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03/03/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 28th annual Northeast Conference Tournament gets underway on Thursday, March 5th with four quarterfinal-round games to be played on the home court of the higher seeds. After the opening round, the teams will be reseeded so the highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed in the semifinals.
Mount St. Mary's is the defending NEC Tournament champion, and the team earned the No. 2 seed in this year's event following a season in which it went 17-12, 12-6 in conference. The top seed is Robert Morris as the Colonials logged a 21-10 overall mark, including a 15-3 ledger in NEC play, en route to their second straight NEC regular season title. Sacred Heart and Long Island both finished with 12-6 league ledgers to tie Mount St. Mary's, and while the Mountaineers were awarded the second seed, the Pioneers claimed the third seed and the Blackbirds settled for the fourth.
All games will start at 7:00 pm (et) on Thursday, with top-seeded Robert Morris facing eighth-seeded St. Francis-NY. The Colonials have performed well at both ends of the floor this season, ranking second in the NEC in both scoring offense (71.3 ppg) and scoring defense (66.4 ppg). They are led by Jeremy Chappel and his 16.6 ppg (third-best in the conference), and Rob Robinson adds 11.6 ppg while Jimmy Langhurst chips in with 10.1 ppg. Chappel is also the team's leader on the boards, coming up with 6.3 rpg, while pacing the league in steals (2.55 per game). Robert Morris is the league's top three- point shooting team (.397), but its worst at defending the long-range shot (.377).
As for St. Francis-NY (10-19, 7-11 NEC), it is averaging a mere 65.9 ppg despite being in the top half of the conference in three-point shooting (.365). Ricky Cadell is the Terriers' top point producer, checking in at 15.1 ppg behind 47 percent field goal efficiency. SFNY was the only NEC team to beat RMU on its home floor this season, taking an 87-79 decision on December 4, 2008. No eight seed has ever knocked off the No. 1 seed in the history of this event.
No. 2 seed Mount St. Mary's gets a crack at seventh-seeded Wagner in the quarterfinals, and the defending NEC Tournament champs boast three double- digit scorers, led by Jeremy Goode and his 15.8 ppg. One of the top playmakers in the conference, Goode has dished out 120 assists and is shooting nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc. The team, which leads the league in scoring defense (63.3 ppg), owns a scoring advantage of 5.5 points, as well as positive differentials in both rebounding (+1.4) and turnovers (+1.6).
Wagner (16-13, 8-10 NEC) is a middle-of-the-pack team in most statistical categories, netting 67.6 ppg while allowing 68.2 ppg. The Seahawks rank third in the conference in both three-point shooting (.381) and turnover margin (+0.28). The team is led offensively by Joey Mundweiler (14.0 ppg), Jamal Smith (11.9 ppg), Llewchean Radford (11.2 ppg) and Justin Drummond (10.5 ppg). Mundweiler is coming off a record-setting performance as he drained 11 three- pointers in the regular-season finale against Monmouth, helping Wagner win for the fourth straight time.
Third-seeded Sacred Heart, the league's top scoring team during the regular season (73.7 ppg), opens the tournament by hosting Central Connecticut State (13-16, 8-10 NEC), which was awarded the sixth seed after losing a tie-breaker with Wagner. The Pioneers, who have won five straight coming into the postseason by an average of nearly 21 ppg, knocked down 48.3 percent of their field goal attempts this season, which includes a 39.3 percent showing from downtown. As good as Sacred Heart is beyond the arc, the team is also effective in thwarting the long-range aspirations of the opposition, yielding just a 32.9 percent success rate through 29 games. The Pioneers are the NEC's top team in assists (17.07 per outing) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.05), while ranking second in steals (7.86 per game). Joey Henley (15.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg) is the club's top man both in scoring and on the glass, while Corey Hassan (11.2 ppg) contributes as well.
CCSU is averaging just 64.8 ppg despite a solid showing both from the field (.446) as well as the foul line (.724). The Blue Devils, however, are one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the conference (.318, 4.17 three-point FGs made per contest). Ken Horton finished the regular season as the NEC's second-leading scorer at 16.6 ppg.
The fourth-seeded Long Island Blackbirds kick off tournament play at home against No. 5 seed Quinnipiac. Even though Long Island is the worst shooting team in the conference (.409), it ranks third in scoring offense (70.4 ppg). The Blackbirds are led by Jaytornah Wisseh and his 15.3 ppg, and Kyle Johnson and Julian Boyd average double digits as well with 13.7 and 10.3 ppg, respectively. Ron Manigault ranks second in the NEC in rebounding (8.7 rpg), less than a board per game behind Quinnipiac's Justin Rutty (9.5 rpg).
Rutty, a 60.3 percent shooter from the field, ranks second on the Bobcats (14-15, 10-8 NEC) with his 14.9 ppg, while James Feldeine paces the team and the conference with 16.8 ppg. Quinnipiac finished the regular season ranked atop the league in rebounding margin (+5.6) and third in scoring defense (66.7 ppg). Free-throw shooting has really been a problem for the 'Cats this season, as they rank dead last in the NEC at a mere 62.0 percent. LIU was a league- best 12-2 at home this season, although one of those losses came against Quinnipiac, which swept the season series from the Blackbirds.
<< Brewers sign P Gallardo
Maryvale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers inked pitcher Yovani
Gallardo to a one-year deal on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old native of Mexico finished without a decision and a 1.88 earned
run average in 24 innings over four start
<< 2009 Sun Belt Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 33rd-annual Sun Belt Conference
Tournament, which includes all 13 members, will begin at campus venues on
Wednesday, before moving to Summit Arena for the final three rounds.
The Western Kentucky Hillt
<< Desperate Wild resume road trip in Vancouver
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Wild will try again for the first win on
their longest road trip of the season in tonight's clash with the Vancouver
Canucks at GM Place.
The Wild have lost each of their last three games, including the first
<< Billups returns to Motor City as Nuggets face Pistons
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver point guard Chauncey Billups will make his return to
Auburn Hills this evening when the Northwest Division-leading Nuggets pay a
visit to the Detroit Pistons at The Palace.
Billups was dealt to the Nuggets in Novemb
Buyout bonanza hits the NBA >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There are conventional ways to build a
championship in any sport.
You know the drill -- good general managers can use trades, free agency and
the draft to build the core of a title contender.
In the NBA
Monsters goalie earns AHL Player of the Week >>
Springfield, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lake Erie Monsters goaltender Jason
Bacashihua has been named the American Hockey League Player of the Week.
In three appearances, Bacashihua went 3-0-0 with a 0.65 goals-against-average
and a .97
Derrick Ward signs with Bucs >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made it official on
Tuesday and signed running back Derrick Ward.
Terms of the deal for the former New York Giant were not disclosed, but the
Tampa Tribune had previously reporte
AC Milan still hopes to keep Beckham >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani is
hopeful of agreeing to a deal to keep David Beckham at the San Siro until the
end of the Serie A season.
The 33-year-old England midfielder is due to return
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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