Butler next to try and knock off top-seeded Gators
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
03/23/2007 - St. Louis. MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It has been 15 years since the NCAA Tournament had a school win back-to-back titles, but the Florida Gators are on their way to taking care of that issue as they suit up against the Butler Bulldogs in the Sweet 16 round of the 69th annual event from the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis tonight.
The top-seeded Gators ran through the field a year ago and defeated UCLA by a score of 73-57 to capture the crown and are hoping to repeat the feat here in 2007. After winning the SEC Tournament for the third straight time, the Gators picked up where they left off last season by opening this year's tournament with a crushing 112-69 victory against Jackson State that set a record for the largest margin of victory in tournament history. Two days later Florida, which has now won 14 consecutive postseason outings, played a much closer contest versus Purdue in a 74-67 decision in New Orleans.
As for the fifth-seeded Bulldogs, the Midwest Region has provided matchups with Old Dominion in the first round and Maryland in the second. Butler, a team that lost in the title game of the Horizon League Tournament this year, could have easily lost to both previous opponents in this tournament, but with a 57-46 triumph against the Monarchs and a narrow 62-59 win versus the Terps in Buffalo last week the Bulldogs pushed their all-time NCAA Tournament record to 7-6 as they prepare for their toughest test of the season.
With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, Florida won the only previous meeting with a memorable 69-68 victory in the first round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament. That year, head coach Billy Donovan got his Gators to the championship game versus Michigan State before feeling the sting of an 89-76 setback.
The winner of this meeting will be back in action on Sunday versus the winner of the UNLV/Oregon contest for the right to move on to the Final Four in Atlanta.
Defense was the name of the game for the Bulldogs as they clamped down on Maryland, holding top performer D.J. Strawberry without a single point in the first half and a just eight points for the game. The Terps managed to finish the contest shooting 6-of-11 behind the three-point line, but a mere 7-of-15 effort at the charity stripe and 17 turnovers were just what the Bulldogs were hoping for as they moved to the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history. A.J. Graves responded with a team-high 19 points for Butler, converting 4-of-9 chances behind the three-point line, while Brandon Crone made good on 3-of-7 opportunities beyond the arc to come away with 13 points. Of the team's 52 field goal attempts, half came from behind the three-point line where the squad hit on 46.2 percent.
All season long the Bulldogs have turned to their defense to get the job done, and it has rarely failed them, ranking fifth in the nation with just 56.9 ppg allowed. Oddly enough, even though Butler found a way to stifle opponents, it still ranked just 300th in the country in blocked shots with less than two per game. Graves, the leading scorer for the group with his 17.0 ppg, is as close to perfect at the free-throw line (.958) as one can get, ranking second in the nation this season with his accuracy. Mike Green (14.1 ppg) takes care of getting the rest of the team involved with his 133 assists and is also first on the glass for the squad with close to six rebounds per game, while Crone accounts for 11.4 ppg, despite his mere 40.8 percent shooting from the floor.
Beating up Jackson State didn't prove much in the first round, as the Gators quickly learned versus Purdue in a much tighter matchup last weekend. Florida actually trailed by a bucket at the break, 31-29, but then the experience of the Gators took over as both Corey Brewer and Al Horford both recorded a team- high 17 points in the seven-point victory. Taurean Green chipped in with 14 points and Joakim Noah another nine as he also tied Horford for the rebounding lead with nine boards. Although he tallied a mere six points in 32 minutes of action, fellow starter Lee Humphrey did manage to knock down a couple of three- pointers to extend his school-record of hitting at least one trey per game to 35 straight. The team wound up shooting an even 50 percent from the field and outscored the Boilermakers at the charity stripe, 27-6, which helped to make up for 15 turnovers.
