Sunday?s 6-pack
Before the Manny Machado signing, these were the six highest contracts ever given to a position player:
$325M Giancarlo Stanton
$248M Miguel Cabrera
$240M Albert Pujols
$240M Robinson Cano
$225M Joey Votto
$214M Prince Fielder
Total number of World Series games for these six guys after signing: Zero
Quote of the Day
?I think the Baltimore payroll was double what the Tampa payroll was last year. Close to double. There is a correlation, I?m sure there is a correlation, but it?s not as perfect. It?s very difficult to predict things in baseball, to predict player performance. Spending more money helps.?
Red Sox owner John Henry
Sunday?s quiz
How many current NBA head coaches have also been the head coach of a D-I college team?
Saturday?s quiz
Galen Center is USC?s home court for basketball.
Friday?s quiz
Gene Bartow replaced John Wooden as the basketball coach at UCLA; his son Murry is the interim coach at UCLA this season.
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Sunday?s List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday
13) Ole Miss is having a surprisingly good basketball season under first-year coach Kermit Davis; they were 18-8, 8-5 in the SEC heading into Saturday?s game with a Georgia team that had covered only one of its six SEC road games. Rebels seemed like a good bet at -11.
Except for this: during the day Saturday, about a mile from Ole Miss? new arena, there was a pro-Confederate rally going on at Oxford Square. This is 2019, and there was a pro-Confederate rally going on in broad daylight. Awesome.
During the national anthem before the basketball game, eight Rebels took a knee to protest this rally going on. Captain Obvious reports that the Ole Miss team was distracted during this game; they blew a 13-point lead, took the lead again, and wound up hanging on for a 72-71 win.
Moral to story: I?d be wary of wagering on Ole Miss in home games going forward; hard to believe this issue is gong away anytime soon. It is one thing to take a knee in San Francisc0; whole ?nother thing to do it in Oxford, Mississippi.
Feel bad for coach Davis; this is a mess that has nothing to do with him, but it ain?t going to be easy to clean up, no matter what the outcome is. Good luck with your recruiting when stuff like that is going on in your town.
12) 12-2pm:
? Virginia 64, Louisville 52- In first half, Cardinals were 10-16 on arc, 1-9 inside arc; in second half, Louisville was 2-17 on arc, 4-13 inside arc- they were outscored 37-15.
? LSU 82, Tennessee 80, OT? Tigers? PG Tremont Waters (illness) sat this game out; refs in this game went to replay monitor constantly, Dick Vitale was, ummm?.not happy about it.
? Oklahoma 69, Texas 67? Sooners (-4) led by 17 early in second half.
11) 2-4pm:
? TCU 75, Iowa State 72? Cyclones lost three of last four games; they?re in a funk.
? UMass 80, St Joe?s 79? Visiting Hawks led by 17 at the half.
? Kentucky 80, Auburn 53? Tigers started this season 11-2, but they?re 2-5 on SEC road. Disappointing for a team that is in top 40 in country in experience.
10) 4-6pm:
? North Carolina 77, Florida State 59? This snaps Seminoles? 8-game win streak; not sure how good FSU is- they did beat LSU and Purdue in November.
? Dayton 70, Saint Louis 62? Flyers are 18-9, 10-4 in A-14; they?re in 3rd place right now. Top four in A-14 will have an easier path in A-14 tournament.
? Utah State 78, Boise State 71 OT? Big win for Aggies, whose next two games are San Diego State/Nevada. Need to at least split that pair to stay on/near bubble.
9) 6-8pm:
? Duke 75, Syracuse 65? Orangemen led by 5 at half, but were 5-23 on the arc.
? Oregon State 67, USC 62? Beavers go 3-1 against the LA schools this season.
? South Dakota State 94, South Dakota 89? Jackrabbits were down 11 at the half.
8) 8-10pm
? Texas Tech 91, Kansas 62? This game was 45-20 at the half. Wow.
? St John?s 78, Seton Hall 70? Red Storm led this game 28-5 out of the gate.
? Memphis 88, Wichita State 85? Wichita led this game by 16 early, then Memphis went on a great run, then Shockers tied it, but Tigers held on late. #3 on Memphis will play in the NBA soon; #3 on Wichita State is 3-37 on the arc this year. 3 for bleeping 37.
7) 10pm-midnight:
? UCLA 90, Oregon 83? Ducks led by 19 early in the second half, second time this season they blew a huge lead to the Bruins.
? Wisconsin 69, Northwestern 64? Badgers outscored Northwestern 11-5 over final 4:05.
? San Diego State 60, UNLV 59? Ugly last minute; Rebels missed three of their last five foul shots. UNLV rallied back from down 12, but couldn?t finish the job.
6) Upsets of the Day:
? Cleveland State (+16) 83, Northern Kentucky 77
? James Madison (+14.5) 104, Hofstra 99 OT
? FIU (+6) 79, Florida Atlantic 76
? Harvard (+6) 88, Yale 86
? UAB (+5.5) 76, Southern Miss 72 OT
? Central Michigan (+5.5) 64, Ball State 57
? Duquesne (+5.5) 79, George Mason 78
? Texas A&M (+5.5) 87, Arkansas 80
5) Baylor 82, West Virginia 75? Mountaineers called a timeout down 1 with 2:06 left; when they inbounded the ball after the timeout, they had six players on the court- not good.
Baylor outscored WVU 16-5 over the last 2:50 of the game; they won despite Makai Mason going 0-7 from floor. In Mason?s last four games, he is 5-30 from the floor, with two games missed mixed in during that time. Have to assume that Mason?s toe injury is still bothering him.
4) NHL?s Rangers beat New Jersey 5-2 during the afternoon in Madison Square Garden, then at night, St John?s played Seton Hall. Wonder how many people went to both games?
3) One of my pet peeves when I watch college basketball is play-by-play announcers who think they?re analysts too; there are some guys who never shut up. The play-by-play guy should be the point guard, who sets up the analyst (the basketball expert) to show his expertise.
2) Oregon State 67, USC 62? Beavers were 15-19 on the foul line, USC was 0-6. At home. In Thursday?s loss at UCLA, OSU was 1-3 on the line, UCLA 15-28. Go figure.
1) Bulls 126, Celtics 116? Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen are first pair of Bulls teammates with 35+ points in the same game since Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen on November 20, 1996.
