California has a lot going on. Maybe too much; they forgot to send a team to the women’s college World Series.

This eight-team, double-knockout softball tournament has been dominated by California-based schools throughout its 25-year history. UCLA has won 11 Division I titles (losing one of those championships to recruiting violations) and gone to the finals on seven other occasions. California and Fresno State are also familiar names at the WCWS. This year? Nada.

The folks next door in Arizona are still doing well, though. The Wildcats are the seven-time and reigning champions. Despite some roster issues earlier this year, Arizona easily won the Pac-10 at 15-5-1 and went a flawless 5-0 through the preliminary “regional” and “super regional” rounds of the women’s Tournament. That was good enough to make the ‘Cats the No. 1 seed for this week’s festivities in Oklahoma City.

Arizona, however, might have an Achilles’ heel. The Baylor Bears went 2-1 versus the ‘Cats in non-conference action and look hungry for more. Coach Glenn Moore has built a tremendous program over the last seven years, leading the Bears to the Big 12 championship and their first-ever WCWS. And it just so happens that the Bears and Wildcats go at it on opening night, Thursday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

The other six teams appearing at the WCWS are Arizona State, DePaul, Northwestern, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Washington. The Blue Demons are the default Cinderellas, taking the No. 14 overall seed into Oklahoma City. This team reached the WCWS two years ago before injuries ruined their 2006 campaign; coming out of the unheralded Big East (at least, in terms of softball) might give DePaul some value, despite that unblemished 20-0 record in conference play.

The Blue Demons open the 2007 WCWS against the Huskies Thursday at 1:00 p.m Eastern. ESPN is on board for the television coverage.

Not quite ready for the Women’s College World Series? Get your 2007 MLB World Series odds at Bodog!

When exactly did Ringling Bros. buy the NBA?

This is really getting on my nerves, Mr. Stern. Your product has taken self-promotion to a level usually reserved for pro wrestling. I don’t mean the basketball itself – that stuff is as great to watch as it always was.

I mean the incredibly off-base corporate sheen your marketing gurus slap on the sport. Public address announcers have become public address cheerleaders, squeezing every decibel and dollar out of the fans. I’m surprised you didn’t get Kenny G to write your TV theme music. Even the interviews look fake.

Seriously. The NBA recently posted a series of 10 advertisements – I mean, entertaining and educational video clips – on its website, purporting to examine the star player’s passionate state of mind during the playoffs. The videos are shot with the player facing directly at the camera (stealing a page from the NFL), so that you can look into their passionate eyes and gaze into their passionate souls.

Ah yes, the Passion of Tim Duncan. You can just see the fire in his eyes during his interviews, can’t you? Or how about Mr. Playoffs himself, Tracy McGrady, telling us how he will celebrate when he hits the winning shot in Game 7? One of these years, T-Mac, one of these years. And since when is Damon Jones a star? Inside the playoff mind of Damon Jones, there is a man who used to wonder why the coach wouldn’t put him in.

Passion is indeed an integral part of playing basketball at its highest level. But star players aren’t always as good at communicating that passion. LeBron James has that skill; when King James talks about the importance of the playoffs, he looks like he’s ready to jump right out of the TV studio and take the ball to the hole. That’s the kind of personality the betting public appreciates and supports.

Meanwhile, more stoic players like Mehmet Okur go underrated and undervalued. The public might wonder if these Euros even care about basketball, but a sharp eye can see whether someone is motivated to perform, even if that player isn’t throwing his headband or howling at the moon like a P.A. announcer.

Odds to win the 2007 NBA Championship, NBA basketball odds are here!

Gas Crisis Grips Ottawa

Remember the last time you went back to work after an extended vacation?

If you play for the Ottawa Senators, you only have to think back to Monday night. The Sens opened their Stanley Cup final against the Anaheim Ducks with their usual efficiency, playing a strong road game before completely running out of gas in the third period. Ottawa gave up two goals in that final frame and skated away meekly with a 3-2 loss. Anaheim was a –140 favorite in Game 1; the early Game 2 forecast called for more chalk.

Anaheim’s mission on Monday night was to avoid taking undisciplined penalties. That failed miserably; Scott Niedermayer took a high-sticking minor in the opening minute of play, and Mike Fisher capitalized for Ottawa. Andy McDonald tied the score in the first, then the Sens went up 2-1 in the second on yet another power-play goal, this time by Wade Redden. Ottawa appeared to be in control.

