No.2 Tigers tangle with Red Raiders

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/28/2012 - Columbia, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-ranked Missouri Tigers set their sights on getting back on track, as they welcome the Texas Tech Red Raiders to Columbia this afternoon, for a Big 12 matchup at Mizzou Arena.

Frank Haith's Tigers are coming off just their second loss of the season, as Missouri suffered a 79-72 decision at Oklahoma State this week. The loss ended a four-game win streak for Missouri and dropped it to 5-2 in league play.

Billy Gillespie's first season in Lubbock has been a struggle, as the Red Raiders are five games under .500 at 7-12 overall. A decent season heading into conference play has gone horribly wrong, as Texas Tech is winless in the Big 12 and brings an ugly seven-game slide into this contest. The team was last in action on Wednesday, a 69-47 blowout loss at the hands of Kansas State.

Missouri holds a 13-8 series advantage against Texas Tech thanks to wins in each of the last five meetings.

A lack of offense has certainly plagued the Red Raiders this season, as the team is averaging a mere 62.5 ppg. Those numbers have dipped even lower in league play, where Texas Tech is managing an anemic 53.3 ppg. There is no scoring depth to speak of on the roster. Jordan Tolbert is shooting a strong .566 from the floor, but it has resulted in a rather modest 12.8 ppg. Javarez Willis (8.5 ppg) and Ty Nurse (8.2 ppg) are next in the line in the scoring column. In the recent 22-point loss to Kansas State, the Red Raiders produced just 47 points, doing so on .375 shooting, including .231 from three-point range (3-of-13). The Red Raiders were also outrebounded 35-25 and turned the ball over a whopping 25 times, resulting in 27 points for the Wildcats.

The Tigers went scoreless for more than five minutes in the second half, turning en eight point lead into a loss in Stillwater. The loss spoiled another strong outing by forward Ricardo Ratliffe, who recorded his third double-double of the season with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Marcus Denmon poured in 17 points in the setback, but the usually strong shooting Tigers managed just 40 percent from the floor in the game, weighed down by an ugly 4- of-19 showing from behind the arc. It was a bit of an anomaly for Missouri when taking the season stats into consideration, as the Tigers are still shooting just over 50 percent from the floor (.503) and putting up 82.8 ppg. Scoring depth has rarely been a problem, as Missouri boasts of five players in double figures, led by Denmon's 17.7 ppg. Denmon is joined in the backcourt by Kim English (14.1 ppg) and the pair are lethal from long range, combining for 100 of the team's 158 three-pointers to date. Ratliffe (15.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg) has been a force down low and leads the Big 12 in field-goal percentage at .754. Michael Dixon (11.8 ppg) and Phil Pressey (10.1 ppg) round out the top scorers.

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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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