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Coach K's still got his touchNCAA Basketball Betting Lines04/03/2010 - INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -With every year that passed with a Duke-free Final Four, the skeptics became louder: Had Mike Krzyzewski somehow lost his touch? Maybe not. Perhaps the 63-year-old Hall of Famer was merely waiting for his current crop of maturing players to figure out how to storm through a bracket. It might have taken longer than it ever did during his three-decade reign in Durham, but Coach K is back at the Final Four. And at least one of his former stars never questioned whether he'd return to college basketball's biggest stage. ``I didn't have any doubts. One thing people need to know about Coach K, is if they have doubts, they are mistaken,'' said Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, who led Duke to its most recent national title in 2001. ``That guys figures out ways to be successful,'' he added. ``That's why he's been successful for 25 years. He's got three championships, working on a fourth championship maybe this year in Indiana. He takes critics on, and he figures out ways to be successful. We don't have the most talented team in the country, but guess where we are?'' They're in familiar territory for their coach, even if none of the current players have advanced this deep into the bracket before. The Blue Devils (33-5), who play West Virginia (31-6) on Saturday night in the national semifinals, are in the Final Four for the 11th time under Krzyzewski but first time since 2004, when these players were in high school - or younger. And for those doubters who wondered whether Krzyzewski had grown out of touch with younger generations of players, whether his time coaching the U.S. Olympic team had taken too heavy a toll back home in Durham, or whether he simply became a victim of his own success - well, Coach K just doesn't seem to care too much about them. ``Anyone who's successful over a period of time is going to have detractors, not just for a few years, but throughout your career,'' Krzyzewski said. ``That's just part of the game. Everybody has that, and not to take that personally. No one is going to get everybody supportive of them. So I think you just go about your business. This isn't about my vindication or anything like that. It's about coaching this group of kids who deserve your full commitment.'' What impresses his next adversary is how Krzyzewski, a noted protege of Bob Knight, has been able to carve out his own path, whether he's leading the Americans to the gold medal or chasing a fourth national championship with the Blue Devils. ``I think there's no question that (Knight) had a tremendous influence on Mike,'' West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. ``Mike's done a great job through the years of playing to his guys' strengths and letting them play to their strengths. I think that's to be commended. I think Mike is very much his own man.'' Krzyzewski, who is seven wins shy of 800 at Duke, has long maintained that his second job with the Olympians has only made him a better college coach because working with NBA players gave him a broader perspective on the game. ``Some people would say that's hurt your program - that's just so crazy dumb to think that,'' Krzyzewski said. ``It was one of the worst trains of thought of how you analyze me, that (coaching Olympians is) going to hurt me and my program, because it's done nothing but help, and help, I think, a lot. I know I'm a better person. A dirtbag before, I'm a better dirtbag.'' In a break from the school's recent past, he reportedly accepted a verbal commitment from the first junior-college transfer in Duke history, forward Carrick Felix of the College of Southern Idaho. While NCAA rules prohibit him from discussing recruits before a letter of intent has been signed, Krzyzewski said he would entertain the idea of signing a JUCO player only if he could play three seasons ``because it would be impossible to graduate from Duke.'' Said former player Elton Brand, one of the first to leave Duke early for the pros: ``Coach really wants guys to be there for longevity. He wants guys to graduate and become great men, regardless of basketball. That's what he's about. He's about family, and he's about seeing his student athletes grow into great individuals.'' Krzyzewski also sounds determined to make Final Fours an every year thing again at Duke - and maybe even chase a coincidental bit of symmetry. Nine years passed between Krzyzewski's second title in 1992 and the '01 crown. Nine years later, and Duke's back in the Final Four again, still dealing with those heightened expectations that were raised during the days of Christian Laettner and Grant Hill. ``I'm really very excited for my team. I really love these guys,'' Krzyzewski said. ``They have suffered from comparisons, which shouldn't happen. It just absolutely shouldn't happen, to what's happened before. It's a different landscape. It's different. They haven't been given credit along their careers for what they're doing and what they're trying to accomplish. I'm really pleased for them.'' --- AP Sports Writers Doug Alden in Salt Lake City and Mike Cranston in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Teams that should be in: Stanford Should be in: Stanford [17-10 (9-7), RPI: 40, SOS: 21] No shame in not getting a win in L.A., but that makes the home game against Arizona State a must-win ahead of what could be an intriguing meeting with Arizona should the Cats lose at Cal. Getting to 11 Pac-10 wins would make Selection Sunday much more comfortable, but 10's probably more than enough this season. The Cardinal have nonconference wins over Texas Tech and at Virginia to lean on, although they also lost badly to Air Force and Santa Clara at home.
For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com Additional sports lines can be found at: www.Sportsbooks.com To bet on March Madness games this online sportsbook accepts credit cards.
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." 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. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. |
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