Few experts, including us, felt the Blue Devils were going to be playing for the national title in Indianapolis this season. They lost by double digits at North Carolina St. on January 20th and got pumeled at Georgetown this season, but Krzyzewski’s team has turned it on after winning the ACC Tournament. Duke failed to cover the spread in all three of those games, but the Blue Devils have now covered in all five of their NCAA Tournament games.

Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith crushed West Virginia, 78-57, and hooked our members up as 2-point favorites.  The ‘over’ hit when the 135 combined points eclipsed 131-point closing total.

Scheyer scored 23 points while dishing out six assists and had zero turnovers. Singler score 21 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists. Smith also finished with 19 points, with six assists to zero turnovers.  What’s more, Duke set a Final Four record by bottoming 13 attempts from 3-point range. The WVU defense could not recover.

On the other side of the bracket, Butler beat Michigan St. 52-50 in a real defensive battle. Even though the Bulldogs had to play at crunch time without two of its best players in Matt Howard (concussion) and Shelvin Mack (thigh cramps), they collected the victory thanks to Gordon Hayward’s mad skills.

Hayward scored 10 of his team’s first 11 points, knocking down his first four shots.  He would go on to finish with 19 points, nine rebounds, two steals and a pair of blocked shots. His money ball at the 1:40 mark put the Bulldogs ahead by a 50-46 score, and he sealed the victory by rebounding an intentional miss by Michigan St. at the foul line with two ticks left.

Las Vegas sportsbooks opened Duke (34-5 straight up, 23-12-2 against the spread) as a five-point favorite with a total of 129. However, the number was up to 7 ½ at most spots as of early this morning.

Who covers the spread in the 2010 NCAA Basketball Championship Game?  It’s very easy to find out.  Try FiveStarPick.com tonight for just ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking college and pro basketball winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

The pros at FiveStarPick.com are looking forward to tonight’s Top 25 matchup between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Kansas State Wildcats.  Las Vegas sportsbooks list Kansas as 3.5-point road favorites.  The last time Kansas St. was in this situation, it knocked off then number one Texas, so the Wildcats will be looking to make it two straight home wins over top five teams this season.  Big wins like the one over Texas usually lead to big letdown games.  It was no different for Kansas State as they then suffered a home loss against Oklahoma St., but they came back and defeated the 24th ranked Baylor Bears on Tuesday by two.

The Jayhawks have won 25 of the last 26 games played in Manhattan and this is arguably one of the best Kansas teams ever to step foot in the Wildcat Arena. Kansas won its first rivalry game this week as it easily took out Missouri on Monday night to extend its home court winning streak to a national best 54 games. This will be the first quality road opponent since its first and only loss of the season at Tennessee three weeks ago. A victory here likely puts the Jayhawks back into the number one spot in the polls. Balance and depth have been the catalyst for Kansas through 20 games, nine different players have led the team in steals, seven in points and six in assists. The Jayhawks rank in the top three in all but three Big XII statistical categories.

The Wildcats are an attacking team that averages 15.8 offensive rebounds per game and they go to the free throw line 33.8 times per game (#1 in the nation). The Jayhawks meanwhile are sixth in the nation in rebounding margin and they allow only 19.2 free throw attempts by the opposition per game. Kansas also has a huge edge in assist/turnover ratio, 1.47 to 0.97.  Something’s gotta give tonight and FiveStarPick.com has the answer.

Who covers the spread in this Top 25 college basketball matchup?  It’s very easy to find out.  Try FiveStarPick.com tonight for just ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking college and pro basketball winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

The pros at FiveStarPick.com are looking forward to another winning NFL postseason against the spread and today we start with the AFC Wildcard game between the New York Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals.  Las Vegas sportsbooks list the Bengals as 3-point home favorites with a total of 34.

The Jets got into the playoffs by beating the Colts and Bengals in the final two weeks of the season, however both opponents rested many of their starters including Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer.

