UConn closes in on record; Charles reaches milestone

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/01/2010 - South Bend, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tina Charles posted 18 points and eight rebounds while becoming the Huskies' all-time leading scorer and rebounder, as top-ranked Connecticut finished off its second straight undefeated regular season with a 76-51 drubbing of Notre Dame at the Joyce Center.

The Huskies' (30-0, 16-0 Big East) win streak now sits at 69, one shy of the NCAA Division I women's basketball record, which was also achieved by UConn from 2001-03. They will have a chance to tie the mark in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament on March 7 at the XL Center.

This is the sixth perfect regular season in the program's history and its eighth flawless run through the conference.

The 6-foot-4 Charles moved past Nykesha Sales (2,178) for the point lead and Rebecca Lobo (1,268) for the rebounding crown.

Maya Moore, who as a junior will likely challenge those new plateaus, posted 17 points and nine boards, while Kalana Greene chipped in 12 and nine in another resounding win for the Huskies.

Tiffany Hayes and Caroline Doty ended with 13 and 11 points, respectively, for the victors.

Devereaux Peters and Becca Bruszewski each netted 15 points for the Fighting Irish (25-4, 12-4), who dropped three of their final five games of the regular season.

Leading scorer Skylar Diggins went 2-for-10 from the field and scored eight points for Notre Dame, which lost both bouts to UConn by a combined 146-97 score.

Bruszewski single-handedly kept the Irish in it in the first half, as her three-pointer pulled the hosts within 16-15 at the midway point.

The Huskies scored the next 10 points though, capped by a Doty three-point play for a 26-15 lead.

UConn, which has beaten 11 ranked opponents this season, was up 36-23 at the break, and its lead never dipped below double digits in the second half.

The only other undefeated team in women's hoops is Nebraska (27-0).

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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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