Wednesday?s 6-pack
If the NFL Draft was today (it isn?t), this would be the draft order:
1) 49ers 2-9
2) Cardinals 2-9
3) Raiders 2-9
4) Jets 3-8
5) Giants 3-8
6) Jaguars 3-8
Quote of the Day
?Listen, here?s the thing. If you can?t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.?
Mike McDermott in Rounders
Wednesday?s quiz
Where was Mike Krzyzewski the basketball coach before moving to Duke?
Tuesday?s quiz
Tennessee Titans were the Houston Oilers before moving to Tennessee.
Monday?s quiz
Mike Shula was the football coach at Alabama before Nick Saban.
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Wednesday?s 2nd list of 13: Catching up on college hoop
If you spent all of November watching football and you missed the start of college basketball season, here is some of what you missed??.
13) Gonzaga 89, Duke 87? Finals of Maui Classic was a terrific game; Duke led 2-0, but that was it- they were down by 16 with 15:54 left, before tying game late. Zags made 10-19 on the arc, and they were playing without Tillie, who made 47.9% of his 3?s last year.
12) Virginia 53, Wisconsin 46? Predictably slow-paced game (58 possessions) in final of the Battle for Atlantis. Teams combined to go 6-28 on arc; Badgers only got to foul line three times and forced only five turnovers (-8). If you bet the under, this was a rocking chair game.
11) Kansas 87, Tennessee 81 OT? Vols start three seniors, two juniors, led by 8 early in 2nd half, but three Jayhawks played 40:00+ in this OT thriller. Kansas made 44% of its 3?s in its 5-0 start. Tennessee is #36 experience team, Kansas #283.
10) Virginia Tech 89, Purdue 83? Finals of Charleston tourney elevated Hokies into the top 25, which they may have floundered by losing at Penn State last night. Tech outscored Purdue 19-7 on foul line. Both teams made over 40% of their 3?s.
9) Duke 118, Kentucky 84? Result like this in a season opener distorted everyone?s view of the season; did Duke become a little overrated because they played so well in this game? If you?re John Calipari, how do you restore the young Wildcats? confidence- they were down 91-54 at one point.
8) Louisville 82, Michigan State 78 OT? Chris Mack has a tough job, following Rick Pitino at a place where the fanbase isn?t exactly patient, but this win gets him off on the right foot.
7) San Diego 70, Colorado 64? Toreros are #6 experience team in America; they?re 5-1 with a 3-point loss at Washington. The middle of the WCC is better this season than it has been for a few years. San Diego starts four seniors, so this is a big year for them.
6) Buffalo 99, West Virginia 94 OT? Bob Huggins has young guards this year, which isn?t a good thing, but Buffalo is really good and should dominate the MAC. Bulls were down 69-56 with 8:05 left in regulation, but they forced 19 turnovers (+8) and got a great road win.
5) UConn 83, Syracuse 76? Orangemen don?t leave home before Christmas too much; they made only 23.3% of their 3?s in their first five games. This was Danny Hurley?s first statement win as the new UConn coach, coming in New York City, where it was like an old Big East conference tournament game.
4) Michigan 73, Villanova 46? Wildcats graduated four guys from LY?s national champs, and Michigan took its frustrations out for losing the national title game to Villanova eight months ago- this game was 49-17 at one point. Another early season brickfest, with teams combining to make only 8-32 on the arc.
3) Ohio State 64, Cincinnati 56? Good road win for Buckeyes squad that is experience team #281, while Cincy is #131 in experience. OSU led 55-39 with 5:23 left, before Bearcats made a late run but fell short. Buckeyes also have a road win at Creighton already.
2) Seton Hall 83, Miami 81? Finals of Wooden Legacy tournament in Fullerton; when they announce the Field of 68 in March, games like this will carry some weight, even though it was played almost four months before Selection Sunday. Pirates are #233 experience team; this is a great win for them.
1) Texas 92, North Carolina 89? Longhorns look to be improved this year, after going 30-37 the last two years. Texas lost to Michigan State the next night, but they?ve got this win and a neutral court win over Arkansas- the #256 experience Longhorns hope to be a factor in March.
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Wednesday?s List of 13: College basketball knowledge??.
13) Top four rated conferences so far this season:
Big X, Big 14, ACC and the Big East.
12) Teams with least experience in country, among teams in the betting rotation:
Kentucky, UCLA, Cal State-Northridge, Maryland, Chattanooga and Duke
One of those six teams has a lot more talent than the other five.
11) Minutes Continuity measures how much guys have played together more than their experience- teams cobbled together by transfers are rated low in this metric:
Highest: Washington, Kansas State, Brown, Cal State-Fullerton, George Mason
Lowest: Tex-Arlington, Chattanooga, Idaho, Wichita State, Oakland
10) Teams who used their bench the most so far this year:
Denver, Manhattan, Georgia, Princeton, NC State
Teams who used their bench the least:
San Diego, Furman, Georgia State, St John?s, Boston College
9) Challengers to Gonzaga?s dynasty in the WCC are changing a little. St Mary?s is only 3-3 to start the season, but San Francisco and LMU are both still unbeaten. Conference seems to be a little deeper this season; BYU is still pretty good and San Diego seems improved, too.
8) Mike Davis is the guy who replaced Bob Knight as the basketball coach at Indiana, which was an enormous job for a rookie coach. That was 18 years ago.
18 years and three jobs later (he has won at all his coaching stops) Davis is now the coach at Detroit Mercy in the Horizon League. His son Antone is a freshman for the Titans, and the kid can shoot a basketball- he?s made 24 of his last 38 3-point shots.
Horizon League has slipped of late (ranked #24 LY, were as high as #10 in 2011) and Davis got this job because the Titans are 16-47 the last five years. Detroit?s last winning season was in 2013, when their best player was the then-coach?s son (Ray McCallum Jr).
Detroit starts young Davis and four seniors, so they?ll be an interesting follow this winter. They also have five true freshmen, six JC transfers and two graduate transfers.
7) Rough start to the season for the Pac-12; Oregon is their highest-rated team, but the Ducks lost at home to Texas Southern Monday, as a 24-point favorite. Not looking good right now for the Pac-12 to get a lot of at-large spots in the NCAA?s.
6) Texas Southern uses November/December to fund its program, playing a ridiculous number of road games for guarantee fees. Here is who they?ve played so far:
Nov 6, won 72-69 at Baylor
Nov 10, lost 104-67 at Gonzaga
Nov 12, lost 85-73 at Iowa State
Nov 14, lost 103-64 at San Diego State
Nov 18, lost 85-63 at Evansville
Nov 26, won 89-84 at Oregon
Their first Division I home game is January 19th. January freakin? 19th.
5) Teams who have taken the highest % of 3-point shots:
Drake, Eastern Washington, Villanova, Siena, North Dakota State
4) Teams who have made the highest % of 3-point shots:
Indiana State, New Mexico, Detroit, South Dakota State, Creighton
3) Teams playing the fastest tempos so far this season:
FIU, Marshall, Eastern Kentucky, Citadel, Rider, Green Bay
Teams playing slowest tempo so far this season:
Virginia, Siena, Marist, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Houston
2) As of Monday night, there were still 15 kids in the country who?ve taken 2+ foul shots per game and made all of them, led by Oakland?s Jaevin Cumberland, at 26-26.
1) Oakland?s Braden Norris was leading the country in 3-point %age, making 12 of his 14 shots behind the arc. Ian Sistare of Dartmouth was next, at 11-14.