Minutes Of Spartans State

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

White later hit a layup and drained the free throw for a 63-43 game with 4:05 to play and the Demon Deacons had no answer from there.

 

FSU was up 29-23 at the break.

 

Florida State has won four in a row but Wake Forest has taken 23 of the 43 all-time meetings...James finished with seven points and nine rebounds...Ty Walker ended up with a game-high four blocks for the Deacons...FSU shot 8- of-16 from three-point range.

 

The freshman swingman Nash finished with a career-high 27 points while Brian Williams added 22 points for the Cowboys (10-10, 3-4 Big 12), who had lost three in a row coming in.

 

Iasia Hemingway paced the Orange (13-8, 2-5) with 15 points to go with six rebounds and five assists, while Carmen Tyson-Thomas chipped in with 11 points and five rebounds. Syracuse has lost three of its last four games.

 

Leading 40-33 after the first 20 minutes, UConn came out on fire in the second half, ripping off a 25-7 run to take a comfortable 65-40 lead with 12 1/2 minutes to play.

 

The game remained close early before Syracuse built an 18-11 advantage with less than 14 minutes to play in the opening half.

 

With the game tied at 24, UConn ripped off a quick 6-0 spurt to build up a 30-24 edge.

 

A layup by Hayes gave the Huskies their largest lead of the half at 40-28, and they led 40-33 at the break.

Horseracong NCAA Basketball Betting Blog

<< Double-digit Scorers On Penn State Field Goal Efficiency

<< Oklahoma State Against Last Time Team

<< North Squad With Caa Montana

<< Nadal Leads Slam Of Aussie

<< Djokovic Federer Claim Leaving With Nadal

World Joins Birdie Down Leaderboard >>

Rebounds Beats Seconds Into Millsap >>

Portland Sparks Clippers Against 15 Rebounds >>

Points Pierce Claim Leaving With Moore >>

Manchester City Leads City Of FC >>

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.