02/09/2010 - Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kelley Cain scored a career-high 19 points and No. 5 Tennessee came back from an eight-point deficit to top Vanderbilt, 69-60, to sweep the regular season series.
Glory Johnson, Angie Bjorklund and Alyssia Brewer each contributed 10 points for the Lady Vols (21-2, 9-1 SEC), who upended the Commodores in Knoxville on January 17.
Merideth Marsh led Vanderbilt (17-7, 6-5) with 19 points. Jence Rhoads added 15, and Lauren Lueders 12.
Vandy led 28-20 with 4:08 left in the opening half, but the Lady Vols scored the final eight of the half. Tennessee fell behind 47-40 with 8:41 left, but then ripped off a decent run to grab a 54-51 lead following a pair of Alicia Manning layups.
Rhoads made a pair of free throws for a 58-57 deficit for Vandy inside three minutes, but Tennessee ran off the next 11 points to seal the victory.
Tennessee made 14-of-26 field goal attempts in the second half, compared to 9-of-25 for Vandy.
<< Stewart, Yip help Avs upend Blues
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Stewart had a goal and two assists as the
Colorado Avalanche downed the St. Louis Blues, 5-2, at Pepsi Center.
Brandon Yip had two goals while Paul Stastny added a goal and an assist for
the Avalanche
<< Jayhawks capitalize on turnovers to top Texas
Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marcus Morris posted 18 points, eight rebounds
and four assists, as No. 1 Kansas overcame a poor shooting performance by
clamping down defensively on the 14th-ranked Longhorns to earn an 80-68 Big 12
victory
<< Carter and Orlando stay hot with win over Hornets
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vince Carter scored 34 of his season-high 48
points in the second half, rallying Orlando to a second straight victory,
123-117 over the New Orleans Hornets.
Carter scored nine during a 19-0 rally in
<< Muse, Boston College top BU in Beanpot final
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barry Almeida picked up the game-winning goal
early in the third period, as Boston College held off a late Boston University
rally to post a 4-3 victory in the championship game of the 58th annual
Beanpot
Ducks win 10th in a row at home, snap LA's victory streak >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Corey Perry had a goal and two assists to lead
the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-2 win over Los Angeles and snap the Kings' franchise-
best nine-game winning streak.
Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne each had a goal and an
Gasol carries short-handed Lakers over Spurs >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pau Gasol had a spectacular all-around game
with 21 points, 19 rebounds, a season-high eight assists and five blocked
shots, pacing the Los Angeles Lakers to a 101-89 win over the San Antonio
Spurs.
Mavs send Warriors to ninth straight loss; Ellis hurts knee >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Terry made 6-of-9 three-point tries,
finishing with a season-high 36 points, along with nine assists and six
rebounds, as Dallas took control in the fourth quarter in a 127-117 victory
over Go
Berdych, Dent victorious in San Jose >>
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and unseeded
American Taylor Dent were first-round winners Monday at the $600,000 SAP Open.
Dent topped fellow countryman Alex Bogomolov Jr, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) on the indoor
hardco
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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