Golden Eagles take aim at Pirates in Big East battle

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/31/2012 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoping to snap a four-game slide, the Seton Hall Pirates take on the 15th-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles in Big East Conference action tonight at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

Seton Hall was a force to be reckoned with through the first 17 games of the season, losing only twice and one of those coming against mighty Syracuse on the road. However, the tide has changed for the Pirates and now they are trying to figure out how to get back on course after losing to Louisville on Saturday in a 60-51 final. In the last two games, Seton Hall has scored a total of just 93 points, one less than the team logged in its last win (94-73) versus DePaul on January 10. Despite the slide in recent weeks, the Pirates still have an overall winning percentage of .714.

As for the Golden Eagles, since losing back-to-back games against Georgetown and the Orange on the road earlier this month, they have not bowed to a single opponent as they've strung together six straight victories. The most recent of those triumphs took place on Saturday afternoon versus Villanova, 82-78, a final that was a bit too close for comfort.

Marquette leads the all-time series with the Pirates by a count of 8-2, but last year Seton Hall broke through for the first time since 1956 as it snapped an eight-game slide in the relationship with an 85-72 triumph at home in New Jersey.

Jordan Theodore scored in double figures for the 14th straight game over the weekend, putting up a team-best 18 points, but still the Pirates succumbed to Louisville at home in the Prudential Center. Theodore led all scorers on both sides, but he did so only after shooting 6-of-20 from the floor and missing all five attempts behind the three-point line. Herb Pope registered a double- double with 12 points and 12 boards in the setback as well. Pope is one of the rare breed who is averaging a double-double this late into the season, producing 15.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per contest, not to mention having accounted for 35 of his team's 68 blocked shots as well. Theodore is responsible for another 16.1 ppg as the top scorer, handing out 7.0 apg along the way, but his mere 29.3 percent shooting beyond the arc and 38.5 percent from the floor overall is something that certainly could be improved upon moving forward.

Down by 18 points in the middle of the first half, the Golden Eagles stormed back in the second half and managed to overcome 16 turnovers and 38.5 percent shooting from the floor in order to capture the four-point win at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Darius Johnson-Odom scored a team-best 26 points, adding six rebounds and five assists, while Jae Crowder registered a double-double with 20 points and a team-high 11 rebounds, while Jamil Wilson delivered 12 points off the bench. Johnson-Odom, a leading scorer in each of the last five games for the program, is one of the top scorers in the Big East with his 18.5 ppg, with Crowder putting up another 16.4 ppg and coming down with 7.4 rpg even as he shoos 40.0 percent behind the three-point line. Marquette's scoring output numbers 76.5 ppg at the moment, more than 12 ppg ahead of the competition (64.4 ppg) which is being forced into 14.5 turnovers per game.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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