Siena captures third straight MAAC title

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/08/2010 - Albany, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edwin Ubiles recorded a game-high 27 points along with seven rebounds to help the Siena Saints past the Fairfield Stags in overtime, 72-65, to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament Championship.

Alex Franklin and Ryan Rossiter had double-doubles as Franklin scored 22, Rossiter scored 10, and they both grabbed 12 rebounds for the Saints (27-6), who will head into the NCAA Tournament having won their last five games.

This will mark Siena's third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament and third straight MAAC Tournament title.

Derek Needham led Fairfield (22-10) with 16 points as Anthony Johnson added 14 and 13 rebounds. The Stags were looking for their fifth tournament crown.

In the extra period, Siena took a four-point lead at 64-60 after a Franklin and Rossiter bucket, with Rossiter's bucket coming with 3:44 left. Fairfield got within two at 64-62, but was unable to recapture the lead as the Saints scored six straight to extend the advantage to 70-64, including two Ubiles free throws with 30 seconds remaining to cement the win.

"What we didn't do is panic when we had our ears pinned back," said Sienna coach Frank McCaffery. "We got back into it at the end of the first half. Our goal obviously in the second half was to try and disrupt their rhythm."

Down 11 at halftime, Siena fought back to tie the game at 53 with 7:46 to go and took its first lead since early in the game on a Ronald Moore three- pointer with 2:07 remaining. Siena had a 60-58 edge at that point, but Fairfield's Colin Nickerson converted on a fastbreak layup with 55 second left to tie the game at 60-60.

"I thought we had some costly turnovers when I thought we controlled the whole first half," Fairfield coach Ed Cooley said. "I thought we had three, or four or five straight turnovers that led to runouts. Really, that was the game."

With the game tied at 11, Fairfield mounted a 21-8 run that gave the Stags a 32-19 lead with 6:30 left in the opening half. Siena then scored five straight, but couldn't get within 10 as Fairfield went into halftime leading 39-28.

Game Notes

Siena has won 38 straight games at home...Siena shot 44.1 percent over the course of the game while Fairfield made 41.5 percent of its shots.

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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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