Armadillo Sports
Wednesday’s 6-pack
Interesting Week 11 college spreads
— Texas Tech @ Iowa State (-3.5)
— Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma (-7.5)
— Ole Miss (-2.5) @ Arkansas
— USC (-1.5) @ UCLA (total, 75.5)
— Syracuse @ Wake Forest (-10)
— Utah @ Oregon (-3)
Quote of the Day
“I don’t have to defend myself. I am absolutely comfortable in who I am. I respect all those guys. Whoever has whatever negative opinion, I can assure you, it’s not gonna change who I am or what I believe I’m called to do. I have no idea, and I still don’t, how successful I’ll be, but we’re gonna work hard at it and I believe I can lead men and lead the staff. I’m excited about the opportunity.”
Colts coach Jeff Saturday, responding to criticism of his being hired by the Colts
Wednesday’s quiz
When UNLV won the national title in 1990, who did they beat in the final?
Tuesday’s quiz
Butler Bulldogs played in the national title game in both 2010, 2011, when Brad Stevens was their coach. Butler was in the Horizon League back then.
Monday’s quiz
Hue Jackson coached the Browns during their 0-16 season in 2017.
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Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings…….
College basketball notes from Tuesday:
— Michigan State 86, Kentucky 77, 2OT
Spartans made 23-27 on foul line.
Oscar Tshiebwe had 22 points, 12 rebounds off the bench.
Kentucky was +10 in 34
o Tshiebwe played, -19 in 16:00 he sat out.
— Early season college basketball needs more games like this one.
Was excellent to hear Dick Vitale on the mike; glad his medical issues seem to have gone away. I admire his enthusiasm and energy.
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Kansas 69, Duke 64
Teams combined to shoot 6-40 on the arc.
Duke shot 35.8% from floor.
Duke had 8 assists on 24 baskets; Kansas had 21 assists on 31 hoops.
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Vanderbilt 89, Temple 87— Commodores win despite going 4-13 on foul line; Temple made 14-29 on the arc, but Vandy shot 55.6% inside the arc.
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Saint Louis 90, Memphis 84— Solid win for the Billikens, who were 27-36 on foul line.
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Appalachian State 61, Louisville 60— Cardinals are off to an 0-3 start, the only team in the last 40 years to start out 0-3, with three 1-point losses.
L66-67 vs Bellarmine
L72-73 vs Wright State
L60-61 vs Appalachian State
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Colgate 80, Syracuse 68— Colgate made 19-38 on the arc.
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Purdue 75, Marquette 70
Marquette led 58-49 with 9:54 left to play.
Purdue shot 62% inside the arc.
— Not a great night for the Pac-12:
Cal-San Diego 64, Cal 62
Prairie View 70, Washington State 59
San Diego State 74, Stanford 62
USC did beat Vermont……..by 2.
— If you like college basketball, I highly recommend getting ESPN+; it only costs a few bucks a month- they show lot of games.
While you were sleeping Monday night, I was watching the Yale-Hawai’i game on my phone, which ended after 2am. Good game; Yale won in overtime.
— Last five years, Xavier is 2-5 in the Big East basketball tournament; four of the five losses came in overtime, the fifth loss was by 4 points. Xavier is 2-0 this year under its new coach Sean Miller, who is also their old coach (120-47 from 2004-09).
— 10 years ago, Missouri jumped from the Big X to the SEC; I’m guessing they made a boatload of money on the move, but has it helped them on the field/court?
Their last four years in the Big X, Mizzou was 107-34 in basketball, 44-22 in conference games, making the NCAA tournament all four years. Since then, Tigers are 154-168, 69-115 in SEC games, making the NCAAs three times in 10 years. Not great.
In football, Missouri was 48-19 their last five years in the Big X, going 3-2 in bowl games. Since joining the SEC, Mizzou is 69-56 in football, 38-44 in league games- they’re 2-3 in bowls since joining the SEC.
Again, not great. Wonder what the boosters think of all this.
— With Loyola-Chicago moving in from the MVC, Atlantic 10 now has 15 teams, which is a bad number. Makes the conference tournament a little awkward.
— ACC has had 3+ players taken in the first round of the NBA Draft every year for the last 13 drafts.
— Five players who spent time in the G-League, before becoming NBA All-Stars:
Rudy Gobert
Khris Middleton
Dejounte Murray
Pascal Siakam
Fred VanVleet
Baseball stuff:
— Tyler Anderson gets a 3-year, $39M deal from the Angels.
— Anthony Rizzo gets a 2-year, $40M deal from Bronx.
— Joc Pederson (Giants), Martin Perez (Rangers) each took the $19.65M qualifying offer to stay with their current team.
— Word of the Day: Shenanigans— a mischievous or deceitful trick.
Synonyms: mischief, horseplay, nonsense
— The classic TV show M*A*S*H was based on a book written by Richard Hornberger, who was an Army surgeon during the Korean War. It took Dr Hornberger 12 years to write his book, another five years for someone to buy the rights to it.
Eventually, Dr Hornberger sold the TV rights for $500 an episode, $125,500 in all. Pretty good deal for CBS; M*A*S*H is one of the best TV shows of all time.
— Last three weeks, Chicago Bears have allowed either a defensive TD or a special teams TD; they’ve scored 29-30-32 points in the three games, but giving away points is a big reason why they lost all three of those games.
— Colorado State’s QB is Clay Millen, whose dad Hugh played nine years in the NFL, for four teams. Hugh Millen started 25 games in the NFL.
One of the cool things I’ve gotten to see in my life was July 1986, a free scrimmage in Anaheim with the Rams and Chargers. The starters played 7-on-7, then the rookies had a full contact scrimmage. There were about 25,000 people there.
Watching Dan Fouts throw a football was awesome, especially with no pass rush. Rams won their division the year before; this was just before they traded for Jim Everett, so things were generally positive with the fans, except the Rams seemed to have a different QB every year.
Rams had drafted Hugh Millen in the 3rd round that year, but that night in Anaheim, he broke his ankle during the scrimmage, which may have accelerated the Everett trade talks.
That was a fun week back in 1986; the scrimmage and also my first trip to Las Vegas. Deson’t seem like 36 years ago.
— Charlotte 49ers hired a new football coach Tuesday; 62-year old Biff Poggi, the associate head coach at Michigan. Poggi was a successful high school coach in Maryland for a long time before going to Michigan.
A graduate of Duke, Poggi began his career as a teacher before managing a successful hedge fund. He led Gilman School to 13 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association conference championships.
I’ll admit that I’m biased, but I’ll say this; if you’re in your early 60’s and your name is Biff, you must be really, really smart. You think?!?!?!
