, is seventh, followed by West Virginia, Villanova and New Mexico.The Lobos won a critical Mountain West game against Brigham Young over the weekend.
Butler, Michigan State, Tennessee, Gonzaga and BYU start off the next ten.Then it’s Temple, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt and Georgetown. The Hoyas had another rough week, losing to Notre Dame. They have lost three of four and dropped from 13th to 20th.The final five are UTEP, Baylor, Maryland, Texas A&M and Texas.
The Terrapins reaching the polls means the ACC has two teams ranked after having only one last week. It was the first time in over 20 years the conference only had one in the polls.Sort of sad here in ACC country.
The big news in the NBA right now is the news that Cavaliers center Shaquille O’Neal has had surgery on his injured right thumb and will probably miss the rest of the NBA regular season.
O’Neal was injured in the Cavaliers’ NBA victory at Boston last week, when a shot from him was blocked by Glen Davis in the first half.
He was examined on Sunday by specialist Thomas Graham, who operated on Monday. The expected eight-week recovery time means O’Neal, who turns 38 on Saturday, may not be ready to play when the playoffs get underway on April 17.But if he does return for the finals, the NBA veteran is vowing to make up for lost time.
“He feels like he let us down, but we understand injuries happen in the game,” said teammate Jamario Moon, who got a text from the star centre. ‘I think he’s really down about being out. He let us know it’s time to continue playing basketball and he’s going to be all right.”
O’Neal was acquired by the Cavaliers last summer after Dwight Howard and Orlando eliminated Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals.
“Will be out for a min but when I return it is on,” O’Neal posted on his Twitter account.”Win da ring for da king! Luv my team, Cavs baby!”
Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry said O’Neal will wear a splint for a fortnight, then begin rehabilitation.
This has major implications in my opiniopn for the NBA title race as the Cavs are my pick to face the Lakers, I still don’t like Orlando at all and Boston may have the best chance to face the Lakers or the Nuggets possibly. This is really shaping up to me a average year int he NBA in terms of great teams. I remeber in one of my blogs I actually thought soe teams may challenge the Bulls greatest regular season record. That is a joke this year it seems.
I have really enjoyed having tennis in America and we will have indian wells coming up soon so stay tuned to the site for updates. here is a look at the present standings.Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez moves into the Top 10 of the latest men’s tennis rankings released Monday by the ATP, replacing Fernando Verdasco of Spain.
Roger Federer of Switzerland continues to head the rankings with 11,350 points, followed by Dubai winner Novak Djokovic (8,310) and Rafael Nadal (7,520).
And Australian Open winner Serena Williams continues to lead an unchanged WTA women’s top 10 rankings published on Monday.
Williams heads the list with 8,645 points ahead of Russia’s Dinara Safina (6,480) with Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in third (5,930).
ATP top 10 as of March 1 (previous ranking in parenthesis)
1. (1) Roger Federer, Switzerland, 11,350 points
2. (2) Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 8,310
3. (3) Rafael Nadal, Spain, 7,520
4. (4) Andy Murray, Britain, 7,255
5. (5) Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina, 6,265
6. (6) Nikolay Davydenko, Russia, 5,290
7. (7) Robin Soderling, Sweden, 3,855
8. (8) Andy Roddick, United States, 3,720
9. (9) Marin Cilic, Croatia, 2,970
10. (12) Fernando Gonzalez, Chile, 2,890
WTA top 10 as of March 1 (previous ranking in parenthesis)
1. (1) Serena Williams, United States, 8,645 points
2. (2) Dinara Safina, Russia, 6,480
3. (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 5,930
4. (4) Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark, 5,925
5. (5) Venus Williams, United States, 5,626
6. (6) Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 5,300
7. (7) Elena Dementieva, Russia, 4,855
8. (8) Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland, 3,880
9. (9) Jelena Jankovic, Serbia, 3,770
10. (10) Li Na, China, 3,665
Thats it folks , have a great week and stay tuned to the site for updates and tons of new stuff happening here at Wagering Sports..
