Killer
Sports NBA Annual (150 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound,
$29.95) from Ed Meyer of MTi Sports Forecasting and Jim Feist's
2001-2002 Basketball Preview (280 pages, magazine format, $6.99)
have just arrived at Gambler's Book Shop and each has the handicapper
looking for past years results, spreads and totals (pros only for
totals). And the Feist magazine has something that handicappers
have been clamoring for over and over and over.
The Killer Sports
book offers three years of NBA spreads and totals, indicating the
date the game was played; the final score; the line; the actual
total; the margin by which a team covered or failed to cover and
the margin by which a team went over or under the established total
number. This is the kind of useful material a player needs to form
theories about how particular teams will perform in the future.
But for those who don't want to do the actual research, the folks
at Killer Sports have researched the data and come up with instant
results. So, for each NBA team there are about 100 trends, some
going back to the 1995 season. You can find trends in a summary
form in more than two dozen situations. Sample trends for Atlanta
shows the Hawks are 1-9 against the spread since 1996 when their
next game is away versus the Cleveland Cavaliers; since 1998 they
are 8-10 against the spread as an away favorite.
The book includes
several articles that include discussions of betting the side-total
parlay and betting NBA futures. It also looks at hot trends from
the previous season. The book does include 2001-2002 schedules for
each team.
Feist's work
is a big asset for those who want analysis of pro and colleges teams
using spread data-including the BIG plus mentioned earlier--FIVE
YEARS OF COLLEGE RESULTS AND SPREADS, in addition to last year's
history for the NBA. What's more, you will find it at a remarkably
reasonable price ($6.99) in this magazine. Here you can easily see
if a team streaked in its ability to cover the spread or continually
failed to cover. If a team was playing in a tournament, it is listed,
along with the location of the games played. For the colleges, the
magazine lists projected rosters, including uniform number; height,
weight, year and hometown of each player. Also itemized are the
team's strengths and weaknesses; a general outlook and a quick glance
at the centers, guards and forwards. Feist analyzes major conference
with predicted finishes as well.
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