SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun

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Butler, ranked No. 8 by the AP, also is more lightly regarded by Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which provides betting lines to most Nevada casinos. The Butler Bulldogs are barely hanging on at No. 30 in the LVSC poll.

The lack of a dominant team in college basketball has not gone unnoticed by gamblers this season, nor has the absence of a consensus in the various ranking systems, Las Vegas sports handicapper Joe D’Amico said.

“I think Memphis deserves to be ranked at least in the top two or three in the ratings, but it seems like if you look at 10 different places, you find 10 different opinions,” D’Amico said.

“There have been a lot of surprises this year, a lot of teams that are tough to figure out.”

Just as the growing popularity of spread-offense systems has shaken up the college football landscape in recent seasons, the dynamics of big-time college basketball are shifting as well, D’Amico said.

About two decades ago network TV wielded much more power than it does in the age of cable, satellite and ESPN saturation.

“Look at the great coaches who would win constantly,” said D’Amico (online at allamericansports.info).

“Bobby Knight at Indiana. Dean Smith at North Carolina. Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Great players from all around the country wanted to go to these schools because they knew they would be on TV every Saturday, and they wanted to become nationally known."

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