Kentucky garners No. 1 seed in the East

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/15/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Kentucky, which scorched the Southeastern Conference in the regular season and won the conference tourney crown in a tense overtime contest, was named as the top- seeded team in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky (32-2), survived that scare from Mississippi State on Sunday and has been selected a No. 1 seed for the 10th time in school history. The Lexington- based school will be trying for its eighth national title and first since a 1998 triumph over Utah. It will also be making its 50th entry into the NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats will take on 16th-seeded East Tennessee State (20-14), which emerged as the champion of the Atlantic Sun Conference for the second straight season, on Thursday in New Orleans.

"I'm happy that we are a one-seed, but there are no easy roads," said Kentucky head coach John Calipari. "Some are easier than others, but it's still hard. You don't want to look beyond East Tennessee State, Texas and Wake Forest -- all four good teams -- in our little bracket of the world. Other than that I'm not worried about anything else. I love New Orleans, I think it's a great place to have a tournament, and you know we'll have 20,000 fans down there."

West Virginia (27-6), has won six consecutive games heading into the NCAA Tournament, including a close one with Georgetown on Saturday to take its first Big East title in school history,

The Mountaineers claimed a No. 2 seed for the first time and will face off against Morgan State (27-9) on Friday in Buffalo. The Bears had an easier time with their competition, claiming both the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular season and playoff titles.

Despite a loss in the Mountain West semifinals to eventual champion San Diego State, New Mexico (29-4), picked up the third seed on the strength of a 15- game win streak down the stretch before the Aztecs put an end to their conference title hopes.

The Lobos, who have not seen the tourney since a first-round exit to Villanova in 2005, have to deal with Big Sky winner Montana (22-9) on Thursday in San Jose.

Wisconsin (23-8), which dropped a Big Ten tourney quarterfinal appearance to Illinois, still garnered enough regard to snag the four seed in the East. Its first-round opponent will be Wofford (26-8) on Friday in Jacksonville. The Terriers, who were tops in the South Division of the Southern Conference, took home the postseason title after dispatching Appalachian State and gained the first NCAA berth in school history.

Opponents in the 5-12 matchup have a degree of familiarity, as Atlantic 10 champion Temple (29-5) meets the best of the Ivy League in Cornell (27-4) on Friday in Jacksonville. Owls bench boss Fran Dunphy was the head coach at Penn while current Cornell head man Steve Donahue was one of his assistants.

"We have nice veteran leadership sprinkled in with some young talent," said Dunphy. "The only thing I'm disappointed by is that I'm playing against a guy I coached with. If you had said to me before the season that we'd share the regular-season title with Xavier then win the playoff and take a five-seed, I'd have signed those papers right away."

Temple has bowed out in the first round the last two seasons, and has not enjoyed a late March run since an Elite Eight berth in 2001. Meanwhile, Cornell is looking for its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory following five losses.

A second Wisconsin-based program in the region earned the sixth seed, as Milwaukee's own Marquette (22-11) will square off against surprise Pac-10 champion Washington (24-9) on Thursday in San Jose.

Lorenzo Romar's Huskies were felled by Purdue in the second round last season, while the Golden Eagles shocked Florida State before losing to Xavier.

"I think what makes it special for this group is that I've never been around a group like this," said Marquette head coach Buzz Williams. "We're not here because of selfish ambition, we're still playing is because of the togetherness of our unit."

The other matchups feature at-large selections with seventh-seeded Clemson (21-10) against 10th-seeded Missouri (22-10) on Friday in Buffalo, and the 8-9 matchup features Texas (24-9) and Wake Forest (19-10) dueling Thursday in New Orleans.

The East Regional semifinals are slated for Syracuse on March 25, with the finals to take place two days later.

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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.


Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).

Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.

A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.

"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.

De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.

The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.

The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.

De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.

Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.

But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.