TCU seeks upset of BYU in Mountain West quarterfinals

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/11/2010 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A rematch of the regular-season finale has 14th-ranked and second-seeded BYU taking on the seventh-seeded TCU Horned Frogs in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Mountain West Conference Tournament tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

BYU, which has just one tournament title to show for its efforts over the first 10 years of the league's existence, has a record of 12-9 in the event overall. The Cougars have had one of their most successful seasons ever, sporting 28 wins in 32 opportunities and putting up 13 league wins in 16 chances. The Achilles' heel for the program this season came in the form of New Mexico to which the Cougars lost twice.

As for the Horned Frogs, a squad that has won just once in five tries in this tournament since joining the league, they dropped two straight and four of their last five games to close out the regular season and finished at just 5-11 in league play. Four of the team's league victories came against Wyoming and Air Force, the two weakest programs in the league.

The Cougars have dominated this series over the years with 15 wins in 18 opportunities. BYU won at home this season with a 76-56 final the first week of February, and then crushed the Frogs in the regular-season finale in Fort Worth with a resounding 107-77 victory.

The winner of this meeting will be back in action on Friday, taking on the survivor of the Utah/UNLV contest in the semifinals.

Ronnie Moss is the glue to the Horned Frogs this season, not only leading the group in scoring with his 14.6 ppg, but also responsible for 185 assists over the course of 31 outings which placed him among the nation's elite in that category. Add to that the fact that Moss shot 37.3 percent from three-point range and was the most productive perimeter shooters for the group and it is easy to see how he earned all-conference honors this season. Zvonko Buljan (12,4 ppg) was solid on the glass for the program with his 8.6 rpg, which is all the more reason why he should remain in the paint and not out on the perimeter where he shot only 26.9 percent. Edvinas Ruzgas (10.7 ppg) is really the one who should be setting himself on the outside where he made good on 41.8 percent of his tries for a team that attempted nearly 700 three-point shots during the regular season.

As if it were going to be a surprise, Jimmer Fredette earned All-MWC First- Team honors after he posted 20.6 ppg this season and delivered on a whopping 141 assists in his 30 appearances for the Cougars. A tough defensive matchup for many opponents, Fredette was comfortable both slashing to the rim and drawing contact, resulting in his 171-of-194 (.881) shooting at the free-throw line, as well as setting up on the perimeter and knocking down 47.2 percent of his three-point tries. Jackson Emery (12.6 ppg) plays a similar style to Fredette with his 4.4 rpg, 87 assists and 74-of-176 out on the perimeter. Relegated to coming off the bench for the majority of the season, Jonathan Tavernari made it work for him as he finished with 10.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg and also 40 percent shooting behind the three-point line himself as he earned the MWC's Sixth Man award. Put it all together and you have a BYU group that was one of the best in the nation with a scoring margin of almost 19 ppg.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.

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.