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

By Robert Ferringo

The Saints have barely had a chance to make reservations for motherf$&kin’ Disney Land but already I have my sights on next year’s NFL season. There is no offseason in the life of a pro gambler. I think on the mothership this week I may actually do a full breakdown of the futures odds to win the 2011 Super Bowl, as well as futures odds to win the AFC championship and futures odds to win the NFC championship. One of the key things to do is to make a note of the futures odds when they are posted - which is a pure reflection of the last impressions that “the public” have on the teams from this year - and compare them to what they are in August. The teams with the biggest difference, positive and negative, are usually pretty good teams to play on and fade in a given season.

I do know this though: while I won’t be betting on the Colts to win the AFC Title or the Super Bowl next year (they really weren’t THAT good this year) I know that I won’t be betting against them under the guise of the “Super Bowl Loser’s Curse”. And given the parity (and the partying) that the Saints will have to deal with I know that I won’t be banking on a repeat next year either. (They had an amazingly soft schedule this year; no such luck next season.)

In the meantime, here are the odds for next year’s champions:

ODDS TO WIN THE 2010-2011 AFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Team    Open
Indianapolis     13/4
New England     9/2
San Diego     9/2
Pittsburgh     13/2
N.Y. Jets     17/2
Tennessee     10/1
Baltimore     11/1
Houston     14/1
Miami         15/1
Cincinnati     18/1
Denver     22/1
Jacksonville     22/1
Cleveland     30/1
Buffalo     50/1
Kansas City     60/1
Oakland     60/1

ODDS TO WIN THE 2010-2011 NFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Updated Wed Feb 3 9:28 PM EDT
Team    Open
New Orleans     7/2
Dallas     4/1
Green Bay     9/2
Minnesota     11/2
N.Y. Giants     15/2
Philadelphia     10/1
Atlanta     10/1
Chicago     14/1
Arizona     20/1
San Francisco     20/1
Washington     25/1
Carolina     30/1
Detroit     40/1
Seattle     40/1
Tampa Bay     60/1
St. Louis     75/1

ODDS TO WIN SUPER BOWL XLV
Updated Wed Feb 3 9:29 PM EDT
Team    Open
Indianapolis     13/2
New Orleans     7/1
Dallas         15/2
New England     17/2
San Diego     17/2
Green Bay     19/2
Minnesota     11/1
Pittsburgh     12/1
N.Y. Jets     14/1
N.Y. Giants     15/1
Philadelphia     18/1
Atlanta     20/1
Tennessee     22/1
Baltimore     24/1
Chicago     28/1
Miami         30/1
Houston     30/1
Cincinnati     35/1
Arizona     40/1
Denver     45/1
Jacksonville     45/1
San Francisco     45/1
Washington     50/1
Cleveland     60/1
Carolina     60/1
Detroit     80/1
Seattle     80/1
Buffalo     100/1
Kansas City     125/1
Oakland     125/1
Tampa Bay     125/1
St. Louis     150/1

By Robert Ferringo

One of the main things that has been bothering me over the last two weeks while trying to handicap the Super Bowl is the fact that we’re dealing with two teams that are just too similar. And they are similar in the wrong way.

Here’s the formula: one kind of soft, high-scoring, pass-first offensive team with a sort of suspect defense facing off against a more gritty, defensive-oriented club that is more run-first and tries not to make mistakes. Those are the Yin and Yang of NFL styles and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those two visions end up opposing one another in most Super Bowls.

Not convinced? Here are the last 10 Super Bowl matchups:

Pittsburgh (defense, run) vs. Arizona (offense, pass)
New York Giants (defense, run) vs. New England (offense, pass)
Indianapolis (offense, pass) vs. Chicago (defense, run)
Pittsburgh (defense, run) vs. Seattle (offense, pass)
New England (defense, run) vs. Philadelphia (defense, pass)*
New England (defense, run) vs. Carolina (defense, run)*
Tampa Bay (defense, run) vs. Oakland (offense, pass)
New England (defense, run) vs. St. Louis (offense, pass)
Baltimore (defense, run) vs. New York Giants (defense, run)*
St. Louis (offense, pass) vs. Tennessee (defense, run)

Of those 10, the Patriots-Eagles Super Bowl was the hardest to categorize because they were really two strong all-around teams. But other than that I think that a pretty obvious theme has evolved.

