Panthers and Cardinals fight for spot in Big East title game
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
03/09/2007 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers and second-seeded Louisville Cardinals will square off this evening in the semifinal round of the Big East Conference Tournament. The winner of this game will play either top-seeded Georgetown or fourth-seeded Notre Dame for the championship.
Pittsburgh showed a great deal of toughness yesterday, as it was much more explosive than usual at the offensive end in an 89-79 victory over sixth-seeded Marquette. The Panthers won their only Big East Tournament title in 2003, and they are below .500 all-time at this event.
Louisville beat an outstanding West Virginia team by a score of 82-71 in double-overtime on Thursday. That win was the first for the program at this tournament, as the Cardinals were a force in Conference USA before switching over to the Big East.
Louisville recorded an impressive 66-53 road win over Pitt during the regular season, and the all-time series between the teams is deadlocked at 2-2.
Pittsburgh center Aaron Gray has been named to the First-Team All-Big East squad two years in a row, and he certainly proved worthy last night by scoring 22 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in the victory over Marquette. Sam Young posted 17 points and Mike Cook added 16 points for the Panthers, who scored 20 points off 14 Marquette turnovers. It is also worthy of mention that Pittsburgh's reserves outscored the Marquette bench by a 21-5 margin. For the first time since the 2002-03 campaign, the top four seeds in this tournament have reached the semifinal round. Gray is averaging 14.6 ppg and 10.1 rpg, impressive numbers by any standards, and the big man is shooting 58.3 percent from the floor.
In last night's 11-point win over West Virginia, Louisville got 21 points and nine rebounds from Terrence Williams. Earl Clark came through with 17 big points for the Cardinals, who led by as many as 17 points in the second half before allowing the Mountaineers to fight back and force overtime. David Padgett posted 16 points for Louisville, and Brandon Jenkins added further balance to the lineup with 11 points. Overall this season, Williams leads Louisville with a modest average of 12.5 ppg. He is also tops with 7.2 rpg and 115 assists, proof of his tremendous versatility. The only other double-digit scorer in the lineup is Edgar Sosa, as he is contributing 10.7 ppg.
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Oklahoma City, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-seeded and 15th-ranked Texas
Longhorns being their quest for their first ever Big 12 Tournament title
tonight, as they tangle with the 11th-seeded Baylor Bears in the quarterfinal
roun
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quar
<< Kansas and Oklahoma duke it out in Big 12 Tournament
Oklahoma City, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The second-ranked and top-seeded Kansas
Jayhawks begin defense of their Big 12 Tournament title today, as they face off
against the ninth-seeded Oklahoma Sooners in the quarterfinal round from the
Ford
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Big 12 Conference betting odds
Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State
Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.
Work left to do:
Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.
Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.
Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.