10th-ranked Boilermakers clash with Crusaders

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

12/28/2008 - West Lafayette, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 10th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers host an in-state opponent, the Valparaiso Crusaders, in a non-conference clash this afternoon from Mackey Arena.

Valparaiso is desperate for a victory, as the team has lost its last four outings and eight of the last nine since opening the season with back-to-back wins. The Crusaders are fresh off an 85-60 loss to UCF on Monday and have lost all four games during the current slide by double digits.

As for Purdue, it has won five consecutive decisions to improve to 10-2 overall. The Boilermakers also opened the season with five wins in a row before dropping back-to-back decisions to Oklahoma and Duke, a pair of tremendous opponents. Last weekend, Matt Painter's squad knocked off Davidson by 18 points, and that impressive victory was followed up by Monday's 70-55 decision over IPFW.

Purdue owns a commanding 11-2 series lead over Valparaiso, including an 87-55 romp over the Crusaders in the most recent meeting six years ago.

Urule Igbavboa is the top performer for Valparaiso this season, but his average of 10.4 ppg isn't going to scare Purdue at all. The only other double- digit scorer on the roster for the Crusaders is Michael Rogers with his 10.1 ppg. The team has struggled to generate offense, as it is posting a modest 61.5 ppg on 41.8 percent shooting from the floor. Defensively, Valpo is permitting 68.1 ppg. In the 25-point loss to UCF on Monday, the Crusaders allowed the Golden Knights to connect on 63.3 percent of their field goal attempts and earned a 34-28 rebounding advantage. The Crusaders got 12 points from Brandon McPherson and 10 points from Cameron Witt in what was a poor overall performance.

Purdue is one of the nation's best defensive teams, as it is holding opponents to a mere 56.9 ppg on 35.2 percent shooting from the floor. At the offensive end of the court, the Boilermakers are generating 75.5 ppg. Robbie Hummel leads a balanced attack with 14.9 ppg, and he is shooting 43.1 percent from three-point range and 91.4 percent from the charity stripe. E'Twaun Moore provides 14.4 ppg, and JaJuan Johnson adds 12.5 ppg. Johnson connected on 10- of-14 field goal attempts against IPFW on Monday and finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Moore scored 19 points for Purdue, which got just six points from Hummel. The Boilermakers committed a mere seven turnovers in the clash and limited their overmatched opponents to 39.2 percent field goal efficiency.

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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.

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