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Nebraska hires UTEP's SadlerBasketball Betting Lines08/08/2006 - LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -Doc Sadler was introduced as Nebraska's new men's basketball coach Tuesday, a week after Barry Collier resigned to become Butler's athletic director. The 46-year-old Sadler, who spent the past two seasons at Texas-El Paso, takes over a program that hasn't won a conference championship since sharing the Big Seven title in 1949-50 and is winless in six NCAA tournament appearances. The Cornhuskers haven't been to the tournament since 1998. ``The state of Nebraska deserves us to be in the NCAA tournament, and we want it to happen not next year, not two years from now. We want it to happen now,'' Sadler said. In six years under Collier, the Huskers were 89-91, never finished higher than sixth in the Big 12 and made two NIT appearances. Sadler went 48-18 at UTEP, making the NCAA tournament in his first season with the Miners. Last season UTEP was 21-10 and lost to Michigan in the first round of the NIT. ``I was told that if you could ever get the opportunity to coach at the University of Nebraska, you better do everything you can,'' Sadler said. ``I had a great job. I don't know if people realize that. UTEP is a great basketball job. Great fans, everything. Great tradition. But this is Nebraska, man.'' Sadler signed a six-year contract that, not including incentives, pays him $700,000 annually, athletic director Steve Pederson said. Sadler's contract at UTEP paid him a base salary of $300,000 a year. Pederson and associate athletic director Marc Boehm met with Sadler in Los Angeles last week and again in Denver over the weekend before offering the job. ``He's got a great recruiting reputation, but what everybody said is that he's just a grinder,'' Pederson said. ``You get in there and you work and you work and you work. If everybody else goes to bed at midnight, you go to bed at 2 a.m. You can see that so clearly with him.'' Senior point guard Charles Richardson Jr. said the six returning players who are on campus have embraced Sadler's promise to play an up-tempo style. ``When I heard that, a light went on in my head,'' Richardson said. ``First thing I thought was that I've got to get in shape because I have to be prepared to play 40 minutes and run up and down 94 feet.'' Sadler's task at Nebraska was made more difficult with Monday's announcement that the team's best player, center Aleks Maric, was leaving the program. Maric averaged 10.9 points and 8.1 rebounds as a sophomore. He said he would transfer or play professionally in Europe. Sadler said he would try to contact Maric and ask whether he would reconsider. Sadler joined UTEP as an assistant coach in 2003-04, helping Billy Gillespie engineer an NCAA record-tying turnaround by going from six wins the previous year to 24 and UTEP's first NCAA tournament berth since 1992. Sadler was promoted to when Gillespie left for Texas A&M. Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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NEW YORK RANGERS-Signed D Michael Sauer.PHOENIX COYOTES-Announced a one-year affiliation agreement with Phoenix of the ECHL.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be publis
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UNDATED: the game. >>
Betting the NFL preseasonRule 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. |
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