A perfect 6-0 in the month of March, the Gators have outscored opponents by an average of more than 20 ppg during the stretch, although a huge part of that was the crushing defeat of Jackson State in the first round of the tourney. Again, thanks to the win versus the Tigers, Horford is averaging a double-double in the two tourney games with 16 ppg and 12.5 rpg, shooting an incredible 76.5 percent from the field. For the season overall those numbers are slightly lower at 13.3 ppg and 9.3 rpg, but they were still tops on the program. With he and Noah (12.1 ppg, 8.3 rpg) are both shooting close to 62 percent from the field, the team as a whole is first in the nation with its 52.9 percent accuracy and is also fourth in the country in terms of rebounding margin with a +8.2 rpg.
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING
NCAA Football BettingMany fans thought it was the best side in the nation by the end of last season. This year, the polls have built on Georgia's momentum and granted it the No. 1 preseason ranking, followed by Ohio State and USC. (The Associated Press has the Buckeyes at No. 2; USA Today took the Trojans.)
"To have people believing we have one of the best teams in the nation going into this thing, it's exciting for us," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt told the AP. "I don't think anything is guaranteed, but we certainly have put ourselves in position where at least the college football world thinks we're pretty good."
Georgia Bulldogs - 9.5 wins
There's no question they're good, but the Bulldogs have one of the toughest 12-game schedules in the nation, mostly because they play in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference. Away games at No. 15 Arizona State, No. 7 LSU and No. 10 Auburn loom large, with contests between the hedges versus No. 24 Alabama and No. 18 Tennessee as well as the World's Largest Cocktail Party in Jacksonville versus No.5 Florida.
Ohio State Buckeyes - 10 wins
Like the Bulldogs, the Buckeyes also have a number of tough road contests in 2008. After two scrimmages dressed up as real games versus Youngstown State and Ohio, it's off to face USC. Other tough away games include No.13 Wisconsin in October and No. 20 Illinois in November. Granted, it should be pretty easy sledding at the Horseshoe. In fact, the only ranked team that travels to Columbus is No. 22 Penn State, in October.
USC Trojans - 10.5 wins
A similarly light schedule awaits the Trojans of Southern California, which is why the oddsmakers' total is one win more and the over is currently commanding -150 odds. Pete Carroll's troops only play three ranked teams in 2008, and all of those games are at home. After what should be an easy trip to Virginia to start things off on Aug. 30, the Trojans get two weeks to prepare for Ohio State in Los Angeles. Their two other ranked opponents, No. 21 Oregon and No. 15 Arizona State, visit in consecutive weeks to start the month of October. After that, the competition eases up. Of course, this is the same highly-touted school that lost to Stanford in 2007 and Oregon State in 2006. And don't discount the fact that USC plays its biggest rivals, Notre Dame and UCLA, back-to-back to close out the regular season. On paper, the Trojans are far superior, but motivation will be high for the Irish and Bruins, especially if their historic foes are in national-title contention.
Odds to Win the Heisman Trophy
Tim Tebow, Florida - 7/2
He won it last year, so it's no surprise he's the favorite to do it again, making him just the second player to go back-to-back. Ohio State's Archie Griffin turned the trick in 1974 and 1975, and Tebow's coach, Urban Meyer, is pretty sure his star quarterback can match the Buckeyes legend.
"There has never been anyone quite like him," Meyer told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I am very lucky to be his coach."
Chris Wells, Ohio State - 5/1
The man they call "Beanie" was a star recruit out of high school, so it's not like nobody knew who the star tailback was before he rushed for 576 yards as a freshman in 2006 and 1,609 as a sophomore. But perhaps his finest moment came last year versus Michigan when he rumbled for 222 yards and two touchdowns in the Buckeyes' 14-3 victory over the hated Wolverines.
Knowshon Moreno, Georgia - 8/1
If the Bulldogs are to live up to expectations, they'll need a huge effort from their sophomore running back. This might be the last year of college ball for Moreno, who rushed for 1,334 yards and for 14 touchdowns as a freshman, while adding 253 receiving yards on 20 receptions, so expect big things for the man from Belford, N.J.
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