Cougars and Miners duke it out for C-USA crown

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Tulsa, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two programs trying to claim their first Conference USA Tournament titles come together at the BOK Center in Tulsa, as the top-seeded and 25th-ranked Texas-El Paso Miners clash with the seventh- seeded Houston Cougars.

One of the hottest teams in the nation, UTEP won the C-USA regular-season title with a 15-1 finish and is now gunning for a sweep of the hardware. The Miners kicked off their tourney run with an easy 76-54 win over ninth-seeded UCF in the quarterfinals before disposing of fifth-seeded Tulsa, 75-61, in the semifinal-round yesterday. UTEP now enters its first C-USA Tournament finals with a 16-game win streak, which is tied for the second-longest run in school history.

Houston went just 7-9 during the regular season, but turned it on in the postseason with three straight wins to reach the finals for the first time since 2007. After taking care of 10th-seeded East Carolina (93-80) in the first round, the Cougars ousted four-time defending champion and second-seeded Memphis, 66-65, in a quarterfinal thriller. Houston continued its quest for its first-ever C-USA Tournament championship with a 74-66 triumph of sixth- seeded Southern Miss in the semifinals last night.

With regard to the all-time series, UTEP holds a 10-7 edge over Houston, although the Cougars did hand the Miners' their most recent and only league loss with a 75-65 decision back on January 13th. The Miners, however, did get some payback a few weeks later with a 65-58 win.

The Cougars outscored Southern Miss, 22-10, at the foul line on their way to a 74-66 win last night. Houston did a nice job protecting the ball with only six turnovers, and it also held the Golden Eagles to 38.5 percent shooting from the floor. Aubrey Coleman continued his outstanding play with 27 points in the win, while Kelvin Lewis chipped in with 12 points. The nation's leading scorer, Coleman is averaging 25.6 ppg in this tourney and 26.0 ppg for the season. He also leads the team in seals (87), to go with 7.3 rpg. Lewis, who has scored in double figures in all three postseason games, forms a solid one- two punch with 14.9 ppg.

The Miners connected on 51.9 percent of their attempts from the field and 16- of-23 at the charity stripe, as they topped Tulsa yesterday. UTEP also forced 18 turnovers, generating 20 points off those giveaways. Randy Culpepper led the way with a 21-point effort, while Arnett Moultrie tacked on 18 points. The C-USA Player of the Year, Culpepper paces the Miners in scoring (17.9 ppg) as well as steals (55) for the season. Derrick Caracter, who had 10 points and six boards yesterday, adds 13.7 ppg and 8.0 rpg to the lineup. Jeremy Williams and Moultrie chip in with 10.3 and 10.0 ppg, respectively, and they also combine for 11.5 rpg.

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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.

Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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