(And of course all of those teams had solid “opposites”. They were in the Super Bowl for crying out loud. But I don’t think that you can argue about the basic breakdown of the identity of these teams. Also, In the 90’s things weren’t as cut and dry. With no salary cap and real revenue sharing the teams at the high end were just complete, total football teams. I mean, how would you categorize those Dallas teams? We could parse through and come up with some identities, but the bottom line is that is hasn’t been as pronounced as it has been in the last 10 years.)

So the general theme is one defense-running team squaring off against an offense-passing team. And over the last decade the defense-run teams have had their way, going 8-2 in The Big Game overall and 5-2 when matched up against an opponent that was offense-run. You can also see that in the other situations where we had two similar teams matched up it was defense-run vs. defense-run (New England-Philly, New England-Carolina, Baltimore-Giants). And, interestingly enough, the underdog managed to lose all three games but cover two of them.

So that brings us to this Sunday’s Super Bowl. This is the first time, really, that two offensive-oriented, pass-happy teams have lined up and set themselves up for a shootout. So since there is no real blueprint for how this game is going to shake out (do you take the better quarterback, the better defense, the better running game, etc.?) I think that this has been one of the most difficult games to handicap in the last decade. Besides that Patriots-Eagles game I have known and been very confident about every Super Bowl this decade and have been correct in seven of the 10 games. But I have to say that I think if we were ranking this year’s Super Bowl in terms of value it would be one of the lowest because the teams are such mirrors of one another: they do the same things right, they have similar approaches, and they have similar weaknesses.

So keep that in mind. And it will be interesting to see next year if we have a rebound year from teams that prefer to grind it out and do their damage with defense and running the ball.

Contributed By Nolan Sinclair

OK, so I lied. It is actually the last 10 days in review and not the last week. Look at it this way however, you get more bang for your buck, so you’ve got that going for you, which is nice.

ATS Team of the Week (I know, I know, last 10 days)
This is a tie between Utah and Chicago. The Bulls went on the road and not only covered the spread against five straight Western Conference teams but they won each of the games outright. Oh yeah, did I mention the fact that each of the teams had winning records and that this was the first time in NBA History that something like this has happened? Well I just did. Well done Chicago, at least Bears fans have something to cheer about in their city. ZING!

Meanwhile, up in “Big Love” Country the Utah Jazz have quietly become one of the hottest teams in basketball over the last 10 days. Since January 20th the Jazz have covered five of their last six games, and the only time they failed to beat the spread was a seven-point victory when they were laying 8.5. Most of these wins have come at home so be wary when giving points away on Utah road games, but feel as comfortable as Al Bundy sitting on his couch with his hands down his pants when betting on the Jazz at home.

Bad Beat of the Week
On January 28th and January 29th the Boston Celtics were with the services of their defensive superstar Kevin Garnett, and the ‘under’ play looked GOLDEN. Not only did the Celtics have their defensive-minded team in tact, but they were playing playoff bound teams in the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks. Typically when two-playoff teams meet defense is the name of the game and the total falls short of the set number. For their game on the 28th the total was set at 189.5 and it came in at an “impressive kick to the nuts” 190. One day later the total was set at 190 for the Atlanta Hawks game and yet again the gambling gods made sure to “drill you in the bits” as the final score, 100-91 totaled 191 points. Thanks Celtics. Thanks a lot.

Player of the Week
Since January 24th Chris Bosh has been on FIRE. CB4 has registered double-doubles in each of his five games. Check out these stat lines;

January 24th: 18 points, 13 rebounds
January 27th: 24 points, 18 rebounds
January 28th: 27 points, 15 rebounds
January 31th: 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists
February 2nd: 35 points, 15 rebounds

For all you math wizards that is an average of 26 points and 15 rebounds over his last five games. Thanks to Bosh the Raptors also went 4-1 both SU and ATS in those five games. Here’s to you Chris, you deserve a Labatt Blue Light. Make sure you drink the Canadian version and not the ones they send over to the States. The Canadian version is much, much better.

