No. 1 seed Kentucky opens NCAA Tournament against 16th-seeded ETSU

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/18/2010 - New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats begin play in the 2010 NCAA Tournament with first-round clash against the 16th-seeded East Tennessee State Buccaneers in the East Region.

The winner of this clash will take on either eighth-seeded Texas or ninth- seeded Wake Forest in the second round.

ETSU enters this event on a major roll, as it has won its last six games and recently captured the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament championship. The Bucs, who are 20-14 overall, are making their ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. They own a 2-9 record in the "Big Dance", and while no 16 seed has ever beaten a top seed, ETSU came as close as anyone has in 1989, losing to Oklahoma by one point.

As for Kentucky, it is making its record 50th NCAA Tournament appearance after capturing its 26th SEC Tournament title with a dramatic win over Mississippi State. The Wildcats, who are 32-2 overall, are led by many newcomers to the program, including first-year head coach John Calipari and a tremendous trio of freshmen. The No. 1 seed is the 10th in school history for Kentucky, and the squad has its 12th 30-win campaign. The 'Cats are 98-44 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and happy to be back in the "Big Dance" after appearing in the NIT a year ago.

Kentucky beat East Tennessee State in both previous meetings between the two programs, the most recent of which took place in 1985.

While ETSU is averaging 69.2 ppg this season, the team is limiting its opponents to 66.5 ppg on 41.5 percent shooting from the field. There are three double-digit scorers in the fold, and Tommy Hubbard leads the way with 14.1 ppg. In addition to his offensive ability, Hubbard also paces the squad with 8.3 rpg and 54 steals. Micah Williams checks in with 12.5 ppg, and Justin Tubbs provides 12.0 ppg. Tubbs scored 18 points to lead the way for his team in the A-Sun title game against Mercer, a contest that resulted in a six-point win. Prior to that tilt, Williams had led his team in scoring in three straight outings. The last time Hubbard paced the squad in scoring was 10 games ago, and he is the only player on the roster that has started all 34 games.

There is a wealth of offensive talent in the fold for Kentucky, which is averaging 79.2 ppg on 47.9 percent shooting from the floor. Fortunately, the team also excels at the defensive end, limiting foes to 65.3 ppg on 38.1 percent shooting. Point guard John Wall recently became just the second freshman in SEC history to earn that league's Playe of the Year award. He is averaging 16.9 ppg and has dished out 210 assists in the 33 games that he has played. Wall also has 60 steals to his credit and may only get one shot to win the national title if he answers the early call from the NBA. The same can be said of DeMarcus Cousins, a prototype power forward who provides 15.3 ppg and 10.1 rpg. Cousins, the 2009-10 SEC Freshman of the Year, has also blocked 62 shots for the Wildcats, and he gets help inside from junior Patrick Patterson, who brings 14.7 ppg and 7.3 rpg to the floor. Eric Bledsoe, the third standout freshman, adds 10.8 ppg to the mix.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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