24th-ranked Bulldogs set sights on Cougars

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/02/2012 - Provo, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 24th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs continue their quest for the top spot in the West Coast Conference as they head to the Marriott Center to square off with the BYU Cougars.

This will be just the second meeting between the programs. The only other encounter took place in the 2011 NCAA Sweet Sixteen, where BYU ended the Zags' season with a decisive 89-67 victory.

Gonzaga responded to its first conference loss to rival Saint Mary's by winning its next four times out. Its latest conquest was a 74-62 win over the Portland Pilots on Thursday which improved its overall record to 17-3 and its WCC mark to a second-best 7-1. Head coach Mark Few led his team back into the top 25 this week after a two week absence.. The Bulldogs have been doing very well in league play so far, as they have outscored their opponents by 14.0 ppg in WCC action.

Elias Harris is the Zags' leading scorer (13.7 ppg) and rebounder (8.0 rpg). Harris recorded his second-straight double-double against Portland as he finished the contest with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Kevin Pangos has made a name for himself in his rookie season. Pangos is second on the team in scoring (13.3 ppg) and has made 2.3 three-pointers per contest. Robert Sacre is making an impact in the middle as he is chipping in 11.6 ppg while grabbing 6.7 rpg. Gary Bell, Sam Dower, and David Stockton all are adding depth to the lineup to make the Bulldogs a very tough matchup.

Head coach Dave Rose has managed to continue winning in the post Jimmer Fredette Era. BYU enters tonight's contest at 18-6 with a 6-3 record in WCC action. The Cougars are coming off of an 80-66 loss to Saint Mary's, which was their second loss to the first place Gaels this season. BYU could not stop SMC's balanced offense as it allowed 55.8 percent shooting from the floor. BYU was held well under its average of 79 ppg in the contest. The Cougars also only dished out nine assists as a team in the loss, which is well under their fifth best nationally average of 17.9 apg. BYU leads the WCC with a 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The Bulldogs will have to find a way to stop BYU's four-headed monster which consists of Noah Hartsock, Brandon Davies, Matt Carlino, and Charles Abouo. Hartsock is second in the WCC in scoring with an average of 17.5 ppg after scoring 75 total points in his last four outings. Davies is chipping in 14.3 ppg and a team-best 7.9 rpg. Carlino is netting 12.4 ppg and a team-best 4.4 apg, while Abouo is another scoring threat and the second best rebounder for the Cougars.

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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.

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