By Robert Ferringo

The full Bracket Buster schedule was announced yesterday and any simple search of the Interweb would set you up with the 11 televised games on ESPN for the weekend of Feb. 20. But if you are too lazy for that, here are the “marquee” games with dates, times and some projected lines:

Friday, February 19
Old Dominion (+9) at Northern Iowa (ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET)
William & Mary (+6) at Iona (ESPNU, 9 p.m. ET)

Saturday, February 20
Siena (+6) at Butler (ESPN2, 11 a.m. ET)
Morgan State (+8.5) at Murray State (ESPNU, Noon)
Louisiana Tech (+2) at Northeastern (ESPN2, 1 p.m. ET)
Nevada (-1) at Missouri State (ESPN2, 3 p.m. ET)
Akron (+4.5) at Virginia Commonwealth (ESPNU, 4 p.m. ET)
Charleston (+3) at George Mason (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET)
Western Carolina (+7.5) at Kent State (ESPNU, 8 p.m. ET)
New Mexico State (-2) at Pacific (ESPNU, 10 p.m. ET)
Wichita State (+10) at Utah State (ESPN2, 11:59 p.m. ET)

While these are the “juicy” matchups none of them really get me that excited from a betting perspective (except NMSU if they catch a short line). However, the Bracket Buster pool is actually 98 teams. That means that there are 38 other non-ESPN games that we’ll be able to watch and bet on and, to me, that’s always where the most value is.

Here is a look at the rest of the schedule that has been announced to this point:

Non-ESPN Games
Saturday, February 20, 2010 (32 Games, Times TBA)
James Madison (10-12, 3-8 CAA) at Canisius (11-11, 6-5 MAAC)
Fairfield (15-7, 8-4 MAAC) at Vermont (15-8, 6-3 America East)
New Hampshire (7-11, 3-5 America East) at Loyola (10-12, 3-9 MAAC)
Towson (5-16, 2-9 CAA) at Manhattan (7-14, 2-9 MAAC)
Marist (1-21, 1-11 MAAC) at Cal Irvine (7-13, 3-7 Big West)
Niagara (12-12, 5-7 MAAC) at Milwaukee (11-10, 5-6 Horizon)
Rider (13-11, 6-6 MAAC) at Hofstra (10-12, 4-7 CAA)
Buffalo (10-7, 4-2 Mid-American Conference) at Saint Peter’s (12-9, 7-4 MAAC)
Boston University (11-11, 6-4 America East) at Delaware (6-16, 2-9 CAA)
Drexel (12-11, 7-3 CAA) at Bradley (10-11, 5-6 MVC)
South Carolina State (10-8, 4-3 MEAC) at Georgia State (9-14, 3-7 CAA)
UNC Wilmington (7-15, 3-8 CAA) at Radford (11-10, 7-4 Big South)
Winthrop University (11-10, 7-4 Big South) at Eastern Kentucky (15-8, 6-4 Ohio Valley)
Presbyterian College (4-19, 2-9 Big South)  at  Jacksonville State (10-11, 6-5 Ohio Valley)
Elon (4-16, 2-7 Southern) at Gardner-Webb (6-15, 3-8 Big South)
Eastern Michigan (10-10, 2-5 Mid-American Conference) at Detroit (14-8, 7-4 Horizon)
Indiana State (13-9, 5-6 MVC) at Green Bay (15-9, 7-5 Horizon)
Loyola (IL) (12-9, 3-8 Horizon) at Creighton (11-11, 6-5 MVC)
Toledo (3-18, 0-7  Mid-American Conference) at Cleveland State (10-12, 6-4 Horizon)
UIC (5-16, 1-10 Horizon) at Evansville (6-15, 0-11 MVC)
Valparaiso (11-12, 6-5 Horizon) at Bowling Green (10-9, 3-4 Mid-American Conference)
Wright State (14-8, 7-4 Horizon) at Ohio (11-10, 2-5 Mid-American Conference)
Youngstown State (8-13, 2-9 Horizon) at UC Riverside  (8-13, 2-7 Big West)
UC Santa Barbara (11-8, 6-3 Big West) at Fresno State (11-12, 4-5 WAC)
San Jose State (12-9, 5-4 WAC) at Montana State (11-10, 6-4 Big Sky)
Long Beach State (10-11, 4-4 Big West) at Idaho (10-10, 2-6 WAC)
UC Davis (8-12, 4-4 Big West) at Boise State (11-11, 207 WAC)
Cal Poly (8-12, 5-3 Big West) at Hawai‘i (9-13, 2-7 WAC)
Oral Roberts (13-10, 8-3 Summit) at Austin Peay (13-10, 7-4 Ohio Valley)
Morehead State (15-7, 9-2 Ohio Valley) at Illinois State (15-7, 6-5 MVC)
Southeast Missouri State (6-15, 3-8 Ohio Valley) at Miami (OH) (8-13, 5-3 Mid-American Conference)
Western Michigan (11-9, 3-4 Mid-American Conference) at Southern Illinois (12-9, 4-7 MVC)

Those are the games I was able to find online. Here is a link to the rest of the games.

