‘Twas the day before New Year’s and all through the nation there was college football.

SPORTSBETTING.COM has first half lines for the remaining two games on today’s sked.

Kansas is favored by 6-points in the first two quarters against Minnesota and the Total is set at 30.

Georgia Tech is -3 in first half betting for its game against LSU with the Total set at 27.

The Denver Nuggets will be without Carmelo Anthony for two games as the small forward is suffering from a sore right elbow.

The Associated Press estimates that Anthony will be back for Friday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Today
in the Detroit Free Press, Drew
Sharp writes about how he severed emotional ties with the Lions a long time ago.
Stuck in the column, though, are some neat little factoids that suggest that the
New Orleans Saints don’t know the hell that awaits them this Sunday in Detroit.
Read on.

If it’s possible to "blow" 0-16, they’ll do it.

Why?

They’re entering the peak of their performance level during the Age of Millen — the final two games on the schedule. The Lions are 6-8 in their final two games the past seven years. They’ve lost their last two games only once during that time — in Marty Mornhinweg’s second and final season as coach in 2002.

That’s a .429 winning percentage.

A winning percentage of .429? You know, for the Lions, that’s pretty fearsome.
It’s still not a great football team (for example, the Buffalo Bills currently
sport a .429 winning percentage), but it’s something you might expect from a
real, actual NFL franchise.

And just the shock alone of going into Detroit and finding a real NFL franchise
might be enough to shock opponents into a state of confusion. You go in thinking
you’re about to play the saddest team in Michigan since
before Ed Monix turned around the Flint Tropics, and the next thing you
know, you’re saying to yourself, "Hey, these guys are almost as good as the
Bills!"

And then you realize you’ll have to play an actual football game that day, and
it might not be until the second quarter that you actually bother to put pads
on, stretch, or actually call plays in the huddle, instead of just saying,
"All right, who wants to score this time?"

Advantage, Lions.

The hoops event bearing the name of the late Jimmy Valvano takes place tonight at Madison Square Garden in NY with a doubleheader.

Game 1 sees No. 22 Davidson taking on West Virginia with WVU favored by 1.5-points–the Mountaineers are 3-1 SU and 2-2 ATS in the last four games.

In Game 2, No. 6 Texas will go up against No. 12 Villanova with the Longhorns listed at -2–Texas has gone 1-1 SU and 0-2 ATS vs. the Wildcats in the last two games.

The Indianapolis Colts will be without the services of Gary Brackett for at least two games after the LB suffered a broken bone in his right leg reports the AP.

The injury was untimely as the Colts’ defense was stepping up and Brackett was the defensive QB and captain.

Indy hosts the Cincinnati Bengals this week listed as 13.5-point favorites.