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Members are you smiling today after yesterdays winners? What a fantastic Sunday in sports, with the plays that we lined up for you. Most of you took full advantage of our offer, buy two guaranteed plays and receive the total in the Superbowl for free. We not only won the under 57 pick in the Super Bowl, but we had the under dog New Orleans Saints plus 4, winning outright 31-17. We have many members that purchase the weekly NBA and College Hoops packages, but I want to also stress we post our winning and losing percentages on our site and our NHL games are doing exceptionally well.  The question that I ask alot of our members is are you in it for the action and excitement, or are you looking to make some money and enjoy the action? Yesterday in the NBA they were not barn burners, but they were winners and thats what we strive for. The first game, we took the over 218 in Toronto Raptors hosting the Kings which one 219. The other game we had was the Magic at home playing the Celtics under 188, which finished at 185. As nerve racking as it was, the outcomes were successful. In the NHL, we played The Bruins/Canadiens under 5, which resulted in a winner 3-0.  I am also going to mention the game we lost, it was in college hoops UNC at Maryland, we took the under 157 and the game ended a total of 163. Maryland game out lighting up the net scoring a total of 92 points while UNC scored 71. Action packed week starts tonight. I have posted 4 games guaranteed on the home page. Take a look, order your plays for only $24.95, and enjoy the games. Our policy is if you do not win, you do not pay! So hold on to your socks, and stop guessing on your games, or getting sold a song and dance by some fast talking wanna be gangsters. Making it a SURE CALL!

Phil Jackson never got terribly comfortable while becoming the winningest coach in Los Angeles Lakers history, even with his superstar hobbling and the Charlotte Bobcats refusing to go away Wednesday night.  Lamar Odom scored 19 points and Andrew Bynum had 17 points and 14 rebounds, while making several big plays down the stretch, making sure Jackson added another superlative to his matchless coaching career in Los Angeles’ 99-97 victory over the Bobcats.

Phil Jackson, also the winningest coach in Chicago Bulls history, passed Pat Riley with his 534th win with the Lakers. Jackson, the Hall of Famer won 545 games and six titles in nine seasons with Michael Jordan and Co. This was before winning four more rings in his first nine seasons with the Lakers, rising to fifth on the NBA’s career coaching victories list when he passed Charlotte’s Larry Brown earlier this season.

“It’s been a really good run,” Jackson said. “Having this opportunity to coach this team is always special. The fact that we’ve had some great teams, great players, is always a credit to them. It’s not really an individual record in my mind.”

The winningest playoff coach in NBA history belongs to Jackson. He is the only coach to win more than 70 percent of his regular-season games. Jackson managed to coax a late-game win out of his Lakers even with just a season-low five points from Kobe Bryant, against the pesky Bobcats.

With Bryant’s already-sore left foot when Odom stepped on it late in the first half, his jumping and speed was obviously compromised. On top of that, Bryant then failed to score in the fourth quarter of his first single-digit scoring game of the season.

“It was just stiff—stiff and tight,” said Bryant, who’s already playing with a broken finger on his shooting hand. “Lamar stepped on my foot as I was changing directions, so … it just made it worse. It just set it back to Square One.”

Returning from an eight-game trip, Ron Artest and Pau Gasol scored 14 points apiece for the Lakers, to improve the NBA’s best home record to 24-3 with their eighth consecutive victory at Staples Center.

“We struggled against them for a while, and we were able to play pretty well even though it wasn’t our best game,” Gasol said.
Since beating Orlando on January 18th, the Lakers haven’t been home. The defending champions went just 5-3 on their East Coast trip, staying atop the Western Conference but struggling against the demands of a schedule that includes four more games in the next seven days.   Stephen Jackson scored 30 points and played without injured All-Star Gerald Wallace in the finale of a six-game trip. Even with Byrant’s woes, Nazr Mohammed added 23 points and 17 rebounds, but they couldn’t quite pull ahead to beat the Lakers for the fourth straight time.

“Everybody played good, (but) they’ve got such length and depth and size,” Brown said. “We weren’t exactly perfect, but we were pretty darn good. … We’re getting better. We compete every night.”

In the first three quarters, neither teams took a lead larger than seven points and Charlotte quickly erased an eight-point Lakers lead in the fourth. Mohammed’s fall away jumper with 1:38 to play trimmed Los Angeles’ lead to 93-92, but Gasol responded with a quick hook shot before blocking Jackson’s driving layup.
The Bobcats had a final chance to tie, after Odom tipped home Artest’s layup, Bryant missed a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left.  But Jordan Farmar forced a turnover on Jackson’s pass on a muddled inbounds play, and made a fast-break dunk on a pass from Gasol with 4.5 seconds left.

