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01/29/2012 - Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - No. 3 Syracuse snuck past West Virginia, 63-61, but Saturday's finish at the Carrier Dome was marred by controversy.
With West Virginia down by two, Darryl Bryant missed a three-pointer for the Mountaineers. Deniz Kilicli grabbed a big offensive rebound and went up for a layup. However, Baye Keita pinned the ball against the glass in what seemed to be an easy goaltending call.
The whistles stayed silent on the court, however, and West Virginia kept the ball with 6.2 seconds to go after Kris Joseph fell out of bounds. But Kevin Jones' shot from beyond the arc was off the mark as time expired.
Afterward, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was frustrated by what he though was a blown call at the end of the game. No one needed to tell him whether it was goaltending or not.
"Did I think it was? No. I know it was. I just saw the replay," Huggins said.
Brandon Triche had 18 points for the Orange (22-1, 9-1 Big East), who have won two in a row since a loss to Notre Dame on January 21. Kris Joseph added 13 points and seven rebounds.
Syracuse improved to 15-0 at the Carrier Dome this season.
"We did a good job defensively and then when Kris got the ball I don't know what he was thinking," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. "I don't know, I have no clue. He just has to hold the ball and the game is over. The offense, and based on that play alone, we probably should have lost the game. We played good defense and we challenged. With that loose ball the game should have been over."
Jones ended with 20 points and eight boards for the Mountaineers (15-7, 5-4), who have dropped two straight. Bryant and Gary Browne donated 12 and 11 points, respectively.
With the score tied at 56, the Mountaineers turned the ball over on a shot clock violation. Joseph recorded a three-point play at the other end to give the Orange a 59-56 edge with three minutes to play.
Jabarie Hinds' floater in the lane got WVU within one, but Joseph's layup off Dion Waiters' missed three-pointer put Syracuse ahead by three again.
Jones responded with a three-pointer from the corner to tie the game at 61 with 1:37 left. Triche made two free throws at the opposite end to put the Orange back on top.
Hinds and Jones each missed shots from beyond the arc for the Mountaineers. Waiters failed to make a fadeaway jumper for the Orange, leading to the final chain of events.
West Virginia led for most of the first half and held a 22-16 margin on Jones' three-pointer with 7:36 remaining.
But Syracuse finished the frame on a 12-2 run to take a 28-24 lead at the break.
Triche's three-pointer and layup early in the second half gave the home team a six-point lead, 33-27, which proved to be the largest difference the rest of the way.
Game Notes
Syracuse leads the all-time series by a 34-16 margin. West Virginia fell to 3-22 at Syracuse and 1-10 against the Orange in the Carrier Dome. WVU's only win at the Carrier Dome against Syracuse was a 101-79 decision on December 4, 1996...Syracuse center Fab Melo missed his third straight game due to academic issues...WVU turned the ball over 17 times.
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Angeles Lakers on Saturday.
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The North posted
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Kensville Challenge 2012.
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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Rock trumped some of
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Tiger Woods, to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
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