Big 12 elite: Kansas beats Sooners as Blake Griffin sits

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/24/2009 - Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tyshawn Taylor recorded a career-high 26 points and Sherron Collins scored 22 of his 26 in the second half, as 15th-ranked Kansas took sole possession of first place in the Big 12 with an 87-78 victory over the Blake Griffin-less No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners.

With National Player of the Year front-runner Griffin on the bench in street clothes due to a concussion suffered in Saturday's setback at Texas, the Sooners hung tough with an 11-for-24 effort from three-point land.

But the Jayhawks made 28-of-41 from the foul line and forced 16 Oklahoma turnovers to control their own destiny in conference play.

Cole Aldrich benefited from Griffin's absence with 15 points and a whopping career-best 20 rebounds for Kansas (23-5, 12-1 Big 12), which has won 12 of its last 13 games and seem poised for its fifth straight Big 12 regular season crown .

Willie Warren paced the Sooners with 23 points, while Juan Pattillo and Cade Davis contributed 15 and 12 points, respectively for Oklahoma (25-3, 11-2 Big 12), which dropped its first home game in 16 tries this season.

Trailing by 20 in the second half, Oklahoma woke up with seven straight points to get within 58-45 with about 8 1/2 minutes to play. Three-pointers by Omar Leary and a pair by Davis made it a 62-56 affair a little later.

Holding just a four-point lead with five minutes on the clock, Collins squared up behind the arc line and drilled a crucial basket.

The teams went unconscious from downtown for the next few minutes, hitting five total with Collins' trey giving Kansas a 77-71 lead with 2 1/2 minutes left.

Warren was whistled for an offensive foul on the ensuing possession, and Taylor sank a free throw and a layup after Pattillo's missed bucket for an 80-71 lead with 1:15 to play.

The Jayhawks made just 4-of-8 free throws from that point on but Oklahoma couldn't muster enough offense for a comeback.

The Sooners built a 22-8 lead midway through the opening half on the strength of four three-pointers, a pair coming from Warren.

The hosts went cold for a five-minute stretch, however, as Taylor's 11 points during a 16-0 run gave the defending national champions a 24-22 lead with 4 1/2 minutes to go in the half.

Three Taylor free throws and a Tyrel Reed trifecta pushed Kansas' lead to 36-29 at the half.

A 15-2 spurt by the visitors made it a 58-38 game midway through the second half.

Game Notes

Kansas holds a 134-64 edge in the all-time series and has claimed victory in five straight meetings...Griffin has averaged a Big 12-best 22.0 points and a nation-best 13.8 rebounds in 27 games this season. His 22 double-doubles lead the country...The Sooners made 19-of-30 from the free throw line...Kansas won the rebounding battle, 38-33.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.

Marlins could start season without No. 2 starter Johnson

JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.

Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.

MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .

''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''

Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.

He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.

''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''

Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.

Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.

With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.

Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.