“I had everybody confused,” Brown said. “That was my fault. We had another timeout where I don’t think anybody really understood what we were trying to do, so that was on me. I told them all afterwards that that was just an old coach doing a stupid thing.”

With 1.2 seconds left, Flip Murray made a 3-pointer to trim the final margin.

“(A win) would have made a good road trip a great road trip, but they did what they had to do down the stretch, and that’s what good teams do,” Mohammed said. “We’re still growing, and that is where we’re going to be.”

On Monday night, the first All-Star, Murry, in Bobcats history, strained his left hamstring late in their loss at Portland. Murry skipped Wednesday’s shoot around, but wasn’t ruled out until game time, with Stephen Graham starting in his place.

Bryant’s night began by receiving a standing ovation from a pregame ceremony in which Lakers great Jerry West presented him with a game ball in recognition of Bryant’s ascension to the top of the Lakers’ career scoring list. Bryant passed West on Monday night during the Lakers’ loss at Memphis.

After rebounding from a horrible night before, we have regained our spot in the winners circle, by covering the spread on the Wichita State/Northern Iowa game.

The Panthers insisted its win over Wichita State on Wednesday night was just another game, one Northern Iowa will quickly put behind them.  Taking a commanding three-game lead atop the Missouri Valley Conference,.Kwadzo Ahelegbe scored 18 points, 15 in the second half, and Northern Iowa (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) hung on to beat the Shockers 59-56.

Avenging a 60-51 loss in Wichita on Jan. 19 and put the second-place Shockers in a hole that might be too deep to climb out of, Jordan Eglseder added 15 points for the Panthers (20-2, 11-1),

“I don’t talk about that with our guys. I really don’t,” stated Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson. “We talked about being tougher than we were at their place on the defensive end of the floor, being tougher on the offensive end of the floor, finishing plays.”

It might have been a good thing that the Northern Iowa coach did not bring up all the benefits of a victory, because it almost didn’t happen. Wichita State (19-5, 8-4) buried consecutive 3-pointers to pull within 58-56 with 1:54 left, then with only 31 seconds left, got the ball back. Clevin Hannah’s desperation heave bounced off the rim. and Toure’ Murry missed a 3 from the elbow, ouch!

With having 17 points to lead Wichita State, Murry came in ranked ninth in the nation in free-throw percentage but shot just 10 of 17 from the line. “We had our chances. We just couldn’t make the plays at the end, those shots at the end,” Gregg Marshall, Wichita State coach said.

The game was a typical Valley slugfest, with style points and baskets in short supply. Of course, that is exactly the kind of play the pesky Panthers excel at. Also, it didn’t hurt that Ahelegbe shook off a terrible first half and carried the Panthers offense down the stretch.

Ahelegbe muscled a tough layup in traffic to put Northern Iowa ahead 44-41 with 8:34 left, and drilled a pull-up 15-footer. Eglseder’s three-point play off a steal by Ali Farokhmanesh gave the Panthers a 47-41 lead. Wichita State quickly cut the score to one. With just under 4 minutes left, Ahelegbe followed a 3 with yet another mid-range jumper to give Northern Iowa a 53-46 lead.

In the first half, Ahelegbe was 1 of 9 from the field, but finished 8 of 18, helping rescue an offense that shot just 38 percent from the field. But Jacobson also pointed to the contributions of reserve forward Lucas O’Rear, who finished with nine rebounds — five offensives — and helped set the tone in the paint.

“I thought [O'Rear] was probably the difference,” said Jacobson. “He’s a worker. He finds a way to come up with loose balls, come up with rebounds.”

Gabe Blair contributed 12 points for the Shockers, who fell to 5-4 on the road.  The Panthers fell behind by as much as 18-10 and missed 12 of their first 15 shots. After a hot start, Wichita State could only muster four points during a 9 1/2-minute stretch late in the first half, allowing rival Northern Iowa to jump ahead 25-22.

Hannah and Murry responded with 3s in the final 1:18 to give the Shockers a 28-27 halftime lead — despite the fact that Northern Iowa outrebounded them 10-0 on the offensive glass.
So far for the Panthers, the loss at Wichita State is the only hiccup in the Valley, who now seem poised to run away with the league title.

Northern Iowa hasn’t been flashy in anyway; in fact, it needed a late rally to steal a 55-54 win at Missouri State last weekend,  but its unstoppable defense was once again enough to help the Panthers survive.

In scoring defense at 55.1 points per game, Northern Iowa entered play second in the nation.