I gotta tell you, this portion of the schedule helps but doesn’t get me that excited either. I have some decent systems for the Bracket Buster games though and I’m looking forward to seeing some numbers. I’ll do some projected spreads on all of the games when we get a little closer.

Contributed by Nolan Sinclair

Gilbert Arenas has been suspended from the NBA for the rest of the season. I can honestly say that I am very pleased with this decision. I am also on the side that thinks he should have his contract Lou Brown’d.

(To have your contract Lou Brown’d means that your boss rips you contract up in front of your face and pisses on it. Which is what happened to Roger Dorn when he didn’t want to do his calisthenics in “Major League”.)

Gilbert Areans is what is wrong with the NBA. He is a high-priced underachiever that has never brought a title (or even some playoff success) to the team that just throws money at him. He is a man that doesn’t feel that he has do follow the law, or even more simply, the rules. A wise man once told me that “rules are rules,” and anyone that doesn’t follow them is a schmuck.

Arenas has no business stepping on a floor for the remainder of this season or for a long time coming. He brought guns to his place of work. Whether it was a joke or not he seemed to be threatening a teammate and then made light of the situation instead of showing remorse. If any one of us did something like that we would not be suspended we would have been thrown out of our jobs on our ass. This man is an immature punk that has a talent that he seems to care less about.

You would think that a player coached by Lute Olsen would have a better head on his shoulders.

I guess not.

Contributed by Nolan Sinclair

Here’s a 10-second view of the best and worst of last week in Da League:

Bad Beat of the Week:
The Charlotte Bobcats were up 24 points with 3:51 left in the third quarter at home against a free-falling Sacramento squad, and they looked as if they could win by 50. The line was set at 6 and all of us that had loot on Charlotte were sitting back and relaxing at how much the Kings had fallen apart since Kevin Martin had returned. Looks like the Kings would have the last laugh as they went on a 31-9 run to cut the Bobcat lead to two. The kitties ended up winning the game, which just adds salt to the wound, but only won by two, 105-103. I knew I hated all teams coached by Larry Brown.

ATS Team of the Week:
The Portland Trailblazers went 3-1 ATS with all four games on the road. Even more impressive is the fact that myself, and three of my buddies were in the starting lineup as the normal starters are staring on this weeks edition of ER. The Blazers failed to cover their first game of the week versus the Washington Wizards but covered in Boston, in Detroit, and in Philadelphia. Portland bounced back strong after losing to Washington by covering games on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Again, more impressive is the fact that Brandon Roy played less than 19 minutes the entire week. Now if they could have just covered their first game this week in which they were up nine at home with three minutes to play in a game in which they were only favored by three. Thanks Juwan Howard. What the hell do we pay you for?

Player of the Week:
Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies averaged over 27 points, six rebounds, one steal, and one block over his three games this past week. Gay is leading an upstart Memphis team that is becoming more dangerous by the night. Rudy is averaging just over 20 points and six boards a game on the season. It was extremely difficult for me to choose Gay since he is a UCONN Husky but I have to give him his props. Congrats Rudy, but your college is still filled with scumbags.

By Robert Ferringo

I know that we’re a bit more than halfway through the college basketball season but I wanted to throw out my mid-season All-American teams. So we’ll call this the All-American Team, Two-Thirds edition:

First Team:
Scotty Reynolds, Villanova
Wayne Chism, Tennessee
Damion James, Texas
Sherron Collins, Kansas
Wesley Johnson, Syracuse

Skinny: Not sure how you can argue against any of these guys. I know that the Kentucky Kool-Aid drinkers will be screaming bout John Wall being on the list. But 1) you have to play competition to get my attention and 2) who are you going to eliminate to get Wall on? I believe that either Johnson or Reynolds has been the Player of the Year as I feel like they are the star players, clutch players, and unquestioned leaders on the two best teams in the nation. Collins does have an argument. Because, to be honest, if you take Collins away from the Jayhawks I think that they would be in a little bit of trouble. Chism might be a name that surprises some people. But if you have watched this Vols team he absolutely carried them through the suspensions and all of the off-court issues that his team has had.

