Doc’s Sports Blog Sports blog with a focus on sports betting - sports gambling blog

By Robert Ferringo

The Chicago Bulls have a serious problem. And it is their best player.

Derrick Rose is questionable for tonight’s rematch with the New York Knicks because of an ankle injury he apparently suffered in that Easter Sunday loss at Madison Square Garden. Reports suggest that Rose was in a walking boot on Monday and that he is just 50-50 to play tonight when the Knicks come to Chicago.

Right now Bookmaker and the rest of the online sportsbooks have Chicago as a seven-point favorite with the total set at 187.5.

In the short-term it might not be a bad thing if Rose doesn’t play. But in the long-term it is an issue for a Chicago team that has gone 15-7 this year while its best player has been sidelined by various maladies. And that is the conundrum of Chicago and Derrick Rose right now.

Look, I’m not going to suggest that the Bulls are somehow better off without Rose. He is the reigning NBA MVP and he is clearly the straw that stirs Chicago’s drink. Sure, they could’ve made the playoffs if they had played the entire season without him. They have the talent to make that happen. But the reality is that they don’t stand a chance of beating Miami in the playoffs without their best player in peak condition playing at the top of his game. And right now Rose is nowhere near that.

Rose looked awful to me in his first game back on Sunday in New York. Obviously you would expect some rust. The guy hadn’t played in nearly a month because of a sore groin. But the thing that jumped out at me was how bloated Rose looked. I mean, he did not look well. He looked fat and clearly out of game shape. Rose scored 29 points to go with four rebounds and six assists. But he shot just 8-for-26 from the field and was a huge failure down the stretch as the Bulls blew that game in both regulation and overtime.

And that leads me to the second problem that I saw with the Bulls on Sunday: Rose is obviously out of shape (which, again, can be expected since he had a groin injury) but the Bulls were still looking for him to dominate as if he were playing at the height of his power. Chicago was clearing out for Rose in the closing minutes of regulation and OT and they were expecting him to do what he has done for the past three years – beat his man off the dribble and get himself an open shot in the lane.

But Rose couldn’t. He was stripped on a very awkward drive to the basket with a two-point lead and under a minute left in overtime. Then after the Knicks hit a 3-pointer with just under 10 seconds to play the Bulls called timeout and set up an isolation play for Rose with a chance to win it. He was slow and out of control going to the basket and never got a good shot off.

In both the last minute of regulation and OT I turned to a friend that I was watching the game with and told him that there is no way in hell that Rose should be on the court. You cannot tell me that Chicago was a better team in the closing seconds with Rose on the court rather than on the bench. He was obviously in over his head. And the Bulls had been good enough to get a lead so they should have turned it over to C.J. Watson and the rest of the boys to simply lock it up down the stretch.

So now Chicago is in a Catch-22. They have to get Rose minutes. Everyone in the league that is going to the postseason is slowly but surely putting their game faces on. Teams are starting to rise and starting to peak and they are finding that groove that all playoff teams need to ensure that they are playing their best basketball at the right time. But Rose isn’t there. He is still weeks away from simply being in shape, much less playing at peak level.

The Bulls have to get him minutes and have to get him in game shape. They can’t afford to rest him in Chicago’s last nine regular season games even if they have a seemingly comfortable two-game lead over Miami for the No. 1 seed in the East. Chicago had the home court edge last year and lost to the Heat so they understand that is only so important. But what is critical is working Rose back into shape and getting him on the same page with his teammates.

There are two problems with that. The first is that because he is out of shape there is the heightened chance for another injury. (Like his ankle.) The second is that because he is out of rhythm I don’t know that the Bulls are a better team with him on the court in the final two minutes than with him on the bench. And because Miami is closing fast the Bulls still need to put together some wins and keep their momentum.