March 1st, 2010 5:58:23 PM GMT+5 | Posted in Basketball, Sports, Tennis by johngm | No Comments
I am sorry guys that my week in sports blog is running a few days late, we had a big snowstorm here and I am just getting a chance write this blog this morning. Lets get right to it with a look at the big story this week with the upcoming Super Bowl.
I really believe that Super Bowl (2009, XLIV) has almost as much appeal to the masses as Super Bowl (1984, XIX) – San Francisco vs Miami, Montana vs Moreno. Of course, Indianapolis and New Orleans don’t have as much population as those cities, but the size of the local city is probably small potatoes to the Super Bowl ratings – and besides none of these teams are from New York. Anyway, you can check out my prior post to see how I arrived at it. The focus of this story is who is going to win this game.
As you surely know, Indianapolis is a five point favorite and has been close to that since very shortly after the line opened.
I don’t have a preference.I like both teams, I like their offenses. It probably would mean more to New Orleans than Indianapolis for obvious reasons – not the least of which is the fact that Indy won a recent Super Bowl. I just hope it goes down to the wire so that I can turn around from my desk and watch a couple critical plays at the end… Is that violins I hear playing?
There are a lot of ways to look at who will win. The Vegas guys have a spreadsheet a couple miles long. I’m not privy to it though
.I don’t care about the stats on turnovers or touchdown returns or penalties or special teams. If you have read what I have said in the past about winning and losing in the NFL, you know that my primary interest is yards gained and yards allowed. Those are much more stable numbers with much higher sample sizes. Consequently, they are the only two things I’m going to evaluate in this post. But, even then, to keep it simple, I’m only going to look at the offensive yardage and defensive yardage rankings.
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It’s obvious by looking, that Indianapolis is more balanced offensively and defensively, but does that really matter? If you add both rankings together, whether 27 or 26, it doesn’t seem like there is much advantage either way.
Naturally, I wanted to know whether teams with the lowest rankings (Sum) typically beat the teams with the higher rankings (Sum). As it turns out, of the 43 previous Super Bowls, 26 have been won by the team with the lower cumulative rankings. That’s 60% of the time and certainly intuitive. However, since these two teams are virtually dead even, it means very little here.
Even so, I thought I would tell you that there have been 15 Super Bowl match-ups where the differential between the sums of the rankings was 10 or greater. Of those, the team with the lower cumulative rankings won 10 and lost 5. Again, this is what you would expect. What’s most interesting here is that the last three times this happened, the team that had the worst (highest) cumulative rankings won the game and if only for another few seconds or another yard (Tennessee losing to St. Louis), it would have been four straight! Here are those three games.
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While I was looking at this, I thought it might be interesting to see how many times the two teams had a better cumulative offensive sum of 10 (9 + 1) or a worse cumulative defensive sum of 46 (18 + 25).
OFFENSE: There have been a number of match-ups where the combined offensive ranks were 10 or less. However, it has been since 1998 (Denver #3 and Atlanta #7) that we have seen such prolific offenses in the Super Bowl. The lowest (best) was 1984 (Miami #1 and San Francisco #2).
DEFENSE: On defense, no other match-up is even close to having a combined rank of 46. The next closest was 1993 (Dallas #10 and Buffalo #27). What that means is that historically, this is the worst defensive combo ever.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine this will likely be an offensive shoot-out. Of course, it might not and that’s why they play the game instead of (inexplicably) simply reading what I write.
OFFENSE VS DEFENSE
There have been 13 times since the merger in 1970 when the #1 team in offense made it to the Super Bowl. The record of those teams is 7-6. That doesn’t tell us much.
There have “only” been nine times when the #1 team in defense made it to the Super Bowl. But… they won eight of them!
So, on the one hand it appears you can get to the Super Bowl more often with a great offense, but when teams have time to prepare, defense wins out.
And, this is especially true in recent years. Since 1999, #1 offenses are 0-3 (average margin –11.0) in the Super Bowl while #1 defenses are 2-0 (average margin +15.5).
