SEC Tournament showdown pits Volunteers against Wildcats

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The semifinal round of the 2010 SEC Tournament pits the second-ranked Kentucky Wildcats against the 15th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers.

Up next for the winner of this game is a trip to tomorrow's championship showdown against either Vanderbilt or Mississippi State.

Tennessee, the East Division's third seed, knocked off LSU by 10 points in the first round on Thursday. In quarterfinal action yesterday, the Vols pulled away in the second half for a 76-65 victory over a solid Ole Miss squad. They have won the SEC Tournament four times, but it has been 31 years since their last title. Last season, Tennessee reached the title game only to fall to Mississippi State in a 64-61 final. This team is 25-7 overall and has won five straight games dating back to the regular season.

The Wildcats have won this event 25 times and own an incredible 111-22 record in SEC Tournament games. Still, they haven't cut down the nets since 2004 and haven't reached the title game since 2005. Kentucky is a sensational 30-2 overall under first-year head coach John Calipari, and the 'Cats are the top seed from the loaded East Division of the SEC. Yesterday, they survived a scare against Alabama (W-4), erasing an 11-point deficit en route to a 73-67 victory.

Tennessee is one of the only two teams that has beaten Kentucky this season. The programs split a pair of meetings during the regular season, and the Wildcats own a 143-66 advantage in the all-time series.

Wayne Chism was tremendous for Tennessee in yesterday's win over Ole Miss, as the standout forward had 16 points and 15 rebounds. J.P. Prince led the Vols with 17 points, and Cameron Tatum posted 15 points. Bobby Maze rounded out the double-digit scorers with 13 points, and his Tennessee squad scored 20 points off Ole Miss turnovers. A 26-12 advantage in points from the foul line was key for Tennessee. Through 32 games, the Vols are generating 74.5 ppg while holding foes to 64.7 ppg. Chism is now averaging 12.6 ppg and 7.2 rpg, and he has blocked more than twice as many shots as any other player on the roster. Scotty Hopson, who shot 2-of-11 yesterday and finished with six points, is also netting 12.5 ppg.

Star point guard John Wall of Kentucky recently became just the second freshman ever to receive SEC Player of the Year honors, and he proved worthy of the award with a stellar performance against Alabama yesterday. Wall scored 23 points, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out five assists to lead his team. Patrick Patterson checked in with 20 points, and Eric Bledsoe tallied 10 points. The Wildcats connected on 50 percent of their field goal attempts in the tilt and earned a 22-16 edge in points from the foul line. The positives helped the team overcome a 45-33 rebounding deficit and a 1-of-13 shooting effort from three-point range. Overall this season, Wall is scoring an even 17.0 ppg to go along with 6.2 rpg. DeMarcus Cousins, another sensational rookie for Kentucky, was quiet yesterday, but he is scoring 15.4 ppg while ripping down 10 boards per contest. Patterson provides 15.1 ppg, and Bledsoe adds 10.4 ppg. The Wildcats are posting 79.5 ppg this season while permitting 65.7 ppg to foes.

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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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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