Armadillo Sports
Thursday?s 6-pack:
Six of the best freshmen QB?s for college football next season:
? Connor Weigman, Texas A&M
? Ty Simpson, Alabama
? Cade Klubnik, Clemson
? Nick Evers, Oklahoma
? Devin Brown, Ohio State
? Drew Allar, Penn State
Quote of the Day
?I don?t feel like I?m under siege. It?s not hard to do my job; I?m very focused on the task at hand. I?ve always been that way.?
Lakers coach Frank Vogel, whose team won an NBA title two years ago
Thursday?s quiz
Over the last 25 years, only one NFL team hasn?t won a playoff game; which team?
Wednesday?s quiz
Scottie Pippen?s son plays for Vanderbilt; Pippen Sr went to college at Central Arkansas.
Tuesday?s quiz
Ben Simmons played his one year of college basketball at LSU.
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Thursday?s Den: Doing some thinking out loud???
13) 2009 NBA Draft, Minnesota Timberwolves had picks #5-6; they took a pair of guards, Jonny Flynn from Syracuse who played only three years in the NBA, and Ricky Rubio, a Spanish guard who didn?t come to this country until two years later.
Rubio is in his 11th NBA season, on his 4th team. He?s been a good player, but Minnesota has made the playoffs one time since that draft. If they had to do all over again, Minnesota would take the player who was the 7th pick in that draft.
Guard from Davidson, Stephen Curry. You may have heard of him.
12) When Florida State beat Duke Monday night, it was their 13th straight overtime win, an all-time college hoop record.
11) There are still states where high school basketball doesn?t have a shot clock; basketball without a shot clock can be hideous.
In 1979, just before ESPN and seven years before the shot clock, Duke led North Carolina 7-0 at halftime. At one point, UNC held the ball for 11 consecutive minutes, because Duke wouldn?t come out of their zone defense.
February 1980, I was on the bench of a conference tournament game at the D-III level that went 4 OT?s; the team that won the opening tap in the first three OT?s held the ball for the last shot all three times. Not fun to watch.
That was the same night the American hockey team upset the Russians at the Lake Placid Olympics, so while we were sad about losing, while everyone else was happier than hell. Not a great night.
Anyway, basketball needs the shot clock, even in high school.
10) Rutgers 48, Iowa 46:
? 48-46 WITH a shot clock? Oy.
? Teams combined to make 8-40 on the arc. Yikes.
? Rutgers outscored Iowa 24-14 over the final 18:04.
? Lot of rebounds: Rutgers outrebounded Iowa, 49-38.
9) Marquette 57, Villanova 54:
? Marquette made 13-29 on the arc.
? Villanova led by 9 with 10:53 left in game.
? There was a TOTAL of only 7 foul shots in this game.
? Marquette has won five in row; this win will be strong on Selection Sunday.
8) Kentucky 64, Texas A&M 58:
? Aggies were 1-22 on arc, 5-13 on foul line, only lost by six.
? A&M shot 57% inside arc, led this game by 13 in first half.
? Kentucky is quietly 15-3, 5-3 vs top 100 teams.
7) Alabama 70, LSU 67:
? Alabama outscored Tigers 21-9 on foul line.
? LSU scored 55-58-67 points in its three losses
? These teams play again March 5th in Baton Rouge.
6) Was reading where Miami Hurricanes? new coach Mario Cristobal is having trouble hiring a new offensive coordinator; back when he coached Justin Herbert at Oregon, Ducks threw the ball only 47% of the time for those two years. Turns out Cristobal is something of a control freak.
You have Justin Herbert, you throw the ball. A lot.
5) Georgia QB Stetson Bennett is coming back to Athens for his senior season with the Dawgs, which means JT Daniels is back in the transfer portal. Daniels started out at USC, transferred to Georgia, was there two years, now he?ll be somewhere else next year.
Funny thing is, I?m pretty sure Daniels will play in the NFL someday, and pretty sure that Bennett won?t, but he won a national title with the Dawgs so he is a legend now.
4) There will be scapegoats; Seattle Seahawk fired defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr after Seattle went 7-10 this season, their first losing season since 2011.
Seahawks were 40-25 in Norton?s four seasons as DC; he has a pretty long history working with Pete Carroll, so chances are this move came from the front office, not Carroll.
3) Tennessee Titans won/covered their last eight games, when they had 8+ days to prepare; Cincinnati Bengals, in their franchise history, are 0-7 in road playoff games, so Joe Burrow has some history to overcome Saturday in Nashville.
2) Eric Weddle came out of a 2-year retirement to play for the Rams Monday night; how much does he get paid? Players get paid for the regular season, not the playoffs; would be curious how much Weddle gets for playing this month.
1) I?m not a big fan of the Monday night game in the Wild Card round; creates a short week for the game?s winner. If a team from one coast has to travel to the other coast for the next round of the playoffs on a short week, that?s a pretty big disadvantage.
All the NFL cares about is making more $$$ and if the Monday night TV game creates more revenue, then it?ll stay. When in doubt, it is always about the money.