Bobcats hope to end road woes in Philadelphia

Basketball Betting Lines

03/10/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" easily coincides with how the Charlotte Bobcats have been playing this season. The road less traveled would be the one headed towards Charlotte, and that's made all the difference for the club's playoff hopes.

The Jekyll-and-Hyde Bobcats have been a different story on the road, and will be put to the test again tonight regardless if they're playing the struggling Philadelphia 76ers at the Wachovia Center.

The Bobcats, who are seventh in the Eastern Conference standings and coming off a perfect three-game residency, have dropped four of their last five road games and own an 8-23 record as the guest.

Charlotte just pushed its home ledger to 23-8 with Tuesday's 83-78 victory over Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, as Raymond Felton stepped up to post 15 points and a season-best 11 assists. Stephen Jackson added 17 points and Boris Diaw contributed 11 and eight rebounds for Charlotte, which matched the franchise mark of 23 home wins in a season set last in 2008-09.

"We've become a better team in the last week because we were pretty bad about two weeks ago," Bobcats head coach Larry Brown said. "I think the key is we are defending much better."

The Bobcats have never made the playoffs in the club's history.

Philadelphia's season can be compared to a Stephen King novel under first-year head coach Eddie Jordan, whose Princeton offense has seen better days than the Zelda character from Pet Sematary. The Sixers have lost six of their last seven games and suffered a 107-96 setback at Indiana last night.

Jrue Holiday had 21 points to lead the Sixers, who ended a five-game slide with Sunday's victory at Toronto. Samuel Dalembert totaled 16 points, 11 boards and four blocks in defeat.

"They were playing a small lineup," Jordan said of the Pacers. "We were concerned about matchups, but not overly concerned. We just wanted to play with the unit that gives us the most energy. We did not do enough to win."

According to multiple sources, Jordan is expected to be fired at season's end. He was named the 22nd head coach in club history last May.

The 76ers will also play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers on the short homestand and are 10-19 in the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia has won six of its past 13 home games after starting the season 4-12 at the Wachovia Center.

The 2009-10 season set between the Bobcats and 76ers is tied at a game apiece, while Charlotte has won nine of the last 15 meetings. Philadelphia, however, has won eight of the 10 all-time matchups as the host in this series.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.