Blue Devils take on Terps in Durham

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/11/2012 - Durham, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coming off their biggest win of the season, the 10th-ranked Duke Blue Devils return to Cameron Indoor Stadium, as they play host to the Maryland Terrapins in ACC action this afternoon.

Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devils recorded a thrilling 85-84 win in Chapel Hill over arch rival North Carolina on Wednesday and in the process created a three-way tie atop the ACC standings with UNC and Florida State at 7-2. Usually a safe haven, Duke has dropped two of its last three games in Durham.

Mark Turgeon's first season in College Park has certainly produced its share of ups and downs. The Terrapins are five games over .500 overall at 14-9, but just 4-5 in conference play. Maryland has dropped five of its last seven games but does enter this contest off a 64-62 road win at Clemson.

Duke owns a 111-61 series advantage overall and has won the last four meetings. In addition, the Blue Devils have won four straight in Durham, with Maryland's last win at Duke coming in 2007.

The Terrapins lack a great deal of scoring punch at a meager 69.1 ppg this season, but ironically boast of the ACC's top scoring threat in guard Terrell Stoglin, who is averaging 22.0 ppg. Stoglin, who has a team-high 63 three- pointers to his credit, has scored in double figures in 22 of the 23 games this season, including reaching the 20-point mark 17 times. His backcourt mate Sean Mosley is a distant second in the scoring column at 10.4 ppg. James Padgett (9.0 ppg. 5.8 rpg) is the top option in the frontcourt.

The Terps led by 14 points with just under eight minutes left, but needed to hold off Clemson to earn a two-point win. Stoglin was once again unstoppable, netting a game-high 27 points. The Terps shot a impressive .489 from the floor, the second-best mark in ACC play this year. Mosley once again played Robin to Stoglin's Batman, finishing with 16 points.

Freshman Austin Rivers drilled a three-pointer and ended North Carolina's 31- game homecourt winning streak, shocking the Chapel Hill faithful in attendance. Rivers was certainly not intimidated in his first Duke/North Carolina clash, hitting six three-pointers and finishing with a game-high 29 points. Ryan Kelly and Seth Curry added 15 points apiece, while Mason Plumlee finished with eight points and 14 rebounds.

The Blue Devils bring a balanced offensive attack into their games, averaging a steady 80.0 ppg, on .480 shooting. The scoring is spread out with four players currently in double figures, led by Rivers' 15.1 ppg. Curry and Kelly provide perimeter depth and are tied for second at 12.7 ppg each. Mason Plumlee is the resident muscle in the paint at 11.5 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.

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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.

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.