Points From Stephen Season

Basketball Betting Lines

Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It wasn't the homecoming he would have liked but win or lose these days Indiana coach Frank Vogel has made Pacers basketball relevant again. Vogel, who grew up in Wildwood Crest, a Jersey shore town about 70 miles southeast of Philadelphia, brought his club into the City of Brotherly Love on Monday and came up a little short against a Sixers team that, much like his own, is one of the most improved in the Eastern Conference.

 

Collins is hardly the only one that has been impressed by what Vogel has put together in Indy. The coach, who once idolized former Sixers great Maurice Cheeks as a child, has taken the latest club that revolted against Jim O'Brien and quickly turned it from lottery team to playoff contender to postseason gimmee.

 

The next stop is title contender.

 

The Pacers, of course, named Vogel, 38, their interim coach last season but most regarded his ascension as a stop-gap measure. Indiana was going nowhere and Vogel was viewed as nothing more than a seat-warmer for the next big name Larry Bird became enamored with.

 

Instead Vogel changed the fortunes of the club when he took over for the surly O'Brien, piloting the Pacers to a 20-18 mark and a playoff berth for the first time since 2006, a competitive five-game affair with the mighty Chicago Bulls.

 

O'Brien, of course, was and for that matter still is a brilliant X's and O's guy but he could never see the forest for the trees at any of his NBA stops. A Cousins-Westphal type feud isn't even tabloid fodder for an O'Brien coached club -- it's almost expected. In fact, through all the coaching changes that come and go every year in the NBA, O'Brien was the only one who was once cited for not getting along with the administrative help. Yep, this is a guy who can alienate the secretary in the ticket department.

 

The result is an impressive early season record of 6-3 and expectations for similar success throughout the season. The Pacers are still clearly a step below the toast of the Central Division, the Bulls, but the addition of former All-Star David West to a core that features Granger, talented center Roy Hibbert, explosive point guard Darren Collison and lengthy two Paul George has Vogel thinking his team could make some noise.

 

"Stephen will continue to receive treatment and undergo rehabilitation therapy. He will be cleared to play whenever he is able to pass a functionality test on his right ankle."

 

The Davidson product had issues with the same ankle last season but still played 74 games and averaged 18.6 points, 5.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds for Golden State.

 

The 31-year-old has missed the last five games. He totaled 10.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the first three contests this season.

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NFL Football Betting : Odds on NFL Division to Win the Super Bowl

NFL Super Bowl Betting

The AFC South and the NFC East are the favorite divisions to have the next Super Bowl champ among them in the NFL betting odds. But more down to the point, these football odds are in favor of the Indianapolis Colts, by far the strongest team in the AFC South, and the Dallas Cowboys of the NFC East.

Most sports fans would agree that these two teams top the list to win it all before the season even begins. In the BetUS Sportsbook football futures, the Colts are +800 in the odds to win the Super Bowl, while the Cowboys are sitting at +1000 and the Super Bowl XLIV champions New Orleans Saints at +900. In the AFC South, the Colts won the division for five straight years after the 2002 realignment, before the Tennessee Titans won it in 2008. But the Colts came back strong in 2009 to win the division again en route to the Super Bowl. The Cowboys are the favorite to win the NFC East, as well as to advance far into the post season. The Cowboys won the division last season before their horrendous loss in the NFC Divisional playoff to Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. But the ‘Boys will take that loss humbly and be ready for the playoffs this time around.

The NFC South is also very strong, at +600 in the NFL futures, considering that it is home to the defending Super Bowl champions. However, some predictions have the Atlanta Falcons with possibilities of claiming the divisional title this season in place of the Saints, as no team has won back-to-back division championships since the division realignment took place. Let’s not overlook the AFC North at +500. As TO goes to Cincinnati to join Chad OchoCinco and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, this team looks to claim the division title again. And it is likely they will do so. The Bengals lost in the AFC Wild Card spot in a hard-fought battle against the New York Jets last season. Lest not forget the Pittsburgh Steelers, the XLII Super Bowl Champions… All these teams present interesting odds and matchups for the upcoming season, but the safest and surest bet seems to be with the Colts in the AFC South and the Cowboys in the NFC East. Play this weekly NFL Football Contestto see if you can win.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.