I think that if Rose has a sore ankle he shouldn’t play tonight against New York. Chicago has a more important game with Miami looming on Thursday. And in that game, and in Chicago’s final eight games, they need to slowly but surely work Rose’s minutes up from about 32 to 34 to 36 to around 40. But they also have to understand that the next two weeks should just be about getting him into game shape, not on trying to re-establish him as the go-to guy, the leader, and the focal point of the offense. That will come once he gets his legs back and that should be what those last two or three regular season games are for. (As well as the first round of the playoffs. I don’t think that there is any doubt that Chicago could beat either New York or Milwaukee in a series without Rose altogether. But with him trying to work into shape and round into form I feel comfortable that they could advance.)

Chicago has issues. And something tells me that they are just going to do what they did on Sunday and throw him to the wolves. He is a big boy, a superstar, and can take it. But that is not what is best for this team. They are trying to put the cart before the horse by trying to re-establish his flow within the framework of the team first and just assuming that his conditioning and health will follow. That’s not the case. Chicago needs to get Rose back up to speed and ease him back into the flow. By doing that I think that he will just naturally assert himself on the offensive and defensive ends. But if they aren’t more careful and more calculated with how they bring Rose along they are going to throw their chemistry out of whack, risk injuring him, and virtually guarantee that they get rocked by Miami again this May.

By Robert Ferringo

If you look on Doc’s Sports main site you will find my random 2012 MLB predictions. However, I feel like I need to give some more standard predictions as well. So I thought I would quickly run through my predicted division winners and playoff teams.

I’m not trying to be too “chalk” but I’m also not going to be one of those Skip Bayless/Woody Paige types that just make wild and outrageous claims in the hopes that one of them come through and then they can bloviate about how amazing they are.

Anyway, here are some more 2012 MLB division winner predictions:

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays*
Toronto Blue Jays
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Cleveland Indians
Kansas City Royals

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST
L.A. Angels
Texas Rangers*
Seattle Mariners
Oakland A’s

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
New York Mets

NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL
St. Louis Cardinals
Milwaukee Brewers*
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates
Chicago Cubs
Houston Astros

NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST
L.A. Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks*
San Francisco Giants
Colorado Rockies
San Diego Padres

Bolded teams are the division winners and the teams with the asterisks are the Wild Card teams. (Remember: there are two WC’s now.) I really wanted to go out and predict that Toronto would steal one of the WC berths. I am on record as saying that they are my sleeper team in the Majors this year. I was close in the NFL with my sleeper team (and when I say “sleeper” I am talking about a team that I know is good and that is going to be in the mix that NO ONE IN THE COUNTRY is talking about. It’s a gift. In the NFL it was Tennessee this year and if Kenny Britt hadn’t gotten hurt I think they could have made the postseason, which they almost did anyway. This year that team will be Toronto.)

By Robert Ferringo

Well, I was wrong.

I was one of the few people in the country that wasn’t enamored with the Kentucky Wildcats this year. I didn’t doubt their talent. But I definitely did not think that they were the slam-dunk, no-doubt national champion that everyone else in the bobblehead media did.

Kentucky demolished Kansas last night in a national championship game that wasn’t nearly as close as the 67-59 final score indicated. They are the kings of the college basketball world and their scumbag coach and obnoxious, self-important fan base get to rub peanut butter all over themselves and ‘gasm all offseason while thinking about this team.

Well, chalk up a victory for the squares. It does happen sometimes.

(Although, in a way, I was still right about Kentucky this year. They were overrated. This team went just 16-22 against the spread this year against the college basketball odds. And that includes a 5-1 ATS run in the NCAA Tournament. They were just 11-21 ATS entering The Big Dance and I can say that I made a decent chunk betting against them this season.)

But me, I’m on to next year.

Since it is not a sportsbook affiliated with Doc’s Sports Services I’m not going to post the name or the link to the site where I got these. (Hint: it rhymes with The Bleek.) And I, personally, feel like college basketball futures betting this far out is only for people that don’t like money. We still don’t know who is leaving for the NBA and who is staying, as well as how the coaching/recruiting carousels are going to end up or which players are going to blow out their ACL or get busted with weed this offseason, so it is next to impossible to accurately gauge the landscape of the sport.

