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03/05/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2009 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament will take place in Richmond, Virginia, beginning with the first round on Friday and wrapping up with Monday's title game.
The top four seeds each receive a bye for the opening round, and the winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Virginia Commonwealth grabbed the top seed after picking up its third consecutive CAA regular-season title. However, the Rams know all too well that they've got some more work to do, as they missed out on a NCAA Tournament invite last year after losing to fifth-seeded William & Mary in the semifinals. VCU is led by CAA Player of the Year candidate Eric Maynor, who leads the league in scoring (22.4 ppg), and also broke the school's career scoring record in the season finale. George Mason, last season's CAA Champion, has the No. 2 seed. The Patriots have won four of their last five games. The No. 3 seed belongs to the Northeastern Huskies, who faded a bit down the stretch, losing four of their final six games. The final first-round bye belongs to the fourth-seeded Old Dominion Monarchs, winners of five straight and nine of their last 10 overall.
Kicking off the first-round action will be the eighth-seeded Georgia State Panthers and ninth-seeded Delaware Blue Hens on Friday at noon. The winner gets a date with VCU in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Georgia State (11-19, 8-10 CAA) and Delaware (13-18, 6-12) split the season series. This marks the Panthers' highest seed since joining the CAA four years ago, as they closed out the regular season by winning four of their final five games. Leading the way for Georgia State is guard Joe Dukes, who averages 12.3 ppg to go along with 4.4 rpg and 4.4 apg. He is complemented in the backcourt by Trae Goldston (11.0 ppg), the team's top three-point shooter at 34.6 percent. Shooting hasn't exactly been the team's strong point throughout the season. They are putting up just 60.8 ppg on 42.1-percent shooting from the floor. They've even struggled at the free-throw line, shooting just 61 percent.
Delaware has gone with the same starting lineup for all but two games this season, and while four of those players are scoring in double figures and logging 30-plus minutes per game, the team doesn't have a whole lot of depth beyond that. Marc Egerson is averaging 15.5 ppg and 10.4 ppg, and he is also a 39-percent shooter from beyond the arc. Jawan Carter is good for two three- pointers per game (34.1 percent) and is averaging 15.3 ppg. Other key contributors include Alphonso Dawson (14.2 ppg) and Brian Johnson (10.2 ppg). As a team, the Blue Hens are knocking down 7.4 threes per game, though they attempt more than 20 per game, which also waters down their field-goal percentage a bit (41.7 percent).
Game two pits the fifth-seeded Hofstra Pride against the 12th-seeded UNC- Wilmington Seahawks. The winner will advance to face fourth-seeded Old Dominion in quarterfinal action. Hofstra (20-10, 11-7) and UNCW (7-24, 3-15) played a pair of tightly-contested games in the regular season. The Pride notched a two-point victory at UNCW on Jan. 28, then beat the Seahawks in overtime in the season finale this past Saturday. In fact, it marked the fourth straight season these two played in an overtime game.
Hofstra was able to reach the 20-win mark for the fourth time in the past five seasons, thanks largely to guard Charles Jenkins (19.2 ppg). One of only two sophomores in school history to eclipse 1,000 points, Jenkins recorded a career-high 35 points on Saturday, including what turned out to be the game- clinching bucket late in overtime. His previous career-high was 33 points, set against those same Seahawks in late-January. Cornelius Vines is scoring 10.6 ppg on the season.
As for UNCW, the offense filters mostly through Chad Tomko, who leads the team with 15.8 ppg. A 31.8-percent shooter from beyond the arc, Tomko launches an average of nearly eight three-point attempts per game. Johnny Wolf (13.7 ppg), a 34.3-percent shooter from beyond the arc, also gets plenty of looks in the back court. In the low post, Dominique Lacy is averaging 10.6 ppg and 6.0 rpg. However, the Seahawks are often at a disadvantage on the boards, as they are a -6.9 in rebounding margin this season. And while they do have a few guys who can score, defensive stops have been few and far between, with opponents putting up 83.7 ppg and shooting 50.7 percent from the floor. Still, you can't sleep on a program that has more tournament wins than any other school in the CAA.
Seventh-seeded James Madison (18-13, 9-9) will take on the 10th-seeded William & Mary Tribe (10-19, 5-13) in Game three of the first round. The winner moves on to face George Mason Saturday night. JMU swept the season series for the first time since 1999-2000. Last year, William & Mary lost to George Mason in the CAA Championship game. So, while the Tribe enter this year's conference tourney as the 10th-seed, they've got some players who have proven they know what it takes to win in postseason play. The Tribe prefer to slow the tempo down and operate out of their half-court offense. They've held opponents to 63.2 ppg, but are scoring just 61.9 ppg and shooting 41.5 percent as a team. Guards David Schneider and Danny Sumner headline this group. Schneider leads the team with 14.4 ppg and Sumner is scoring 13.2 ppg, though neither is shooting better than 40 percent from the floor. In fact, Schneider has taken more shots than any player on the team, but is shooting a rather ugly 34.7 percent from the floor.
As for the Dukes, they need to find a way to rebound after closing out the regular season with losses in three of their final four games. Juwann James leads JMU with 15.4 ppg despite starting only three games this season. He is shooting a scorching 59.4 percent from the floor. Kyle Swanston (11.9 ppg), Julius Wells (11.8 ppg) and Devon Moore (10.1 ppg) are each key figures in the offense. One of the team's main strengths is its foul shooting, as the Dukes have four players who rank in the top-six in the CAA in free-throw percentage. Should the game come down to the last few possessions, JMU has the advantage here.
In the night cap of Friday's first-round action, sixth-seeded Drexel will take on 11th-seeded Towson, with the winner advancing to face Northeastern in the quarterfinals. Drexel won both regular-season meetings against Towson. The Dragons (15-13, 10-8) rank dead-last in the CAA in field-goal percentage (37.9) and three-point percentage (29.7) although they rank second in field- goal percentage defense (39.6). The team sputtered down the stretch, losing three of its final four games. The Dragons closed out the season with a 48-47 loss to William & Mary, which followed up a 47-46 loss to Northeastern three days earlier. Scott Rodgers is the only player averaging double figures, with 13.8 ppg to go along with 5.0 rpg. He averages a team-high 12 shot attempts per game, and is shooting just 35.6 percent from the floor.
Towson (10-21, 5-13) didn't fare too well down the stretch, either, dropping four of its final five games. As a team, the Tigers are shooting just 40.1 percent from the floor and are being outscored by an average margin of 6.1 ppg. Still, they've got one of the league's top big men in Junior Hairston (12.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg). Josh Thornton is scoring 11.2 ppg and is a threat along the perimeter, where he has knocked down a team-high 74 three-pointers (36.5 percent). Jarrel Smith is tallying 10.4 ppg and 4.9 rpg and is the only player to have started all 29 games this season.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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