The Jets were an underdog just five times this season, going 3-2 Against The Spread in those spots, but since Week 5, they have been listed as a ‘dog only twice. Jets’ backers started the season 3-0 Against The Spread, but New York failed to cover in six of its next seven; the lone victory coming at Oakland in a 38-0 shutout. In the final five weeks of the season, the Jets hooked up their backers again by covering four times.

Cincinnati finished the regular season 0-7 Against The Spread as a favorite, but the Bengals did most of their damage against division opponents, finishing 4-2 Against the spread in the AFC North. The Bengals two Spread losses both came against the Browns, including an overtime victory at Cleveland.  The Bengals finished their season going 1-6 Against The Spread in their last seven games.

The catalyst for this Bengals team is Carson Palmer.  Palmer completed his fourth season with at least 3,000 yards passing (3,094), but threw for over 300 yards just once this season, in the 27-21 loss at San Diego. The Bengals running game got a boost this year with running back Cedric Benson who finished the regular season with 1,251 yards and six touchdowns.  And then there is Chad Ochocinco, everyone knows he has talent, but if he could just shut up for 5 minutes.

The Jets will be starting rooking QB Mark Sanchez.  Sanchez is only the third rookie quarterback to start a playoff game since 2000, the others being Atlanta’s Matt Ryan and Baltimore’s Joe Flacco. Ryan fell to Arizona in his debut, while Flacco led the Ravens past the Dolphins, 27-6.  Not only will the Jets be starting a rookie QB, they also have a rookie head coach in Rex Ryan.  Ryan has become the 11th rookie head coach to lead his team to the playoffs since 2000.

Marvin Lewis is making his second career playoff appearance. His first was in the 2005 Wild Card game against the Steelers. The Bengals suffered a 31-17 and Carson Palmer suffered an ACL tear in the first half, ultimately sealing the Bengals fate.

The forecast for today’s game is highs in the 20’s with a slight chance of snow.  Whoever shows up with the best defensive scheme and running attack will win this game.

So who covers the spread in this AFC Wildcard game?  It’s very easy to find out.  Try FiveStarPick.com tonight for just ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking pro football winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

The 2010 college football season comes to a close tonight for the pros at FiveStarPick.com and I have to say that it’s a very sad day for all of us.  We have been working overtime for our members today to analyze tonight’s BCS Championship Game between the Texas Longhorns and the Alabama Crimson Tide and we look forward to another spread winner in tonight’s finale.  Las Vegas Sportsbooks list  Alabama as 4-point favorites with a total of 45. Early action on Alabama pushed the line to as high as 5.5, but the betting public has since moved the line back down to 4 as more money has come in on the Longhorns.

Alabama (13-0 SU, 8-5 Against The Spread) is coming off an emotional win in the SEC Championship game against Florida.  It was the Tide’s best performance of the season as they crushed the Gators, 32-13, at the Georgia Dome. The Tide took the cash as a 5.5-point ‘dog and money-line backers hit a winner with a plus-170 return (risk $100 to get $170).

Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram was the star of the show rushing for 113 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries. He also had two catches totalling 76 yards, one of those a 69-yard screen pass in the second quarter.  Junior quarterback Greg McElroy came into his own as well completing 12-of-18 passes for 232 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers. 

McElroy will need to take care of the football tonight if he expects to win a National Title tonight for the Tide.  McElroy has a 17/4 TD-INT ratio and has completed 61.1 percent of his passes for 2,450 yards on the season. Ingram rushed 249 times for 1,542 yards and 15 touchdowns, averaging 6.2 yards per carry on his season. Through the air, Julio Jones is McElroy’s top target and has 42 catches for 573 yards and four touchdowns against SEC secondaries.

Texas (13-0 straight up, 5-7-1 against the spread) had its hands full against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game. The Longhorns managed a 13-12 win thanks to a 46-yard field goal as time expired. The win didn’t come without drama as Colt McCoy threw an incomplete pass with the clock at double zero.  The Cornhuskers began to rush the field to celebrate the upset, when all of a sudden, a second mysteriously reappeared on the clock. That was all the Longhorns needed. Regardless, Nebraska backers easily cashed as 14 point dogs.