But I need to do something to start looking forward and try to put the images of Syracuse getting screwed out of the Final Four and Coach Cal cutting down the nets out of my memory bank.

Here are the odds to win the 2013 NCAA tournament, some March Madness odds, and odds to win the 2012-13 college basketball national title:

Alabama    +3000

Arizona    +2000

Arizona State    +10000

Baylor    +2500

Butler    +5000

BYU    +8000

California    +5000

Clemson    +7500

Colorado    +3000

Creighton    +2000

Duke    +1500

Florida    +1200

Florida State    +2000

Georgetown    +3000

Georgia    +10000

Georgia Tech    +10000

Gonzaga    +5000

Illinois    +6000

Indiana    +650

Iowa    +10000

Kansas    +2000

Kansas State    +12500

Kentucky    +850

Louisville    +600

LSU    +12500

Marquette    +5000

Maryland    +3000

Memphis    +1500

Miami Florida    +5000

Michigan    +1500

Michigan State    +2500

Mississippi    +10000

Mississippi State    +12500

Missouri    +10000

North Carolina    +1000

North Carolina State    +1500

Notre Dame    +5000

Ohio State    +1500

Oklahoma    +6000

Oklahoma State    +8000

Oregon    +5000

Pittsburgh    +3000

Purdue    +10000

San Diego State    +3000

Seton Hall    +10000

Southern Cal    +12500

Stanford    +2500

St Johns    +2000

Syracuse    +1800

Tennessee    +3000

Texas    +3000

Texas A&M    +5000

UCLA    +1500

UNLV    +1200

Vanderbilt    +10000

Villanova    +6000

Virginia Tech    +10000

Wake Forest    +12500

Washington    +6000

Washington State    +8000

West Virginia    +5000

Wisconsin    +3500

Xavier    +15000

Field    +1500

By Robert Ferringo

Yeah, I know that this info is very random and very dated. But I was nosing around from something the other day and I came across this old post from Sabernomics.com. I mean, I don’t know if anyone (else) really handicaps the umpires or has the faintest bit of use for this information. But I thought that it was helpful and I appreciated the effort of someone compiling and tallying up all of that data.

Here is a list of the strikeout-to-walk ratios for umps with at least 300 games from 1998 to 2008. Again, I know that the info is four years old. But the bottom line is that if the data was compiled over a decade of games I’m willing to guess that no one’s “style” has changed that much over the last few seasons for the numbers to be useless.

Umpire            K/BB
Doug Eddings        2.82
Bill Miller        2.36
John Hirschbeck    2.29
Phil Cuzzi        2.28
Bruce Dreckman    2.18
Brian Gorman        2.17
Gary Darling        2.16
Angel Hernandez    2.14
Brian O’Nora        2.14
Wally Bell        2.13
Paul Nauert        2.12
Laz Diaz        2.12
Eric Cooper        2.12
Jeff Nelson        2.11
Brian Runge        2.11
Mike Everitt        2.10
Bill Welke        2.09
Larry Vanover        2.08
Bob Davidson        2.07
Terry Craft        2.07
Tony Randazzo    2.07
Ron Kulpa        2.06
Dan Iassogna        2.06
Ted Barrett        2.06
Mike DiMuro        2.05
Tim Welke        2.02
Mike Winters        2.01
Andy Fletcher        2.00
Tim Timmons        2.00
Fieldin Culbreth    2.00
Ed Rapuano        2.00
Paul Emmel        1.99
Marty Foster        1.99
Rob Drake        1.99
Jim Wolf        1.98
CB Bucknor        1.98
Chris Guccione        1.98
Jim Joyce        1.97
Mark Carlson        1.97
Charlie Reliford    1.97
Dale Scott        1.96
Joe Brinkman        1.94
Jim Reynolds        1.94
Bill Hohn        1.94
Larry Young        1.93
Hunter Wendelste    1.93
Marvin Hudson    1.92
Kerwin Danley        1.90
Jerry Meals        1.90
Tim Tschida        1.89
Joe West        1.89
Sam Holbrook        1.88
Jeff Kellogg        1.87
Lance Barksdale    1.87
Larry Poncino        1.87
Bruce Froemming    1.85
Dana DeMuth        1.84
Mark Wegner        1.84
Rick Reed        1.83
Gary Cederstrom    1.83
Mike Reilly        1.83
Ed Montague        1.82
Greg Gibson        1.79
Alfonso Marquez    1.78
Chuck Meriwether    1.78
Jerry Crawford    1.73
Jerry Layne        1.73
Gerry Davis        1.68
Tim McClelland    1.67
Paul Schrieber        1.67
Randy Marsh        1.63
Derryl Cousins        1.60
—————-    ———-
Total            1.97

