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THE FINAL TWO
By CHARLES JAY, Editor/Publisher, TotalAction.com
Posted April 2, 2001
You certainly can't complain that there's not enough action on tonight's NCAA Championship
game between Duke and Arizona. Sportsbooks around the internet are weighing in with
propositions galore, some with more imagination than others.
Take Sportsbook.com (http://www.sportsbook.com), for example, where you can actually wager on how many points Arizona
reserve Luke Walton will score in the game. The over/under is just four points.
Interested?.........Lots of player props at Sportsbook.com, including total points or
point/rebound combined totals for almost every player who is likely to see action in the
game. Their over/under on total points by Duke star Jason Williams is 24.5, with the
"over" at -125 and the "under" at -105. Shane Battier's over/under is
23.5 at Sportsbook.com, as well as Olympic Sports (http://www.thegreek.com). At Olympic you lay -115
either way, but its -120/-110 on the over/under at Sportsbook.com.........
If you're thinking it's going to be a blowout, or even a replica of the Duke-Maryland
game, a couple of locations have a price on what the largest lead of the game is going to
be. At Sportsbook.com the number is 13.5, where you'll lay -115 either way. At Olympic the
number is 14 points (Over -120, Under -110). And if you think Duke is going to blow
Arizona off the court tonight, you may want to take advantage of Olympic's added points
proposition, where Duke -8.5 is +180, and Duke -10.5 is +250.............
As we were looking around this morning we found some disparity in the totals. At
Sportsbook.com the number was 163.5, while Bowmans.com, which is not really carrying any
props on the game (at least last we looked) had the total at 165.5. As of about noon
Eastern time Duke was a four-point favorite at most places, not to mention a two-point
first-half favorite..........
Duke makes an average of 10.5 three-point shots per game, while Arizona makes a little
under 5.5. If you think that particular statistic is going to hold up in this game, you
might want to take advantage of other props that are available. At Olympic Sports Duke is
-130 to make at least 10 three-point shots in the game. That's a slightly better price
than is being offered at Sportsbook.com (-140). But the best price we found was at the
World Sports Exchange (http://www.wsex.com), where you can get Duke over 9.5 threes at
-120. The total on Arizona's three=pointers is 6.5 (Over -120, Under -110). And at English
Sports Betting (http://www.telebet.com)
you can play a proposition where the number of three-point attempts by Duke
is favored by 6.5 over the number of free-throw attempts by Arizona. You lay -120 either
way..............
At Intertops.com it's pick'em as to which team is going to have the most rebounds, as you
lay -110 each way. There may be some value there, since Arizona is +8 in the rebounding
margin department in the tournament, while Duke is about even with its opponents. And
there's obviously a lot of respect for the abilities of Duke's inside defensive presence
on the part of some oddsmakers, because at the World Sports Exchange, for example, Arizona
is the "dog" in the blocked-shot category. You can lay -110 and get Arizona plus
a half a block, over Duke. Keep in mind that Loren Woods had seven blocked shots all by
himself in the game with Illinois. Of course, Duke is more likely to take most of its
offensive shots from the perimeter, so perhaps Woods won't have as many chances. And
though it may surprise some, Duke averaged more blocked shots per game than did Arizona
(5.1-4.3)...................
If you like Arizona to win the game outright, you could probably get your best price over
at Telebet.com, which is offering the Wildcats at +165. If you like Duke and want to play
the money line, you can lay -170 at Intertops.
Of course - and this goes without saying - the numbers are subject to change. And some of
them have probably changed while I was writing this. For best results, as always, shop
around. And remember, we're just reporting; we don't necessarily endorse any of the
sportsbooks mentioned here.
Best of luck tonight.
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