Mountain West showdown pits Aztecs against Rebels

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/11/2012 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second half of the Mountain West Conference schedule kicks off today with a clash of the titans in the desert, as the 14th-ranked UNLV Runnin' Rebels play host to the 13th-ranked San Diego State Aztecs at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Aztecs have lost just once since the end of November and because of that they are off to a 6-1 start in the MWC to pace the league. Since that lone setback to Colorado State on the road last month (77-60), SDSU has posted a pair of conference wins over the likes of Boise State and TCU in order to move to 20-3 overall. With the win over the Horned Frogs last weekend, the Aztecs secured their record-setting seventh straight season with at least 20 victories.

As for the Runnin' Rebels, they were finally knocked out of a tie for first place in the MWC with the Aztecs when Wyoming stepped up and stunned them in a 68-66 final in Laramie last weekend. The victory snapped a five-game win streak for UNLV, but a couple of those triumphs were rather shaky as the team went to overtime in back-to-back decisions against Boise State and Air Force, two of the weaker programs in the Mountain West.

With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, the Rebels are ahead by a 32-21 count, but in the first meeting of the season last month the Aztecs scored a thrilling 69-67 triumph in the final moments thanks to a three-pointer by Jamaal Franklin with 0.3 seconds remaining. With that victory, SDSU has not won six in a row in the series, the second-longest active streak against the Rebels behind only New Mexico which has posted nine straight wins.

The Horned Frogs gave it all they got in the meeting with San Diego State on the road at Viejas Arena last week, shooting close to 50 percent from the floor and 12-of-24 behind the three-point line, but still the Aztecs prevailed by double figures. Jamaal Franklin tallied a game-high 24 points for the hosts, adding career-high 11 rebounds, while James Rahon logged 16 points after combining for a mere 18 points in the four previous games combined. Chase Tapley added 14 points, while DeShawn Stephens chipped in with 13 points and six rebounds off the bench as the team shot just over 50 percent from the floor. Jamaal Franklin is scoring a team-best 16.0 ppg at the moment, only slightly better than Tapley who has delivered 15.9 ppg thanks to his 43.3 percent shooting behind the three-point line. Franklin is also the top rebounder for the squad with more than seven per game and with extra chances at the offensive end of the floor, it is easy to see how the team outscores the competition by more than 10 points per game.

It was bound to happen again, and it did against Wyoming on the road last weekend as the Rebels fell to another league foe, this time by two points at Arena Auditorium. UNLV had four players score in double figures, but so did the Cowboys, but in the case of the visitors they shot just 3-of-14 behind the three-point line, making just 1-of-10 in the second half of the tight contest. Quintrell Thomas came off the bench to tally 15 points, followed by Anthony Marshall and Oscar Bellfield who both posted 12 points and combined for 11 rebounds and just as many assists. Mike Moser logged another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but not a single board at the offensive end as he shot 4-of-12 on the day. Moser has been a tremendous addition to the UNLV roster, averaging 14.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, both of which pace the group. MArshall is responsible for 11.8 ppg and, with his 119 assists, gas combined with Bellfield (9.8 ppg, 133 assists) to become one of the most productive passing duos in the country. In fact, as a team the Rebels are ranked third in the nation with 18.3 apg and fourth in overall assists with 458, something that was bound to happen since they began to open up the offense and run like the old days.

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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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