2010 West Coast Conference Tournament Preview

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/03/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the 10th year in a row, the Gonzaga Bulldogs won the West Coast Conference regular-season title, as they finished 12-2 within the league. The Bulldogs are out to repeat in this tournament after winning the 2009 event, which was held at a neutral site for the first time ever. Orleans Arena in Las Vegas will once again serve as host to the 24th-annual WCC Tournament, an eight-team event that gets underway on Friday.

The Saint Mary's Gaels ended up 11-3 and earned the second seed, while the University of Portland Pilots are locked in as the third seed courtesy of their 10-4 league mark. San Francisco and Loyola Marymount both finished 7-7, with the Dons grabbing the fourth seed and the Lions the fifth. Santa Clara, San Diego and Pepperdine all had 3-11 marks and the Toreros ended up as the sixth seed, the Broncos seventh and the Waves at eight. The winner of this event earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The WCC Tournament gets started on Friday with the fifth-seeded Loyola Marymount Lions facing the eighth-seeded Pepperdine Waves. The Lions got healthy and played well down the stretch, winning five of their last seven games, including an upset of Gonzaga. The team's 16 overall wins are its most since capturing 18 in 1995-96. Loyola has won this event three times, with the last coming in 1990. As for the Waves, they started conference play with three straight wins before losing their last 11 contests. Pepperdine however, does own a 27-19 all-time mark in this event and that includes three titles.

The first round will conclude on Friday with sixth-seeded San Diego clashing with seventh-seeded Santa Clara. The Toreros are the only team, aside from Gonzaga, to win this event in the last 11 years, capturing titles in 2003 and 2008. San Diego ended a six-game slide with a win over Pepperdine in its finale and split two meetings with Santa Clara. Speaking of the Broncos, they carry a three-game losing skid into the postseason. Santa Clara owns a 24-21 record in this tourney and won its last title in 1993.

The quarterfinals will begin on Saturday and fourth-seeded San Francisco will await the winner of the Loyola Marymount/Pepperdine matchup. The Dons tied Loyola Marymount at 7-7, but swept the Lions during the regular season, giving them the fourth seed and a first-round bye. San Francisco, which knocked off Gonzaga in late January, is in search of its first tourney title since 1998.

In the second quarterfinal round game, the third-seeded Pilots will tussle with the survivor of the San Diego/Santa Clara pairing. Portland tied the school record of 10 WCC victories set during the 1994-95 season, as it won five of its last six bouts. The Pilots, who earned their first national ranking in 50 years earlier on in the campaign, are just 8-21 all-time in this event.

The top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs will make their much anticipated debut when they take the floor in the first game of the semifinal round on Sunday. Gonzaga has won 12 of the past 13 WCC regular-season titles, including the last 10. The Bulldogs are now tied with UNLV (1983-92 Big West) and Connecticut (1951-60 Yankee Conference) for the second-longest conference regular season title winning streak in NCAA history. Gonzaga has won this tourney a record 10 times and they are 35-13 all-time in the event. The Bulldogs have made 12 straight championship game appearances, winning the title nine of those times, including an 83-58 trouncing of Saint Mary's last year.

The second-seeded Gaels earned a bye into the semifinals and will need just one win to reach their second straight title game. Despite three championship game appearances in the last six years, the Gaels have won just one title and that came in 1997. The team is paced by Omar Samhan, the leading scorer (21.5 ppg) and rebounder (11.1 rpg) in the conference.

Ccasion NCAA Basketball Betting News

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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