2009 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Preview

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/03/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Missouri Valley Conference will have a different top seed for the fourth straight year, as the Northern Iowa Panthers claimed the No.1 spot by virtue of its tie-breaker with the Creighton Bluejays. Both the Panthers and Bluejays shared the regular season crown at 14-4 and each will begin play in the quarterfinal round on Friday.

The Illinois State Redbirds were defeated by both Northern Iowa and Creighton in their last two games, as the team had to settle for third seed with an 11-7 finish. The Bradley Braves went 10-8 during the season and they are the fourth and final team to post a winning league mark.

The Evansville Purple Aces, Wichita State Shockers and Southern Illinois Salukis all ended up with 8-10 marks and the tie-breaker rules were needed to separate the teams. After all was worked out, SIU landed the fifth spot followed by Evansville at six and WSU at seven. The Shockers really lost out on the deal, as they are now forced to play an opening round game. The Indiana State Sycamores and Drake Bulldogs had identical 7-11 league ledgers and will meet each other in an opening round game as well, while Missouri State rounds out the field with the 10th-seed.

The MVC Tournament gets underway on Thursday with ninth-seeded Indiana State taking on eighth-seeded Drake in the opening round. The Sycamores lost twice as many games as they won overall, but they came to life down the stretch, capturing victories in six of their final seven bouts after winning just four their first 23 contests. Indiana State is 17-26 all-time in this event and has won two titles, with the last coming in 2001. As for Drake, it was the darling of the MVC last season, winning both the regular season and tournament titles. The Bulldogs, though, struggled to find consistency this season and will now look for an unlikely run to salvage the campaign.

The opening round wraps up when the 10th-ranked Missouri State Bears lock up with seventh-seeded WSU. The Bears were clearly the league's worst team during the regular season, finishing with just three wins against 15 losses. Despite a 23-17 record in this tourney, Missouri State has won just one title and that came all the way back in 1992. Since that championship, the Bears have reached the finals five times, losing out on each occasion. WSU, on the other hand, is 2-1 all-time in title games in this tourney, but it hasn't brought home the hardware since 1987. The Shockers played well over the second half of the season, but their 2-12 mark away from home leaves a lot to be desired.

The top seeded Panthers await the winner of the Indiana State/Drake match in the first quarterfinal bout on Friday. UNI, which was tabbed sixth in the preseason poll, captured a share of their first-ever MVC regular-season title and went 20-10 overall. The Panthers highest finish prior to this season was a second place tie in 2004, the same year the program won their only title in this event. The top seed in this tourney has only won the title once since 1998, as Drake accomplished that feat last season.

The fifth-seeded Salukis and fourth-seeded Braves clash in the second quarterfinal round match on Friday. SIU had one of its most disappointing campaigns in some time, but it has enjoyed a lot of success in this tourney, going 31-24 all-time. The Salukis' five championships are second most among current members and they last took home the title with a victory over Bradley in the 2006 finals. Speaking f the Braves, they won four of their last five games down the stretch to finish in sole possession of fourth place. Bradley has captured two tourney crowns, most recently in 1988, and is 26-27 lifetime in this event.

The second-seeded Bluejays make their first appearance in the tourney against the winner of the Missouri State/Wichita State affair in the quarterfinals on Friday. With 10 straight wins down the stretch, Creighton earned a share of its 14th regular season title. The Bluejays are the most decorated team in the MVC and have won this tournament a record 10 times, with their last coming in 2007. At 25-6, Creighton owns the league's best overall mark, as it reached the 20-win plateau for the 11th consecutive season.

Quarterfinal round play will come to an end when the sixth-seeded Purple Aces duel with the third-seeded Redbirds. Evansville went from 3-15 in league play last season to 8-10 this year, a drastic improvement. The Purple Aces though, are the only current league member without a title in this event, where they have gone just 4-14. On the flip side, ISU has gone 32-23 all-time in the MVC Tournament and has captured four titles. The Redbirds opened the season with 14 straight wins, but went just 8-8 down the stretch and enter the postseason riding a three-game slide.

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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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