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Cornell story touches campus in many waysNCAA Basketball Betting Lines03/25/2010 - SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -Steve Donahue knew for a while that something special was brewing at Cornell. He just never dared to dream so big. ``It's just been overwhelming in a great way,'' Donahue, head coach of the Big Red, said Wednesday after practice in the Carrier Dome. ``People back home have been stopping, honking their horns, rolling down their windows, just exuberant in celebration. It just makes you feel good that people are enjoying the success of our program just as much as we are.'' Cornell's run is unprecedented in the Ivy League. With nine seniors, many of them castoffs, Cornell (29-4) has won more games than any school in the history of the league and is the first from the Ivy to advance to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament in more than 30 years. Two more wins, beginning with top-seeded Kentucky on Thursday night, and the 12th-seeded Big Red will become the lowest seed to reach a Final Four. Not bad for a coach who was 74-117 in his first seven seasons. ``I've been here for 10 years,'' said Donahue, who didn't make a dime coaching basketball until he was 33, selling paint so he could feed his passion for the game. ``Now I walk in the same steps I've always walked and I get a totally different reaction where I never got reaction.'' These are heady times on the Cornell campus. The women's ice hockey team, seeking the school's first national title in a women's sport, made it to its first national championship game before losing in triple overtime to Minnesota Duluth on Sunday. The men's hockey team has a Division I playoff game Friday night. Amidst the athletic glee is a pall of gloom that hangs over the picturesque campus in Ithaca, N.Y., an hour's drive south of Syracuse. The Ivy League school, situated in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, is known for its spectacular gorges. It attracts the best and brightest - future lawyers, doctors, captains of industry. It's also haunted by a reputation for suicides. The steep, rocky gorges add to the beauty of the school of 20,000 students, who must cross over at least one of them to enter the main campus town. ``There were three (suicides) one semester when I was there,'' said Rick Luciani, a 1986 Cornell graduate and now a social worker in Syracuse. ``The following year they put up more gates to make it harder to jump. It was an alarming time. I do remember it pretty vividly.'' This year has been brutal. After three years without any deaths, six students have taken their own lives this academic year, an 18-year-old freshman economics major from Florida, a sophomore from Maryland, and a junior from Indiana among them. ``It's kind of been a weird feeling with the tragedies,'' senior star Ryan Wittman said. ``I think what we're trying to do is give people something else to think of. Give them something to take their minds off of that. ``We've been seeing and feeling a lot of support from our students, from the locals around the community,'' he added. ``It's kind of a difficult situation. We're not trying to make people forget about it, just allow them to think about something else for a little while.'' Cornell took the extraordinary step of posting lookouts on bridges that span the gorges and going door-to-door to check on students after the suicides. The school hosted a ``Lift Your Spirits'' gathering that featured music and a wall for students to write their thoughts. ``I hope that they feel better about everything that's going on on our campus and somehow will get through this,'' said Donahue, a father of five. ``As a parent, that is always your concern. To see it happen on your own campus is extremely difficult.'' The suicides have affected the basketball players, too. ``It was kind of shocking that kids our age are going through stuff like that,'' senior Jon Jaques said. ``I hope in some way our run helps the school. I can't say whether it's helped touch people personally, but I know it's made people on campus get happy and excited.'' It sure has. ``The mood was pretty down. I actually knew one of the people that passed,'' said Sarah Song, a junior from Vineland, N.J. ``A lot of people didn't know how to handle things. It (the team's success) has helped. Everyone is just ecstatic, and it's going to last. It's definitely put everyone in a great mood. When they go back, they're going to be like local heroes.'' They already are. Since coach Mike Dement's 1987-88 Cornell team went 17-10 and 11-3 in the Ivy League to earn the school's second NCAA tournament bid (the 1953-54 team won the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League and the school's first NCAA berth two years before the Ivy League formed), the Big Red had just two winning seasons until going 16-12 and 9-5 in the Ivies in 2006-07 under Donahue. In winning the league three straight years, Cornell has broken through one of the most consistent monopolies in college basketball. Since 1969, Penn or Princeton had either won or shared the Ivy League title in all but three years. Donahue traces the program's turnaround to a horrific accident in practice four years ago. Sophomore guard Khaliq Gant dislocated two vertebrae in his neck in a collision with two teammates that left him temporarily paralyzed. He underwent a seven-hour operation to fuse the vertebrae and secure them with plates and screws and has since recovered. Although his playing days were over, Gant remained an integral part of the team as manager, and the Big Red excelled. There's a chance Gant will be here Friday night, when the Big Red face their biggest foe of the season in Kentucky. Donahue rolled his eyes in amazement at the thought. ``I knew we had something special, but it exceeded my expectations,'' he said. ``It's hard to imagine what they (the seniors) have accomplished in four years.