Syracuse Point Shaving Scandal

[billyinvegas]

My friend's old boss Jay Kornegay (head of LV Hilton Sportsbook) was called by the NCAA yesterday to see if he noticed any suspicious betting patterns regarding Syracuse basketball games.

Spoiler:

Syracuse Orange Basketball Point-Shaving Scandal Developing
Carrier Dome.(credit: Wikipedia.org)Shane Lambert - 2 Feb 2011Article explains what point shaving is and reviews a developing story surrounding the Syracuse Orange in college basketball.


The Syracuse Orange men's basketball team is springing up in the sports blogs for all the wrong reasons as they are central to a possible emerging controversy.


From Covers.com: "Dangerous rumors are coming out of the Carrier Dome late Tuesday night with a report of possible point shaving by members of the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball program."


From PocketFives.com: "two Syracuse University basketball players, Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters, as well as a possible third (James Southerland) are being accused of point shaving."


It's important to state that this is a developing story and it could be revealed to be nothing but fluff however the Orange started the season 18-0 and they have since lost 4 straight games to fall well out of the top 10. Among their 4 recent losses is a 22 point home loss to Seton Hall, 90-68.


More from Covers.com: "The team’s most recent loss to the Pirates is...under question. The Orange suffered one of the worst losses at home in the program’s history, falling 90-68 as 12.5-point favorites. Jardine scored 11 points in that game, shooting 4 for 10 from the field and finishing with three turnovers."


For those that do not know what point shaving is, it is simply where a player sabotages his own team. In basketball, a player could do that by missing shots, committing turnovers, or in numerous other ways. The reason a player might partake in point shaving is because he may have bet against his team or he may have an allegiance to someone else who bet against his team.


With spread betting, for example, a team could be favored to win by 20 and a point shaver could help his team win but make sure they only win by 10 or so. Then a bet against his team covering the spread would still be a winning bet.


Since basketball is a fast-paced game with regular scoring, it has been targeted before: known examples of point-shaving are the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal back in the 1950s and the Boston College basketball point shaving scandal in the late 70s.


One thing that should be stated is that the Seton Hall loss mentioned above was a 22 point loss as 12.5 favorites. In short Syracuse failed to cover the spread by 34.5 points.


If there was point-shaving involved that would be point-shaving run amok as even an 12 point Syracuse victory would have sufficed.


More to come on Wednesday no doubt.

[Monkey D. Luffy]

If there was point shaving in that game, Scoop did a really shitty job. Losing by 22, only shooting 10 times? Seems like a poor job, I'm not convinced

[billyinvegas]

Yeah, how about winning by 5 instead of losing by 22? Dummies.

[hardinda]

LOL, point shaving scandle b/c they lost by that much as 12.5 favorites? I love how one of the sources is a poker discussion forum.

[Keep It Real, Yo]

Nothing to see here.... yet

[keyser soze]

Originally Posted by billyinvegas

Yeah, how about winning by 5 instead of losing by 22? Dummies.

More likely that the Cuse is a fraud of a basketball team.

[mlschop]

Point shaving? More like point butchering!

[Ginormous76]

I'm on board with the mentality, "If they were point shaving, they would have lost close or won by 5-10, not lost by 22. It seems odd to me that the game where this is "coming to attention" is failing to cover the spread by 34 points and not 4-5 games of not covering by 1-4 points.

[TakeNine]

There could very well be point shaving here, but pointing to the Seton Hall game is just silly. Sometimes, good teams have really bad games. Try showing us a consistent pattern of underscoring the spread, well beyond what chance would suggest.

[Dr T Non-Fan]

Quentin? Hellooooooooo?