Commodores and Bulldogs do battle is SEC Tournament semifinals

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Mississippi State Bulldogs and the 20th- ranked Vanderbilt Commodores are set to collide in the semifinal round of the 2010 SEC Tournament.

Tomorrow, the winner of this contest will take on either Kentucky or Tennessee for the championship.

The Commodores struggled early against Georgia in yesterday's quarterfinal game, but the team proved superior in the second half and knocked off the Bulldogs by a 78-66 final. Vanderbilt, the second seed from the East Division, earned its lone SEC Tournament title way back in 1951, by far the longest drought of any of the teams that have won the crown. The Commodores are 30-47 in this event, but this year's team is one of the best in recent memory. Vandy is 24-7 overall and went 12-4 in conference during the regular season.

Mississippi State, the top seed from the West Conference, knocked off Florida yesterday by a 75-69 final in the quarterfinal round. Considering the fact that the club closed out the regular season with back-to-back losses, fans of the Bulldogs were happy to see the solid performance against the Gators. MSU, which is 22-10 overall, is the defending champion of this event, as it defeated Tennessee in a 64-61 final in the 2009 title game, and the program has three SEC crowns to its credit. Still, the 26-46 record at this event is poor.

Vanderbilt won its only regular-season meeting with Mississippi State, 75-72, and the Commodores own a 72-43 advantage in the all-time series.

Yesterday, Vanderbilt earned a 43-32 rebounding advantage over Georgia and limited the Bulldogs to 3-of-16 shooting from three-point range, two obvious keys to victory. The Commodores shot an impressive 9-of-18 from three-point range and got solid contributions from several individuals. John Jenkins, a freshman guard, was sensational for Vanderbilt, as he poured in a career-high 25 points on the strength of a 5-of-8 effort from three-point range. Jenkins took the game over in the second stanza, scoring 22 of his points over the final 20 minutes. Jermaine Beal tallied 16 points and six assists, while A.J. Ogilvy registered 10 points. Andre Walker only scored six points, but he did grab 10 rebounds for Vandy. The Commodores are scoring 78.1 ppg while allowing 69.2 ppg to foes. Beal leads the well-balanced club with 14.8 ppg, and Ogilvy checks in with 13.8 ppg and 6.3 rpg. Jeffery Taylor (13.5 ppg) and Jenkins (11.0 ppg) are both talented scorers.

Barry Stewart scored 17 points to lead the Bulldogs to the six-point victory over Florida in the quarterfinal round. Jarvis Varnado added 15 points for Mississippi State, while Ravern Johnson tallied 12 points. Both Dee Bost and Kodi Augustus posted 10 points apiece for the Bulldogs, and the balanced scoring was key to the victory. Mississippi State opened the game with a 10-0 run and led 39-28 at intermission. The squad led by as many 19 points in the second half, but Florida ripped off 14 unanswered points and made the game much closer than it should have been. MSU tied an SEC Tournament record by hitting 10 three-pointers in the contest, as the club finished 10-of-20 from behind the arc. While the Bulldogs suffered a 32-20 rebounding disadvantage in the tilt, they were able to knock down 57.1 percent of their field goal attempts on the night. Overall this season, MSU is scoring 72.8 ppg while limiting opponents to 64.5 ppg. Both Johnson and Varnado entered this tournament averaging 13.5 ppg, but Varnado has gotten most of the attention, especially considering the fact that he recently became the NCAA's all-time leader in blocked shots.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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