By Robert Ferringo

So I was nosing around the MLB blogs trolling for some interesting tidbits and tips for the upcoming baseball season and I came across a really random post about Ian Snell.

This caught my eye because Snell was one of a host of former Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers that were automatic fades for me. And, in fact, over the last half-decade one of my best and most profitable “systems” was to almost blindly bet against a crop of young arms that came up with the Pirates during the mid-00’s that were consistently overrated by oddsmakers and baseball bobbleheads.

Unfortunately, Snell’s career appears to be over. And, as the post mentions, he is just the latest of this crop to exit the Majors, to the detriment of baseball bettors everywhere.

Here is a quick rundown and a look back – call it an homage – to some of the arms that comprised one of the worst rotations in modern baseball history, along with some of their “highlights”:

1. Zach Duke

This guy was consistently one of the most overrated pitchers in all of baseball. He was always talked about like he was some exciting, up-and-coming arm even though he really never made any progress.

Yes, he was a Rookie of the Year candidate after going 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA his first season. But that was call-up duty. And yes, Duke did make an All Star game. (I was so giddy that season knowing how much money I was going to make betting against him in the second half of the year; he went 3-12 after the break.) But on the whole Duke was a fringe Major Leaguer at best.

The Pirates went 53-92 in his 145 starts between 2006-2010 and he was routinely pounded during those starts, leading to a lot of easy ‘over’ wagers as well. Unfortunately, he was shuffled to the Arizona bullpen last year and his starting days may be over. But man, did he suck.

2. Ian Snell

I will admit that there was a time when Snell was actually a little dangerous to bet against. He went 18-14 in his 32 starts in 2006 (although he did give up 29 home runs and was an easy ‘over’ bet) and he looked like he had some promise. He even went 9-6 to start 2007. But he finished that season 7-10 and went 24-42 the rest of his career, culminated by a horrific 2010 where he went 1-7 with a 5.46 ERA as a starter in Seattle.

3. Oliver Perez

Awful Olly. I got to enjoy – and by “enjoy” I mean have to restrain myself from clawing my eyes out while watching – Perez while he was a member of my beloved New York Mets. He was mostly a train wreck in his career. But Perez actually had some decent seasons and in four of his eight primary seasons he won more games than he lost.

However, he was a great bet on the ‘over’ because he was always giving up a ton of walks and extra base runners. Perez almost never made it through the sixth inning so the Pirates and Mets always had to burn bullpen innings cleaning up his messes. That not only led to higher scoring in his starts but had a trickle down effect for games after that.

(This is getting longer than I was hoping for so I’m going to speed this up.)

4. Paul Maholm

Maholm is still kicking with Washington and we should still be able to bet against him for another year or two. He was kind of like Snell, where he actually wasn’t all bad and had some years where he won around 50 percent of his games. But the value of Maholm is that he was treated like an “ace” by the oddsmakers and was always given moneylines that were 15-20 cents lighter than they should be. Maholm went 7-19 in his 26 starts last year and was the least profitable starter of 282 in baseball.

5. Tom Gorzelanny

No one was happier about Gorzy’s “comeback” last year with Washington than I was. He went just 5-10 in his starts and was ranked No. 245 of 282 pitchers last year in terms of profitability. Even in his “breakout” 2007 season Gorzelanny lost more than he won (15-17). And if you kick out that year his teams are just 29-48 when he takes the bump.

