Pitt routs Rutgers to close out regular season

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/06/2010 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gilbert Brown poured in a game-high 19 points while pulling down six rebounds, as the 17th-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers destroyed the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 83-54, in the regular-season finale for both clubs.

Ashton Gibbs added 13 points for the Panthers (24-7, 13-5 Big East), who will be the No. 2 seed in the Big East tourney next week. Pittsburgh snuck past Providence, 73-71, on Thursday to clinch a two-day bye in the tournament.

Coming into Saturday, the Panthers needed a victory combined with a win by West Virginia over Villanova to secure the second seed. The Mountaineers completed the first part of the equation for Pitt by claiming a 68-66 overtime victory over the Wildcats.

Brad Wanamaker donated 12 points and five assists, while senior Jermaine Dixon tallied 10 points in his final home game for the Panthers, who finished an impressive 17-1 at home this season.

Mike Rosario finished with 14 points for the Scarlet Knights (15-16, 5-13), who were coming off a loss to Seton Hall on Thursday. Austin Johnson and Mike Coburn added 12 and 10 points, respectively, in defeat.

A Jonathan Mitchell layup and James Beatty three-pointer put Rutgers ahead 5-3 early on, but the Panthers scored the next 15 points to take control. Dixon tallied six points during the run, which Dante Taylor capped with a layup for an 18-5 margin with over 11 minutes to go.

Ahead 28-11 moments later, Pittsburgh ripped off seven consecutive points to build a 24-point lead. Brown's trey capped the burst, making it a 35-11 game with three minutes left. The score was 40-16 at the half.

Jonathan Mitchell's three-pointer had the Scarlet Knights within 50-28 five minutes into the second half. The Panthers made it a full-on rout from there, going on an 11-2 spurt. Dante Taylor's free throw made 61-30 with 11 minutes to play.

Game Notes

Pittsburgh was awarded the second seed by virtue of tiebreaker wins over West Virginia and Villanova. Each school went 13-5 in conference play to tie for second place...Despite the loss, the Scarlet Knights still hold a 23-22 series advantage...The Panthers' 13 wins in the Big East is tied for the second highest win total for the school in league play since Pitt joined the Big East in 1982-83. Pitt set the record with 15 wins in 2008-09. Pittsburgh also won 13 Big East regular season games in 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04...The Panthers shot 48.3 percent from the field, while Rutgers made 40.9 percent of its shots.

Offsmaker NCAA Basketball Betting News


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Matt Kenseth And Kevin Harvick Favorites To Take NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship

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MySportsbook.com will offer comprehensive Nascar betting lines on every race remaining on the Nextel Cup series including driver match-ups, props and odds to win each race. For a complete list of NASCAR odds, please visit www.MySportsbook.com.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

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