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01/21/2007 - Knoxville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - JaJuan Smith scored a game-high 21 points and added seven rebounds as the 22nd-ranked Tennessee Volunteers held on to defeat the South Carolina Gamecocks, 64-61, at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Smith finished 7-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-9 from three-point distance. Wayne Chism chipped in with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds for Tennessee (14-5 overall, 2-2 SEC), which snapped a four- game losing streak.
Tre Kelley had a team-high 18 points for South Carolina (10-7, 0-4 SEC), which has dropped five straight contests. Dominique Archie added 12 points on 6-of-7 from the floor and Evaldas Baniulis had 10.
After Kelley hit a jumper giving South Carolina a quick 7-2 lead early in the contest, Tennessee settled down, going on a 16-6 run led by JaJuan Smith, who accounted for 10 points during the Volunteers spurt. Tennessee held an 18-13 advantage with just under nine minutes remaining in the opening half.
The Gamecocks trailed 26-22 with 3:54 left in the half, but the Vols got two free throws from Ryan Childress, a three pointer from Smith and a pair from the line from Duke Crews to take a 33-22 lead heading into the intermission.
The Volunteers maintained a comfortable lead throughout the early stages of the second half and opened up a 46-31 lead following a jumper by Smith with just under six minutes into the stanza.
South Carolina was not about to go down quitely however. The Gamecocks answered by going on a 16-4 run and after a made basket by Dwayne Day, the Vols' lead was cut to 50-47 with 5:24 left in the game.
Tennessee kept the Gamecocks in check down the stretch, but a three-pointer by Baniulis trimmed the Volunteers advantage to 59-55 with 48 ticks remaining. However, Ramar Smith made a pair of free throws on the ensuing possession and Tennessee was able to hold on in the waning moments.
Game Notes
Tennessee is 23-2 at Thompson-Boling Arena over the last two seasons...The Volunteers lead the all-time series 26-22 versus South Carolina...The Gamecocks shot 41 percent from the field, including 38 percent from three- point distance...The Vols also shot 41 percent from the floor, but were only 4-of-17 from behind the arch.
<< Blue Raiders drop Trojans
Little Rock, AR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chrissy Givens scored a season-high 33
points and added six rebounds to help 20th-ranked Middle Tennessee to a 75-62
defeat of Arkansas-Little Rock at Jack Stephens Center.
Amber Holt added 13 point
<< U.S. youth comes through in friendly against Denmark
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The U.S. Men's National Team accomplished its
mission in its first game since this past summer's World Cup in Germany
with a 3-1 win over Denmark at The Home Depot Center, here, Saturday.
The mission
<< No. 13 Air Force soars over San Diego State
Colorado Springs, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jacob Burtschi scored 23 points and
grabbed nine rebounds to lead 13th-ranked Air Force over San Diego State,
56-51, at Clune Arena.
Dan Nwaelele added 11 points for the Falcons (18-2, 5-1 M
<< Strong second half pushes Stanford to victory
Palo Alto, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brooke Smith had 17 points and chipped in
with nine rebounds, and ninth-ranked Stanford overcame a slow start to defeat
Oregon State, 69-55, at Maples Pavilion.
Candice Wiggins chipped in with 15 points
Mauresmo sent packing at Aussie Open >>
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion and second-seeded
Amelie Mauresmo of France was ousted from the Australian Open Sunday, losing
in straight sets to Lucie Safarova.
Mauresmo's first meeting with the 19-year-ol
No. 21 Cal stymies Oregon >>
Berkeley, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Freshman Lauren Greif scored a career-high 19
points, and the 21st-ranked California Golden Bears defeated the Oregon Ducks,
65-56.
Ashley Walker scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Cal (15-4, 6-3
Patriots' Harrison out for AFC Championship >>
Foxboro, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison
will miss Sunday's AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts with a
sprained medial collateral ligament that has kept him out both of the
Patriot
T'Wolves' Davis suspended >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota will take on the Phoenix Suns
on Sunday without the services of guard Ricky Davis, who was suspended one
game by the league for leaving the bench and walking into the locker room
during Minnesota
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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