Blake Griffin watches from bench, as Abrams, Texas top Sooners

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/21/2009 - Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Abrams had 23 points and scored 16 straight for Texas down the stretch, as the Longhorns notched a signature 73-68 victory over second-ranked Oklahoma in a heavyweight Big 12 tussle.

Abrams buried five three-pointers with four of them coming over the final eight minutes as the senior guard took over the game with 18 second-half points.

Damion James had 16 points and 10 rebounds while Dogus Balbay logged 10 points, a game-best nine assists and eight boards for Texas (18-8, 7-5 Big 12), which had lost four of six and was coming off a thorough 81-66 dismantling at the hands of Texas A&M.

Ranked as high as seventh early in the season, the Longhorns fell on hard times since starting their Big 12 slate at 4-1, enduring a three-game losing streak that precipitated a tumble from the Top 25. However, Saturday's performance will make it hard for NCAA committee members to keep Texas out of the big dance come Selection Sunday.

Texas has now won six straight home games against top-five teams.

Freshman Willie Warren connected for six three-pointers en route to 27 points and helped fill the huge void left by an injury to standout sophomore Blake Griffin.

Griffin was struck over the bridge of his nose by Texas' Dexter Pittman with about 7 1/2 minutes left in the first half. Visibly woozy and his nose bloodied, Griffin remained on the bench following a timeout a short time later at the insistence of OU trainers. At halftime it was decided he would not return due to a suspected concussion. He had to be helped to the locker room by trainers at the break.

Tony Crocker netted 14 points with seven rebounds and Taylor Griffin, Blake's brother, scored nine with eight boards for the Sooners (25-2, 11-1), who saw their 13-game win streak come to an end at the most inopportune of times.

Oklahoma's recent dominance coupled with No. 1 UConn's loss to Pitt earlier this week had the Sooners positioned to take over the top spot in the polls next week. OU's lone defeat coming in was to Arkansas back on December 30.

Blake Griffin finished 1-of-5 from the field with two points and three rebounds in 11-plus minutes.

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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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