“We just talk about being more aggressive in everything we do,” Jacobson said. “I just thought we were a much more aggressive team [Wednesday] than we were at Wichita.”
Still lacking a road win, Wichita State has rattled off one of the better starts in school history. Happening at home, its biggest wins to date, was against Northern Iowa and Texas Tech.

There is still a chance for the Shockers to finish strong. They play four of their final six conference games at home and have two games left against last-place Evansville.
“We’re going to try and win games and do what we can do,” said Marshall. “Obviously we need a lot of help at this point.”

Last night we finished 1-3 in our guaranteed games which was very upsetting, but as you have seen when your on the bottom there is only once place to go and that is up. We played 4 totals last night, the under 6 in the NHL game between Tampa at Atlanta, which was the only winner of the night. What was very surprising was that we were 0-2 in NBA totals, losing the over 201 in the Milwaukee Bucks at Cleveland Cavs and the Memphis Grizzlies at the Orlando Magic over 194. These are days that anyone great is going to have but from experiance the one thing I know is that the next ten to fourteen days is going to be AMAZING ! The last time we went 1-3 in a guaranteed game day we went on to finish 22-6 for the 11 days. As our dedicated members know we make no excuses, we put our plays where most put there stories. Tonight is going to be well worth playing because we have a lot of big things taking place. We look forward to seeing your pockets get fat.

Awful memories are just those…awful memories. The Los Angeles Lakers are doing their best to forget all those awful moments of the past while of playing in the Boston Garden.

With 7.3 seconds left in the game, Kobe Bryant sank the go-ahead basket, and the Lakers won 90-89 on Sunday for their third consecutive victory over the struggling Celtics. The Celtics have not been able to make good on the traditional “Beat L.A.!” chant since winning 131-92 to clinch the 2008 NBA championship here in Game 6 of the finals.

“They smacked us two years ago,” said Lakers forward Lamar Odom “It was a big game for us. This is a team that’s going to be battling to be coming out of the East.”

With 32 NBA titles between them—including the last two—the Lakers and Celtics have met in the finals 11 times, from Bill Russell against Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor, to Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson and on to the current matchup of Bryant facing the New Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

The Lakers’ superstar came through in the stretch for them, while Boston’s couldn’t.

In the fourth quarter, the Celtics led by as many as 11 points and nursed a one-point lead until Pierce was called for an offensive foul for pushing off as he jumped to shoot with 28 seconds left.

“At that point, I think it’s got to be unbelievable, but I didn’t see it so I really can’t give an opinion on it,” said coach Doc Rivers for Boston “You know, I do know Kobe pushes off a lot.”

After Friday night’s win in Philadelphia, Bryant complained of a stiff ankle, and it seemed to bother him during the game. Bryant shot just 8 for 20 but made the big one: making a move toward the basket before stepping back from Allen’s defense and swishing the ball through the net to give Los Angeles its only lead of the second half.

“He had a couple of looks before that that were good looks, and he didn’t put them in. We were mystified by that,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. Jackson tied Pat Riley atop the franchise coaching list with his 533rd win in Los Angeles. “He told me the next one was going to go in, so we went with him.”

Kobe Bryant finished with 19, Andrew Bynum had 11 rebounds and 19 points,, and Pau Gasol had 11 points and 11 boards for the Lakers, who won their fourth consecutive game.

“I didn’t say give me one more chance. I said give me the damn ball,” said Bryant “I never really give him much of a choice.”

Rajon Rondo had 12 assists and  21 points for the Celtics, who have lost six of their last eight games.

Garnett had 10 with nine rebounds, Pierce scored 15, and Kendrick Perkins finished with eight points and 10 boards for the Celtics, who were coming off losses to Orlando and Atlanta, which are two of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference—that left them at 6-10 since beating the Magic on Christmas Day.

“It’s nothing to be happy about, I’ll tell you that,” said Garnett “We haven’t been producing wins, but we’re a hardworking group.”

With a hyperextended right knee, Garnett missed 10 of those games and Boston was 4-6 without him. But Garnett’s return hasn’t solved all the Celtics’ problems.

Before the Lakers made the next four baskets, the Celtics led 81-70. Rasheed Wallace hit a 3-pointer—his only basket of the game—to stop the run. It was still a three-point game with less than two minutes left when Bryant hit a pair of free throws to make it 87-86.

Allen hit a pair of free throws, and then Ron Artest sank a runner in the lane to make it 89-88. The Celtics got the ball to Pierce, who unfortunately made a little too much space for himself, negating the basket.