6. Kip Wells

Wells was kind of a right-handed Duke. People always talked about his “good stuff”, but this guy was one of the worst pitchers I’ve ever seen and had no clue how to work out of jams. He led the Majors in losses in both 2005 and 2007 and finished with a career 4.71 ERA. At the height of his ineptitude his teams went 31-61 in his starts from 2004-2007. Man I miss this guy.

7. John Van Benschoten

JVB’s career was short and sweet, and it truly was a shame. Van Benschoten only started 19 games in his career and never more than nine in one year. But those 19 starts were glorious.

JVB left the game with a career 9.20 ERA – which was actually pulled down by his 6.91 effort in 2004, compared to 10.15 in nine starts in 2007 and 10.48 in five starts in 2008. His teams went just 4-15 in his starts and there was seemingly always 100 runs scored when he took the mound both as a starter or in relief.

By Robert Ferringo

I just got done breaking down the tape of Yu Darvish’s second MLB Spring Training start, this one against Cleveland in a game that finished in an 8-8 tie. (What did we do before DVR?)

My first impression of the Japanese phenom: meh.

Look, I know that it is early and I know that Spring Training is for tinkering, tooling up, and getting ready for the regular season. However, I was not blown away with Darvish’s stuff and I don’t see what the big deal is about the guy that commanded $108 million from Texas this offseason.

Darvish was topping out around 93 miles per hour and for most of the game was right between 90-92. He does look like he is a pretty big, solidly built dude and his motion seemed free an easy. However, he wasn’t generating a lot of pop and that average (speed-wise) fastball also came out a little flat. There were times when he reared back and threw – again, we’re talking in the low 90’s – and his ball did seem to have a little late life. But on the whole he was leaving the ball up and it was, as I said, a little flat.

But the main thing is that all you heard about Darvis, just like all you hear about Diasuke Matsusaka, was about the seemingly infinite array of pitches that Darvish had in his arsenal. His ninja skills and mystical Far East powers allowed him to command no less than six unique pitches, or so the tales went. But the reality – like with Dice-K – was underwhelming. Darvish’s breaking stuff had a little bite, but was very average. His curveball was solid. But his slider (or whatever he called it) was pretty bad, actually. It had a couple inches of drop but was fifth-starter quality.

Perhaps most concerning is that Darvish, like Dice-K, seemed to want to nibble around the edges of the strike zone rather than attack batters. I didn’t feel like the ump had a particularly tight zone and Darvish walked four guys and was behind against a lot of hitters. He wasn’t getting a ton of swings and misses and Cleveland squandered some chances to score.

Look, the bottom line is that Dice-K has been a bust and I don’t really see anything from Darvish that would make me expect any differently. I think he will be OK. But my first impressions of him are that he is not a front-end guy. Texas overpaid for him by baseball standards. But I get the impression that they understand that the price they paid for Darvish was more about tapping into that luctrative Japanese market. Until he gets exposed, Darvish’s starts are going to be big news both in Texas, across the MLB, and in Japan. And all of that means dollar signs for the Rangers ownership.

From a betting perspective, Darvish is going to be overrated. He will be overhyped and overpriced and will be a very square bet. But just like with Dice-K in Boston, Darvish will have the benefit of an incredible lineup behind him.

In 2007, his rookie year, Matsusaka went 17-15 with a 4.40 ERA for Boston. But he finished the season ranked No. 298 out of 315 pitchers in terms of money won/lost during his starts. That means he was the 17^th worst bet in baseball that season. He turned that around in 2008, winning 23 of 29 starts and becoming the fourth-best bet in all of baseball. But since then the Sox are just 20-17 in his starts and overall backing Dice-K has been a losing proposition.

