Armadillo Sports
Wednesday’s 6-pack
College basketball teams getting highest % of their points on 3’s:
3) Chattanooga 45.2%
4) Penn State 43.5%
6) San Francisco 41.4%
7) Detroit Mercy 41.4%
8) Belmont 41.4%
9) VMI 41.1%
Quote of the Day
“If he’s a good hitter, why doesn’t he hit good?”
Billy Beane, in Moneyball
Wednesday’s quiz
The first time Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, who was their QB?
Tuesday’s quiz
Mike McCarthy won a Super Bowl with Green Bay 12 years ago; he is 6-8 in playoff games since then.
Monday’s quiz
Steve McNair was the Tennessee Titans’ QB in their one Super Bowl appearance.
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Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings……..
— Here’s a question to start the day with:
If you were a Division I college basketball coach, would you try and recruit Bronny James to play for your team?
Plusses:
He is a 6-3 G who is a good shooter, an unselfish player.
He’s played at a high level in high school, against good competition.
He is Lebron James’ son; he’ll increase your visibility. Maybe by a lot.
Minuses:
He isn’t his father, who is one of the 2-3 best basketball players ever.
He’s only going to play one year in college, then go to the NBA to play on the same team as his father, before Lebron Sr retires.
Is it worth all the effort to recruit the kid? It is an interesting question.
— Illinois 69, Ohio State 60— Buckeyes lost six of their last seven games; they’re shooting 43.4% inside the arc in conference games, which isn’t good.
— North Carolina 72, Syracuse 68— Tar Heels were 14-23 on the foul line, Syracuse 2-3. North Carolina scored the last five points of the game, after blowing a 10-point lead.
— Iowa State 80, Kansas State 76— Cyclones shot 69.7% inside the arc in a high-level game between two teams who will be fashionable picks for the Final 4 in March.
— Kentucky 69, Vanderbilt 53— Wildcats won their last four games, have Kansas visiting Rupp Arena Saturday. They win that game, they’re off the proverbial bubble.
— Rutgers 65, Penn State 45— Scarlet Knights have won 8 of their last 10 games; they’re forcing turnovers 23.2% of the time, are tied for 2nd place in the Big 14.
— TCU 79, Oklahoma 52— Horned Frogs are 14-3 in their last 17 games; they’re #3 in the nation in continuity, and they pounded Oklahoma in this game, up 44-27 at halftime.
— Drake 70, Indiana State 68— Drake led 44-26 at halftime, blew the lead, then won the game on a 3-pointer with 0:02 left. Drake has won five of its last six games; the Sycamores have lost five in a row.
— Georgetown 81, DePaul 76— Hoyas ended their 29-game Big East losing streak. Since 2008, DePaul is now 52-227 in Big East Conference games.
— San Jose State 82, Air Force 52— Spartans improve to 13-8, 4-4 in Mountain West; as Tim Miles is doing a great rebuilding job. How great?
Since joining the Mountain West ten years ago, San Jose is 73-224, 25-143 in conference games. Their last winning season was 1993-94. Miles is doing a miraculous job in San Jose.
— Toledo 84, Eastern Michigan 79— Rockets were down 11 with 6:46 left; they survived a 43-point explosion from EMU star Emoni Bates, who had scored a total of 34 points in his previous three games. At one point, Bates scored 29 straight points for the Eagles.
— Northern Illinois 86, Kent State 76— Huskies were a 13-point home underdog; they handed Kent State their first MAC loss, dropping them into a first-place tie with Akron.
In non-basketball stuff……….
— Scott Rolen got 76.3% of the votes, joins Fred McGriff as 2023 inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Todd Helton missed getting voted in by 11 votes, which is disappointing.
Here are Helton’s career home/away splits:
Home: .345 batting average, 1.048 OPS, with 227 home runs
Away: .287 batting average, .855 OPS, with 142 home runs
It all adds up; Helton hit .316 with 369 career home runs. Does it really matter where he hit them? He is getting penalized for playing for the Rockies.
— Arte Moreno took his Los Angeles Angels off the market; be bought the team 20 years ago for $180M, was asking $2.5B to sell them this year.
Angels haven’t had a winning record since 2015; they last made the playoffs in 2014, but not because they don’t try. It’ll be interesting to see if they can re-sign Shohei Ohtani next year.
— By the way, in 1980, the Mets were sold for $21.1M; wonder what they’re worth now?
