Booker leads the way as Clemson stays perfect

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/07/2009 - Clemson, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trevor Booker scored 19 points and the 12th- ranked Clemson Tigers remained undefeated by surviving a pesky Alabama squad, 66-59.

K.C. Rivers and Terrence Oglesby netted 12 points each for the Tigers (15-0), who are looking to equal their 17-0 start from two years prior when they were the last unbeaten team to fall.

It won't be an easy feat to duplicate as a duo of tough ACC foes are next on the schedule with home dates against NC State and No. 4 Wake Forest followed by a trip to Chapel Hill to face third-ranked North Carolina.

The Tigers shot only 34.5 percent from the floor in finishing the first half with a narrow four-point edge but improved to 44.8 percent over the final 20 minutes and held 'Bama to 29.4 percent shooting in that same stretch to come away with the victory.

Alonzo Gee and Senario Hillman logged 12 points apiece for the Crimson Tide (10-4), who had a five-game win streak halted in playing their first true road game this season. Ronald Steele chipped in 10 points while JaMychal Green had seven points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

A Gee layup early in the second half gave 'Bama the lead and the teams played it close until the Tigers exploded for a 17-1 run with Andre Young's triple capping the surge for a 58-43 lead with just under six minutes to play.

The Tide came back, though, with a 9-2 spurt with Steele's layup pulling the visitors to within six with 30 seconds left. Booker followed by hitting just 1-of-2 at the line but Steele misfired on a three and Booker made both of his next two attempts from the stripe to seal the win.

The visitors jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the early going but Clemson used a 20-8 run through the middle stages of the half to go up by five, 25-20, with 6 1/2 minutes left.

The Tigers extended their lead to six on a slam from Demontez Stitt later in the frame before a jumper by Demetrius Jemison cut the Tide's deficit to 33-29 at the break.

Game Notes

Clemson holds a 4-3 edge in the all-time series with Alabama, including an 87-61 romp over the Crimson Tide last season...This contest marked the final non-league clash of the season for the Crimson Tide, who will begin SEC play Sunday against LSU...'Bama won the boards 46-35 but hit on just 4-of-19 three- point attempts...Clemson connected on 7-of-20 from long distance.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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