Bears tab Emery as GM
Football Betting Lines
01/28/2012 - Lake Forest, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears announced on Saturday that they have hired Phil Emery as the team's fifth general manager in franchise history.
Emery joins the Bears with 14 years of NFL experience under his belt, including serving the past three seasons as director of college scouting for the Kansas City Chiefs.
This will be Emery's second stint with Chicago. From 1998-2004, he served as an area scout for the team. During that time, the Bears drafted wide receiver Marty Booker, defensive cornerstone Brian Urlacher, cornerback Charles Tillman and linebacker Lance Briggs.
After leaving the Bears, Emery was hired as director of college scouting for the Atlanta Falcons, where he served from 2004-2008.
Over that span, two of the Falcons' three first round draft picks developed into Pro Bowl caliber players, in wide receiver Roddy White and quarterback Matt Ryan.
Emery began his football career as a graduate assistant at Central Michigan from 1981-82. From there, he went on to become the strength and conditioning/offensive line coach at Western New Mexico for three seasons before becoming the defensive line coach at Georgetown College from 1984-85.
He made his final collegiate stop as the director of strength and conditioning and as an associate professor at the U.S. Naval Academy from 1991-98, where the midshipmen took home the Aloha Bowl in 1996.
Emery replaces longtime general manager Jerry Angelo, who was let go earlier this month as part of sweeping changes in the Bears front office after the team got off to a 7-3 start this past season, but lost five of its final six games to finish 8-8, missing the playoffs for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
Columbia, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kim English led all scorers with 22 points as No. 2 Missouri remained undefeated at home with a 63-50 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday. Marcus Denmon added 19 points and six boards and Michael Dixon ch
<< Florida defeats Mississippi State
Gainesville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bradley Beal scored 19 points, Erik Murphy
netted 14 and 14th-ranked Florida ran away with the game in the second half to
take a 69-57 decision over No. 18 Mississippi State on Saturday.
Patric Young add
<< Baylor holds off Texas
Waco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Perry Jones III scored 22 points and pulled down
14 rebounds as No. 6 Baylor held off a late push by Texas to take a 76-71
victory at Ferrell Center.
Quincy Miller added 18 points and Brady Heslip had 11 fo
<< Syracuse holds off West Virginia in controversial finish
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-ranked Syracuse Orange snuck past
the West Virginia Mountaineers, 63-61, in a controversial finish at the
Carrier Dome.
With West Virginia down by two, Darryl Bryant missed a three-pointe
<< Marquette overcomes slow start, edges Villanova
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darius Johnson-Odom scored a game-high 26
points and added six rebounds as No. 17 Marquette came back from 18 down to
defeat Villanova, 82-78, at Wells Fargo Center.
Jae Crowder had 20 points and 12 bo
Ames, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Royce White netted 18 points to go with eight rebounds and five assists as Iowa State pulled off a 72-64 upset of fifth- ranked Kansas on Saturday. Melvin Ejim finished with 15 points and eight r
AZ Alkmaar stumbles at Roda >>
Kerkrade, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AZ Alkmaar failed to regain the top
spot in the Eredivisie on Saturday as the club slumped to a 2-0 defeat at
Roda.
PSV Eindhoven moved two points clear of AZ after a 3-1 victory against Vitess
PSG maintains lead in Ligue 1 with win over Brest >>
Brest, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PSG maintained its three-point lead at the
top of Ligue 1 with a 1-0 win over Brest at the Stade Francis-Le Ble on
Saturday.
It looked as if PSG would comfortably cruise to three points after
Matri brace preserves unbeaten season for Juventus >>
Turin, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alessandro Matri scored twice at Juventus
Stadium on Saturday to help Juventus preserve its unbeaten start to the Serie
A season with a 2-1 defeat of third-place Udinese.
Matri put Juventus in front j
Stanley 5 clear at Torrey Pines >>
La Jolla, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Stanley posted a four-under 68 on
Saturday and opened a comfortable five-shot lead after the third round of the
Farmers Insurance Open.
He finished 54 holes at 18-under 198 and matched the t
Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting
So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.
Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?
If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)
Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).
In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.
Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.
| The Bubble Breakdown | |||
| CONFERENCE | LOCKS | SHOULD BE INS | AT-LARGES TAKEN (assuming no auto bid outlier) |
| ACC Betting Odds | 6 | 0 | 5 |
| Big East Betting Odds | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Big Ten Betting Odds | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Big 12 Betting Odds | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Pac-10 Betting Odds | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| SEC Betting Odds | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| MVC Betting Odds | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| MWC Betting Odds | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 28 | 5 | 25 |
As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.
(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)
If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech
The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.
Work left to do:
Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.
Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).
Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.
For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com
Additional basketball lines can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.