No. 2 Oklahoma puts perfect Big 12 mark on line against Texas Tech

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/14/2009 - Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-ranked Oklahoma Sooners take aim at their 13th straight win as they play host to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a Big 12 Conference clash at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.

Texas Tech is an even 12-12 on the year, but the Big 12 slate has been anything but kind to coach Pat Knight's club as seven of its nine league games have ended in defeat. The Red Raiders played at Kansas State on Wednesday and suffered their eight loss in as many road games this season by the final score of 85-73. Since going 7-1 to start the season, Tech is just 5-11 since.

Off to the best start in school history, Oklahoma has been nearly perfect this season, going 24-1 which includes unblemished marks both at home (14-0) and in conference (10-0). The Sooners beat Baylor for the 30th straight time on Wednesday night, 78-63, to run their current win streak to 12 in a row. The team's only setback of the season came against Arkansas back on December 30th.

Oklahoma leads the all-time series with Texas Tech, 27-16, and the Sooners won both meetings last season by a combined four points. The two teams will meet again in Lubbock two weeks from today.

Texas Tech boasts three double-digit scorers, led by John Roberson and his 14.6 ppg. The Big 12's top assist man with 156 through 24 games, Roberson is shooting just around 40 percent from the floor but his 82.6 percent effort at the charity stripe has him ranked among the conference leaders. Senior Alan Voskuil (14.2 ppg) is the league's leading three-point shooter (68-of-151). Collectively, Texas Tech is scoring 78.4 ppg behind a 46 percent shooting effort, while simultaneously sporting the worst scoring defense in the Big 12 at 77.9 ppg. Tech also owns the league's worst turnover margin at -1.42. In the recent loss to Kansas State, Nick Okorie nailed five three-pointers to lead the Red Raiders with 21 points, while Voskuil dropped three triples to tally 17 points. Roberson shot a dreadful 1-of-9 from the field but made all of his free throws to finish with 11 points. He added nine assists but was guilty of five of the team's 16 turnovers. A slow start proved to be Tech's undoing, as it missed 12 of its first 14 shots and watched as the Wildcats raced out to a 30-6 lead. A late 19-2 run by the Red Raiders made the final score somewhat respectable,

Oklahoma is led by one of the premier players in the country, as Blake Griffin is averaging 22.1 points and 13.8 rebounds per game. He is shooting 63.2 percent from the field and has logged a team-high 34 blocks while also coming up with 31 steals. The one area he needs to work on is free-throw shooting, as he is converting just 58.4 percent at the moment. Willie Warren and Tony Crocker are both netting double figures on a consistent basis from their spots in the OU backcourt, checking in at 14.9 and 10.9 ppg, respectively. Austin Johnson's job is to get the ball to Griffin and company, and he has done so 110 times this year while also doing some damage of his own with 8.9 ppg. As a team, the Sooners are hitting 49 percent of their field goal attempts in putting up 80 ppg, while yielding just 66 ppg on 38.9 percent field goal efficiency to the opposition. In the recent rout of Baylor, Griffin led the way with 18 points and 12 boards, while Johnson tallied 17 points on the strength of a 4-of-5 effort from three-point range. Warren chipped in 14 points for the Sooners, who knocked down 54.2 percent of their total shots while holding the Bears to 38.6 percent.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.

Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

For more March Madness odds go to MySportsbook.com

For more College Basketball betting lines go to BettingExpress.com

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