Miners open C-USA Tournament play against Knights

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/11/2010 - Tulsa, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Winners of 14th straight games, the top-seeded and 25th-ranked Texas El Paso Miners set their sites on a C-USA Tournament championship, starting with tonight's quarterfinal-round matchup against the ninth-seeded UCF Knights at the BOK Center. The survivor of this contest advances to the semifinals versus the winner of the Marshall/Tulsa clash.

The current winning streak ranks third in the nation and helped UTEP set a school-record for conference wins (15) on its way to the C-USA title. This is the program's first outright regular-season championship in 23 years, as the Miners suffered just one conference loss. UTEP is making its fifth appearance in the C-USA Tournament, first as a No.1 seed, and they are 3-4 in the event. The team has made it as far as the semifinals, including a recent 2008 showing.

As for the Knights, they were in action just last night, when they captured a 69-53 victory over eighth-seeded SMU. It was the second straight victory on a the heels of a four-game slide for UCF, which won for just the second time in this tourney.

The all-time series between UTEP and UCF is tied 3-3 after the Miners thrashed the Knights, 96-59, in the lone meeting during the regular season.

The Knights dropped in 54.2 percent of their attempts from the floor and 10- of-13 at the foul line, as they outlasted SMU last night. UCF controlled the boards, 27-19, as well as forcing 16 turnovers in the game. Taylor Young led the way with 15 points and four assists, while Isaac Sosa and A.J. Tyler scored 14 and 12 points, respectively. Tyler is the team's leading scorer at 10.4 ppg and he also pulls down 5.1 rpg for the season. Sosa nips at his heels with 10.2 ppg and he is the team's top three-point threat, hitting at a 42.5 percent clip.

UTEP has been effective at both ends of the court this season, as they are netting 75.9 ppg and shooting 47.3 percent from the floor, while holding foes to 64.1 ppg behind 38.8 percent shooting. Randy Culpepper leads the charge and the reigning C-USA Player of the Year heads the squad with 18.1 ppg and 52 seals. A 38.3 percent shooter, Culpepper topped the 30-point mark on three occasions on his way to All-Conference USA first-team honors. Derrick Caracter, a second-team all-league choice, is also a big part of this club and he produces 14.3 ppg, to go with a team-high 8.4 rpg. Jeremy Williams brings 10.3 ppg to the court, and Arnett Moultrie tacks on 9.9 ppg and 6.9 rpg.

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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.