Nowitzki, Pierce highlight All-Star reserves

Basketball Betting Lines

02/09/2012 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Mavericks may not be matching their championship-caliber performance from last season, but Dirk Nowitzki is still playing well enough to make the Western Conference All-Star team.

Nowitzki, 33, will make his 11th career All-Star appearance at Orlando's Amway Center on February 26th. The 2011 Finals Most Valuable Player has averaged 17.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists over 31.9 minutes this season for Dallas.

Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Memphis' Marc Gasol, Phoenix's Steve Nash, Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge, Minnesota's Kevin Love and San Antonio's Tony Parker were also selected as Western Conference reserves by the coaches.

It is the eighth All-Star selection for Nash in this his 16th season. He is averaging a double-double with 15.1 points to go with 10.0 assists on the year thus far.

Parker will make his fourth All-Star appearance since he entered the NBA with the Spurs in 2001-02. His 18.9 points per game average leads San Antonio and his 7.7 assists per game are a career-high. Love is making his second consecutive appearance on the back of 25.0 points and 13.6 rebounds per game. Westbrook is also making his second appearance.

Aldridge and Gasol both received their first All-Star selection. Aldridge ranks fifth in the league in scoring with a career-best 23.3 points per game while Gasol has career bests in points (15.0) and rebounds (10.2) per game.

The Eastern Conference reserves are led by Paul Pierce, fresh off passing Celtics' legend Larry Bird for No. 2 on the team's all-time scoring list. He will be making his 10th All-Star appearance (five consecutively).

Pierce is joined on the East bench by Atlanta's Joe Johnson, New Jersey's Deron Williams, Chicago's Luol Deng, Miami's Chris Bosh, Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala, and Indiana's Roy Hibbert.

Bosh was named to his seventh All-Star team, all consecutively. The Miami big man is scoring 19.2 points per game this season. Johnson was selected for his sixth consecutive All-Star game with Atlanta, the longest such streak for the Hawks since Hall-of-Fame forward Dominique Wilkins was named to nine straight from 1986-94.

Williams, selected for the third time, is averaging team-highs with 20.9 points and 8.6 assists per game for the Nets.

The East also has three first-time All-Stars in Deng, Iguodala, and Hibbert. Deng has dropped 16.0 points per game while averaging a career-high 7.3 rebounds per contest. Iguodala has been a key element in the Sixers' balanced attack this season, and has averaged a career-best 6.7 boards per game to go with 13.0 points. Hibbert is averaging career-highs in points (13.6) and rebounds (9.9) this season.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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