Then the wheels fell off, exploded, and burst into flame. The Ducks came alive in the third, throwing their weight around with more zest. Anaheim outshot Ottawa 14-7 and took the lead on goals by Ryan Getzlaf and Travis Moen. It was an unquestionable tour de force; however, if the Ducks do see their odds shortened in Wednesday’s Game 2, any value they may have carried going into the Cup final will be washed away.

Analysts up north (certainly not biased toward the Senators, no sir) were quick to point out how flat the Sens were, pinning the blame on the nine days that passed since Ottawa eliminated the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern final. The Ducks had three fewer days of sitting around after putting away the Detroit Red Wings in the West. Any conditioning advantage Anaheim enjoyed in Game 1 should be gone by Wednesday.

Bet on Wednesday’s Stanley Cup Final Game 2 at Bodog Sportsbook, where they’ve got some great NHL hockey odds.

It’s a handicapper’s dream date.

There’s nothing like a ridiculous stereotype to make a value bettor jump for joy. Imagine how much money intrepid cappers have made on black quarterbacks, Asian pitchers and European basketball players. Is it time for female drivers to join the club?

Danica Patrick hopes so. She’s getting 30-1 odds to win this Sunday’s Indianapolis 500. That doesn’t seem to make sense for someone driving for the very competitive Andretti Green Racing team, especially for someone starting in the middle of the third row. Is it because Patrick is a woman? Is it because she’s an attractive woman? Or do these odds accurately reflect her chances of winning this weekend?

Patrick became a household name after qualifying for, and nearly winning, her first Indy 500 in 2005. She finished fourth for Rahal Letterman Racing; Patrick has yet to improve on that result in her short IRL career, despite the move to Andretti Green for the 2007 season. She will. Even Patrick herself has admitted it’s going to take some adjustment to driving for one of the top teams in the sport.

But her breakthrough probably won’t happen at the Brickyard. Undervalued, perhaps, but Patrick has to beat the following drivers in order to win: Dan Wheldon (9-4), Scott Dixon (5-2), Tony Kanaan (4-1), Helio Castroneves (5-1), Sam Hornish Jr. (5-1) and Dario Franchitti (8-1). That group includes four of the last six Indy 500 champions. Patrick’s best finish with Andretti Green was a seventh at last month’s Kansas IndyCar 300. Unless her learning curve increases dramatically between now and Sunday afternoon, she’ll likely have to settle for a similar result.

Let’s just hope for her sake she picks up that first victory sooner rather than later. The longer she goes without, the more often you’ll see her picture next to Anna Kournikova’s. Great for the rest of us, but an unfair dig at both women.

For all your Indy 500 odds, check out the Bodog Sportsbook.

If this week’s NBA Draft Lottery taught us anything, it’s that the team favored doesn’t always come out on top. Of course, the Dallas Mavericks basically taught us the same lesson a few weeks ago. That being said, here are the teams with the best odds to take home the NBA title.

The odds on favorite to win the NBA Championship on everyone’s list has to be the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs received some big help from Golden State when they knocked off Dallas and the Spurs were able to handle their other biggest competition, the Suns, in six games. In their first two games against the Jazz the Spurs have romped. The Spurs should easily be able post another pair of wins against Utah and will be better than any team coming out of the East, because, well, it’s the East.

If Tim Duncan was as healthy and productive last year as he has been during the Spurs’ current playoff run, San Antonio likely would have met up with – and defeated – Miami in last year’s NBA Finals. The odds on the Spurs taking home the title are a strong 1/3. Odds don’t get much lower than that when you’re talking major championships.

After the Spurs, the odds shoot upward considerably. When you’re starting with odds less than 1/1 you have nowhere to go but up. The Pistons have made it to the NBA Finals in two of the last three years, and after handling Cleveland in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, three out of four looks promising. The Pistons are contenders because they boast so many different scoring options and they can also play stifling defense. Another big plus for the Pistons is they play in the East. Sorry to any East fans out there, but take any team from the East and plant them in the West and they’ll have a tougher time. Odds on the Pistons wearing another championship crown sit at 9/5 right now.

If you looking for the long shots in the NBA Championship race there are two horses to choose from: Cleveland and Utah. The Cavaliers at least have a legitimate shot, according to the oddsmakers at Bodog, who have given them odds of 15/1 right now. The Jazz seem to be done already, and are currently tagged as a 25/1 dog.

