2010 February at Linesmaker

South Korean Ice Queen Wins Gold

On Thurs­day night South Korea’s Kim Yu-na won the Olympic gold medal as well as scor­ing a world record of 228.56 points. Her per­for­mance will pos­si­bly be the great­est ever seen in fig­ure skat­ing history. The 19 year-old Korean is rein­ing world cham­pion and had the weight of her small nation bear­ing down on her. In South Korea she is known sim­ply as Queen Yu-na and her pop­u­lar­ity is so immense she always trav­els with body­guards.  The pres­sure did not affect her flaw­less per­for­mance, hurtling into jumps at full speed but touch­ing down with beau­ti­ful... 

Purdue Lose Hummel

As No 3 Pur­due beat Min­nesota on Wednes­day 59–58 they lost their “do-it-all” junior for­ward Rob­bie Hum­mel to an ACL injury in his right knee. Could this mean they also lose hopes of mak­ing the Final Four? The injury resulted when Hum­mel made a drive for the bas­ket. He will not be able to play for the rest of the sea­son. This is a blow for Pur­due as he is with­out a doubt the team’s most indis­pen­si­ble player. He ranks sec­ond on the team with 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds a game.  “Rob does some­thing for us offen­sively and defen­sively that bal­ances... 

Things Heat Up in Olympic Hockey

After the USA beat Switzer­land the men’s Olympic hockey, the final four teams will be the USA v. Fin­land and Canada v. Slo­va­kia. The poten­tial exists to make up one of the most excit­ing hockey finals ever with pos­si­bil­ity of a Canada v. USA matchup. Switzer­land lost 2–0 to the US yes­ter­day in Van­cou­ver. Zach Parise scored for the USA and goalie Ryan Miller stopped 19 shots from Switzer­land. Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller was an asset to his team stop­ping 42 of 43 shots in the first two peri­ods alone. The US moves on to play Fin­land in Friday’s first semi-final.... 

Ups and Downs for the Lakers

Kobe Bryant played an out­stand­ing game against the Mem­phis Griz­zlies on Tues­day. He made a 3-pointer with 4.3 sec­onds left lead­ing the Los Ange­les Lak­ers to 99–98 vic­tory. Bryant had missed five games due to an ankle injury and returned in great form scor­ing a total 32 points for his team. Well that was Tuesday…. On Wednes­day it was a dif­fer­ent story for the Lak­ers, who took 60% of the bet­ting vol­ume at odds of +1.5, lost to the Dal­las Mav­er­icks. Bryant’s per­for­mance was nowhere near as heroic mak­ing just nine of twenty-three shots and scor­ing... 

Cool Betting Action on Olympics and More

Cool bet­ting this week – Olympics, Nascar, Hoops and much, much more! As things heat up on the ice at the Olympics in Van­cou­ver this week­end, we have some cool bet­ting options at Linesmaker.  The men’s hockey bat­tle will be fought on Sun­day. Canada is still favored to win, but the Rus­sians are a for­mi­da­ble force, and the US team has already shown their skill and deter­mi­na­tion on the ice. The quar­ter finals and bronze will be an excit­ing lead up to Sunday’s gold medal game. The sprint is on! The next race of the Nascar Sprint Cup Series is being held at... 

Dodgers to Lose Manny Ramirez?

LA Dodger’s star Manny Ramirez has announced that this will be his last sea­son with the team. It seems that he is cer­tain his con­tract will not be renewed for next sea­son. “I know I’m not going to be here next year,” Ramirez said Mon­day. He went on to say that he didn’t know why but he just knew that he wouldn’t be with LA. It has to be said Ramirez is renowned for say­ing curi­ous or con­tra­dic­tory things so whether there’s any weight in his state­ment has yet to be seen. The for­mer World Series MVP is 37 years old and hasn’t ruled out retire­ment at the... 

Social Networking Rumor Backfires on Holland

Oregon’s wide receiver Jamere Hol­land was dis­missed from the team on Sun­day by coach Chip Kelly. Hol­land had vio­lated team rules said Kelly and it is thought that was due to a post he made on Face­book, although Kelly would not com­ment on this. It was after line­backer, and top team per­former, Kris­t­ian Kiko Alonso was arrested on Sat­ur­day for sus­pi­cion of DUI that Hol­land made an update on his Face­book sta­tus. He wrote that Alsonso had been thrown off the team and went on to say what a trav­esty this was for the Ducks. Later, and shock­ingly, Hol­land went... 

Pittsburgh Upsets Villanova

Pitts­burgh, ranked 19th in the nation, upset No. 3 Vil­lanova 70–65 on Sun­day as Ash­ton Gibbs scored 21 points and Gilbert Brown added 16 more to give the Pan­thers a five point victory. Vil­lanova were, deservedly, odds on favorites to win at Lines­Maker at –2 and took 64% of the bet­ting vol­ume. The Pan­thers (21–6, 10–4 Big East) were knocked-out by the Wild­cats last year in a drama filled Big East matchup when Scot­tie Reynolds’ last-second dash to the bas­ket took the Wild­cats to a 78–76 vic­tory and into the Final Four. On Sun­day the Pan­thers man­aged... 

Cavs Lose Third Straight

Orlando Magic, two point favorites at Lines­Maker, beat Cleve­land 101 – 95 on Sun­day. This was the third straight loss for the Cavs, after a 13 game win­ning streak. Sunday’s game was a bat­tle of the Super­men on court. Shaquille O’Neal has been known as Super­man through­out most of his 17 year NBA career and Dwight Howard has also earned that nick­name much to O’Neal’s cha­grin., he has even been heard call­ing Howard an “impos­tor”. The game on Sat­ur­day def­i­nitely saw a vis­i­ble bat­tle of the NBA super­heroes. Howard had 22 points and 16 rebounds... 

USA Hockey Wins Shocker Over Canada

On Sun­day Team USA stunned Team Canada and a hockey mad nation. It was no mir­a­cle on ice but it still ranks as one of the biggest upsets in Olympic hockey history. The US hockey team proved they were a skilled and deter­mined team beat­ing Canada 5 –3 on Sun­day. They have now earned not only their place in the quar­ter finals, but Sweden’s 3–0 vic­tory over Fin­land also gave the US hockey team the No. 1 seed in the tour­na­ment – a result that has amazed so called experts and fans alike. Brian Rafal­ski scored two goals and Ryan Miller was spec­tac­u­lar as he defended...