I predict similar things with Darvish. You are almost going to have to play him on the runline in most games because the juice on Darvish will be so jacked up. But on the whole I bet that Darvish backers will have a losing overall season both in straight plays and against the runline. I will be looking to bet Darvish ‘over’, but given the division makeup (the light-hitting Mariners and A’s will probably make up 20 percent of Yu’s outings), and just the general tenor of the league (everyone sucks) even that is a dicey proposition.

Proceed with caution. And you’ve been warned.

By Robert Ferringo

Karma, boys and girls. Please don’t forget about karma. (And no, that is not the name of some Miami stripper that Brandon Marshall kicked in the ribs.)

I hate to ruin the warm-and-fuzzies of the Brandon Marshall trade but news has come out today that may explain why Miami was willing to part with him in the first place:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/14/2693001/report-former-dolphins-receiver.html

That is the Miami Herald reporting on a story originally found in the New York Post. If you don’t feel like clicking the link – and I’m sure this will be a main post on this site later today anyway – the Cliff’s Notes version is that Marshall allegedly punched a (another) woman in the face after/during a fight in a New York City night club over the weekend.

And in case you were wondering, YES, apparently the Bears front office DID know about the incident before they made the deal with Miami. Which, to me, says an awful lot about the people running the show right now.

For those that don’t know, Marshall is a serial woman beater and a soulless, horror of a person. He has had the police called on him no less than a dozen times for domestic issues, has been brought up on charges related to domestic violence on at least three occasions (and that doesn’t include this latest nonsense), and has had other incidents ranging from assault of a law enforcement officer, to DUI, to battery. He has a history of mental illness and has some other highlights:

1. He allegedly instigated the altercation that led to then-teammate Darent Williams being shot and killed on New Year’s Eve/Day. Apparently the bullets were meant for Marshall. And this whole thing happened just hours after Denver blew a Week 17 game in the 2006-2007 season that the Broncos blew, as HUGE favorites, which would have sent them to the playoffs.

2. His wife stabbed him – probably because she was sick of getting the hell beat out of her.

3. He practically forced his way out of Denver after Josh McDaniels came to town. Now, after seeing what a train wreck McDaniels has been in the NFL I can’t say I blame him for wanting to get as far away from him as he could. However, from suspensions to practice issues to rumors about not knowing/caring about the playbook, this guy put on a clinic of how to completely disrupt a team’s season because he only cares about himself. He basically has a big neon sign around his neck that says, “LOCKER ROOM CANCER”.

Now, I know there are some of you that will give me the, “He hasn’t been found guilty of anything here,” or the “let’s let the legal system run its course” or try to defend any of his past issues. Others will say, “Yeah, there’s a lot of scumbags in pro sports. So what?” or maybe even try to give him a pass because he has Borderline Personality Disorder. If that is your position you are entitled to it. But in my mind you are half-retarded and are part of the problem.

Marshall is on the short list of the Biggest Scumbags and Sociopaths in Sports. And he is now our “prize” acquisition and one of the first marquee moves by the new regime. I, for one, think that this is ridiculous. As die-hard of a Bears fan as I have been and always will be, I will never root for this scumbag. Never once. I don’t care if he scored 30 touchdowns and leads us to 10 straight Super Bowl titles. I will never once laud this person, who is always just one day away from beating another woman, and who if he couldn’t play in the NFL would likely be wearing an orange jumpsuit and picking up trash by the side of the road.

I will cheer for the Bears, but not for this loser. And I hate the fact that he is on our team.

I also saved for the end my “football analysis” on this move. Because I think that what he can do on the field is secondary to the fact that he is a horror of a human being. But some people out there just don’t care as long as he can score touchdowns.

Well, I hate to burst a lot of people’s bubbles, but as someone that watched nearly every snap of Miami’s season (it is my job) I can honestly say that no one in the NFL had more horrible drops than Marshall last year, including a game against Buffalo where he dropped two wide-open touchdowns. He is not an elite receiver, although he is paid and treated like one. I know he and Cutler once worked their magic together in Denver, but let’s also remember that Marshall has never been on a team that won more than nine games and has never been to the playoffs. (Is that all on him? No chance. But, as I said, it could be karma.) I know people will point to Randy Moss and Terrell Owens as talented scumbags that “dominated” in the NFL. But 1) Brandon Marshall is neither of those guys, 2) His off-field rap sheet is much worse, and 3) Neither of those guys won a championship either. The bottom line is that you don’t want/need guys like that on your team in the NFL and their talent never (or at least very, very rarely) outweighs all of the negatives that they bring to your squad.

