ACC title game pits Blue Devils against Yellow Jackets

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/14/2010 - Greensboro, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top-seeded and fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils go for their record 18th ACC Tournament title today, as they take on the seventh-seeded Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the finals at Greensboro Coliseum.

The Blue Devils are not only trying to establish a new record with an 18th championship in this event, but they are also gunning for their second straight title. Duke made its way to the finals by defeating ninth-seeded Virginia, 57-46, in the quarterfinals and nipping 12th-seeded Miami-Florida, 77-74, in the semifinals yesterday. The Blue Devils have now won a record 86 games in this event, and could secure a No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a win today.

As for the Yellow Jackets, they entered the postseason knowing they needed to do some work to ensure a spot in the Big Dance. Tech certainly stepped up to the challenge and took care of business with a 62-58 win over 10th-seeded North Carolina in the first round before upsetting second-seeded and nationally-ranked Maryland, 69-64, in the quarterfinals. The team continued its run yesterday with a 57-54 besting of 11th-seeded NC State. Tech is now in its first championship game since losing to Duke back in 2005.

The Yellow Jackets held NC State to a dismal 30.6 percent shooting from the floor and survived a three-pointer in the closing seconds for a 57-54 win yesterday. Tech missed 13 free throws and turned the ball over 16 times in the game, allowing NC State to rally before hanging on for the win. Derrick Favors had 17 points and eight boards to lead the way, while Gani Lawal registered a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. The ACC Freshman of the Year, Favors has scored in double figures in each postseason game and is averaging 12.2 ppg and 8.5 rpg for the season. He ranks second on the team to Lawal, who puts forth 13.3 ppg and 8.8 rpg. Iman Shumpert is in charge of setting up the duo, handing out a team-high 3.7 apg, and he also chips in with 10.0 ppg.

Duke used a 15-0 run in the second half to take control and it hung on down the stretch for a 77-74 win over Miami yesterday. The Blue Devils shot 48.1 percent from the field and dominated the boards, 38-24. Kyle Singler, who had a team-high 18 points in the quarterfinals, led the charge once again with 27 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Jon Scheyer added 16 points and six boards, while Nolan Smith chipped in with 12 points. The trio have carried Duke all season long, and Scheyer paces the team with 18.7 ppg and 5.1 apg. Singler produces 17.5 ppg and a team-best 7.0 rpg, while Smith averages a healthy 17.4 ppg.

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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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