Cougars set to pounce on Beavers

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/25/2007 - Pullman, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington State has cracked the Top-25, and the 20th-ranked Cougars will play host to the Oregon State Beavers this evening in a Pac-10 tilt.

Oregon State is 0-5 against ranked teams this season, and the squad is just 9-11 overall. On Saturday, the Beavers fell to 1-6 against Pac-10 opponents with a 67-56 loss to Stanford, and while they are now 6-9 at home, they actually own a better record on the road (3-2).

Washington State recently won its first game as a ranked team since 1980, and the club is currently a surprising 16-3 overall, including 5-2 against Pac-10 foes. The Cougars have won five of their last six games, including a 75-47 romp over Washington on Saturday that enabled them to improve to 9-0 at home.

Oregon State owns a 161-111 advantage in the all-time series with Washington State, and the Beavers won both meetings last season.

Marcel Jones has started all 20 games for Oregon State this season and is netting a team-high 16.9 ppg to go along with 6.1 rpg. The only other double-digit scorer in the lineup is Sasa Cuic, as he is posting 13.3 ppg. The Beavers are only generating 66.1 ppg on 42.7 percent shooting from the floor, and they are allowing 68.1 ppg to opponents. In the loss to Stanford on Saturday, Jones scored 20 points to go along with eight rebounds and seven steals. Unfortunately, he got little help from a rather weak supporting cast, and the Beavers shot just 37.7 percent from the field while also suffering a 16-5 disadvantage in points from the foul line. Cuic missed the game because of a bruised left elbow, but he may be able to get back to action tonight.

Derrick Low is the leading scorer for Washington State, as he is scoring 14.6 ppg on 41 percent accuracy from behind the arc. Like Oregon State, the Cougars only have two double-digit scorers on the roster, as Kyle Weaver adds 11.3 ppg to the lineup. WSU is not an explosive offensive team by any means, but the fact that the club has been able to limit opponents to 58.1 ppg on 40.3 percent shooting from the field explains the tremendous success achieved thus far. The Cougars dominated Washington at both ends of the floor on Saturday, as they shot 53.6 percent from the field while limiting the Huskies to 28.3 percent efficiency. Low nailed 5-of-7 three-pointers and finished with 20 points to lead the way in the win, and Weaver hit 7-of-8 shots from the field en route to 17 points.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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