11/21/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The slumping Milwaukee Bucks will welcome the New York Knicks to town this evening for a showdown at the Bradley Center.
Milwaukee has dropped three straight and six of its last eight games, including Wednesday's 105-94 loss to the Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena. Richard Jefferson scored 25 points and Andrew Bogut netted 16 and a pulled down a season-high 20 rebounds for the Bucks.
Charlie Bell and Ramon Sessions had 15 points apiece in defeat. The Bucks, who own a 2-3 mark at home, are still playing without guard Michael Redd (ankle) and forward Charlie Villanueva (hamstring). Both are listed as questionable for tonight's game.
The Knicks have lost two in a row and three of their last five games. They suffered a 110-101 loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday at TD Banknorth Garden, as Wilson Chandler scored 23 points and Zach Randolph chipped in 18 points and eight boards in a losing effort.
Chris Duhon had 15 points and five assists for New York, which is 2-3 away from Madison Square Garden this season.
Milwaukee posted a 94-86 win over the Knicks on November 2 this season in the Big Apple. Jefferson and Sessions each logged 18 points in that victory.
New York has won five of eight and six of the last 10 meetings. It has also won three of its last five at the Bradley Center.
<< Bulls resume trek against Golden State
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls continue a brutal seven-game road swing
Friday when they head to Oakland to face the Golden State Warriors.
The Bulls fell to 0-2 on the trek on Wednesday after Portland's Brandon Roy
scored 20 poin
<< Mavs try for first home win vs. Memphis
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Mavericks have shown a pulse on the road this season
and will now attempt to win for the first time in Dallas as they welcome the
Memphis Grizzlies to American Airlines Center.
Something has to give tonight as
<< Brand faces old mates as Clips visit Sixers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Elton Brand and the Philadelphia 76ers will try to shake
off a disappointing loss when they open a short two-game homestand tonight
versus the Los Angeles Clippers at the Wachovia Center.
Philadelphia entered Wednesday's g
<< Nets visit Raptors
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Raptors are back up north and will kick off a
four-game homestand tonight versus the Atlantic Division-rival New Jersey Nets
at Air Canada Centre.
Toronto will also welcome Boston, Charlotte and Atlanta to town
Akron seeks upset of No. 6 Pittsburgh >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Upset-minded Akron has traveled to
Pittsburgh for a non-conference clash with the sixth-ranked Panthers in the
Legends Classic.
The Zips have reason to be confident, as they have opened the season with
back
Pirates hope to tame Tigers in Puerto Rico >>
San Juan, PR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 13th-ranked Memphis Tigers of Conference
USA and the Seton Hall Pirates of the Big East Conference are set to clash in
the second round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
Memphis, which was the national runner-up
Irish head to Los Angeles to tame Lions >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The eighth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish
hit the road for the first time this season, as they take on the Loyola
Marymount Lions in the Gersten Pavilion this evening.
This will be Notre Dame's first trip
Blue Devils take on Wolverines for 2K Sports Classic title >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 10th-ranked Duke Blue Devils and the
Michigan Wolverines clash at historic Madison Square Garden tonight, with the
winner earning the right to call themselves the 2008 2K Sports Classic
Benefiting Coaches vs.
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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El Duque expected to throw Tuesday
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- New York Mets pitcher Orlando Hernandez, sidelined at spring training because of arthritis in his neck, is expected to resume throwing on Tuesday.
Hernandez received a cortisone shot Thursday after leaving camp and returning to New York to have his neck examined. The 41-year-old right-hander is penciled in as the team's No. 2 starter behind Tom Glavine.
El Duque's health is a major issue for the Mets, who won the NL East in 2007 and came within one victory of the World Series. Their aging and unsettled rotation is a big question mark this year.
MySportsbook.com has the Mets as -110 favorites to repeat as NL East champions odds.
Hernandez went 11-11 with a 4.66 ERA last season, including 9-7 with a 4.09 ERA in 20 starts after the Mets acquired him from Arizona in late May. But he missed the playoffs because of a torn calf muscle.
New York already is without Pedro Martinez, out until at least midseason following rotator cuff surgery. Among those competing for starting jobs are prospects Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber and Jason Vargas, plus veterans Chan Ho Park, Jorge Sosa and Aaron Sele.
Notes: Mets manager Willie Randolph is excited about two new utility players he could have on his bench: Damion Easley and David Newhan. ''Their value is really all over the place,'' Randolph said. Easley can play anywhere in the infield and could be used as an emergency outfielder, though Randolph said he would prefer to keep the veteran in the infield. Newhan, meanwhile, can play second base, third or any outfield position for the Mets. ''I love versatility,'' Randolph said. ''I love guys that can give me options when I need them to step in.''
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