No. 4 Kansas tops Texas A&M

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/23/2012 - College Station, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Elijah Johnson scored a team-high 21 points to lead No. 4 Kansas past Texas A&M, 66-58, in the final Big 12 clash between the two schools.

Tyshawn Taylor added 12 points, Jeff Withey contributed 11 and Thomas Robinson had 10 with 13 rebounds for Kansas (23-5, 13-2 Big 12), which earned its fifth straight win.

Khris Middleton netted a game-high 23 points for the Aggies (13-14, 4-11), who are leaving the Big 12 to join the Southeastern Conference next season. David Loubeau and Elston Turner each dropped in 10 points in Texas A&M's sixth loss in seven games.

Kansas held a 31-21 advantage at the break and opened the second half with a 16-5 swing to take its largest lead of the contest, 47-26, on Robinson's three-point play with 13:25 left in the game.

The Aggies, though, would not go quietly, battling back with a 30-13 run over the next 11-plus minutes to close the gap to four, 60-56, with just under two minutes remaining.

Middleton had 11 points and Dash Harris had six in the run, which Harris capped with a shot from beyond the arc.

But Texas A&M would get no closer as the Jayhawks made enough free throws down the stretch and Zach Kinsley's three-pointer that would have brought the Aggies within one with less than 30 seconds left in the game was no good.

Withey grabbed the rebound and sank both foul shots to seal the victory for Kansas.

Johnson netted the game's first five points in a 7-2 run by Kansas to take the early lead, but the Aggies responded with six straight points to take an 8-7 advantage.

The lead changed hands fives times over the next four minutes, with the last exchange starting a 12-0 spurt by the Jayhawks to give them a 25-14 lead with a little over eight minutes left in the half.

Middleton put an end to the run with a three-pointer, but Kansas outscored the Aggies by a mark of 16-4 for the remainder of the half and held a 31-21 advantage at the break.

Texas A&M shot just 29 percent from the floor through the first 20 minutes and Kansas didn't fare much better, shooting 38.7 percent while going 3-for-13 from three-point range.

Game Notes

Kansas has won the last eight meetings between the teams and holds a 19-1 lead in the all-time series, including an 18-1 mark advantage since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996-97...Harris finished the game with eight points for the Aggies...Kansas went 4-for-18 from beyond the arc, while Texas A&M connected on 6-of-18 three-pointers.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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