Georgia Tech hits road to tangle with No. 21 Florida State

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/01/2012 - Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams at opposite ends of the ACC standings meet in Tallahassee tonight, as the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets challenge the 21st-ranked Florida State Seminoles.

Georgia Tech's first season under head coach Brian Gregory hasn't gone according to plan, as the team is just 8-13 overall and has just one win in seven league bouts thus far. The Yellow Jackets have lost their last five games, and nine of their last 10 overall, with a 93-81 setback at North Carolina being the most recent. They are 3-5 in true road games this season.

Florida State is 14-6 on the year, and coach Leonard Hamilton's club is tied for second place in the ACC standings with Duke, as both teams sport 5-1 league ledgers -- just a half game back of UNC's 6-1 mark. The Seminoles are in the midst of their longest win streak since 1993 (five games), with their latest triumph coming in a 75-52 rout of Wake Forest last Wednesday. They will try to add to their impressive 10-1 home record with a win tonight.

Florida State owns a 35-27 lead in the all-time series with Georgia Tech, and the Seminoles have won the last six meetings.

Despite a record that sits five games below .500 on the year, Georgia Tech is scoring nearly the same number of points as it allows (63.3 to 63.9 ppg), and the team is out-shooting the opposition from the field (.439 to .404). The Yellow Jackets routinely win the battle on the boards (+4.4), but they are hitting just 31.6 percent of their three-point tries and they currently have only two double-digit scorers on the roster -- Glen Rice, Jr. (13.1 ppg, 6.5 rpg) and Mfon Udofia (11.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg). Udofia was high man for Tech in its recent loss to North Carolina, netting 16 points, but Rice was off his game as he tallied just four points after missing five of his seven field goal attempts. Jason Morris nailed three treys on his way to 15 points for the Yellow Jackets, who made good on 45.6 percent of their total shots, which included an impressive 9-of-20 showing from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, 15 turnovers and a 54.1 percent shooting effort, which include 10 three-pointers, from the Tar Heels was simply too much to overcome.

Florida State's bread and butter this season is its ability to control the tempo of a game, and do yeoman's work at the defensive end. The Seminoles are yielding just 62.0 ppg while allowing a league-low 36.8 percent field goal efficiency to the opposition. FSU also leads the ACC in steals (8.6 per game), and the team ranks third in defending the three-point shot (.277). Offensively, the 'Noles put up 72.3 ppg on typical shooting outputs of 45.6 percent overall, 33.5 percent from beyond the arc and 71.2 percent from the free-throw line. They also own a +5.0 rebounding margin, and come into this clash boasting three double-digit scorers in Michael Snaer (13.8 ppg, 3.7 rpg), Ian Miller (11.2 ppg) and Bernard James (10.4 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 2.3 bpg). Snaer was a perfect 4-of-4 from three-point range in scoring a game-high 18 points, as Florida State whipped Wake Forest last week by 23. Okaro White came off the bench to tally 11 points, and Xavier Gibson chipped in 10 for the Seminoles, who shot 50.9 percent from the floor, nailing half of their 16 three-point attempts along the way, while at the same time limiting the Demon Deacons to 34.9 percent field goal efficiency and goading them into 18 turnovers.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

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