Penn State comes calling on No. 11 Michigan State
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
02/08/2012 - East Lansing, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams at opposite ends of the Big Ten Conference standings meet in East Lansing this evening, as the Penn State Nittany Lions challenge the 11th-ranked Michigan State Spartans at the Breslin Center.
Penn State comes in with a record of 10-14, which includes a 2-9 mark in conference play. The Nittany Lions are in the midst of a four-game losing streak, and they've won only two games since posting back-to-back victories over Mount St. Mary's and Cornell just prior to Christmas. PSU is a woeful 1-8 in true road tilts this season, and has lost its last seven bouts as the visitor.
Michigan State is 18-5 on the year, and 7-3 in conference, and the team's record is even more impressive when you consider it started the year 0-2 after losses to ACC powers North Carolina and Duke. The Spartans took care of bitter rival Michigan on Sunday, 64-54, giving the team three victories in it last four outings. MSU is a perfect 14-0 at home this season, and has won 15 straight at the Breslin Center going back to last year.
Michigan State owns a commanding 29-7 advantage in the all-time series with Penn State, and that includes an 18-1 mark in East Lansing. However, the Lions have won two of the last three meetings, the most recent of which being a 61-48 decision in the semifinals of the 2011 Big Ten Conference Tournament.
Despite being the lowest scoring team in the Big Ten (61.8 ppg), Penn State has one of the more productive players in the conference on its roster in the form of junior guard Tim Frazier. The 6-1 native of Houston, Texas is averaging 18.3 points and 6.3 assists per game, although he is shooting just 40.7 percent from the field and only 28.8 percent from three-point range. Jermaine Marshall is the Lions' only other double-digit scorer at the moment, but his 10.3 ppg come on just 37.1 percent field goal efficiency. As a team, PSU is hitting a mere 38.3 percent of its total shots, 30.8 percent from downtown, and only 66.7 percent of its free throws. Conversely, its foes are 42.8 percent accurate from the floor, 36.4 percent from beyond the arc and 74.2 percent at the foul line. The Lions do however, own favorable margins in both rebounding (+3.7) and turnovers (+1.5). Frazier was once again on top of his game in netting 23 points, but Penn State still managed to lose for the fourth straight time and the seventh time in the last eight games with a 77-64 setback at Iowa last Saturday.
Hot shooting and a dominating rebounding effort proved to be the difference in Michigan State's recent win over Michigan, as the Spartans hit 52.2 percent of their field goal attempts and easily won the battle on the boards, 40-16. Draymond Green logged a double-double consisting of 14 points and 16 rebounds, while Keith Appling and Branden Dawson pitched in with 10 points apiece for MSU. The club's defensive effort held the Wolverines to 39.6 percent field goal efficiency, and UM star guard Tim Hardaway, Jr. to just four points. As it is pretty much every year under the watchful eye of head coach Tom Izzo, Michigan State is one of the top rebounding teams in the nation, and it comes into this contest sporting the best rebounding margin in the Big Ten at +10.5. Through 23 games, Green is the team's leading scorer with 14.8 ppg, and he adds 10.5 rpg, 3.5 apg, 34 steals and 24 blocks to his impressive stat line. Appling is the only other double-digit scorer presently, netting 11.9 ppg, and he is the active assists leader with 3.8 apg. As a collective unit, the Spartans are putting up 73.7 ppg while allowing a mere 59.1 ppg. They are hitting their total shots at a 47.7 percent clip, while the opposition does so at just 37.9 percent, which includes a poor 29.3 percent effort from long range.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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