COOL FACTOID: Despite 13 #1 offenses and 9 #1 defenses in Super Bowl history, there has never been a #1 offense meet a #1 defense.
Furthermore, since 1970, the team with the better defensive ranking has won the Super Bowl 28 times and lost only 11. The team with the better offensive ranking has won 18 and lost 21. Again, looking only since 1999, the better offense is 2-7 while the better defense is 6-3. Once again, defense rules.
Admittedly, Indy’s defense isn’t all that strong either and there has never been a situation where a #18 defense went up against a defense even worse. Nevertheless, New Orleans’ defense is ranked #25 and there have only been two worse – the Bills were ranked #27 in 1991 and in 1993. They got beat easily in both games by 17 and 13… and they allowed an average of 33.5 points.
THE OFF vs DEF DIFFERENTIAL: As I mentioned, New Orleans has the #1 offense, Indianapolis #9. That’s a differential of 8. On defense, Indianapolis is ranked #18, New Orleans #25. That’s a differential of 7. I wanted to know the records of teams when they were 8+ in offensive differential or 7+ in defensive differential.
8+ Offensive Differential: 7-8, but 0-5 since 1999!
7+ Defensive Differential: 16-5.
What’s that tell you? It should tell you that Indianapolis is very unlikely to lose.
LOOKING AT THE FIRST 13 GAMES
Both teams were 13-0. I think it is clear that either 1) they lost their focus or 2) they decided to play conservatively or 3) they wanted to protect their players from injury. Consequently, they lost five of the final six games between them.
I doubt if any of those issues are relevant in the playoffs and certainly not for the Super Bowl. Therefore, I thought I should look to see where the teams were if we exclude the last three regular season games from both.
There are some differences, but they seem to balance out. The Saints were #1 in offense before and after. The Colts were #17 and #18 in defense before and after. The two biggest changes were that the Saints were “only” #21 in defense through 13 games, but ended #25. Ok, that means their defense probably isn’t as bad as their final ranking. However, it’s also true that the Colts were #4 in offense, but ended #9. So, their offense was really better than their final ranking.
As you can see, #21 minus #4 (17) is not much different than #25 minus #9 (16). Because of that, I don’t see any reason to separate out the data through 13 games instead of 16.
SUMMARY
This might seem like a lot of numbers for one reason… it IS a lot of numbers! But, they all boil down to one thing. Defense wins championships! The only two major exceptions to that in well over 20 years in the Super Bowl are New England over St. Louis in 2001 and Indianapolis over Chicago in 2006. It could happen again. Obviously Brees is special. But, I’m picking the final as Manning 28, Saints 17.
Odds supplied by Betus
101 New Orleans Saints +5 -110 +170
102 Indianapolis Colts -5 -110 -210
So where are we right now in the College basketball standings? After three weeks of not being No. 1, Kansas moved back to the top of the Associated Press poll.
The Jayhawks (20-1) were No. 1 in the preseason Top 25 and for the first eight weeks of the regular season. They moved back into the top spot Monday, receiving 54 first-place votes from the 65-member media panel.
Kansas has won six in a row, including Saturday’s 81-79 overtime victory at Kansas State.
The three other Division I teams with one loss — Villanova, Syracuse and Kentucky — were second through fourth.
Kentucky was a unanimous No. 1 last week but dropped after losing to South Carolina.
Meanwhile, in the USA Today-ESPN coaches poll, the top four, in order, were Kansas, Villanova, Kentucky and Syracuse.
Gonzaga plunged after its 81-77 overtime loss Saturday at San Francisco. The Zags dropped from No. 13 to No. 17 in the AP poll and fell from eighth to 13th in the coaches poll.
Kansas coach Bill Self said it will be hard for any team to have a long stay at the top.
“There could be a new number one next week, and the week after,” Self said. “Because when you play road league games, people are going to lose. It’s not a major upset. We won the national championship (in 2008) and lost three league games in five games.
What about rankings for tennis as we come off an exciting Australian open. After the men’s singles event at the Australian Open notable for Roger Federer’s dominance and Rafael Nadal’s knees, the new rankings that came out Monday reflected both story lines.
