High-flying Cardinals pay visit to struggling Mountaineers

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/11/2012 - Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 24th-ranked Louisville Cardinals take aim at their sixth straight win today, as they pay a visit to the West Virginia Mountaineers in Big East Conference action.

Louisville is coming off an 80-59 rout of visiting Connecticut on Monday night, improving coach Rick Pitino's club to 19-5 on the year and 7-4 in conference play. The Cardinals have clearly had an impressive run thus far, but they have proven to be somewhat mortal on the road (4-3). They have however, won their last two in enemy territory -- at Pitt and at Seton Hall.

West Virginia streaked out to a 15-5 start, but losses in four of its last five has the team sitting at 16-9 overall, 6-6 in conference, and has the Mountaineer faithful wondering just how good the team really is this year. Coach Bob Huggins' club is coming off a 55-51 loss to visiting Notre Dame, the setback being just the third in 13 home games for WVU to this point in the campaign.

Louisville owns an 8-4 lead in the all-time series with West Virginia, but the Mountaineers won the most recent meeting, 72-70, last March in Morgantown.

Louisville is outscoring its opponents by roughly 10 ppg this season, and the team is permitting the opposition an average field goal percentage of only .369 (best in the Big East) while forcing more than 16 turnovers per outing. Unfortunately, the Cardinals are guilty of 15 giveaways per game, and while they average nearly 72 ppg, they are hitting their three-point field goals just 32.2 percent of the time. UofL has four double-digit scorers in the form of Kyle Kuric (13.0 ppg), Russ Smith (12.1 ppg), Chris Smith (10.4 ppg) and Gorgui Dieng (10.4 ppg) -- a fifth player, Chane Behanan (11.1 ppg), joins the ranks when referring to Big East games only. Chris Smith was high man for the Cards in the recent win over UConn, netting 16 points on the strength of four three-pointers, the team draining 11 treys on the night. Dieng added 15 points, Kuric chipped in with 10, and Behanan grabbed 12 of the team's 28 rebounds. The Huskies were held to 35.1 percent field goal efficiency, and only three of their 14 long-range attempts found the bottom of the net.

Kevin Jones had his string of consecutive games in which he scored at least 20 points end at nine, as he tallied 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting in West Virginia's recent loss to Notre Dame. Jones pulled down 12 rebounds in logging his 16th double-double of the season for the Mountaineers, who shot just 41.4 percent from the floor and converted only 2-of-16 three-point tries (.125) against the Fighting Irish. Jabarie Hinds scored 17 points and Deniz Kilicli added 16 in defeat, as both team's took exceptional care of the basketball, combining for a mere eight turnovers -- WVU having only three. Through 25 games, the Mountaineers are putting up 73.6 ppg on 45.4 percent shooting from the floor, which includes a disappointing 31.7 percent showing from beyond the arc. They have done well in guarding against the three-pointer though, yielding just a 31.0 percent success rate to the opposition, and they own a +6.0 rebounding margin (second-best in the conference). Jones (20.6 ppg, 11.2 rpg) is a virtual shoe-in to be named Big East Player of the Year as he leads the league in both scoring and rebounding, while ranking in the top-10 in field goal percentage (.528) and minutes played (38.2). Bryant (16.9 ppg) and Kilicli (11.3 ppg) are both averaging double figures in the scoring column as well for West Virginia.

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MySportsbook.com Posts Heisman Trophy Odds

With 3,919 passing yards, 32 touchdowns and a mere seven interceptions last season, combined with a powerful South Bend Heisman legacy, odds makers at MySportsbook.com have given Notre Dame senior quarterback Brady Quinn the best Heisman Trophy odds at 5-2.

Quinn isn’t the only big man on campus this season.  Oklahoma junior running back and 2004 Heisman runner-up Adrian Peterson, listed at 7-2, rushed for a combined 3,033 yards in his first two years as a college player and will give Quinn a run for his money. 

This online sportsbook has also listed Troy Smith, Ohio State senior quarterback, as another strong favorite to win the 72nd Heisman Trophy.  A 7-1 bet, Smith threw for 2,282 yards last season and also led the Buckeyes to a convincing 34-20 victory over Quinn and the Fighting Irish in last season’s Fiesta Bowl.

Current betting odds Heisman trophy are:

Brady Quinn (QB, Notre Dame)
Adrian Peterson (RB, Oklahoma)
Troy Smith (QB, Ohio State)
Michael Bush (RB, Louisville)
Steve Slaton (RB, West Virginia)
Brian Brohm (QB, Louisville)
Chris Leak (QB, Florida)
Mike Hart (RB, Michigan)
Ted Ginn (WR, Ohio State)
Darius Walker (RB, Notre Dame)
Drew Tate (QB, Iowa)
Marshawn Lynch (RB, Cal)
Kenny Irons (RB, Auburn)
Chad Henne (QB, Michigan)
Kyle Wright (QB, Miami)
Drew Stanton (QB, Michigan State)
Kenneth Darby (RB, Alabama)
JaMarcus Russell (QB, LSU)
Drew Weatherford (QB, Florida State)
Blake Mitchell (QB, South Carolina)
Reggie Ball (QB, Georgia Tech)		 5-2
7-2
7-1
10-1
10-1
12-1
12-1
18-1
18-1
20-1
30-1
35-1
35-1
40-1
50-1
50-1
60-1
60-1
60-1
60-1
60-1

For complete NCAA Football odds visit MySportsbook.com.

SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL 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.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.