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Athens, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darius Miller scored a game-high 19 points off the bench Tuesday night, and No. 1 Kentucky began its second stint as the country's top-ranked team with a 57-44 win over Georgia. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist added 14 points for the Wildcats (20-1, 6-0 SEC), who have won 12 straight games since a last-second loss at Indiana on December 10, which ended their initial two-week stay atop the AP poll.
Michael Snaer's buzzer beating three-pointer on Saturday snapped Duke's 45- game home winning streak and gave his team a 4-1 league record that ties for first place, and made Florida State one of the most talked about team's in the nation. The Seminoles, who knocked off North Carolina just a week earlier, have now won four straight games to bring their overall record to 13-6. Head coach Leonard Hamilton had to be pleased with his team's performance against Duke, as it shot 54 percent from the floor and held the Blue Devils under 40 percent shooting. Florida State is has outscored its opponents by an average of 6.8 ppg in league play so far.
Snaer is the Seminoles' go-to-guy as he leads the team with an average of 13.5 ppg. The junior guard seems to have elevated his play against top competition as he has averaged 16.6 ppg in his last three outings. Ian Miller is the team's second leading scorer with an average of 12.3 ppg. Miller has gone 7- of-12 from the floor to score 25 points total in his last two games. Bernard James provides a tough inside presence for Hamilton's squad. James contributes 10.5 ppg and 8.8 rpg.
Des Moines, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 15th-ranked Creighton Bluejays will try to win their ninth in a row as they head to the Knapp Center for a Missouri Valley Conference clash with the Drake Bulldogs. This will be the 149th meeting in the all-time series. The Bluejays hold a 90-58 edge in the rivalry after winning 16 of the last 24 encounters, including a 76-59 decision in Omaha earlier this month. Creighton shot 60 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from beyond the arc, while Drake made 38.5 percent of its field goals and just 5-of-19 from three-point range in this year's earlier meeting.
The Bluejays are off to a 18-2 start this season after handling Indiana State 75-49 on Saturday. The Bluejays shot 43.6 percent from the floor and connected on 11-of-24 attempts from long range in the contest. Head coach Greg McDermott has his team playing very well both at home and on the road this year. If the Bluejays win tonight, they will have won six-straight road games for the first time in program history since 1975. Creighton is ranked first in the nation in field goal percentage (51.4) and second in assists (19.2). The Bluejays 81.4 ppg on the offensive end is the best in the MVC this year.
The Bulldogs have won two in a row at home and 13 of their last 14 at the Knapp Center coming into tonight. However, Drake had its four-game winning streak snapped its last time out as it fell 66-52 at Northern Iowa. The Bulldogs struggled from the floor, making 38.2 percent of their field goals in the loss. Head coach Mark Phelps has led the team to a 12-8 overall record and a 5-4 mark in MVC play. Drake is tied for third in the conference coming into this one. The Bulldogs are scoring 68.3 ppg while allowing opponents to net 67.3 ppg.
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The fourth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes continue their run through the Big Ten as they welcome the Penn State Nittany Lions to Columbus for a conference showdown at Value City Arena. Thad Matta's Buckeyes are an impressive 51-1 at home over the last three seasons, including a 14-0 mark in 2011-12. However, OSU was on the road this past weekend, blowing out Nebraska in Lincoln, 79-45. With the win, the Buckeyes moved to 5-2 in-conference.
Penn State led 29-27 at the half in Bloomington, but Indiana came roaring back in the second half, hitting 65 percent from the floor in posting a 19-point win over the Nittany Lions. Tim Frazier once again led the way offensively, netting 21 points, on 7-of-18 shooting. Nick Colella added 11 points off the bench, but PSU managed a mere 22.7 percent shooting accuracy in the second half, hitting just five field goals over the final 20 minutes of action. It has been a lot of the same all season long for Penn State, which has a prolific scorer in Frazier, but little else behind him. Frazier is performing at an All-American level this season, averaging 18.0 points and 6.4 assists per game. Unfortunately, there isn't much offensive support, as Jermaine Marshall represents the next highest scorer at just 9.8 ppg.
Stillwater, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coming off their biggest win of the season, the second-ranked Missouri Tigers close out a two-game road trip when they take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Big 12 action at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater. Frank Haith's first season at the helm in Columbia has been hugely successful thus far, as the Tigers have won 18 of their first 19 games. The team had a showdown with another top-five foe this past weekend in Waco, and came out on top in a thrilling 89-88 decision over Baylor. The victory was the fourth straight for Missouri, which moved to 5-1 in conference play.
Missouri owns a sizable 75-40 lead in the all-time series with Oklahoma State. Despite the overall lead, the Tigers trail in games played in Stillwater, with the Cowboys holding a 28-21 advantage.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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