St. Mary's upsets No. 18 Gonzaga for WCC title

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/08/2010 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mickey McConnell and Ben Allen each hit four three-pointers to key the Gaels' terrific shooting effort, as St. Mary's downed No. 18 Gonzaga, 81-62, to capture the West Coast Conference Tournament title.

McConnell ended with 26 points, six assists and four steals, while Allen added 20 points and nine rebounds for the Gaels (26-5), who used a 14-3 run midway through the second half to secure the win and their sixth NCAA Tournament berth.

A 10-for-21 effort from three-point land and 14 forced turnovers helped spark the second WCC tournament crown in St. Mary's history.

Steven Gray scored 16 points and Matt Bouldin went for 14 on 2-of-8 shooting for the Bulldogs (26-6), who had swept the season series against the Gaels and beat them by 25 in last year's conference championship tilt.

The Zags are still expected to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced on Sunday.

It was a two-possession game through the first 10 minutes of the second half, as a Gray bucket had Gonzaga, the WCC regular season champs, within 50-47.

Allen's three with just under nine minutes to play sparked the game-altering stretch, which ended appropriately on a McConnell three-ball for a 64-50 lead with 6 1/2 minutes left.

The margin was 64-54 before Allen and Jordan Page each hit from long distance, and Page's tear-drop while being fouled on the next possession put the finishing touches on an emphatic victory for St. Mary's.

McConnell scored the first seven points of the game to give the second-seeded Gaels an early lead. The Bulldogs settled down from a slow start, and though they never led in the opening 20 minutes, were within 30-29 at the break.

Game Notes

St. Mary's has won five straight overall, while Gonzaga was riding a five-game winning streak coming in...The only other WCC tourney title for the Gaels came back in 1997...The Bulldogs own 10 WCC Tournament titles and has captured five of the previous six crowns...Page ended with 11 points, while Omar Samhan had nine points and seven rebounds for the Gaels...Ellis Harris posted eight points on 3-of-13 shooting for Gonzaga.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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