Vols and 'Dores duke it out in pivotal SEC clash

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/09/2010 - Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 12th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers will take on the 22nd-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores this evening with an SEC battle and state bragging rights on the line.

Tennessee has won its last three games to move to 18-4 overall and 6-2 in conference. On Saturday, the Vols were completely dominant in a 79-53 romp over South Carolina, and they have held their last three opponents to 60 or fewer points. Of the 18 wins that Tennessee has recorded thus far, only three have come in true road games.

Losses in two of the last three games have dropped the Vanderbilt Commodores to 17-5 overall and 6-2 in conference action. On Saturday, the club fell to Georgia by a 72-58 final on the road, but there is obvious reason for confidence tonight considering an 11-0 home record.

Vanderbilt beat Tennessee, 85-76, two weeks ago, but the Vols still own a 108-68 advantage in the all-time series.

Scotty Hopson continues to pace Tennessee in scoring with 13.2 ppg on the strength of his 41.1 percent shooting from three-point range. Wayne Chism, who has been the team's top point producer in three consecutive outings, checks in with 13.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg, and the Vols are generating 77.0 ppg while allowing a mere 63.9 ppg on 38.7 percent shooting. Tennessee has forced 398 turnovers while committing only 280 giveaways, an obvious key to success. Chism scored 30 points against South Carolina on Saturday, as he shot 11-of-17 from his center position. Both Hopson and Bobby Maze added 11 points for the Vols, who limited the Gamecocks to 27.6 percent shooting. A 44-37 rebounding advantage also helped the cause, as did a 19-14 edge in points from the foul line and a low total of six turnovers.

Vanderbilt is generating 78.0 ppg this season, and the club is holding its opponents to 68.2 ppg on 40.8 percent field goal efficiency. There are four double-digit scorers in the fold for the Commodores, and Jermaine Beal leads the way with 14.4 ppg. A.J. Ogilvy checks in with 13.5 ppg and 6.2 rpg, and Jeffery Taylor provides 13.3 ppg on his 52.3 percent shooting from the floor. John Jenkins adds 10.4 ppg off the bench for Vandy, which was grossly outplayed by Georgia on Saturday. The Commodores connected on only 32.8 percent of their field goal attempts and were outrebounded by a 43-28 margin. They permitted the Bulldogs to shoot 53.2 percent from the floor, including 66.7 percent in the decisive second half.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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