Montana and Weber State duke it out for Big Sky title

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/10/2010 - Ogden, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A trip to the NCAA Tournament is on the line tonight, as the Weber State Wildcats and the Montana Grizzlies do battle in the championship game of the 35th annual Big Sky Conference Tournament at the Dee Events Center in Ogden, Utah.

As the top seed in this year's event and an owner of eight Big Sky Tournament titles, Weber State had to play only one game in order to make it into the finals and that was a 69-60 win over sixth-seeded Portland State on Tuesday night. The victory was revenge for the regular-season finale in which the Vikings captured an 84-79 win to snap WSU's five-game win streak.

As for fourth-seeded Montana, it began the annual event with an 81-60 thumping of Northern Arizona in the quarterfinals on Saturday and then a 68-63 win versus second-seeded Northern Colorado last night in the semifinals. The Grizzlies, who won back-to-back crowns in 2005 and 2006, the former coming against this same Weber State club, has a total of six tourney championships to their credit.

The teams split their two regular-season meetings, with each winning on their home floor. As a result, Weber State remains ahead in the all-time series with a 58-47 mark.

Anthony Johnson came up with 19 points, hitting all but one of his eight free- throw attempts, as he guided the Grizzlies to the upset win over Northern Colorado on Tuesday. Also scoring in double figures for Montana were Ryan Staudacher and Will Cherry with 10 points apiece, although the former did his damage on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and the latter just 4-of-12 accuracy. Johnson, the leading scorer in each of the last three games and nine of the last 10 outings, is responsible for 18.9 ppg on the strength of not only 50 percent shooting from the field, but also 46.7 percent beyond the arc and 184- of-211 at the charity stripe. As someone who forces the action as well as anyone in the conference, Johnson made twice as many free-throws as all but one of his teammates even had a chance to attempt this season. Staudacher, a 45.8 percent three-point shooter himself, helped the program to make good on 40.2 percent of their threes altogether.

With Portland State's Dominic Waters in foul trouble, Damian Lillard took over for the Wildcats last night as he tallied a game-high 23 points, grabbed five rebounds and handed out four assists in the nine-point win at home. Franklin Session added 13 points and eight boards in order to shake off five turnovers, while Trevor Morris tallied 10 points in just 21 minutes off the bench for a Weber State squad that outscored the visitors at the free-throw line, 22-6. Lillard, the leading scorer in each of the last three games for the Wildcats, has generated a team-best 20.7 ppg against Big Sky foes this season, shooting an impressive 44.0 percent from three-point range in those decisions. As someone who gets involved in all facets of the game, Lillard also led the team in assists with 110 and has been credited with better than four rebounds per game as well. Steve Panos (11.0 ppg) and Session (10.6 ppg) also lend a hand at the offensive end of the floor.

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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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