Tigers and Golden Lions collide for SWAC crown

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Bossier City, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament Championship game will take place this evening at the CenturyTel Center, when the second-seeded Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions battle the fifth-seeded Texas Southern Tigers.

The Tigers opened the tournament with a 66-49 victory over Prairie View A&M, and followed that victory with a 60-57 decision over Grambling State on Friday. Texas Southern, which has won this tournament on four different occasions, heads into this title game with a five-game winning streak.

As for the Golden Lions, they began this tournament with a 69-66 victory over Mississippi Valley State, and on Friday the team slipped past Alabama State by a slim, 46-44 margin. Arkansas-Pine Bluff has been red-hot, winning 10 of its last 11 matchups.

The Tigers overcame a 19-turnover performance on Friday against Grambling State by shooting a respectable 46.7 percent from the floor in the win. Junior Treasure led the way with 21 points in the win, while Deandre Hall finished with 20 points, six rebounds and four assists. Hall comes into this title matchup averaging 16.5 ppg for Texas Southern, but the guard has 103 turnovers compared to just 86 assists. Treasure is contributing 14.6 ppg on the season, while Travele Jones is posting 14.0 ppg, to go along with 5.8 rpg. As a whole the Tigers come into this contest producing a mediocre 68.8 ppg, behind a healthy 47.1 percent shooting effort.

The Golden Lions used a tenacious defensive approach in their semifinal victory over Alabama State, as UAPB held the Hornets to just 44 points on a 33.3 percent shooting effort. While the defensive play was impressive, the real hero of the matchup was Terrance Calvin, who connected on a jump shot in the final seconds of regulation to give the Golden Lions the thrilling victory. Calvin finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Savalance Townsend tallied 11 points. Calvin has been the best player on the floor for UAPB for most of the season and comes into this contest averaging 10.6 ppg and 5.2 rpg.

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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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