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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How did changes to college football betting rules affect bettors?The 2007 college football rules changes that were implemented to shorten games are now history. The NCAA rules committee did what they set out to do; games were cut by an average of 14 minutes per game last season. There were also, on average, 14 fewer plays per game. We’ll get into how that did (or didn’t) affect games in regards to the pointspread a bit later. While the NCAA rules committee may have had the betterment of the game in mind, they'll now “turn back the clock” for next season. Two key rules have now been overturned by the NCAA committee for the 2007 season, something definitely for the better. For those of you who may not remember what those rules actually were, let us refresh your memory. 1) The first one was actually starting the clock on a kickoff as soon as the kicker touched the ball rather than waiting until the returner touched it. The problem here was near the end of the half (or game), if the team leading was kicking off, they could milk the clock by intentionally running offsides and then re-kicking. They could run 10-15 seconds off the clock each play while taking just five-yard penalties each time. They could run the clock down and simply cause the half (or game) to end on a kickoff, keeping the opposing offense off the field. In 2007, the clock will now start when the returner touches the ball as it had before last season. 2) The second rule dealt with starting the clock after a change of online football betting possession rather than waiting until the ball was snapped. This took a lot of time off the clock throughout the game as teams changed possession, however it caused the most problems late in games (or halves). Rather than huddling up and calling a play, the offensive team would have to rush onto the field as the clock started. This was a definite disadvantage to a team that was trying to come from behind late in the game. This year the clock will start on a change of possession, after the ball is snapped. How did those rules affect the college game last year and will it make a difference this year when it comes to the pointspread? We commonly heard two theories when it came to these changes. First, it would affect scoring negatively. Second, it would hurt favorites as they would have less time and fewer plays to cover the number. Did the rules hurt scoring? Yes. It seemed obvious that shortening the game by what amounted to 14 plays would push scoring downward. That was the case last year. Of the 119 Division 1A teams, 69 squads scored fewer points in 2007 than they did in 2005. Just 48 teams had a higher PPG scoring average and two stayed the same. Almost 59 percent of the teams in college football last year had a lower PPG average than they did in 2005. Expect more scoring in 2007 as we revert back to the old rules. Did the rules hinder favorites from covering the number in 2007? Not really. Last year the favorites posted an overall spread record of 336-350-16 (48.9 percent). The year before, favorites were 316-326-13 (49.2 percent). In 2004, the favorites were 316-339-2 (48.2 percent). In fact, college football favorites have been above 50 percent for the season just once in the last seven years (in 2003). Last year’s numbers fell right in line with where they have been historically. How about big favorites? The rules must have hurt them? Maybe a little bit. Double-digit favorites last year came in at a 47.8 percent clip compare with an average of just over 50 percent over the last seven years. Since 1980, favorites of -10 or more have covered at exactly a 50 percent clip (measured over 6,716 games). Even bigger favorites must have struggled? Not really. In fact, it was just the opposite. Favorites of three TD’s or more were 59-54-2 last year (52.2 percent). Since 2000, those same favorites (-21 or higher) hit at 51.3 percent and since 1990 came in a clip of 50.3 percent. Stepping it up a notch to four TD favorites or higher, we actually see they've covered at a much better rate last season than before. Last year, favorites of -28 or more were 31-21-1, or almost 60 percent. Historically, four-TD-or-higher favorites have come in at a 50.7 percent spot since 2000 and only 48.9 percent since 1990. The “perceived” problem with the favorites covering at a reduced rate really never came to fruition. Bottom line is, there might be some more scoring in 2007, but no real revelations when it comes to finding any pointspread golden nuggets. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on college football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Problem with Bears?Chicago, IL - New Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and star linebacker Brian Urlacher shot down reports of a rift, saying they're simply not true. "There's nothing between us," Cutler said Thursday, when he reported to training camp. "I just want to put that to rest. There never has been anything between us." Urlacher added: "I never said what I was quoted as saying and that's it. I have a lot of respect for Jay. I think Jay knows that." Mysportsbook.com online online sportsbook accepts Visa & Mastercard |
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