Hoyas and Irish square off in South Bend

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/05/2009 - South Bend, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Big East Conference powers fresh off disappointing losses will meet in South Bend this evening, as the seventh- ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish host the 11th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas.

Georgetown carried a seven-game win streak and a wealth of confidence into Saturday's showdown with Pittsburgh. Despite playing in front of the home crowd, the Hoyas were no match for the mighty Panthers, as they lost that game by a 70-54 final. Georgetown is now 10-2 overall and is set to play just its second true road game of the season.

As for Notre Dame, it was shocked by St. John's on Saturday, 71-65. That loss halted a four-game win streak for the Fighting Irish, who figure to fall in the national poll regardless of the outcome of tonight's tilt. They are now 10-3 overall and 1-1 in conference action.

The Hoyas have won their last five meetings with the Irish to take a 14-10 lead in the all-time series.

Georgetown is scoring 74.0 ppg this season, but it isn't the team's offensive ability that scares opponents. The Hoyas are capable of playing smothering defense, as they are only allowing 57.4 ppg on 35.6 percent shooting from the floor. DaJuan Summers continues to pace Georgetown in scoring 15.3 ppg on 54.7 percent shooting from the field, including 46.7 percent efficiency from three- point range. Austin Freeman provides 13.1 ppg, and freshman center Greg Monroe checks in with 12.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg and 23 blocks. The fourth and final double- digit scorer on the roster is Chris Wright with his 12.8 ppg. Summers did all he could against Pittsburgh on Saturday, as he finished with 22 points, as he knocked down 4-of-5 three-pointers in the tilt. Monroe added 15 points and eight boards for the Hoyas, who only shot 35.3 percent from the floor and were outrebounded by a staggering 48-23 margin, including 20-7 on the offensive boards.

There are a couple of obvious reasons that Notre Dame fell short against St. John's on Saturday. The Fighting Irish suffered a 41-30 rebounding disadvantage in the tilt, and they were also outscored 16-7 from the foul line. Luke Harangody led the way in the loss with 28 points and 14 rebounds, and the big forward dominated the interior as usual. Tory Jackson pitched in 14 points for the Irish, who got only 10 points from Kyle McAlarney. Harangody, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, has led his team in both scoring and rebounding in each of the last six games. He is averaging 23.5 ppg and 12.5 rpg while shooting 51.3 percent from the floor. McAlarney, a 45.3 percent shooter from three-point range, checks in with 16.3 ppg, and Ryan Ayers provides 12.2 ppg. As for Jackson, who leads the club with 74 assists and 22 steals, he rounds out a foursome of double-digit scorers with 11.5 ppg. Notre Dame is generating 82.5 ppg while permitting 66.7 ppg to the opposition.

Skynook NCAA Basketball Betting News

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.


FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.