Huskies and Coyotes square off for first-ever Great West title

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Orem, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - An automatic bid to the Collegeinsider.com Tournament is on the line tonight as the Huskies of Houston Baptist challenge the South Dakota Coyotes in the first-annual Great West Conference Tournament Championship Game at the McKay Center in Orem, Utah.

South Dakota is cruising along with a 12-game win streak and victories in 15 of the last 16 outings overall. The squad took care of Texas-Pan American in the semifinals of this event on Friday with a 76-71 win, pushing the top seed into the first-ever tournament title game in the conference.

As for the second-seeded Huskies, a squad that is eight games under .500, they first defeated seventh-seeded Chicago State in the quarterfinals on Wednesday by a score of 80-77 and then topped sixth-seeded NJIT in a 74-64 final yesterday. Houston Baptist, which was a miserable 3-17 against non-conference competition this season, has won six of the last seven outings overall.

South Dakota won both of the regular-season meetings with the Huskies by double digits and the Coyotes now own a 2-0 advantage in the all-time series as a result.

Andrew Gonzalez led three players in double figures yesterday as he tallied a team-best 24 points in the victory over NJIT. Mile Dixon added 15 points and eight boards, followed by Wendell Preadom with 11 points and seven rebounds as the squad recorded a massive 44-25 rebounding advantage over the competition. Houston Baptist shot only 41.5 percent from the field in the contest and was guilty of 19 turnovers, compared to just 11 miscues for the opposition. Gonzalez, who was named the Great West Newcomer of the Year and made it onto the All-Newcomer Team along with teammate Preadom, leads the team in scoring with 18.9 ppg, although he's been shooting only 29.7 percent from three-point range (35-of-118) and that has dragged the entire team down to only 28.4 percent on the perimeter. The fact that Gonzalez has just 38 assists and a whopping 109 turnovers doesn't help matters either. The team as a whole has 199 more miscues than dishes over the course of 32 games. Preadom and Mario Flaherty are responsible for 13.6 and 13.5 ppg, respectively.

Except for Steve Smith who was limited to only two points in 16 minutes of action, every starter for the Coyotes hit for double digits on Friday, beginning with Jake Thomas with his 19 on 4-of-8 shooting behind the three- point line. Kendall Cutler accounted for 18 points and a team-best seven assists, followed by Roman Gentry with 13 points as he too sank four three- point shots. Tyler Cain manned the middle for the group as he logged 16 points, a game-high 17 rebounds and five blocked shots for a team that easily won the rebounding battle, 45-25, and held the opposition without a single offense board. Even though South Dakota dominated the glass yesterday, the team is actually losing the battle of the boards this season by 0.5 rpg. Cain is averaging a double-double for the group with his 15.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per outings, adding 89 blocked shots along the way, while Gentry (13.5 ppg) and Thomas (12.8 ppg) both have significant input towards the unit's 79.1 ppg this season.

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Betting Football

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.

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