Gaels seek redemption in WCC clash with Broncos
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02/11/2012 - Moraga, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams at opposite ends of the West Coast Conference spectrum meet in Moraga, California tonight, as the Santa Clara Broncos have come to challenge the 16th-ranked Saint Mary's-CA Gaels.
Santa Clara has had a miserable season thus far, particularly in conference play as it has yet to taste victory against WCC opponents (0-11). Overall, the Broncos have lost twice as many games as they have won (8-16), and they are 0-9 on the road. The team is currently mired in a 12-game losing streak, its last win coming against Eastern Michigan in the opening round of the Cable Car Classic back on December 29.
As for Saint Mary's, it is an impressive 22-3 on the season, and the team had won its first 11 conference bouts before taking on fellow WCC front-runner Gonzaga on Thursday night. The Gaels suffered a 73-59 defeat in that contest, but they'll try to bounce back tonight as they prepare to take on the league's worst team in front of a home crowd that has seen them win each and every time they've stepped foot on the McKeon Pavilion hardwood this season (15-0).
The two teams met on January 21, with Saint Mary's winning at Santa Clara in a 93-77 final.
Poor defense has led to Santa Clara's dreadful record this season, as the team is giving up more than 75 ppg, with foes shooting better than 45 percent from the field and 37 percent from beyond the arc. The Broncos are netting right around 70 ppg themselves, but they're hitting just 41.1 percent of their total shots and they're routinely beaten on the glass. The team's scoring chart shows three double-digit scorers in Kevin Foster, Evan Roquemore and Niyi Harrison, although Foster has been suspended indefinitely, leaving the others to pick up the slack. Raymond Cowells III and Denzel Johnson did just that in the most recent outing against San Franciso, netting 21 and 20 points, respectively, but despite shooting 51.9 percent from the floor and nailing 14- of-23 three-point attempts, the Broncos dropped an 85-69 decision to the Dons. A 15-1 deficit in points from the foul line proved costly, as did a whopping 21 turnovers. Roquemore chipped in 14 points for Santa Clara in defeat.
Simply put, Saint Mary's failed to find its groove in the recent showdown with Gonzaga, as the Gaels shot just 38.2 percent from the field, knocked down a mere 5-of-21 three-point tries and lost the battle on the boards by a 40-26 margin. Matthew Dellavedova led SMC with 20 points, but help came only in the form of 11 points from Jorden Page and 10 from Brad Waldow. About the only bright spot for the Gaels was the fact that they committed a low eight turnovers, which is nearly four less than the team is guilty of on average this year. Dellavedova (15.7 ppg, 6.3 apg) is one of three players currently averaging double digits in the scoring column for Saint Mary's, but the team's most productive all-around player is Rob Jones, who nets 14.6 ppg while pulling down 10.6 rpg. As a collective unit, the Gaels are lighting up the scoreboard to the tune of 76.3 ppg behind typical shooting efforts of 47.7 percent overall and 36.1 percent from three-point land. Defensively, the team permits just 61.4 ppg, and it owns favorable margins in both rebounding (+7.4) and turnovers (+1.0).
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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