Get your NBA basketball odds at the Bodog Sportsbook!

Original Six? That is so yesterday.

An expansion team is going to win the Stanley Cup – again. This year, the silverware is going to a team that was born in the ‘90s. The Ottawa Senators are the favorites at 5-6; the Anaheim Ducks are barking after eliminating the Detroit Red Wings (take that, traditionalists) on Tuesday night.

The cream has definitely risen to the top. Both teams have the stuff of champions – except the Ducks have experienced more wear and tear on the road to the finals. They lost No. 1 left-winger Chris Kunitz to a broken hand, making it very difficult for Anaheim to trot out its fourth line as often as Ottawa does. Norris Trophy winner Scott Niedermayer is rumored to be playing with a stress fracture in his right foot. And requiring six games to dust off Detroit means the Ducks will have three fewer days of rest than the Senators heading into Monday’s opener.

There isn’t any one weakness on the Senators, but some are expecting Anaheim to win this series, thanks to home-ice advantage and the team’s punishing style. Jean-Sebastien Giguere is also drawing praise for out-dueling Detroit’s Dominik Hasek. That’s a bit of a stretch. After stoning the Vancouver Canucks in the second round, Giguere had a save percentage below .900 in four of the six meetings with the Red Wings. Hasek was also hit-and-miss, with three bad games out of six, but it was Anaheim’s depth that eventually won the day.

Meanwhile, back in Ottawa, coach Bryan Murray is cooking up some plans for his old team. Murray was Anaheim’s general manager when the Ducks made it to the Cup finals in 2003. He is the architect of the team he will face on Monday. The Senators will no doubt benefit from Murray’s experience – I think they’ll get a Gruden-like jump on the Ducks and bring the Cup to Ottawa for the first time since 1927. Maybe some tradition will rub off on the Sens after all.

Get your NHL hockey betting and Stanley Cup Final odds while they’re hot.

I’ve seen better rivalries at pee-wee hockey games.

The television gods did their best to hype the Detroit Pistons-Chicago Bulls series. They trotted out the old footage of Michael Jordan and Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas as proof of a long-standing feud between the two clubs. Yeah, right. Comparing those years to today is like comparing apples to road apples.

If you really want to link the Bulls-Pistons battles of the past to the 2007 playoffs, the Eastern Conference final is where you start. LeBron James is playing the role of Michael Jordan. He’s the preternaturally gifted swingman who is doing his best to lift a moribund franchise out of its doldrums. Eventually, if the script goes according to plan, he will be surrounded by the teammates he needs to reach the top of the mountain.

We’ve barely even cleared base camp yet. The Pistons are the established class of the conference, as they were during the “Bad Boys” years in the late 1980s. It took Jordan’s Bulls four kicks at the can before they finally eclipsed Detroit and won the title in 1991. It’s difficult to imagine the Cavs pulling it off in just their second attempt.

Mind you, they almost did it in their first attempt, extending the Pistons to seven games in last year’s Eastern semis. But that was a Detroit team in flux. Flip Saunders was in his first season as Pistons coach, and his clashes with Ben Wallace exposed the difficulty Detroit’s vaunted starting five was having with the transition from Larry Brown. Replacing Wallace with Chris Webber (on the cheap, no less) is yet another gold star on GM Joe Dumars’ report card. The resurgent Pistons have lost just five games since the beginning of April, going 11-7-3 against the spread.

Over in Cleveland, there is hope that LeBron can come up with a Jordanesque performance and carry the Cavs on his back. But His Airness had some fantastic players around him during Chicago’s championship run. For King James to get this version of the Cavaliers over the hump, he’ll have to play like Jordan, all right – in Space Jam.

Odds to win the NBA Championship:

Cleveland Caveliers: 17/1

Detroit Pistons: 3/2

San Antonio Spurs: 1/2

Utah Jazz: 15/1

One series has just gotten started. The other is practically over.

Such is life in the NHL playoffs. Although the West still holds the balance of power, we figured the Eastern final between the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres would be a rock ‘em, sock ‘em affair featuring the two best teams in the conference. Unfortunately for Sabres supporters, Ottawa is providing both the rock and the sock.

The Sens have taken a 3-0 series lead by thoroughly outplaying Buffalo in all three games. Only the stellar goaltending of Ryan Miller has kept the Sabres in contention. The vaunted Buffalo offense couldn’t muster a goal in Monday’s Game 3, managing just 15 shots on Ray Emery despite having the man advantage on six occasions.

