Sports Betting Blog

In case you are into Cinderella stories check this out: the Cornhuskers were a +10.5 point underdog against the Mizzou Tigers. As if that was not enough, Nebraska had only won two Conference Games in the regular season. The Cornhuskers held a 2-14 record in conference play and 15-17 overall mark this season, and finished last in the Big 12 Conference standings. But, boy-oh-boy, did they play with all their might this afternoon to win over Missouri 75-60.

Mizzou had a good regular season, finishing 5th in the Big 12 with a 10-6 conference record, and holding a 22-10 overall mark, so chances for an opening round upset at Kansas City, Mo., were quite unexpected. But the Cornhuskers dominated every aspect of their game. They outrebounded, outshot, and outperformed the Tigers with ease. It might be a long shot, but there’s still a chance to see this guys in March Madness.

The Cornhuskers made it quite clear with a 16-1 run from the beginning that the Tigers where in for more than they could chew. Yet the Tigers fans were still quite enthusiastic for a while. Mizzou had easily defeated the Tigers in their previous two matches this season. Until the talented Brandon Richardson brought his A-game and came in with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Tigers were a -13 point favorite over Nebraska in their first game of the season and a -4.5 point favorite on their second game against the Cornhuskers. In neither game were the Cornhuskers able to cover their spread. Matter of fact, Nebraska was 7-14 ATS for the regular season, while Missouri was 14-11.

Kim English pulled the tigers to a 61-51 with 4:01 to play.  Yet Richardson came along with a 3 pointer taking a foul from Zaire Taylor for a nice 4 point play that sealed that game. Ryan Anderson had 16 points while Jorge Diaz had 10 of his own to help tip off the game on Nebraska’s side. It sure was not a good game for the Big 12 Tournament defending Champions.

If you are taking part of the action in March Madness, this information might be of your interest. There is a big difference between the die-hard College Basketball fan, and the sports bettor.  The first plays by hearth, the second by rhyme and reason.

I am aware that other Sports News sites offer very complete blogs with statistics and constant first-hand updates. I visit them too. Those sites are great, but mean very little to the bettor. On the other hand, this site is written for players by players, and from true insiders of the offshore wagering industry. I’m part of a group of young writers offering you important betting-related-statistics that might just put you over the edge.

Other handicapping sites offer you winning peaks in exchange for money. Not here. I will not pretend to know enough to tell you if the Duke Blue Devils or any other team is going to cover its spread or not in the next game. If you look around in the blog you will not see any of that. I like the thrill, the research, the speculating involved in making every pick.

This is what our team does. It keeps track of every opening and closing line offered at BetIAS; it follows up with final-scores and keeps track of various key-teams’ performances in terms of wagering: this is, how many times has a team covered its spread in the regular  season; how many of its games have gone over or under; what is their wining percentage when playing Against The Spread (ATS), etc.  We have prepared this table with both sports-based and bettor-related information of the Top 6 Ranked teams according to the Associated Press poll.

Every season, teams honor their senior players during the last home game of the season. The Kentucky Wildcats’ fans gratefully acknowledge their senior players this Sunday when they faced the Florida Gators. Yet sophomore Darius Miller came to steal the upperclassmen’ thunder. He came in with 14 points towards the end to hang on to a 74-66 victory for the Wildcats to secure a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Not only did the Wildcats play a great game. The team also finished the season with a perfect home record. The 18-0 at home record ties with the 1985-86 season for the best performance in the program´s history.

Kentucky holds a 14-2 in conference game record this season that has them ranked as No. 2 in the Nation. The Wildcat’s are the undisputed leaders of the Southern Conference Standing.

After Vanderbilt lost its game against South Carolina on Saturday night, the Wildcats needed only to win over the Gators to clinch their 44th SEC title.

The Gators lost to Kentucky, but there is no reason why Florida shouldn’t win some games in the SEC Tournament this next weekend. If they want to be part of this year´s March Madness, they better outshine their competition during the tournament in Nashville.

Kentucky has had a great season. The team holds a 29-2 overall straigh-up record, and its quite possible they are going to take one of the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament Bracket. But Kentucky has also proved to be a strong team in terms of wagering odds. As of press time, the Wildcats are 16-13 against the spread (ATS) for the regular season.

Those are good numbers for a top ranked team. Yet they have not covered the spread in their last three games against Florida, Morehead State and Miami Ohio. Yet we are talking about -10 plus points deficit on each of these games. That’s a 55.2 % for Kentucky against the Odds. On the other hand, Tennessee is 23-7 Straight Up, and sits second in the SEC East conference, but has a 12-15 record ATS.

John Calipari has usually started three freshmen and one sophomore this season. Yet for this special occasion the team’s only seniors, Mark Krebs, Perry Stevenson and Ramon Harris, started and played the first five minutes. Also honored on Senior Day was usual starter Patterson, a junior who is expected to graduate a year earlier and enter the NBA draft.

Maryland took revenge over Duke and defeated No. 4 Duke 79-72 on Wednesday for its sixth consecutive victory. With this important victory over the Blue  Devils, Maryland is tied for the first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, were both teams, Duke and Maryland Dominate with a 12-3 conference record each.

This was the final home game for senior player Greivis Vasquez, who scored 20 points, including a terrific basket with 37 seconds left to finish off the Blue Devils 8-game winning streak.

It was also the final home game for other key players in Maryland. Landon Milbourne and Eric Hayes were also honored before the game started. This was a big game for the Terrapins´fans, for this was the first victory against Duke in the last 7 tries.

Both teams were aware of the importance of the match. The Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title was at stake here. And the team reacted well to the pressure. Jordan Williams had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

It was payback time. The Terrapins had not lost a game since de Blue Devils defeated them by 21 points back on February 13th. Duke gave a good fight. Nolan Smith went on to score 20 points and Jon Sheyer gave another 19 to the Devil´s count, but it was not enough to claim victory in what proved to be a tough road game for Duke.

We don´t mean to take credits away from the Terrapins. They did win outright and with plenty of merits. Yet, Duke´s center, Brian Zoubek, who had scored 16 points and gained 17 rebounds on their previous matchup against Maryland, went totally off the radar. He had an awful night. Zoubek finished with only 4 points and 13 boards.

It was a close game, all the way to the very end. It was 69-69 until Jordan Williams scored on a fast breakthrough. Then Duke missed twice. Without missing a beat, Vasquez tucked the ball and moved his way up in the air to clear some space to shoot for a sweet shot that make it 73-69. And the crowd just went absolutely wild after that. This was it. Maryland is quite looking good to take a spot into the NCAA Tournament.

If they can keep up the good work, it wont surprise us if both teams make it into March Madness.