Basketball Betting

Huskies battle Cardinal for NCAA Championship

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

04/06/2010 - San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FACTS & STATS: Teams: (2) Stanford Cardinal (36-1) vs. (1) Connecticut Huskies (38-0). Site: Alamodome (40,000) -- San Antonio, Texas. Tip-off: 8:32 p.m. (et). Television: ESPN. Announcers: Dave O'Brien, Doris Burke, Holly Rowe and Rebecca Lobo. NCAA Tournament Record: Stanford 61-21, Connecticut 76-15. Series Record: Tied, 5-5. Last Meeting: December 23, 2009 (Connecticut, 80-68 in Hartford, CT).

GAME NOTES: The top-ranked Connecticut Huskies will try to put an exclamation point on their second straight perfect season, as they take on the Stanford Cardinal for the NCAA Women's National Championship tonight from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Stanford comes in a near-flawless 36-1, and the Cardinal won both the Pac-10 regular-season and tournament titles this year. Coach Tara VanDerveer's team suffered its lone setback in a December 23rd meeting with this same UConn team (80-68) on the road, and the Cardinal are in the midst of a 27-game win streak.

The Cardinal took care of UC Riverside (79-47), Iowa (96-67), Georgia (73-36) and Xavier (55-53) in the opening rounds of the tournament, thus setting up a Final Four showdown with Oklahoma on Sunday night. Stanford posted a 73-66 victory over the Sooners to advance to its second national championship game in the last three years.

Stanford, which has a pair of national titles to its credit (1990 and 1992), has reached the championship game four times and amassed an all-time tournament record of 61-21.

VanDerveer recently spoke about the confidence her team has coming into this contest.

"We're thrilled to be playing in the championship game, and I feel that our team is -- we will be ready," She said, "Our team is confident and at this point I think having played the very tough schedule that we played it will really pay off for us."

The Huskies are 38-0 this season, and have won an NCAA-record 76 consecutive games overall. Clearly the most dominant team in the nation the last few years, the Huskies captured the Big East regular-season and tournament titles for the third consecutive year, and the 14th time in the program's storied history. Connecticut is in the NCAA Tournament for the 22nd consecutive year -- the third-longest active streak nationally.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma has led the Huskies to 11 Final Four appearances over the last 16 seasons, including eight in the last 11. The Huskies, who have won 11 straight NCAA Tournament games, earned their way to this title tilt by blasting Southern (95-39), Temple (90-36), Iowa State (74-36), Florida State (90-50) and Baylor (70-50). The Final Four triumph over the Bears on Sunday catapulted the team into its sixth championship game since 2000.

UConn has six national crowns to its credit (2009, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2000, 1995), and has never lost a title game in which it has appeared (6-0).

The all-time series between Stanford and Connecticut is tied at 5-5 coming into this clash. As mentioned, the Huskies won the first meeting between the two this season in Hartford, but the Cardinal were the last team to defeat UConn, logging an 82-73 victory in the 2008 Final Four.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike scored a career-high 38 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to power Stanford past Oklahoma on Sunday night. It was the 17th double-double of the season for the talented sophomore, and she got help from senior center Jayne Appel, who tallied 13 points and 10 boards. Kayla Pedersen added 12 points and nine rebounds, as Stanford's "Big Three" combined for 63 of the club's 73 points, and 35 of its 53 rebounds. That trio will need to be even better if the Cardinal is going to dethrone the Huskies tonight.

Stanford will also need to continue the kind of stingy defensive play that has limited its last three opponents to just 9-of-53 (.169) on three-point attempts.

Ogwumike spoke recently of the challenge that awaits her team.

"I mean, this is what we've been talking about all year. This is what we've been working for. And I would have to say it's definitely kind of just a little bit of weight lifted off of our shoulders, knowing that we've played as many games as we could possibly play."

She knows there is still work to do, though.

Continued Ogwumike, "And now it's just to leave everything out, everything that we've worked for in the season, just to leave it all out there, and I'm really excited that we made it this far, especially with the team that I'm on this year. I don't think it could have been any better."

Maya Moore scored 34 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead UConn to its 20- point win over Baylor on Sunday. The Huskies also got yet another solid performance from Tina Charles, who logged 21 points and 13 boards. Charles, who averages 18.4 points and 9.5 caroms per contest, was recently named the 2009-10 Naismith Award winner (National Player of the Year) -- that in addition to her Big East Player of the Year honor. Moore, who averages 18.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game this season, won the Naismith Award last year. The Huskies held BU freshman sensation Brittney Griner (18.4 ppg) to 13 points as she made good on only 5-of-13 field goal attempts.

Like its counterpart tonight, UConn has been downright dominant on defense this season, and in particular in this tourney, allowing just two teams to score more than 39 points -- neither exceeded 50.

Auriemma was quick to praise the efforts of Moore and Charles after the win over Baylor.

"Going into the game you're always trying to conjure up all these different scenarios that may or may not come up that you're going to have to deal with. And the one scenario that I didn't conjure up was our two starting guards going 1-for-14," Auriemma said, "And in spite of that, these two players up here were just absolutely amazing, because they had to do it all by themselves pretty much. And I can't say enough about them and especially in the second half what they did, when Baylor cut it to whatever they cut it to."

When looking ahead to tonight's championship game and the magnitude of possibly completing a second straight undefeated season, Auriemma didn't give it much thought.

"It didn't dawn on me that there was anything else at stake other than winning the national championship," the coach said, "So you know the feeling right now that I have and the team has is exactly the same feeling we had last year after we won our semifinal game."

He continued, "This is what we came here to do. And the fact that we're playing a really, really good team I think makes it even better."

If there is a team capable of derailing the UConn express it would be Stanford. Unfortunately, the likelihood of that happening is marginal at best. Expect the Huskies to close out another incredible season with their seventh national title.

Sportsbook Betting Lines Predicted Outcome: Connecticut 74, Stanford 59.