Cougars set to pounce on Beavers

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/25/2007 - Pullman, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington State has cracked the Top-25, and the 20th-ranked Cougars will play host to the Oregon State Beavers this evening in a Pac-10 tilt.

Oregon State is 0-5 against ranked teams this season, and the squad is just 9-11 overall. On Saturday, the Beavers fell to 1-6 against Pac-10 opponents with a 67-56 loss to Stanford, and while they are now 6-9 at home, they actually own a better record on the road (3-2).

Washington State recently won its first game as a ranked team since 1980, and the club is currently a surprising 16-3 overall, including 5-2 against Pac-10 foes. The Cougars have won five of their last six games, including a 75-47 romp over Washington on Saturday that enabled them to improve to 9-0 at home.

Oregon State owns a 161-111 advantage in the all-time series with Washington State, and the Beavers won both meetings last season.

Marcel Jones has started all 20 games for Oregon State this season and is netting a team-high 16.9 ppg to go along with 6.1 rpg. The only other double-digit scorer in the lineup is Sasa Cuic, as he is posting 13.3 ppg. The Beavers are only generating 66.1 ppg on 42.7 percent shooting from the floor, and they are allowing 68.1 ppg to opponents. In the loss to Stanford on Saturday, Jones scored 20 points to go along with eight rebounds and seven steals. Unfortunately, he got little help from a rather weak supporting cast, and the Beavers shot just 37.7 percent from the field while also suffering a 16-5 disadvantage in points from the foul line. Cuic missed the game because of a bruised left elbow, but he may be able to get back to action tonight.

Derrick Low is the leading scorer for Washington State, as he is scoring 14.6 ppg on 41 percent accuracy from behind the arc. Like Oregon State, the Cougars only have two double-digit scorers on the roster, as Kyle Weaver adds 11.3 ppg to the lineup. WSU is not an explosive offensive team by any means, but the fact that the club has been able to limit opponents to 58.1 ppg on 40.3 percent shooting from the field explains the tremendous success achieved thus far. The Cougars dominated Washington at both ends of the floor on Saturday, as they shot 53.6 percent from the field while limiting the Huskies to 28.3 percent efficiency. Low nailed 5-of-7 three-pointers and finished with 20 points to lead the way in the win, and Weaver hit 7-of-8 shots from the field en route to 17 points.

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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.