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03/06/2008 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A battle of Pac-10 heavyweights is on the docket tonight in Los Angeles, as the third-ranked UCLA Bruins entertain the seventh-ranked Stanford Cardinal.
If UCLA wins this contest, it will clinch the league's regular-season title and the top seed in next week's conference tournament. Stanford needs a victory to pull into a first-place tie with UCLA as the final regular-season game approaches.
The Cardinal have won four straight outings and 11 of their last 12, including a 60-53 decision over Washington State last Saturday.
UCLA has won five straight and 10 of 11, and while the Bruins were pushed to the limit by Arizona on Sunday, the result was a 68-66 road win. They have only lost three games all season, but two of those setback came at Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA holds a 128-89 lead in the all-time series with Stanford, and the Bruins won the first meeting this season by a 76-67 final.
The man to watch for Stanford is Brook Lopez, a standout power forward/center who is scoring 19.3 ppg to go along with 7.8 rpg and 44 blocked shots. He is joined up front by his twin brother, Robin, who adds 9.5 ppg, 5.7 rpg and 63 blocks. Anthony Goods has been a solid offensive contributor for the team, as he is generating 11.2 ppg. Strong defense has been a key to the success of the Cardinal, as they are limiting foes to 58.8 ppg on 39 percent shooting from the field. Strong rebounding has also played a major role, as they are pulling down 10 boards per game more than the opposition. In the win over Washington State last time out, Brook Lopez racked up 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the floor. Robin Lopez added 11 points, and Goods tallied 10 points. Stanford only turned the ball over eight times, impressive to say the least.
Kevin Love is just a freshman, but the UCLA standout has to be considered a major candidate for Pac-10 Player of the Year. In addition to his 17.3 ppg on 58.2 percent shooting from the floor, Love is ripping down 11.1 rpg to rank among the national leaders. Darren Collison is posting 14.3 ppg for the Bruins, as he is shooting a stellar 47.7 percent from three-point range. Josh Shipp checks in with 13.5 ppg, and Russell Westbrook adds 12.4 ppg. Defensively, UCLA has been able to limit its opponents to 57.9 ppg this season on 42.2 percent shooting from the field. The Bruins are also outrebounding foes by nearly 10 boards per contest while scoring 74.1 ppg. In the narrow win over Arizona on Sunday, Love scored 24 points and ripped down 15 rebounds. Collison scored 16 points, while Westbrook netted 10 points.
<< Streaking Tigers take on Yellow Jackets in Atlanta
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Back in the Top-25, the 24th-ranked Clemson
Tigers invade Alexander Memorial Coliseum to face off against the Georgia Tech
Yellow Jackets in an ACC affair tonight.
The Tigers have played well down the stretch,
<< War Pass and Pyro top second Kentucky Derby Future Pool
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eclipse Award winner War Pass is the 5-2
morning-line favorite for the second of three Kentucky Derby Future Wagers.
Pyro, winner of the Risen Star Stakes, is the 6-1 second choice in the field
of 24.
<< Dougherty goes low for Malaysian Open lead
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Dougherty fired a 10-under-par
62 on Thursday to grab the first-round lead of the Malaysian Open at Kota
Permai Golf Club.
Despite the 10-under score, Dougherty is only two ahead. Con
<< Clippers use two OTs to best Kings
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Al Thornton scored 27 points and Corey
Maggette added 25 as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings,
116-109, in two overtimes.
Dan Dickau scored a season-high 20 points and Chris Kama
A-10 Champion Musketeers tangle with Hawks on the Hill >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The eighth-ranked Xavier Musketeers carry
an 11-game win streak into tonight's Atlantic 10 Conference clash with the
struggling Saint Joseph's Hawks.
The Musketeers are coming off a 66-56 victory over Geor
Cavaliers visit the Windy City >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James is coming off one of the best performances in
his career, and will lead the Cleveland Cavaliers once again in the finale of
a two-game road trip against the Chicago Bulls tonight at the United Center.
James r
Texas Two-Step: Hot Rockets visit rival Mavs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Southwest Division rivals battle tonight, as the Dallas
Mavericks welcome the scorching Houston Rockets to American Airlines Center.
The Rockets are currently the hottest team in the NBA. Tracy McGrady scored 25
points
Isles and Rangers cap home-and-home at the Coliseum >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Rangers may be ahead of their crosstown rivals
in the Atlantic Division standings, but the Islanders have usually had the
upper hand when the two teams have faced off this season.
The Isles will shoot for a ho
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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