Here is some more analysis on his “great season” last year, from someone that wouldn’t like to see him locked up in prison: http://www.phinsphocus.com/2011-articles/december/is-brandon-marshall-having-a-good-season.html

Caveat Emptor boys and girls. But I, for one, think that this is a sad day for the Bears and is just another third-rate move by what has become a second-rate organization.

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By Robert Ferringo

Here is a quick primer on some of the mid-major teams that will be threatening Bracket Sanctity this week as the NCAA Tournament begins:

New Mexico State (26-9 SU, 15-12 ATS) – The winners of the WAC, the Aggies are going to be a very tough out in the first round. This team loves to get up and down and they have the No. 11 scoring offense in college basketball. They have size, and three of their starters (Wendell McKines, Hernst Laroche and Hamidu Rahman) were also starters on the last NMSU tournament team in 2010.

Wichita State (27-5 SU, 16-13 ATS) – The Shockers were one of the top teams in the Missouri Valley this year and they are back in the NCAA Tournament after a five-year absence. The Shockers are in the Top 25 in the country in scoring (No. 17), shooting (No. 13), free throw shooting (No. 23) and field goal defense (No. 21). They are capable of playing at a very high level and I expect them to be very sharp.

Ohio (27-7 SU, 13-13 ATS) – The Bobcats were the survivors of a rugged Mid-American Conference this year. They took down rival Akron in the league title game and this is the second trip to the NCAA Tournament for Jim Groce’s charges in the last three years. This team leads on junior guard D.J. Cooper as its go-to guy. They are not a great shooting team but they like to dig in defensively and pressure people on the perimeter. There are three starters this year that played on the 2010 team that upset Georgetown in the first round of the dance.

Loyola-Md. (24-8 SU, 14-9-3 ATS) – This team will be physically overmatched but will play with a lot of heart. Loyola wants to turn this game into a plodding, defensive-oriented game. The result is an 8-18 mark for people betting against the total. The Metro Atlantic has given us some Cinderella teams in recent years (Siena) but this team doesn’t have the juice to make it out of the opening weekend.

Temple (24-7 SU, 17-14 ATS) – Winners of the Atlantic 10 regular season title, Temple is no stranger to the pressures of the NCAA Tournament. This is the fifth straight year the Owls have been dancing and their best five players this year were the foundation of the team that advanced to the second round last year. Temple beat Duke this year and they have only lost twice in the last two months.

St. Louis (25-7 SU, 16-10 ATS) – Rick Majerus is finally back in the NCAA Tournament and this St. Louis team could keep him around for awhile. The Bilikens won the 76 Classic back in Thanksgiving, beating teams like Villanova and Oklahoma, while also taking down Washington in the nonconference portion of the schedule. Like a lot of mid-major teams, this group does most of its damage from behind the 3-point line, where they shoot over 36 percent as a team.

South Dakota State (27-7 SU, 18-7-1 ATS) – Hailing from the Summit League, SDSU is one of the best shooting teams in the country. They have four players shooting 40 percent or better from 3-point land and that group doesn’t even include one of the nation’s leading scorers, Nate Wolters (21.3 ppg). The Jackrabbits are going to bomb away and they were good enough to beat Pac-12 regular season champion Washington by 19 points. In Washington.

By Robert Ferringo

It’s time for a little Madness.

The one of the greatest months on the sports betting calendar is ready to kick into full swing with the start of the 2012 college basketball conference tournaments. I had a tricky time finding a list of the conference tournament schedules so I thought I would round one up for your viewing pleasure.