“I thought I made a good move. I got to my sweet spot,” said Pierce. “I guess the ref saw it differently and he made the call. That’s part of the game. That’s why you have referees.”

Allen’s 3-point attempt at the final buzzer bounced right off the rim.

“Ten times out of 10 times, when you have Ray open like that I’m going to give him the ball,” said Pierce “He got a good look at it. Sometimes it falls; sometimes it doesn’t.”

In the first quarter, the Celtics fell behind 22-10. Bynum scored 12 points, and trailed 40-34 midway through the second before scoring the next 15 points. By halftime, Rondo had nine points and eight assists in the quarter and was in double digits in both.

Now Boston can remember the good memories!

Bob Nutting, the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, declined to listen to separate proposals to buy the team last year. The proposal included a surprise bid from Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux, officials with knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press.

On Saturday, the officials spoke of the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. Pittsburgh confirmed discussions with Lemieux and Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle took place, but said there was no talk about selling.

An unsolicited proposal for the Pirates four months ago—one that was substantial and serious, was reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday, a person with knowledge of the offer told The Associated Press.

Previously, Nutting turned aside several sale overtures that were made by Pittsburgh lawyer Chuck Greenberg. Greenberg subsequently teamed with Nolan Ryan to purchase the Texas Rangers in a deal completed last week.

Several years ago, Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks was rebuffed in efforts to buy the team.

The Pirates aren’t for sale, and the discussions apparently went no further. Bob Nutting gave all the interested parties the same answer:

“No formal, substantive offer had been made at a meeting four months ago with Bob and Mario and Ron Burkle,” said Pirates president Frank Coonelly Saturday at the team’s fan festival. “But what I can confirm for you is, at that time, today, tomorrow, next week, the Pirates are not for sale. Bob Nutting is committed to making this organization a winner again.”

While the Pirates acknowledge they aren’t successful, but they are profitable,. Last year, they lost 99 games during a major league-record 17th consecutive losing season, then raised fans’ ire by trimming their payroll below that of the 1992 Pirates, the franchise’s last team to make the playoffs.

Despite being in a similar-sized market, the Pirates’ projected $35 million payroll is only about half of the totals for NL Central rivals Cincinnati and Milwaukee. The payroll is expected to be the lowest in the majors by at least $5 million.

Nutting will not consider a proposal from the popular Lemieux, a Pittsburgh sports icon who has revived the Penguins twice—once as a player and again as an owner. This decision is likely to generate further fan unhappiness.

During a fan festival question-and-answer session, the fan unrest was evident Saturday when Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell heard boos at times. It was especially evident when queried about the payroll. According to bystanders, most answers were met with only tepid applause,.

Pittsburgh has said the payroll won’t increase substantially until top prospects reach the majors and adding higher-salaried players might make the difference in winning a championship.

All of those interested in the Pirates have lengthy backgrounds in pro sports of some sort.

As a successful minor league owner, Greenberg teams included the Pirates’ Double-A affiliate in Altoona, Pa., that was partially owned by Lemieux until being sold two years ago. In 2007, Greenberg also was a finalist for the Pirates’ presidency before Coonelly was hired.

The Hall of Fame player, Lemieux, bought the Penguins in federal bankruptcy court in 1999—a year later, he came out of retirement became pro sports’ first owner-player—and has since seen them become one of the NHL’s most successful franchises.

A California billionaire investor and supermarket operator ,Burkle, joined Lemieux’s group in 1999 by making a $20 million investment, was interested previously in buying the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs.

“Mario and Ron are very smart business people. They’ve been very successful with the Penguins and have done a great job with them,” said Coonelly “What they see in the Pirates, I would think, is that they’re interested in purchasing a team much like the Penguins earlier this decade: A team on the rise. A team that has a plan. A team that has financial stability.”

With a more aggressive approach to player acquisition, Lemieux and Burkle, according to people with knowledge of their interest, believe the Pirates could substantially hike attendance—recently among the lowest in the majors.

Nutting’s family owns a Wheeling, W.Va.-based newspaper chain. They first became involved in the Pirates’ ownership group when California newspaper heir Kevin McClatchy bought the team in 1996. The Nuttings subsequently began to increase their shares. They achieved this by buying out partners of the once-large ownership group and now own a substantial portion of the shares.

Forbes, last year, estimated the Pirates’ worth at $288 million, less than that of any team except the Florida Marlins, who currently play in an NFL stadium.

Tom McMillan, vice president of the Penguins, declined Saturday to confirm Lemieux’s interest in the Pirates, saying, “The Penguins don’t discuss private business matters.”