Texas QB Colt McCoy was not on his game that night. He connected on 20-of-36 throws for 186 yards, but threw three interceptions. On the flip side, the Longhorn defense was incredible, limiting Nebraska to 106 yards of total offense.

But we expect McCoy to be back on form tonight.  Barring the Big 12 Championship Game, McCoy has connected on 70.5 percent of his passes for 3,512 yards with a 27/12 touchdown-to-interception ratio this season.  He also has senior wide receiver Jordan Shipley as his #1 target.  Shipley has 106 receptions for 1,363 yards and 11 touchdowns. It won’t be easy for Shipley tonight as he will have to face Alabama’s Javier Arenas, who is one of the SEC premier cover corners.

Now let’s talk trends…During Mac Brown’s tenure in Austin, Texas has been an underdog 16 times and have gone 11-5 against the spread. As for Alabama, it has a 7-1 Against The Spread record in its last eight games as a single-digit favorite. The Tide has seen the ‘under’ go 5-2-1 in its last eight games, while Texas has seen the ‘over’ go 3-1 in the Longhorns’ last four.

If you are wondering who will cover the spread in the BCS Championship, try FiveStarPick.com and eliminate the guesswork. For only $19.99 you can test us out and see if our talent for winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

It is a bitter sweet day for us at FiveStarPick.com.  We couldn’t be more excited about watching tonight’s 2009 NCAA Basketball Championship, but this game marks the end of betting on college hoops this year.  So our advice to you tonight is to sit back, order your fat ass a pizza, have a few cold ones and tell your woman that there will be no Grey’s Anatomy tonight!!! 

Las Vegas sportsbooks list North Carolina (33-4 straight up, 16-19 against the spread) as 7.5-point favorites with the total coming in around 154.

Michigan State (31-6 SU, 21-12-1 ATS) is coming off an upset victory over UConn, 82-73, as a 4.5-point dog in Saturday’s 2009 Final Four.  Izzo has brought to the Final Four a team that exudes his personality the best.  The Spartans fight for every loose ball, they crush the boards and they play tenacious D.  For example, UConn’s A.J. Price had been challenging the nation’s premier defenses all year long, but on Saturday, Price was 5-20 from the floor.  Coincidence? Not hardly.  UConn was bigger and stronger than Michigan St., but the Spartans were better and most importantly, they wanted it more.  As Rudy Tomjanovich said about the Houston Rockets…”never underestimate the heart of a champion.” 

North Carolina was made the clear-cut favorite to win the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday.  The Tar Heels have dominated all callers as evidenced by their 5-0 ATS record in the Tournament.   UNC got on top of Villanova early and never let up.  The Wildcats tried to make a run in the second half, trimming the deficit to 5, but Danny Green answered with a long 3 and ‘Nova’s momentum was brought to a quick close.  The Heels ended up with the win and the cover, 83-69, as seven-point favorites.   Ty Lawson scored 22 points, had 8 assists, 7 boards a pair of steals.  Wayne Ellington added 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists.  And Tyler Hansbrough had 18 points, 11 boards and four steals.

Now let’s talk trends…The Tar Heels are 4-5 ATS as single-digit favorite this year, but they have cashed in all three such spots in this 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Michigan St. is 5-2 both SU and ATS as a single digit dog.

In tonight’s matchup you will see UNC run the floor at every opportunity behind the skills of Ty Lawson and the Heels will shoot the 3 any chance they get with Lawson, Ellington and Green.  Michigan St. will play the Heels tight with terrific defense and rebounding.  This is going to be a great game.

So who do YOU think is going to cover the spread in the 2009 NCAA Basketball Championship Game?  We would like to hear your thoughts, so leave us a Comment by clicking the Comment button below.  Or better yet, why not try our service out for 2-days for only $19.99 and see if our talent for picking the 2009 NCAA Basketball Championship against the spread exceeds your expectations?  With over 3400 active members, you owe it to yourself to find out why FiveStarPick.com is the most accurate sports handicapping service on the net.  By the way, our dime bettors were up over $100K in 2008.  Join today and start winning tonight.

Jimmy the Geek – FiveStarPick.com