Second Team:
Jon Scheyer, Duke
Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
Devan Downey, South Carolina
John Wall, Kentucky
Evan Turner, Ohio State

Skinny: Turner may be one of the five best players in the country. But to this point he has to be dinged a bit because he missed the month of December with the injured spine. He’s got a great chance to move up with a great February. I am going to put Wal on this list but I really don’t think that he’s even the best player in the SEC. I think that Chism, Downey, and even Tasmin Mitchell are all better than the freshman at this point. But the kid has so much hype on him that he’s going to end up as an AA. Downey has been incredible. He’s accounting for about one-third of all of South Carolina’s offense and I’ve yet to find a player that can stop him – or even slow him down – man-to-man. And after losing the No. 2 and No. 3 players on the USC team he’s single-handedly keeping this team afloat. Harangody is just a manimal. He’s the country’s leading scorer playing in the country’s best conference. It’s tough not to put him on the first team and he’s another guy that could elevate (over Damion James). Scheyer has just done it all for Duke: scoring, handling, distributing, closing games with free throws, and providing a steadying presence for what is a young team at spots.

Third Team:
Klay Thompson, Washington State
James Anderson, Oklahoma State
Epke Udoh, Baylor
Jarvis Varnardo, Mississippi State
Trevor Booker, Clemson

Skinny: Honestly, there are about 20 guys that you can make an argument for in these spots. Udoh has put up pretty good numbers but you need to have watched Baylor play over the last two years to appreciate the difference that he’s made and all of the little things that he does for this team. Varnardo is in a similar situation. The guy just dominates every game that he plays whether the numbers suggest it or not. Booker is kind of in the same situation as Harangody in that he has just been so good for so long and does so much for his team that it’s impossible not to recognize him. Klay Thompson has really had a breakout year this season. You may think that his numbers are inflated because of Wazzou’s new offensive scheme but he really hit the ground running this year and hasn’t slowed down. Anderso is a future Top 15 pick and is just a guy that can do everything on the floor.

By Robert Ferringo

Back in the first week of December I wrote an article about the most overrated college basketball teams in the country. Here’s how the Top 5 has shaken out:

No. 5 North Carolina
With three straight losses, two at home, and a 1-3 start in conference play UNC is on its way out of the Top 25. They got rocked at Clemson, lost at Charleston, and were rolled in Texas in their last three games away from home. Basically, this team sucks. They have guards that simply aren’t ACC-caliber and this team is going to end up scrambling to stay out of the NIT.

No. 4 Connecticut
Connecticut is holding on. They are No. 21 in the ESPN poll and they are out of the AP Top 25. Now their coach is in the wind and, despite a spirited win over St. John’s this week, they are still backsliding a bit. I will admit that this team is a bit better than I originally thought – mainly because of Stanley Robinson – but they still have a lot of work to do and they don’t deserve to be a Top 25 team.

No. 3 Butler
The Bulldogs are in Horizon play now so their issues are going to be masked quite a bit against inferior competition. But they dropped from a Top 10 team to one that is out of the Top 25 in the AP and oscillating at No. 20. They were the beneficiary of two really fortunate wins and that will get them in The Dance (barring a collapse). They beat Ohio State in their first game without Evan Turner and then used an officiating error to beat Xavier by one.

No. 2 Washington
I still think that the Huskies will be able to work their way into the NCAA Tournament but they are nowhere near the Top 10 team that they were in November.

No. 1 Kentucky
So here we are. Of the five teams that I tabbed back then, this is the only one that is still working their façade. The Wildcats are No. 2 in the country and unbeaten. And I’ll admit, they are getting better as their freshmen get more experience. However, their three best wins came against teams – Connecticut, UNC, and Louisville – that are outside of the 25 and of no threat to make a move. Also, two of those games were at home and one was on a neutral court. And the UNC and Connecticut wins were by two and three points, respectively.

But the stats have Kentucky at No. 13, the RPI has them at No. 10, and I think that they are around No. 14. Still, that’s better than I expected from this group. I thought they were a fringe Top 25 team. But I do know this: they aren’t the No. 2 team in the nation.

Kentucky has played the No. 104 schedule in the country according to Real RPI and No. 150 overall according to another metric that I trust. They have also played three of the weaker teams in the up-and-down SEC (Georgia, Florida, Auburn) and are just 1-2 ATS in those three games.

