by Jim Feist

April and May means that many novice sports bettors may look at the matchups and lean toward ace pitchers and lay the big price. But let me give you three words of advice: Don't do it. Baseball is unique from football and basketball in that there is no point spread. Instead you bet merely on which team will win the game and this translates into a money-line wager.
< ...  read more

by Jim Feist

The NBA playoffs are in full swing, which means overall the better teams are battling each other. This is different from the regular season when many nights great teams are playing bad teams and bad teams are playing worse one. Astute sports bettors should pay very careful attention to blowouts.

For instance, after losing Game 1 at the Lakers, 103-88, the Nug ...  read more

by Jim Feist

More than any other sport, baseball is a game of patience. It's not how you start, but where you finish, and with a 162-game regular season, there is a LOT of baseball left. Did your team get off to a bad start? Well don't panic. There is plenty of time to make adjustments and turn things around. Did your team get off to a hot start? Don't start making World Series reserva ...  read more

by Jim Feist

As the NBA playoffs roll on, handicappers should take careful note of how teams did against each other during the regular season. Examine head to head matchups individually and as a group. Does one team dominate another? If so, are the reasons for this, or was it merely a fluke during the long grind of the 66-game schedule?

Two weeks ago we saw a terrific ga ...  read more

by Jim Feist

The NBA playoffs get rolling this week, which is a good time to revisit an old sports adage: Defense wins championships. Some teams are already in that playoff mode while fighting for postioning, with the Celtics on a recent 9-3 run under the total, the Heat on a 7-3 run under, and even the Knicks with Tyson Chandler picking up the slack from injured players Amare Stoudam ...  read more

by Jim Feist Start your engines! The NBA playoffs start next week, time for endless full court action every night as the league crowns another champion. Let's take a look at the best of the West, the conference that has won nine of the last 12 NBA titles.

Oklahoma City: The team no one wants to play! The Thunder gave us a hint of their young talent a year ago, but has p ...  read more

by Jim Feist

It's been a long haul, even in this abbreviated 66-game NBA regular season, but the playoffs are just around the corner. So who wins the NBA title? The most talented team? The luckiest? The favorites? We all know the favorites don't waltz to the NBA Finals. We watched tiny Butler, a fifth seed in 2010 and a No. 8 seed in 2011, advance to the NCAA Championship game ...  read more

by Jim Feist

There are three more weeks to go in the NBA regular season. This means there are professional athletes in the NBA who will be going on vacation in a month, and other players who will be working hard, huffing and puffing 40 minutes per game, right on through until June. Now let me ask you -- Will the majority of the players on the Charlotte Bobcats and New Orleans Ho ...  read more

by Jim Feist

It is a great weekend for sports fans with the Final Four and the culmination of the college basketball season next Monday in Superdome in New Orleans for the national championship. It is clear that it is not the teams the start the season hot, but the ones that get hot when it really matters -- March and April!

Many things happen over the course of a long ...  read more

By Jim Feist

It's the final stretch of a long college basketball season. There are better teams, tougher matchups, and defensive intensity. It's a good time of the season to look backward -- to look back, that is, to conference regular season tourney play and early season matches against different conferences. That's because it can be tougher to analyze matchups during the Big Dance, ...  read more

by Jim Feist

It's that time of year again: Basketball games night and day, day and night and after a few hours of sleep, we wake up the next day and go through it all over again. College tournament play is one of the most enjoyable times of the year for sports fans and bettors, with a seemingly endless stream of action and excitement.

Big name schools often en ...  read more

by Jim Feist

It's time! Time for college basketball teams to begin conference tourney play, also known as separating the contenders from the pretenders. It's important to understand and closely examine the schedule of college hoop teams. Some teams start off the season playing a bunch of cream puffs, while others face a mixture of good and bad teams.

What has taken shape the ...  read more

by Jim Feist

Tournament play is on the horizon! It's the start of a wild few weeks with conference tournament play helping to whittle the field. In the Big 10, Ohio State made the title game five years ago with Greg Oden while Michigan State won it all in 2000 along with a string of Final Fours. Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin are locks for the March tourney, with se ...  read more

by Jim Feist

There's the Big 5 in Pac 12 in basketball with a string of teams battling for the top spot. Here's a look at the strengths and weaknesses of some of college basketball's best teams in the Pacific 12.

Cal: The Golden Bears have been a well rounded offensive machine, tops in the Pac 12 in field goal shooting, three-point shooting and free throw percentage. ...  read more

by Jim Feist

The SEC has a bunch of teams that are loaded with talent, depth and athleticism. Kentucky won the national championship in 1998, Florida knocked on the door in 2000 getting to the title game against Michigan State, then won it all with back-to-back titles. Here's a look at some of college basketball's best teams in the SEC.

