 |
 Basketball Betting |
 |
||||
|
 |
||||
|
||||
Falcons soar into Sin CityNCAA Basketball Betting Lines02/20/2007 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - No longer the only member of the Mountain West Conference among the nationally-ranked, the Air Force Falcons put their three-game win streak on the line tonight as they visit the UNLV Runnin' Rebels at the Thomas & Mack Center. Not only are the 14th-ranked Falcons not the only ranked program in the conference this week, the team isn't even at the top of the MWC standings, a position occupied by 21st-ranked BYU at the moment. On Saturday, the academy posted a 67-58 win at Clune Arena to extend the nation's longest home win streak to 30 games, one better than those aforementioned Cougars who don't play their next home game until tomorrow night versus Colorado State. As for the Rebels, who had to clear out of Sin City when the NBA invaded with their annual All-Star game over the weekend, they took care of business in Salt Lake City on Saturday with a 70-57 decision over Utah. The win was the third in the last four games for UNLV, which is currently third in the conference with a record of 9-4. Air Force won the first meeting between these two teams earlier this season, taking a 56-50 decision at home. However, the Rebels still own a comfortable margin in the all-time series, logging a 17-7 record versus the Falcons. Although he was trying to fight through a nagging ankle injury, Dan Nwaelele still came to play as he and the rest of the Falcons dismissed the Rams over the weekend. Nwaelele finished with a team-high 18 points, thanks to 5-of-10 shooting beyond the arc, followed by Matt McCraw with 15 and four assists. Jacob Burtschi dropped in 10 points, as did Tim Anderson with the duo combining for 11 rebounds and seven of the team's eight steals on the afternoon. Nwaelele, who is shooting a sizzling 50 percent from three- point range and 56.4 percent from the floor overall this year, is tops on the scoring list for the Falcons with his 14.9 ppg, followed by Burtschi with 13.5 ppg and a team-high 5.7 rpg. Entering play this week, the Falcons had the seventh-best scoring margin in Division I at +15.7 ppg, basically because the defense is up to its old tricks again. Having led the nation in scoring defense for several years, the Falcons know better than anyone how to get the job done and they are doing it again with just 54.7 ppg allowed, second only to Princeton in all of college basketball at the moment. Offensively, the team is ranked fourth in the country in field goals shooting at 50.6 percent and is fifth nationally from behind the three-point line at 42.4 percent. Operating with four guards, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Wink Adams ended up leading the Rebels in both scoring and rebounding in the win over Utah over the weekend, putting up 17 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. The only other player to score in double figures for the Rebels was Kevin Kruger who connected on 3-of-5 shots beyond the arc to finish with 11 points, to go along with his team-high four assists. In addition to shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 11-of-17 beyond the arc, the most impressive aspect of the victory was probably that the team had a mere four turnovers. Leading scorer Wendell White, who is averaging 15.4 ppg this season on 51.9 percent shooting from the field, made just one of his 12 shots. Adams is good for 14.8 ppg and Kruger another 12.3 ppg and a team- high 98 assists, that coming from someone who has missed six of the team's 28 games. UNLV enters the week ranked third in the conference in scoring at 75.1 ppg.
<< Toronto Argonauts (CFL)
Signed quarterbacks Mike McMahon and Tom Arth.
<< Lakers' Radmanovic out at least eight weeks
<< Chargers add Rivera to coaching staff
<< NBA Finals: Detroit vs. Dallas?
<< Dungy to return for 2007 season
Lone Star State rivals meet in Austin >>
Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Intrastate and Big 12 rivals will collide in Austin this evening, as the 19th-ranked Texas Longhorns welcome the Texas Tech Red Raiders to town. Back-to-back wins have enabled Texas Tech to
Badgers take top-ranking into East Lansing >>
Big East action pits Mountaineers at Friars >>
Argonauts ink QB McMahon >>
Pistons visit Central Division-rival Milwaukee >>
Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence Work left to do: Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8. Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday. DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ... West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule. Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games. For more March Madness odds go to MySportsbook.com For more College Basketball betting lines go to BettingExpress.com To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
|
|
