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Khris Middleton and Elston Turner are the leaders on the A&M roster. Middleton is questionable for tonight after leaving the Oklahoma game with a knee injury after 12 minutes of action. Middleton's presence is a huge factor in A&M's success as he had averaged 14.7 points and seven rebounds per game in his three games before sustaining the injury. After Middleton went down against the Sooners, Turner stepped up and put the team on his back. The junior guard pushed the Aggies to victory as he scored 23 points in 42 minutes of action. Dave Loubeau chipped in 16 points in the victory while Dash Harris netted 14 points and dished out six assists. Harris is a pest on the defensive end as he is second in the league in steals with 2.3 per game.
Kansas has an array of weapons at the offensive end. Thomas Robinson is the team's top scorer (17.7 ppg) and the Big 12's top rebounder (12.1 rpg). The junior forward recorded his Big-12 leading 13th double-double of the season in the team's win over Baylor before finishing with 17 points and nine rebounds against Texas. Tyshawn Taylor has been a big factor to the Jayhawks' success as well. Taylor has been absolutely on fire lately as he has averaged 26 ppg and 5.3 apg in his last three outings. Travis Releford and Elijah Johnson are both helping the cause with scoring averages above nine points per game.
Kris Joseph posted 17 points to lead the Orange (21-1, 8-1 Big East), while Scoop Jardine added 13 points and six assists. They played their second consecutive game without rebounding and shot-blocking center Fab Melo, who was not with Syracuse for the road trip for unreleased reasons.
Cashmere Wright scored 17 points to lead the Bearcats (15-6, 5-3), who were coming off Saturday's overtime loss at West Virginia. Yancy Gates had 16 points and 10 boards.
Meighan Simmons scored 13 points to pace Tennessee (14-5), while leading scorer Shekinna Stricklen was held to five points on 2-of-10 shooting.
Notre Dame held Tennessee to just 7-of-35 shooting (20 percent) from the field in the first half, and its ability to score in the paint provided a 28-18 lead at the break.
Diggins' three-pointer four minutes later made it a 21-point game at 47-26, and the Irish never took their foot off the pedal.
Tennessee made just two field goals over the final seven minutes. It was the second worst loss in the program's storied history.
Shawnice Wilson contributed 12 points and five rebounds for the Hurricanes, who have won six straight games.
Monet Tellier led the Hokies (6-14, 2-5) with 18 points and Aerial Wilson added 15 but it wasn't enough as Virginia Tech dropped its fifth straight.
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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.
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:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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