Alabama visits Kentucky in SEC action

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/09/2010 - Lexington, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Alabama Crimson Tide invade Rupp Arena this evening for an SEC clash with the third-ranked Kentucky Wildcats.

Alabama is a respectable 13-10 overall, but that record is overshadowed by a 3-6 mark versus league opponents. The Crimson Tide have suffered three consecutive defeats, including a 74-67 setback at Ole Miss on Saturday. The two previous losses to Auburn and Florida both came by one point.

Kentucky opened this season with 19 consecutive wins before finally tasting defeat against South Carolina in late January. Since that setback, the Wildcats have recorded three consecutive victories, the most recent of which came on Saturday over LSU in an 81-55 final. Coach John Calipari's club is now 7-1 in SEC action and carries a 14-0 home record into this evening's affair.

The Wildcats own a commanding 98-35 series advantage over the Crimson Tide, which includes wins in the last two meetings.

The Crimson Tide depend heavily on the duo of Mikhail Torrance and JaMychal Green to be productive at the offensive each time out. Torrance leads the club with 15.3 ppg and 128 assists. As for Green, he provides 14.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg and 47 blocks while shooting 51.2 percent from the floor. Alabama is generating 68.2 ppg while limiting opponents to 62.9 ppg on 41.5 percent field goal efficiency. In the seven-point loss to Ole Miss on Saturday, Green scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Tony Mitchell netted 16 points. Torrance finished with 12 points and seven assists for the Tide, who committed twice as many turnovers as the Rebels and were outscored 25-13 from the foul line. The negatives clearly overshadowed 50 percent shooting from the floor.

For much of this season, Kentucky freshman John Wall has been hyped as the best player on the Wildcats roster and perhaps the top performer in all of college basketball. Recently, however, fellow rookie DeMarcus Cousins has emerged as the true standout on a loaded Kentucky team. Cousins has paced the squad in both scoring and rebounding in four consecutive games and is now averaging the same amount of points as Wall (16.4 ppg). The big man is shooting 54.2 percent from the field and grabbing 10.0 rpg, while Wall, a point guard, has dished out 146 assists to complement 41 steals. Patrick Patterson provides 15.1 ppg for the Wildcats, who are generating 82.3 ppg while surrendering 65.9 ppg on 38.1 percent shooting by opponents. In the romp over LSU on Saturday, Cousins racked up 19 points and 13 rebounds. Patterson added 16 points, while Wall struggled his way to six points.

Supercazino NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Hoyas head north to battle Friars
Providence, RI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off a statement victory, the Georgetown Hoyas are slated to collide with the Providence Friars this evening in a Big East Conference affair. Georgetown had lost two of its previous three games heading

<< Berdych, Dent victorious in San Jose
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and unseeded American Taylor Dent were first-round winners Monday at the $600,000 SAP Open. Dent topped fellow countryman Alex Bogomolov Jr, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) on the indoor hardco

<< Mavs send Warriors to ninth straight loss; Ellis hurts knee
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Terry made 6-of-9 three-point tries, finishing with a season-high 36 points, along with nine assists and six rebounds, as Dallas took control in the fourth quarter in a 127-117 victory over Go

<< Gasol carries short-handed Lakers over Spurs
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pau Gasol had a spectacular all-around game with 21 points, 19 rebounds, a season-high eight assists and five blocked shots, pacing the Los Angeles Lakers to a 101-89 win over the San Antonio Spurs.

<< Ducks win 10th in a row at home, snap LA's victory streak
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Corey Perry had a goal and two assists to lead the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-2 win over Los Angeles and snap the Kings' franchise- best nine-game winning streak. Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne each had a goal and an

Illini and Badgers square off in Big Ten brawl >>
Madison, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Illinois Fighting Illini carry a four-game win streak into tonight's Big Ten Conference battle with the 11th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers, who are tough to beat in Madison. Illinois has quietly gotten itself in

Ranked foes meet in Big Ten battle >>
East Lansing, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 10th-ranked Michigan State Spartans will try to keep their slim hold on the top spot in the Big Ten tonight, as they host the sixth-ranked Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. After opening their Big T

Vols and 'Dores duke it out in pivotal SEC clash >>
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 12th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers will take on the 22nd-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores this evening with an SEC battle and state bragging rights on the line. Tennessee has won its last three games to move to

Pacers, Bulls clash at Conseco Fieldhouse >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A Chicago Bulls squad that's struggled on the road for much of this season will try to turn around its historic lack of success at Indianapolis' Conseco Fieldhouse in tonight's Central Division clash with the Indiana Pacers.

NBA's best meets worst as Cavs host Nets >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The teams with the best and worst records in the NBA this season will go head-to-head at Quicken Loans Arena tonight, where the powerhouse Cleveland Cavaliers put an 11-game win streak on the line against the downtrodden New

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.