Kuric lifts Louisville over West Virginia
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
02/11/2012 - Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Kuric hit the tying three-pointer as part of a late Louisville run, then made a critical steal in the closing seconds to help the 24th-ranked Cardinals notch their sixth straight win with a 77-74 triumph over West Virginia.
Kuric finished with 17 points and Russ Smith added 16 for Louisville (20-5, 8-4 Big East), which hasn't lost since a January 16 setback at Marquette and will try to continue its streak on Monday with a visit from Syracuse.
Kevin Jones scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for West Virginia (16-10, 6-7), which has lost two straight and five of its last six. The Mountaineers have also dropped three in a row at home.
Louisville trailed 71-64 with just under six minutes left, but scored the next 11 points. Kuric's three-pointer with 2 1/2 minutes remaining tied it for the Cardinals and Truck Bryant turned it over soon after, leading to a Smith layup for a 73-71 Louisville lead.
Chris Smith added two free throws for a four-point edge before Jones converted a three-point play with 50 seconds remaining to pull West Virginia within one.
The Cardinals worked the shot clock down on their next possession and Kuric's three-point try came up short with 14 seconds left. Gary Browne then tried to thread a pass inside, but Kuric stepped in front of the pass and was fouled.
He sank both from the stripe for a three-point advantage with 5.5 seconds to play and Bryant's tying attempt from the left wing failed to even draw iron.
Bryant finished with 13 points in defeat, while Deniz Kilicli chipped in 17 before fouling out late in the contest.
The Cardinals received 13-point efforts from Chris Smith and Wayne Blackshear, while Peyton Siva contributed 10 with five assists. Louisville made 10-of-22 from three-point range, led by Kuric's 4-for-8 performance. Chris Smith and Blackshear each hit three from beyond the arc.
Kuric hit a pair of early three-pointers to help Louisville to an 11-6 lead, but West Virginia came right back and grabbed a 16-14 edge on a triple by Bryant. Chris Smith answered with a shot from long range for the Cardinals, but West Virginia later stormed ahead with a 12-0 run.
Jones had a dunk and a three-pointer during the surge for the Mountaineers before a free throw from Kilicli gave West Virginia a 30-20 edge with eight minutes remaining in the half. The lead reached 13 on a three by Aaron Brown, but Louisville trimmed the margin to five before a layup by Dominique Rutledge sent West Virginia to the break with a 44-37 advantage.
The Mountaineers' lead hovered between eight and 10 points for most of the second half and it was a seven-point bulge with just under six minutes left after a layup by Rutledge.
Game Notes
Jones notched his 18th double-double of the season...Louisville improved to 9-4 all-time against West Virginia, including 3-3 in Morgantown...West Virginia's last five games have all been decided by six points or less.
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The intense rivalry in Northwestern England did disappoint in entertainment value on Saturday as Manchester United, led by a brace from Wayne Rooney, defeated Liverpool, 2-1, at Old Traffor
<< Kerber, Bartoli to meet in Open GDF Suez final
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French crowd favorite Marion Bartoli and
German Angelique Kerber won semifinal matches Saturday at the Open GDF Suez.
The second-seeded Bartoli defeated Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic
7-6 (
<< Russia beats back Austria to stay alive in Davis Cup
Wiener Neustadt, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Russia remained alive in the Davis
Cup against Austria on Saturday as the doubles team of Nikolay Davydenko and
Mikhail Youzhny earned a five-set victory over Alexander Peya and Oliver
Marach.
<< Sweden stays alive with doubles win over Serbia
Nis, Serbia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sweden stayed alive in its first-round Davis
Cup tie with Serbia after the doubles team of Johan Brunstrom and Robert
Lindstedt pulled out a five-set victory over Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad
Zimonji
<< Argentina finishes off Germany in Davis Cup
Bamberg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Argentina has advanced to the Davis Cup
quarterfinals after the doubles team of David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank
rallied from two sets down to beat the German duo of Tommy Haas and Philipp
Petzsch
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scoop Jardine hit four three-pointers en route to 21 points, leading second-ranked Syracuse to an 85-67 victory over Connecticut at the Carrier Dome. Dion Waiters added 18 points and Kris Joseph fol
No. 15 Florida State holds off Miami >>
Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bernard James scored 18 points, pulled
down six rebounds and blocked four shots, helping the 15th-ranked Florida
State Seminoles hold off the Miami-Florida Hurricanes, 64-59.
Michael Snaer and I
Heels bounce back with solid effort against Virginia >>
Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tyler Zeller had 25 points and No. 5 North
Carolina got a bounce-back, 70-52 win over 19th-ranked Virginia on Saturday.
The Tar Heels (21-4, 8-2 ACC) pulled away in the second half, wiping away the
taste
Missouri handles Baylor in Big 12 battle >>
Columbia, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phil Pressey scored 19 points behind four
three-pointers and No. 4 Missouri used a second-half surge to down No. 6
Baylor, 72-57, on Saturday.
Marcus Denmon and Michael Dixon added 16 points and six
Dortmund maintains lead atop Bundesliga >>
Dortmund, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Borussia Dortmund escaped its match at
Signal Iduna Park on Saturday with a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen to maintain
its lead at the summit of the German Bundesliga.
Dortmund's 15-game unbeaten run
College Football Betting Tips From a Pro
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.