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Jayhawks and Longhorns duke it out in AustinNCAA Basketball Betting Lines02/08/2010 - Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Big 12 heavyweights collide in Austin this evening, as the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks take on the ninth-ranked Texas Longhorns from the Frank Erwin Center. Bill Self's Jayhawks sit atop the Big 12 standings with a flawless 8-0 record. The team has won 22 of its 23 games on the year and enters this tilt with an eight-game win streak in tow, including Saturday's 75-64 win over Nebraska in Lawrence. The victory extended the nation's longest homecourt winning streak to 55 games. The Longhorns looked like the team to beat in the Big 12 just a few weeks ago, but they have hit a wall of late, losing four of their last six games, including an 80-71 setback at Oklahoma on Saturday. With the loss, Texas fell to 5-3 in league play. These are the two winningest programs in conference play since the inception of the Big 12, with Kansas posting a league-best 180 league wins and Texas ranking second with 150. This is the 23rd all-time meeting between these two teams, with Kansas holding a 16-6 series advantage, including wins in each of the last two meetings. The Jayhawks forced Nebraska into 19 turnovers and shot an efficient .481 from the floor, marking the team's 55th consecutive win at the Allen Fieldhouse. Marcus Morris led the way with his fourth double-double this season, finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Sherron Collins added 17 points and six assists for Kansas, which remained unbeaten in league play. The Jayhawks have been able to rack up the victories thanks to stellar play at both ends of the floor. The team boasts of an impressive +21.0 scoring margin (leads the nation), averaging 83.7 ppg, while allowing just 62.7. KU has certainly been efficient shooting the ball, converting 49.3 percent from the floor, with four players currently averaging double figures. It starts with Collins, an All- American candidate with the ability to create for himself (15.6 ppg) and others (team-high 98 assists). Morris, a sophomore, and Xavier Henry, a freshman, are next at 13.0 ppg, while junior Cole Aldrich (11.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg) rounds things out with his dominant play inside. The Longhorns are definitely capable of hanging with Kansas at the offensive end, as Texas comes into this week averaging a steady 84.1 ppg on 48-percent efficiency from the field. The key to this game may be the battle inside between KU's Aldrich and UT's standout Damion James. The Big 12's all-time leading rebounder, James is a force down low, averaging a double-double with team-highs of 17.8 points (sixth in the league) and 11.0 rebounds per game (leads the league). The 6-7 senior gets perimeter support from Avery Bradley (12.5 ppg), J'Covan Brown (9.4 ppg) and Jordan Hamilton (9.3 ppg), while big man Dexter Pittman (11.4 ppg, 6.2 rpg, team-high 48 blocks) helps out in the paint. Texas was its own worst enemy in Norman this past weekend, as the team shot just .417 from the floor and a miserable 10-of-27 from the free-throw line (.370) in a nine-point loss to the Sooners. Bradley did his best to keep the Longhorns in it, finishing with 21 points. James just missed a double- double with 12 points and nine rebounds, while Gary Johnson did complete the feat, coming off the bench with 11 points and 10 boards. Pittman tallied eight points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds in the loss.
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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook BettingNFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal. A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon." It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed. The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha. So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games." Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs. |
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