Kentucky’s schedule is backloaded. Four of their last six games are on the road starting with a trip to Starkville on Feb. 16 that comes just two days after a big home matchup with Tennessee. They have a three-game stretch coming up against Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and at LSu. Then a wek after that they play Tennessee, Miss. State, Vandy, South Carolina, at Tennessee and then at Georgia in a trap before closing the year at home against Florida.

The bottom line is that if you haven’t been on the Kentucky Fade Train I think now is a good time to hop on. The Wildcats are 8-8 ATS on the season, but they also haven’t (and won’t) covered more than two straight games. The oddsmakers and the public are all over this team. But I’m sticking to my guns. I was right about all of the other teams and I’m right about Kentucky. They are still overrated and they are still going to be a great fade down the stretch. This team is going to hit The Wall. And when they do we’ll be banking against them.

Contributed By Vegas Sports Informer

It’s not to soon to start thinking about who is going to play on February 7 in the Super Bowl. LVSC has been doing their homework and sent out odds on possible matchups for Super Bowl XLIV, putting out lines in each of the four possible Super Bowl games. The main question on these possible odds that LVSC sent out is that I hope these aren’t the numbers because I believe some of these lines are soft.

Enough said, here are LVSC numbers and here are my numbers:

Super Bowl XLIV Possible Matchup Odds

LVSC numbers:
New Orleans Saints (+1) vs. Indianapolis Colts; 57.0

Minnesota Vikings (+1.5) vs. Indianapolis Colts; 50.0

New Orleans Saints (-4) vs. New York Jets; 60.0

Minnesota Vikings (-3.5) vs. New York Jets; 40.0

My numbers:
New Orleans (Pk) vs. Indianapolis; 55.0
Minnesota (+3) vs. Indianapolis; 47.5
New Orleans (-6) vs. New York; 49.0
Minnesota (-3.5) vs. New York; 44.0

I’m sure the networks would love to see a Manning vs. Favre Super Bowl and the betting public would also love to see that. A New Orleans vs. N.Y. Jets Super Bowl would be probably be the worst scenario for Vegas, as I believe that the betting public wouldn’t be excited for this matchup.

But who cares who is in this game let’s just make the Super Bowl in January and not February. What’s next: the Super Bowl being played one week before March Madness?

By Nolan Sinclair

Every week I will do a short review of the ongoings in the NBA. Each blog will be dedicated to the Bad Beat of the Week, the Player of the Week, and the ATS Team of the Week. If you are a little confused as to what I mean by “bad beat,” it is when you are sitting in front of your television, watching a wager and drinking a beer, and all seems well. Then all of a sudden your child starts screaming, you jump off the couch, spill the beer, and step on your dog. Oh yeah, and your team that was up 25 with seven minutes left just got outscored 24-3 and blew the five-point line.

Anyway, here’s what went down last week in Das League:

Bad Beat of the Week:
For all of you Cleveland Cavaliers backers that took them on Thursday (+1) over the Utah Jazz I feel sorry for you. Things looked great as you were enjoying a two-point lead with just seconds to play and the ball was knocked out to Sundiata Gaines. Yes, you read that right: Sundiata Gaines. As the time expired in Utah and the fans were thinking about heading back to their ranches to watch reruns of Big Love, Gaines drilled a three-point shot at the Buzzer to not only cover the line, but to screw all the people that had Cleveland at the money line. Here’s to you Sundiata, may you stub your toe the next time you walk out to your refrigerator.

Player of the Week:
Corey Maggette has had an absolutely outstanding week of basketball. The Golden State Warriors are an emergency room yet Maggette has bee ballin’ in the absence of his teammates. Over the course of three games last week Maggette averaged 30 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Those numbers are a considerable improvement over his 19 points, six rebounds and just over two assists a game this season. Congrats Corey, you still should have stayed another few years at Duke.

ATS Team of the Week:
The Charlotte Bobcats went 3-0 ATS last week and they did it in a convincing fashion. The Western Conference will take notice of these Eastern Conference boys as they beat Houston by eight, San Antonio by 16, and Phoenix by 26 all in the span of seven days. Charlotte is playing considerably better and with their two point win over Sacramento last night they have now reached the .500 mark. This team could be dangerous come playoff time, but for now, well done Charlotte, I applaud your efforts and curse the name of your coach. I am not a fan of Larry Brown, if you couldn’t tell.