Lions battle Zags in WCC Tournament semifinals

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/07/2010 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 18th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs are the top- seeded team in the West Coast Conference Tournament, and they begin play at the event with a semifinal-round matchup against the fifth-seeded Loyola Marymount Lions.

The winner of this tilt will battle either second-seeded Saint Mary's or third-seeded Portland on Monday for the title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Loyola Marymount has three WCC tourney titles to its credit, but the most recent came way back in 1990. The Lions have certainly worked hard to reach these semifinals, as they knocked off Pepperdine by three points on Friday before defeating San Francisco in an 84-76 final in Saturday's quarterfinals. LMU is now 18-14 overall and seemingly peaking at the perfect time.

Gonzaga has won the WCC Tournament 10 times, far more than any other team in the league. The Bulldogs have won five of the last six titles and defeated Saint Mary's by 25 points in the championship game a year ago. This year's team is 25-5 overall and has been idle since Tuesday's regular-season finale, a 19-point romp over CSU Bakersfield. That victory was the fourth in a row for the Zags.

The Lions actually beat the Bulldogs by a 74-66 final on February 18th to force a regular-season split. Overall, Gonzaga owns a 53-21 advantage in the series.

In the eight-point victory over San Francisco yesterday, Loyola Marymount shot 20-of-25 from the foul line, an obvious key to the outcome. There were four double-digit scorers in the tilt for the Lions, and they got 18 points from both Drew Vinney and Vernon Teel. Ashley Hamilton added 14 points, and Jarred DuBois contributed 11 points. LMU shot 49.2 percent from the floor and finished with a 12-4 edge in fast-break points. Through 32 games, the Lions are generating 76.2 ppg, marginally better than the 75.6 ppg they are surrendering. Vinney leads the team with 16.8 ppg on the strength of his 42.9 percent shooting from three-point range, and he is pulling down 7.0 rpg. Teel adds 15.2 ppg, and he has dished out 183 assists to go along with 59 steals. Both DuBois (12.5 ppg) and Kevin Young (10.6 ppg) add balance to the lineup.

Matt Bouldin leads a balanced Gonzaga attack into this semifinal showdown, as he is netting 16.0 ppg. Elias Harris provides 14.9 ppg and 7.4 rpg, while Steven Gray adds 13.5 ppg. The fourth and final double-digit scorer on the roster is big man Robert Sacre, who is netting 10.2 ppg to go along with nearly two blocks per outing. The Bulldogs are racking up 78.1 ppg on 49.5 percent shooting from the floor, and they are holding opponents to 66.7 ppg on 40.3 percent field goal efficiency. Gonzaga is outrebounding its foes by more than five boards per outing, key to the team's 25 wins. In the easy victory over CSU Bakersfield earlier in the week, Bouldin scored 15 points to lead the way for the Zags, who shot 51.7 percent from the floor and played outstanding defense.

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2007 online football betting Preview

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.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

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.

Las Vegas Sports Lines

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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