Adrien, Thabeet push UConn to finish line in win over West Virginia

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/07/2009 - Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The inside presence of Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet was took much for No. 25 West Virginia to handle, as the pair of Huskies combined for 30 points and 20 rebounds in fifth-ranked Connecticut's 61-55 victory in a classic Big East tussle.

Adrien posted 17 points, while Thabeet logged 13 points and 13 rebounds for UConn (13-1, 2-1 Big East), which has bounced back with back-to-back conference victories after its lone loss to Georgetown last week.

Stanley Robinson's 15 boards aided the Huskies' 52-33 edge on the glass, while Jerome Dyson and Kemba Walker chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.

De'Sean Butler battled foul trouble for most of the contest but scored 13 points for West Virginia (11-3, 1-1), which fell to 5-1 at home and had its five-game winning streak stopped. Alex Ruoff was held to 4-of-16 shooting from the field for 13 points, while Darryl Bryant had 11 points in the loss.

It was a five-point margin in favor of the Huskies with less than three minutes to go. WVU's Cam Thoroughman connected on a tough bucket in the lane, and Bryant hit two free throws with 2:27 left to cut the deficit to 56-55.

After a UConn free throw and unsuccessful possessions for both clubs, Thoroughman had a chance to tie it at the stripe, but the big man was off the mark on the front end of a one-and-one.

The Huskies took over with less than a minute remaining, and Dyson drove the right lane and made a running layup for a four-point UConn lead. Ruoff's rushed three-pointer on the ensuing possession fell by the wayside, and the visitors held on for the win.

Neither team held a margin larger than four points in the opening 20 minutes.

A 10-2 run by Connecticut late in the first half turned a four-point deficit into a four-point lead, 25-21, around the four-minute mark. But Wellington Smith connected on a trey a good ten feet behind the three-point line to pull West Virginia even, 29-all, at the intermission.

The second half was much of the same with neither team able to take complete control.

Smith threw down a slam in transition to cap six straight WVU points with less than 14 minutes showing on the clock. The 42-38 lead didn't last long, however, as Craig Austrie's dunk capped a mini UConn run over a three-minute span for a 45-44 advantage for the visitors.

After some back-and-forth baskets, Dyson broke a 47-47 tie with a free throw, while Adrien and Thabeet each followed with a layup that made it a five-point game at the six-minute mark.

Game Notes

Dating back to the 1962-63 season, WVU and UConn have now met 17 times, with the Huskies coming out on top in 13 of those encounters...Smith had nine points and eight rebounds in the loss...WVU hit 9-for-12 from the free throw line, while the Huskies were a so-so 18-of-27 at the stripe.

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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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