Colonials visit Musketeers in A-10 action

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/22/2009 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 16th-ranked Xavier Musketeers will try to shake off their recent struggles and get back on track today, as they entertain the George Washington Colonials in Atlantic 10 play at the Cintas Center.

After a terrific start to the season, the Musketeers have been met with some resistant of late, dropping three of their past four contests. All three setbacks have come in the road, including a surprising 65-60 loss at Charlotte on Thursday. Despite the recent fall, Xavier still remains in the thick of the A-10 race at 9-3, but the team doesn't look nearly as impressive as it did just a few weeks ago. Now at 21-5 overall, the Musketeers return back home, where they have won 22 straight games against A-10 opponents.

As for GW, it has won two of its last four bouts following a lengthy 11-game losing streak. The team is also coming off its most impressive win of the season, a 90-62 whipping of St. Bonaventure on Thursday. The Colonials have won just two of their 11 league outings, but both have come in impressive fashion, as they trounced Fordham (87-62) earlier this month.

GW and Xavier are meeting for the 32nd time, with the Musketeers holding a 22-9 lead in the all-time series. Xavier has won three straight and 18 of the last 23 meetings in the rivalry as well.

The Colonials shot an efficient 56.9 percent from the field, including an impressive 10-of-12 showing from long range, as they scored a season-high 90 points in a rout of SBU on Thursday. GW also went 14-of-16 at the foul line and it held a 37-30 edge on the boards. Rob Diggs led the charge with 26 points and eight boards and he finished the game 11-of-15 from the field. It was a terrific performance by Diggs, the team's leading scorer (13.3 ppg) and rebounder (7.0 rpg) on the season. Damian Hollis ranks second to him with 12.5 ppg and 5.2 rpg and he had 12 points and eight rebounds in Thursday night's triumph. Overall, GW is managing 66.4 ppg and connecting on 44.3 percent of its attempts from the floor this season.

The Musketeers were guilty of 15 turnovers and those mishaps resulted in 18 points for Charlotte in a 65-60 setback on Thursday. Three-points shooting also played a part in the outcome, as Xavier went just 4-of-15 compared to a much better 8-of-19 effort by Charlotte. C.J. Anderson paced the team in defeat with 13 points and seven boards, while Derrick Brown and B.J. Raymond chipped in with nine points apiece. On the season, Brown tops the roster in scoring at 13.8 ppg and he is also pulling in 5.7 rpg. Raymond nips at his heels with 13.6 ppg and he is a 42.7 percent three-point shooter. Anderson adds 10.5 ppg and 5.6 rpg for the Musketeers, who are shooting a solid 47.2 percent from the field and outrebounding foes by 8.5 rpg on the season.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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