Football Betting

Indiana steps out of conference to entertain NC Central

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/22/2012 - Bloomington, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 23rd-ranked Indiana Hoosiers host the NC Central Eagles tonight to end their non-conference slate at Assembly Hall.

Tonight will be the third encounter between Indiana and the Eagles. The Hoosiers hold a 2-0 lead in the series after their 72-56 victory on Nov. 23rd, 2010.

NC Central comes in with a 14-12 overall record and an 8-5 mark in MEAC play. The Eagles are coming off a 71-66 victory over North Carolina A&T on Saturday, in which they hit 48.8 percent of their field goals. NC Central has not played a ranked opponent yet this season, but it is 0-3 against BCS Conference programs (Wake Forest, NC State, and Oregon). LeVelle Moton is in his third season with the Eagles and has a 36-49 overall record with the program.

The Eagles will look to Dominique Sutton and Ray Willis to power the upset tonight. Sutton is leading the team with 16.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while connecting on 59.5 percent of his shots from the floor. Willis is contributing 15.8 points and 5.7 boards per game. Emanuel Chapman is a very good distributor as he is handing out 5.6 assists per contest.

Tom Crean's Hoosiers come in with a 20-7 overall record after their 78-66 setback against Iowa on Sunday. Indiana's loss snapped a three-game winning streak. The Hoosiers are 12-0 in non-conference action this season and boast an impressive 15-1 mark at Assembly Hall. Indiana's offense is very adept, as it nets 78.0 ppg, which is the 21st best average in the nation. The Hoosiers are allowing opponents to score 66.3 ppg.

Indiana's balanced attack is led by Cody Zeller, who averages team-highs of 15.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Zeller is extremely efficient as he is connecting on 64.4 percent of his field goals. Christian Watford, Jordan Hulls, and Victor Oladipo are all contributing double-digit scoring averages for the Hoosiers as well. Oladipo and Zeller led the team with 15 points versus Iowa on Sunday.


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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.