Michigan State topples BC; captures NCAA championship

Chockey Betting Lines

04/08/2007 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Abdelkader's goal with 18.9 seconds left in regulation was the game-winner, as Michigan State claimed its third championship in school history with a 3-1 win over Boston College at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Tim Kennedy had a goal and an assist for the Spartans, who ended the season with five straight wins. Chris Mueller also tallied and Jeff Lerg stopped 28 shots.

"BC was coming to the net hard all game, but I knew if I made key saves, we'd have a chance, because we could not play their game," said Lerg. "In the end, we outplayed them."

Brian Boyle scored the lone goal for the Eagles, who saw their 13-game win streak snapped in cruel fashion. Cory Schneider stopped 26 shots in the loss, BC's second consecutive finals defeat.

Michigan State claimed the championship by scoring three times on a passive Boston College team in the third period.

Kennedy answered to tie the game for Michigan State on a power-play goal at 9:53, breaking away from two BC checkers and scoring low and inside the left post.

Then, with the clock ticking down towards overtime, Michigan State kept pressure on in the Eagles' defensive zone. Kennedy broke down the right side and clanged a shot off the right goalpost. He followed the puck behind the goal line and emerged from a scrum with the disc and fed in front to Abdelkader, who slipped the puck by Schneider for a 2-1 lead.

"It was an unbelievable play," Abdelkader said. "I saw the puck go behind the net, and wanted to find a spot in the slot. I got my stick on it, and it was fortunate that it went in."

Mueller added an empty-netter with 1.2 seconds to go and the bench erupted as the Spartans claimed their first title since 1986.

"We knew going into the game, they were a patient team,"said BC forward Joe Rooney. "They kept five guys low. We got our chances, but didn't get the bounces we needed. Got TO hand it to their goalie, he played well."

The Spartans, playing out of the CCHA, broke a streak of five consecutive champions from the WCHA stretching back to Boston College's win in 2001. The last school from the CCHA to win a title was Michigan, who took the crown in 1998 against Boston College.

Neither team scored in a spirited first period which saw BC outshoot Michigan State 13-6.

BC had a 5-on-3 advantage with five minutes played in the second, and capitalized while skating with one extra man as Nathan Gerbe won a battle along the boards and pushed the puck into the left circle. Brock Bradford stepped up and ripped a shot from the faceoff dot that hit Boyle's leg and sailed into the right corner of the net for a 1-0 lead at 6:50.

Michigan State went up by two men midway through the period, but BC held on without allowing a quality chance. Despite 12 shots in the second, the Spartans were still unable to solve Schneider.

That would set the stage for a stunning reversal in the final 20 minutes of the contest.

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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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