20th-ranked Sun Devils set sights on Beavers

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/08/2009 - Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 20th-ranked Arizona State Sun Devils return to the friendly confines of Wells Fargo Arena this evening, as they welcome the Oregon State Beavers to Tempe for a Pac-10 tussle.

Herb Sendek's Sun Devils are a perfect 6-0 at home this season and are 21-5 at Wells Fargo Arena over the past two campaigns. The team however, is coming off a split of its first two conference matchups, whipping Stanford on the road last Thursday (90-60), before falling to California in Berkeley last weekend (81-71). The loss was just the second this year for ASU, which had a eight- game win streak come to a close.

The Beavers opened the 2008-09 season with four straight losses, but since then, the team has won six of its last eight games to pull even at 6-6. OSU also opened league play a week ago and like the Sun Devils, split a pair of games, losing at UCLA (69-46), before salvaging the trip to Los Angeles two days later with a 62-58 overtime victory at USC. The victory snapped a dreadful 21-game losing streak in regular season Pac-10 play for the Beavers.

The Beavers lead the series with the Sun Devils by a count of 38-33, but it was ASU which swept the season series a year ago.

The Beavers have turned things around this year thanks to solid play at the defensive end of the floor. OSU is allowing just 61.6 ppg this year, as foes are shooting just .425 from the floor. Offensively, the team is generating a rather low average of 62.6 ppg, but the Beavers take full advantage of each trip up and down the floor, hitting on a solid .488 from the field. The team does have one of the conference's top offensive threats in Calvin Haynes, who is delivering on 58.5 percent of his shots, leading the team with nearly 18 points per outing (17.8). Omari Johnson ranks second in scoring at 10.9 ppg and leads the team with 5.7 rpg. The Beavers once again shot the ball very well (especially in the second half) in their win over USC, as the team converted 50 percent from the floor overall, and 7-of-15 from behind the arc. Roeland Schaftenaar led the way with 18 points. Haynes was a close second, coming off the bench with 16 points. Johnson finished off the double-digit scorers with 11 points.

The Sun Devils have been highly successful at both ends of the floor this season and are currently enjoying a +16.3 scoring margin. The team is shooting a stellar .510 from the field (nearly 40 percent from three-point range), leading to a healthy 76.1 ppg. The defensive effort has been equally impressive, holding opponents to a tad over 40 percent shooting and a meager 59.8 ppg. Forward James Harden is once again the focal point of the offensive gameplan, as he is shooting .547 from the floor, including a scorching .438 from three-point range. The result is a hefty 23.4 ppg. What makes Harden even more dangerous is his ability to help out on the boards (6.1 rpg), as well as in the passing lanes (second on the team with 64 assists). Jeff Pendergraph is another option in the frontcourt (14.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg), while the sharpshooting Rihards Kuksiks (10.6 ppg, .510 shooting, .527 from behind the arc) and Ty Abbott (10.2 ppg) add perimeter balance. The Sun Devils fell victim to a very accurate shooting performance from the hometown Golden Bears last weekend, as Cal connected on 58 percent from the floor, including hitting nine three- pointers. The hot shooting spoiled a terrific offensive performance from Harden, who poured in 26 points. Kuksiks and Pendergraph were productive as well, adding 16 points apiece. However, the rest of the team combined for a mere 13 total points in the loss.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

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.

NFL Betting Lines

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