After retiring during a quarterfinal match against Andy Murray because of a knee injury, Nadal fell to No. 4 from No. 2, his lowest ranking since May 2005. Nadal is expected to miss at least month because of a tear in his right knee.
Novak Djokovic, who lost in the quarterfinals to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, rose to No. 2 from No. 3, his highest ranking ever. He is followed by Andy Murray, the Australian Open runner-up.
With his victory in Melbourne, Federer secured his No. 1 position. It is his 268th week in the top spot, tying Jimmy Connors for third place in totals.asp”title=”betting totals” >total weeks at No. 1. Federer will soon pass Ivan Lendl, who was No. 1 for 270 weeks. Pete Sampras holds the record with 286 weeks at No. 1.
ATP Tour Rankings
1. (1) Roger Federer, 11,350 points
2. (3) Novak Djokovic, 8,310
3. (4) Andy Murray, 7,800
4. (2) Rafael Nadal, 7,670
5. (5) Juan Martin del Potro, 6,400
6. (6) Nikolay Davydenko, 5,290
7. (7) Andy Roddick, 4,150
8. (8) Robin Soderling, 3, 375
9. (10) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 3,235
10. (14) Marin Cilic, 2,970
On the women’s side, the Australian Open champion, Serena Williams, maintained her grip on the No. 1 ranking. Li Na, who with Zheng Jie became the first Chinese players to reach the Australian Open semifinals, soared to 10th from 17th. She is the first Chinese player to reach the top 10.
Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings
1. (1) Serena Williams, 9,195 points
2. (2) Dinara Safina, 6,480
3. (4) Caroline Wozniacki, 5,995
4. (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova, 5,861
5. (6) Venus Williams, 5,526
6. (7) Victoria Azarenka, 4,960
7. (5) Elena Dementieva, 4,705
8. (8) Jelena Jankovic, 3,845
9. (10) Agnieszka Radwanska, 3,605
10. (17) Li Na, 3,500
February 3rd, 2010 10:32:21 AM GMT+5 | Posted in Basketball, Football, Sports, Tennis by johngm | No Comments
We had some interesting sports action this weekend. We had the Australian open final and we also had the president at a basketball game. we will star off with the President and his trip to Georgetown for the Duke game.
Georgetown’s big Top 10 showdown with Duke brought out the countries number one fan – President Barack Obama.
The president, attending the game as a fan, provided some hoops commentary early in the second half of Saturday’s matchup of two top 10 teams at the Verizon Center near the White House.
During his conversation with CBS Sports broadcast team of Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg, President Obama told the duo that he wanted to put in his bid to become a color analyst after he leaves office.
President Obama on his next career:
After retirement I am coming after your job Clark. I am just letting you know. You either have three more years or seven, I am not sure which. But you need to plan accordingly because I am going to do some play-by-play.
Obama told the CBS announcers that his job keeps him too busy to watch a full game on TV during the regular season. He said ESPN’s SportsCenter keeps him well updated. But when it comes to March Madness and the NCAA tournament, it’s a different story. The president says he’ll watch all the Final Four games.
The full house at the Verizon Center were excited about the big Georgetown victory over Duke 88-77 but with the secret service there – no rushing the court.
In the Australian Open there no great surprises. Roger Federer showed he has no intention of relinquishing his iron grip at the top of men’s tennis, winning his fourth Australian
The Swiss all-time great was the man for the occasion, repulsing Andy Murray’s bid for British tennis history in a commanding 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13/11) triumph over the Scottish fifth seed in the final.
His victory ensures that the 28-year-old kicks off the new season firmly ensconced at the top after winning Wimbledon and the French Open last year.
“I’m on an incredible trip and I’ll see where it ends,” said Federer.
“I’m being pushed along by the new generation and they have made me a better player.”
It was Murray’s second Grand Slam loss to Federer following his defeat to him in the 2008 US Open final and continued Britain’s frustrating chase for a first male Grand Slam winner since Fred Perry last won 74 years ago.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal limped out of the tournament and slid from number two to fourth in the rankings after his third set retirement in his quarter-final with Murray.