Ottawa’s top line was its usual self on Monday night. Captain Daniel Alfredsson scored the lone goal; he has found the back of the net in each of the three games against the Sabres, with talented linemates Jason Spezza (one goal, five assists) and Dany Heatley (four assists) also pouring on the points.

The West is much more competitive, with the Anaheim Ducks and the Detroit Red Wings knotted up at a game apiece. Depth has played a big role for the Ducks in recent games, with unexpected contributions from the likes of Samuel Pahlsson (nine points in 12 games) and Travis Moen (seven points). They’re going to need all the depth they can get now that top-line winger Chris Kunitz has been shelved for the remainder of the season with a broken right hand.

The Ducks still have something of a size advantage over Detroit, but Jean-Sebastien Giguere is cooling off after looking unbeatable during the Vancouver series. Anaheim has yet to solve the Wings on the power play, as well. Dominik Hasek can earn Motown supporters some money by stealing at least one of the two games at the Honda Center.

Anyone who doesn’t believe golf is a mental game just as much – if not more – than it is a physical test is fooling themselves. Yogi Berra’s old baseball adage, “Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical,” applies to golf as well. You just had to watch what transpired at last weekend’s Players Championship to see how mental anguish can cripple even the best PGA players on the course.

Even Tiger Woods isn’t immune. Anyone who’s seen the rare sight of Tiger struggling on a golf course knows he doesn’t take it very well. Maybe he’s just not as used to it as we weekend duffers, but Woods suffered through the vagaries of mental meltdown almost all weekend, until the final round when he was so far back of the leaders all the pressure was off. Woods’ third round at Sawgrass, when he shot a one-over 73 to fall out of contention at five-over for the tourney, put him in such an ornery state he wouldn’t even talk to the media.

Nothing gets a golfer’s mind going more than a water hazard. And Sawgrass just happens to have one of the most famous water hazards in all of golf surrounding the 17th hole, the infamous island green. Usually a 137-yard shot to the green is blindfold-me easy, especially for a PGA pro. Putting a giant lake around the hole shakes things up a little though, for even the most grizzled PGA tour veterans.

The negative tide rolls in and instead of thinking about putting the ball close to the hole, instead you’re thinking about NOT putting the ball into the water. That little distraction usually in turn affects your physical repertoire, as your mind wanders and perhaps your shoulder turn is too tight, your head pops up early, or your hands shoot out in front of your hips. Suddenly, your ball is headed for the yawning drink, even though the shot itself in not a difficult one.

The worst part is that one-time, seemingly isolated error, can compound itself and turn your entire round into a disaster, depending on how you follow-up on adversity. The mechanics of hitting a golf ball are not complicated. But the mechanics of dealing with distraction, disappointment, and even success are a complex human concoction indeed. Everything starts with the brain.

You know an MMA show is going to be huge when they don’t even need a dumb slogan for it.

The next UFC pay-per-view (No. 71 in the ongoing series) is simply called “Liddell vs. Jackson.” Chuck Liddell is defending his light heavyweight title against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, the last fighter to defeat Liddell. You don’t need any other selling point.

It’s been nearly four years since Jackson earned a TKO victory over Liddell at the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix tournament in Tokyo. What we see on May 26 during the rematch at the MGM Grand will almost certainly be different. Liddell made the mistake of getting into a boxing match with Jackson, a powerful mauler who took Liddell down in the second round and started raining down punches, uninterrupted, until his corner threw in the towel.

Fighting in the octagon will at least keep Liddell from getting hung up in the ropes like he did in the PRIDE ring. But the much bigger story here is the development of Liddell into one of the most dangerous fighters in the sport. He carries a seven-match winning streak into UFC 71, including two victories apiece over Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz. Jackson is 7-3 during the same span, losing twice to Wanderlei Silva and once to Shogun Rua.

Liddell is the big favorite in this match, and although we’ve seen some interesting upsets recently, Gabriel Gonzaga’s win at UFC 70 over Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic is being spun as an indication of the talent level between UFC and PRIDE. The latter used to be the darling of discerning MMA fans. Even if there is still a bias toward the memory of PRIDE, Liddell will not be saddled by any extra chalk as a result. Liddell, a value pick? I wouldn’t necessarily go that far. But he should still be the champion when all is said and done.

Check out this site for great mixed martial arts odds on MMA fights.