posted March 10, 2009 at 18:45 EST in NCAA B Betting Trends
Conference USA Tournament - Memphis has a Free Pass
by Mike Rose
COLLEGE BASKETBALL BETTING – XBOX SIMULATION
Conference USA Tournament
March Madness Brackets Available Now!
The Memphis Tigers are the odds-on favorite to win Conference USA and snag the automatic bid to the NCAA March Madness Tournament. Though sports betting fans are all looking to try to hit a homerun with one of the underdogs in the C-USA Tournament, taming the Tigers and their 57-game conference winning streak will be a difficult task. Will anyone be able to steal the bid away from Memphis? Here’s BetUS Sportsbook’s XBOX simulation of the tournament.
2009 Conference USA Tournament Bracket Simulation
The C-USA Tournament kicked off with a classic showdown between the #6 Central Florida Knights (17-13, 15-9 ATS) and the #11 Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles (14-16, 7-18 ATS). The teams battled for 55 minutes, but the Knights prevailed in the third overtime, ultimately winning 101-96. F Jermaine Taylor, the conference’s top scorer, poured in a whopping 51 to lead UCF to its first round victory. The #5 Houston Cougars (19-19, 11-14-1 ATS), #9 East Carolina Pirates (13-16, 8-13 ATS), and #10 Rice Owls (9-21, 12-13-1 ATS) all advanced to the second round of the tournament.
If there were any doubts about the Memphis Tigers (28-3, 20-10 ATS) intentions in this tournament, they were quickly wiped away with a second round romp of the ECU Pirates. HC John Calipari’s squad jumped out to a 42-18 halftime lead and ended up knocking ECU out by a 98-51 final count. Their next opponent would be Houston. The Cougars battled tooth and nail with the UTEP Miners (19-11, 16-10-1 ATS) from start to finish in its second round CBB betting match-up. In the end, the Cougs used an Aubrey Coleman lay-up with 0:28 to pull out the 69-67 win.
In the other half of the bracket, the #2 Tulsa Golden Hurricane (22-9, 12-13 ATS) had their hands full with 10th seeded Rice. The Owls completely erased an eight-point halftime deficit to take a 59-58 lead with just under eight minutes to go, but fell apart down the stretch and was knocked out of the tournament by the final score of 72-61. F Robert Vaden of the #3 UAB Blazers (21-10, 14-16 ATS) and Taylor of the #6 Knights had an epic showdown of their own in the second round of the C-USA Tourney. Taylor led all scorers with 36, but in the end, Vaden, who ended the day with 27 points, hit a three-pointer and four clutch free throws down the stretch to propel the Blazers to a 78-73 win.
In the first semi-final, Memphis roared to another easy victory. G Tyreke Evans logged a triple-double, scoring 18 points to go with 11 boards and 12 assists to lead the Tigers to the 81-62 win over the Cougs. The other semi was packed with drama. Tulsa led the Blazers 42-28 at halftime, and led by as many as 18 early in the second half, but UAB refused to be denied. It went on 11-0 and 12-3 runs in a thrilling second stanza, and kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a 69-67 win over the Golden Hurricane.
UAB came out to give Memphis its best shot early, taking a 17-7 lead right out of the gates. However, it just had no answer for the combination of F Robert Dozier and Evans. Dozier kick started a Memphis rally with a pair of dunks with under 10:00 to go in the first half. The second of which gave the Tigers a 27-25 lead they never relinquished. Evans scored 17 in the second half, while Dozier finished the day with a whopping 24 rebounds. It all added up to a 77-61 victory that sent the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament and ran their conference winning streak to a stunning 59 games.