The six-time Grand Slam champion returned to Spain to discover he would be out of the game for at least four weeks with a hamstring-related injury and will miss the ABN Amro tournament in Rotterdam that starts on February 8.
“I’m not pleased about missing the Rotterdam tournament. I would have liked to win the title after coming very close last year,” Nadal said.
The disappointing exit again raises doubts about his long-term viability after injuries last year blighted the Spaniard’s Grand Slam season.
January 31st, 2010 10:18:38 PM GMT+5 | Posted in Basketball, Sports, Tennis by johngm | No Comments
It has been a big week in sports this week as the Super Bowl is finally around the corner, the Australian Open is in full swing and College basketball is heating up. I wanted to wait until today to post my blog to see the results from last nights big showdown between Nadal and Murray and get a good look at the week ahead. We have a ton to talk about so lets start with a look at the first big major of the tennis year and last nights rather surprising result from the Nadal- Murray match.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal retired from his quarterfinal against Andy Murray with an injured knee, then predicted the Scottish player would end his Grand Slam title drought by winning the Australian Open.”For Andy, I think he deserves to win his first Grand Slam. And I think he’s going to do it,” Nadal said after a right knee injury forced him to concede Tuesday’s quarterfinal while trailing 6-3, 7-6 (2), 3-0.
“There’s a very good chance for him. First thing, he’s playing very well,” Nadal said. “Second thing, he’s already in the semifinals. He’s only two matches away.”
Andy Roddick also went out of the Australian Open on Tuesday, struggling with a shoulder injury before going down in five sets to Marin Cilic.Nadal said he didn’t want to risk more damage by playing and potentially having to spend long periods off the tour with knee tendinitis.
“Similar thing that I had last year,” Nadal said of the pain. “It was impossible to win the match.”
Murray will play a semifinal against Cilic, who beat No. 7 Roddick 7-6 (4), 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3 earlier Tuesday.
Nadal struggled with knee tendinitis and was unable to defend his Wimbledon title last season after beating Roger Federer in the Australian Open final. He received on-court treatment from a trainer for his knee after losing the second set.
Three games later, the Spaniard decided he couldn’t keep playing.
“I didn’t know when he hurt his knee, when he started feeling it, but from my side, I played very well,” said Murray, who is hoping to end a seven-decade British drought at the majors. “I deserved to be up when the match stopped.”
The 22-year-old Scot can hardly wait to play his semifinal against Cilic.”I lost to him at the U.S. Open in straight sets, so I’m looking for a little revenge,” Murray said. “If I play like I did tonight, I have got a good chance. Obviously, nerves are going to be there with an opportunity to make a final of a Slam.”
Murray’s only Grand Slam final appearance ended in a loss to Federer at the 2008 U.S. Open.
Roddick struggled through a right shoulder injury that impaired his movement, but he expects no long-term damage.
Still in the equation at Melbourne Park is three-time champion Federer, who plays Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Novak Djokovic, the 2008 champion, takes on the same year’s runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the other quarterfinal.
Roddick’s only major has been the 2003 U.S. Open, the last time an American man has won a Grand Slam singles title, marking the country’s longest drought in men’s majors.
Despite playing strongly in the third and fourth sets to level the match, Roddick fell apart in the final set, allowing No. 14 Cilic to break twice and send the last American man out of the singles draw at Melbourne Park.
Roddick said he didn’t practice Monday after feeling a twinge in his shoulder during Sunday’s fourth-round win over Fernando Gonzalez.
“The trainer said it was stemming from the neck down,” Roddick said. “By the end of the first set, I was pretty numb in the bottom two fingers. I could still hit it pretty hard; I was just having trouble controlling it.”
Seven-time Grand Slam singles winner Justine Henin hasn’t won a major in two years — because she hasn’t played in one. Henin, who returned from 20 months in retirement, advanced by beating Nadia Petrova 7-6 (3), 7-5 to take out the last seeded player in her half of the draw.
