Hunt leads No. 11 Memphis past Golden Eagles

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/27/2007 - Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeremy Hunt netted 21 points and made some key baskets down the stretch, as 11th-ranked Memphis held off Southern Miss, 67-64, in a Conference USA battle at FedExForum.

Chris Douglas-Roberts added 15 points for the Tigers (17-3, 7-0 C-USA), who have won nine straight. Joey Dorsey donated 16 rebounds and seven points in the victory.

Jeremy Wise poured in a game-high 28 points for the Golden Eagles (13-6, 3-3), who were looking to win their third straight game. Sai'Quon Stone had 15 points and five boards in the loss.

Trailing by five points with about six minutes left in the contest, the Tigers rattled off five straight points to even the contest at 55-55 with just under 4 1/2 minutes to play. Hunt drilled a three-pointer and Douglas-Roberts added two from the charity stripe.

After a defensive stop, Hunt buried a trey off a feed from Douglas-Roberts inside to put Memphis on top, 58-55, with just under four minutes remaining.

Stone then hit a layup and converted a free throw after being fouled on the play to even things up at 58-58 with about three minutes to go.

Andre Allen then hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe for Memphis and a jumper by Craig Craft put Southern Miss back in front, 60-59.

A free throw by Douglas-Roberts with 2 1/2 minutes remaining tied things up. Wise answered for the Golden Eagles with a pull-up jumper to put them back in front at 62-60 with two minutes to play.

Allen then hit a three and after a defensive stop at the other end, Douglas- Roberts scooped in two to give Memphis a 65-62 edge with 1 1/2 minutes remaining.

Two free throws by Demar Dotson made it a one-point game, but Douglas-Roberts sealed it for the Tigers by hitting two from the stripe down the stretch.

Trailing most of the first half, Memphis closed out the opening 20 minutes on a 12-0 run to take a 32-25 lead into the break. Hunt contributed eight points during the stretch, including two three-pointers.

Hunt led Memphis with 11 points in the first half.

Game Notes

Memphis has won three straight over Southern Miss and leads the all-time series at 52-23...The Tigers got 33 points off the bench...The Golden Eagles ended the contest with 19 turnovers.

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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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