Sixth-ranked Bears battle Cowboys in Big 12 affair
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02/04/2012 - Stillwater, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The sixth-ranked Baylor Bears will attempt to stay within striking distance in the Big 12 Conference, as they invade Stillwater this afternoon for a conference matchup with the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
The Bears have won three straight games since back-to-back losses to Kansas and Missouri and most recently moved to 7-2 in conference play with a hard- fought 63-60 road win at Texas A&M on Wednesday.
The Cowboys are also coming off a road win, posting an 80-63 win at Texas Tech on Tuesday. With the victory, OSU pulled to an even 11-11 on the season and within one game of .500 in-conference (4-5).
Baylor has won six of the last 10 meetings and is seeking the regular-season sweep after routing the Cowboys in Waco on January 14th, 106-65. Still, Oklahoma State holds a sizable 51-17 lead in the series overall, including a 24-3 mark in Stillwater.
The Bears have shown the ability to win games at either end of the floor and are enjoying a +14.2 scoring margin as a result. The team possesses plenty of scoring punch at 77.4 ppg on a healthy .490 shooting, including .407 from three-point range. Baylor currently has four players averaging double figures. Perry Jones III paces the team in both scoring (14.7 ppg) and rebounding (7.8 rpg). Fellow forwards Quincy Miller (12.6 ppg) and Quincy Acy (12.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg) give the team other options up front. Pierre Jackson has been both a potent scorer (12.6 ppg) and deft distributor (6.0 apg). Brady Heslip is just under double digits (9.7 ppg) getting a big portion of that from behind the arc (team-high 57 three-pointers).
The Bears struggled to find their range in the three-point win over Texas A&M, converting just .397 from the floor, including a .333 mark from behind the arc. Jones led the way with 15 points. Jackson tacked on 14 points in the win, while Acy chipped in with 11 points. Miller just missed a double-double, finishing with nine points and 11 rebounds.
OSU ended a brutal 14-game conference losing streak with a big win over Texas Tech this week. Markel Brown played a huge role in the win, erupting for a career-high 30 points, going 7-of-12 from the floor and a perfect 13-of-13 from the free-throw line. Le'Bryan Nash added 16 points to the cause, while Keiton Page finished with 10 points. Texas Tech hit 50 percent of its shots in the game, but the Cowboys were able to counter by going a whopping 33-of-35 from the charity stripe in the game.
Offensive proficiency hasn't been a strength for Oklahoma State this year. The Cowboys are averaging a modest 67.0 ppg, shooting a mere .418 from the floor overall. In addition, the team suffers from a -3.6 rebounding margin. Page leads the way at the offensive end at 14.2 ppg, thanks in large part to his 53 made three-pointers. Nash is just a freshman, but has shown flashes of brilliant play and comes into this contest averaging 13.3 ppg. Brown rounds out the top scorers on the roster at 10.0 ppg.
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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