Henin, unranked and playing on a wild-card entry at Melbourne Park, will face Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie, who beat Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-3 to equal her Chinese record for the best run at a major.
“I just went for it with my heart. Finally I could make it, and I’m very happy,” Henin said. “At the end I played much more aggressive tennis.”
Henin ended a highly successful run in Melbourne for Petrova, who ousted two reigning major champions: U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters in the third round; and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth.
Kirilenko had taken out big names in her section, too, starting with 2008 champion Maria Sharapova in her first round and her fourth-round victory against last year’s finalist Dinara Safina, who retired with a back problem.
Henin retired in May 2008 while holding the No. 1 ranking and had not played at a major since losing in the quarterfinals to Sharapova here that season. Henin won the 2004 Australian title and reached the final in 2006.
The loss to Sharapova confirmed to Henin that she needed a break. Now she’s feeling as good as ever.
Roddick, who took two months off at the end of last year because of a knee injury, was also positive after his loss.
“All signs at this point are good,” Roddick said. “Whether it was a nerve that was compressed or something, I don’t know, cutting off something. But they don’t think it’s going to be anything too serious long-term. I’m sure we’ll take the proper precautions and check it out.”
Odds supplied by Betus
405 Novak Djokovic -4 -115 -250
1406 Jo Wilfried Tsonga +4 -125 +185
1501 Marin Cilic +250
!502 Andrew Murray -400
1407 Roger Federer -4 -140 -275
1408 Nikolay Davydenko +4 Ev +190
we have some big games tonight in College basketball and this week promises some great matchups as well. Tuesday’s a big day for teams in need to resume-building wins with many games providing teams the opportunity to further their causes. Rhode Island, who fell victim to Jordan Crawford in the second half of their loss at Xavier, could really use a win at Dayton to help their at-large chances. The same goes for the Flyers, who have lost two of their past three (both defeats came on the road). Losing to the Musketeers is by no means a bad thing but the 60-59 loss at St. Joseph’s could be one that comes back to haunt Brian Gregory’s squad if they don’t pick up a few more quality wins. Both teams will look to run, with Rhode Island needing to keep Chris Wright and company off of the boards if they’re to win.
In the Big 12 Kansas State visits a dangerous Baylor squad that nearly knocked off Kansas last week. Ekpe Udoh has been one of the nation’s best transfers this season, averaging 14.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.4 blocks per game. Curtis Kelly, Jamar Samuels and company will need to bring their A-game to Waco while the backcourt duel could be the highlight of the night. Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente lead the way for Frank Martin’s Wildcats while Scott Drew can counter with the tandem of LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter. Turnovers and rebounding margin will tell the tale of this contest given both teams’ desire to play at a fast tempo.
Top 5 teams Kentucky and Michigan State will hit the road to take on teams in desperate need of wins in South Carolina and Michigan, and the same can be said for both teams in the North Carolina/NC State rivalry game. The Tar Heels have lost three straight ACC games and their lack of a go-to guy on the perimeter has been one of their biggest flaws to date. Whether or not Ed Davis (ankle) plays remains to be seen but the key for UNC is to keep Scott Wood under wraps. They should have enough manpower inside to stay even with Tracy Smith and Dennis Horner, but can their guards score enough points and limit their turnovers? If they can North Carolina has a chance to leave Raleigh with the win.
