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01/31/2012 - Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Dixon's trip from goat to hero took all of 25 seconds.
After committing an offensive flagrant foul that helped Texas take the lead, Dixon converted a difficult left-handed floater with 31 seconds left to lift fourth-ranked Missouri past the Longhorns, 67-66.
Dixon missed just once on the night, scoring 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting, while Phil Pressey and Ricardo Ratliffe added 13 points apiece for the Tigers (20-2, 7-2 Big 12), who claimed their second straight victory.
J'Covan Brown led Texas (13-9, 3-6) with 20 points, while Julien Lewis donated 12 points and Myck Kabongo 10 in defeat.
Missouri's double-digit lead trickled away in the final minutes.
Ratliffe and Clint Chapman exchanged easy baskets before a crucial call with just over one minute to play. Dixon caught the ball close to the halfcourt line, and in an attempt to create room, elbowed his defender in the face, prompting an offensive flagrant foul against the Tigers guard. Brown made both free throws, then converted on a high-arching bank shot from the left side for a 66-65 lead with 56.9 seconds to go.
Dixon made amends for his error with a difficult floater with the left hand, giving the visitors the lead once again with 31 ticks to play.
Tigers head coach Frank Haith went to a zone out of the timeout, and it lead to Kabongo's forced jumper in the closing seconds as Brown stood on the opposite end of the floor.
The first half was a battle of wills, as the Tigers remained cold from the perimeter and Texas was stuck in last-second scramble mode on most possessions.
Missouri jumped out to an 11-6 lead on the heels of five straight points capped by Ratliffe's bucket from in close. Texas, however, rattled off the next five and neither team could escape the other's reach in the first 20 minutes.
The Tigers led by eight at 26-18 after Pressey and Kim English connected on consecutive jumpers. The halftime margin stood at 27-22, a welcome deficit for the Longhorns considering they didn't register one assist in the first 20 minutes.
The pace and productivity both picked up in the second half. Dixon's trey opened a 32-23 advantage, and the guard connected on a pull-up moments later for a double-digit lead, 36-24. Texas reached deep and pushed back, using a Brown three to move within 42-36. Jonathan Holmes' bucket with just under nine minutes to go made it a one-possession game at 50-47.
Game Notes
Missouri made 48.2 percent of its shots, but made just 5-of-14 threes and corralled only 26 rebounds to 38 for the Longhorns...Texas made 42.1 percent of its shots, with Brown making 7-of-18 (1-of-7 from long range)...Missouri leads the series, 13-12...The Tigers improved to 4-2 in true road games.
<< Bucks beat struggling Pistons
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Jennings led all scorers with 21
points as Milwaukee never trailed in its defeat of Detroit, 103-82, at Bradley
Center on Monday.
Mike Dunleavy Jr. dropped in 20 points off the bench and Drew Go
<< T'Wolves earn rare win in Houston
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Beasley scored 34 points on just 14
shots and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Houston Rockets for only the
second time in 17 games, 120-108, Monday night.
"If we weren't fouling him," Rocket
<< Bonner leads Spurs over Grizzlies
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Bonner made five three-pointers and
contributed 15 points off the bench, as the Spurs took down the Grizzlies,
83-73, at FedExForum.
Rookie Kawhi Leonard posted his second double-double with
<< Iguodala, 76ers top Magic 74-69
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andre Iguodala recorded a double-double
with 14 points and a season-high 11 rebounds as the 76ers defeated the Magic,
74-69, at Wells Fargo Center on Monday.
Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young came off t
Clippers cruise past NBA-best Thunder >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Paul scored 26 points with 14 assists
and Blake Griffin added 22 points and seven rebounds, as the Los Angeles
Clippers jumped out early and rolled past the Oklahoma City Thunder, 112-100,
at Stap
Iowa RB Coker transfers to Stony Brook >>
Stony Brook, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Iowa running back Marcus Coker has
enrolled at Stony Brook in one of the bigger transfers of the FCS offseason.
As a sophomore last season, Coker rushed for 1,384 yards to finish second to
Heisman Tr
Rags-to-riches story has Giants' offense on Cruz control >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The indelible image from the last time the New York Giants
and New England Patriots squared off with an NFL title on the line was left
by a seldom-used wide receiver who went from obscurity to permanent Super Bowl
hero in one
Report: Court papers say Fine's wife had sex with players >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The wife of former Syracuse assistant
basketball coach Bernie Fine reportedly had sex with players.
According to the New York Daily News, court papers filed Monday indicate that
Bobby Davis, one of t
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.
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.
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