Florida: Coach Bill Donovan has be ...  read more

by Jim Feist

With the Super Bowl in the rear view mirror, the next big event on the sports stage is college basketball's season-ending tournaments. Since 1997, college basketball's national champion has come from several different conferences: the Pac 10 (Arizona), SEC (Kentucky and Florida), Big 10 (Michigan State), the ACC (Duke, Maryland, North Carolina), Nig 12 (Kansas) and the Big ...  read more

by Jim Feist

Rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl thriller with the Giants scoring late to stop the 18-0 Patriots, 17-14. Much of the same cast returns for both teams, including the head coaches. The Giants have 14 players remaining from the 2008 Super Bowl team, the Patriots have seven. Back in August the Patriots were 5-to-1 and the Giants 18-to-1 to win the Super Bowl.

We h ...  read more

In the world of eleven to ten, there's nothing quite like Super Bowl week. In this case, it's two weeks, as the teams have two weeks to prepare for the Big Game. It's also one of the most creative weeks of the sports betting season. While there's only one game left on the football calendar, there are still ample opportunities for betting with hundreds of creative props by various oddsmakers. ...  read more

by Jim Feist

This is it, the final weekend of games before the Super Bowl with the Ravens, Patriots, Giants and 49ers squaring off. The last month we've been hearing about playoff seedings, bye weeks and home field advantage. Are all those things really important? Historically it has been during the second round of the playoffs. Teams with the bye have home field advantage and two we ...  read more

by Jim Feist

As the playoffs begin, those who earned the top two seeds in each conference have a key edge, as they get a bye the first week while watching the others duke it out. Sitting at home this past weekend were the Ravens, Patriots, Packers and 49ers. A year ago the favorites to win the 2012 Super Bowl were the Packers at 5-to-1, the Patriots at 7-to-1, the Steelers at 10 ...  read more

by Jim Feist

Happy New Year! After recovering from the weekend's New Year festivities, we glide through the end of the bowl season. A few more bowls are appetizers for the tune-up that is the January 9 Alabama/LSU rematch for all the marbles.

Sugar Bowl (Tues., Jan. 4): The great running offense against the great run defense as Michigan takes on Virginia Tech. Both teams ...  read more

by Jim Feist

As 2011 draws to a close, we find ourselves smack in the middle of the bowls. You shouldn't be bowled-out, either, as they build to the crescendo that is the LSU/Alabama showdown for the national title.

Belk Bowl (Tues., Dec. 27): A pair of teams that started slow and finished strong. Louisville rebounded from a 2-4 start to finish 7-5 under second-year coach C ...  read more

by Jim Feist

As 2011 draws to a close, we find ourselves smack in the middle of the bowls. You shouldn't be bowled-out, either, as the bowls slowly build to the crescendo that is the Alabama/LSU showdown.

Poinsettia Bowl (Wed., Dec. 21): A pair of teams with great passing offenses - but only one plays defense. Louisiana Tech (8-4 SU, 7-3 ATS) is on a tear, a 7-game win str ...  read more

Looking at NFL in 2011, it's clear that, despite the unbeaten Packers, parity has returned. Look at teams that were recent doormats who are playing well: Lions, Bills, Bengals, Texans, 49ers and Broncos. Even the Panthers and Dolphins have been competitive, with shots at respectable seasons after bad starts.

The season is also littered with flops. The Vikings, Chargers, Bucs and Colts ...  read more

by Jim Feist 2011...The Year of the Quarterback? Are you kidding? While the numbers that Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are putting up are on pace to both break Dan Marino’s single season passing record, 2011 has been the Year of the Quarterback Shuffle. It started back in September when the Jaguars decided to cut veteran starter David Garrard for rookie QB Blane Gabbart. The results have not ...  read more

by Jim Feist

Depth is such an essential element of success in pro and college football, and one that is easily overlooked. Big college programs have this as a huge advantage over smaller programs. The Florida Gators got off to a strong 4-0 start this season, but then a serious injury against Alabama to starting QB John Brantley changed everything. They lost 4 in a row and end up stumb ...  read more

by Jim Feist

For years, pro football has been the sports leader when it comes to parity. Pete Rozelle was credited with, "On any given Sunday any team can beat another." The last few years it seems as though parity has disappeared from the NFL. The Packers this season are dominating, the 2008 Saints and Colts started a combined 16-0 SU/11-5 ATS and the 2007 Patriots had a remarkable 16 ...  read more

It's Thanksgiving week, which means the middle of the NFL campaign while winding down the college football regular season. Late season college football means heated races for conference titles and bowl berths, plus rivalries that span decades. These games can have far more importance for players than September/October clashes. Oklahoma/Ok-State, USC/UCLA, Florida/Florida State, Georgia ...  read more