TV GAMES
7p ESPN Michigan State at Michigan
7p ESPN2 Clemson at Boston College
7p ESPNU Miami at Maryland
8p FSN-Regional Kansas St at Baylor
9p ESPN Kentucky at South Carolina
9p ESPNU Rutgers at Marquette
9p BTN Northwestern at Minnesota
9p Raycom North Carolina at NC State
10:30p MTN Air Force at UNLV
OTHER GAMES
7p Lipscomb at Belmont
7p Rhode Island at Dayton
8p Tulsa at UAB
10p Seattle at Washington
So who are people saying are the best teams in the country right now. The Kentucky Wildcats are the No. 1 team in the nation for the first time in six seasons. Coach John Calipari (Memphis and UMass) joins Frank McGuire (St. John’s, UNC, South Carolina) as the only coaches to get three different schools to the top of the polls. With Texas losing twice in six days, Kentucky is the only remaining unbeaten team in Division I. The Longhorns, lost to Kansas State and Connecticut, and drop to No. 6. Kansas, Villanova, Syracuse and Michigan State follow Kentucky in rounding out this week’s top 5. North Carolina has fallen off the polls for the first time since January 2006. The Tarheels have lost three straight ACC games and are 1-3 in conference play. They are this week’s only team to drop off of the Coaches’ poll and are replaced by Vanderbilt. Clemson, Northern Iowa and Mississippi State join the Tarheels in falling off of the AP poll. Connecticut had a monster week in beating St. John’s and Texas to earn a No. 19 ranking in both polls. Vanderbilt, New Mexico and UAB are the other three newcomers to the AP poll.
Some big games this week
Wednesday, January 27:
#10 BYU at New Mexico
#23 Vanderbilt at #14 Tennessee
Thursday, January 28:
#16 Wisconsin at #12 Purdue
Saturday, January 30:
#23 Vanderbilt at #1 Kentucky
#2 Kansas at #13 Kansas State
#7 Duke at #11 Georgetown
It is finally super bowl time and what a game we have in store. I will talk more about the game in a later blog but I wanted to look at the line for now.The Indianapolis Colts were the early favorites when the Super Bowl XLIV line was released Sunday night, opening anywhere from a three- to 5 1/2-point favorite over the New Orleans Saints.
Oddsmaker Sean Van Patten of Las Vegas Sports Consultants had the Colts as a four-point favorite — Van Patten’s company provides betting lines for nearly 90 percent of Nevada sports books.
“The big factor here is that Indy has been there,” Van Patten told the Associated Press. “The experience factor is such a huge thing when it comes to the Super Bowl.”
The Glantz-Culver line had Indianapolis as a 4 1/2-point favorite to open, and an over/under of 55 1/2..The line is rising so if you like the colts you may want to jump on it quick.
Odds supplied by betus
101 New Orleans Saints +5½ -110 +170
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January 26th, 2010 11:13:06 AM GMT+5 | Posted in Basketball, Football, Sports, Tennis by johngm | No Comments
Marcos has always played great tennis in Melbourne and after his great run at the end of last year and this year I think it is fair to say that he is coming back. He is an authentic player on the tour and Agassi was right in devoting an entire chapter to him in his recently published book. The opening chapter no less.
Baghdatis is a crowd pleaser but unlike Fernando Gonzalez for instance he knows when to stop and be serious, he’s in peak physical condition, he is pleased with the way his body is responding and is feeling great. The main concern for him in the past few years have been injuries but know he seems to have managed to relax on that issue which gave him continuity of play and a much more stable mental situation because he’s not haunted by the fact that he could get injured anytime.
Federer has always been good at the AO but never at his best. It takes him time to get into rhythm and by the time he’s done that it’s Roland Garros time. Nadal is yet to reach his old form. He’s not playing aggressive enough tennis at this moment. Djokovic, to me it seems has reached his peak two years ago in Melbourne, Delpo is solid but is injury plagued which has a huge impact on his play, Murray is also troubled with injuries, predominantly right hamstring, or left – it’s been a while. Roddick is great but he’s much more deadly on grass because of his serve, same goes for Isner.
The best chances to win this year’s AO I give to Davydenko. He has the game this year and has broken through the mental barrier of not being able to perform against Roger. Nadal can’t beat him, Djokovic can always lose to him and the rest are his usual costumers.
But, as much as I think Davydenko is better at the moment I prefer Baghdatis over him at least twice as much. Also Davydenko has one major thing going against him. He’s incredibly unlucky at the grand slams. This bet is biased due to Baggy being one of my favorite players. Small punt on the Cypriot is worth it in my opinion.
January 19th, 2010 9:09:17 AM GMT+5 | Posted in Tennis by ranma | No Comments
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