Below I put the 2012 college basketball conference schedules in order. I split them in two groups, with the first group the conferences that put out college basketball odds and spreads on their games and then the second group as the “other” conferences.

Enjoy:

Horizon: February 28, March 2-3, 6

Ohio Valley (OVC): February 29-March 3

West Coast (WCC): February 29-March 3, 5

Missouri Valley (MVC): March 1-4

Colonial (CAA): March 2-5

Southern: March 2-5

MAAC: March 2-5

Sun Belt: March 3-6

Summit: March 3-6

Big Sky: March 3, 6-7

Mid-American (MAC): March 5, 7-10

Big East: March 6-10

Atlantic 10: March 6, 9-11

Big 12: March 7-10

C-USA: March 7-10

Mountain West: March 7, 9-10

Pac-12: March 7-10

WAC: March 7-10

Big West: March 8-10

Atlantic Coast (ACC): March 8-11

Big Ten: March 8-11

SEC: March 8-11

It looks like Friday, March 9^th is the height of the conference tournament madness, with 12 conferences playing in some capacity on that day.

Here is a list of the remaining conference tournament schedules:

Atlantic Sun: February 29-March 3

Patriot: February 29, March 3, 7

Big South: February 27, 29, March 1, 3

Northeast: March 1, 4, 7

America East: March 1, 3-4, 10

MEAC: March 6-10

Great West: March 8-10 (These guys don’t get an automatic bid.)

Southland: March 7-8, 10

SWAC: March 7-10

Selection Sunday is Sunday, March 11 and the NCAA Tournament play-in games will take place that following Tuesday, March 13.

By Robert Ferringo

Pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training over the weekend and the 2012 MLB betting season is officially underway.

The odds to win the 2012 World Series have been posted through most of the winter. Those odds are usually available year-round, somewhere or another, with the numbers in a state of flux based on the latest news.

But the MLB season win totals mark an important day for baseball futures bettors. First off, these numbers are the most beatable and offer some of the best value of any bet for the entire season.

Secondly, these numbers will form the basis for the rest of the preseason betting, since they are the first pulse on how the general betting public feels about these teams. From here, the divisional, league and even World Series odds will be set and moved. And beyond that the movements of these season win totals numbers will be the books and sharp bettors tipping their hands on what they are looking at (and thus, what we may expect) out of certain teams this year.

For instance, the season win total for the Milwaukee Brewers is presently 82.5. There is no possible way that number holds. But the severity of its movement down will give me an inkling on just how bad the books and bettors are expecting things to get in Beer Town.

Anyway, there is still a long way to go before Opening Day. There will be injuries. There may be trades. And there will be surprising developments throughout the spring.

I expect that most of the other Las Vegas sportsbooks and the offshore books will have their own season win totals posted sometime this week. But in the meantime, here is a look at the earliest released 2012 Major League Baseball Season Win Totals that I could find, courtesy of the Atlantis Casino in Reno:

Arizona Diamondbacks 84.5
Atlanta Braves 86.5
Baltimore Orioles 70.5
Boston Red Sox 87.5
Chicago Cubs 73.5
Chicago White Sox 76.5
Cincinnati Reds 86.5 (-120o)
Cleveland Indians 75.5
Colorado Rockies 82.5
Detroit Tigers 94.5
Houston Astros 62.5
Kansas City Royals 78.5
Los Angeles Angels 89.5
Los Angeles Dodgers 81.5
Miami Marlins 82.5
Milwaukee Brewers 82.5
Minnesota Twins 74.5 (-120u)
New York Mets 74.5 (-120u)
New York Yankees 93.5 (-120u)
Oakland Athletics 72.5
Philadelphia Phillies 95.5
Pittsburgh Pirates 73.5 (-120u)
San Diego Padres 70.5
San Francisco Giants 87.5
Seattle Mariners 72.5
St. Louis Cardinals 87.5 (-120u)
Tampa Bay Rays 87.5
Texas Rangers 94.5
Toronto Blue Jays 81
Washington Nationals 80.5