Sunday’s 6-pack:
Teams who get highest %age of their points on 3-point shots:
46%— North Florida 15-17
45%— North Dakota State 21-11
42.8%— Princeton 19-11
42.5%— Cal Poly 16-19
42.2%— Furman 25-10
41.4%— Liberty 28-7
Quote of the Day
“I told them this is as rewarding a year as I have had based on how far we have come……I am who I am. Like it or not, this is who I am and how I deal with kids.”
John Calipari
Sunday’s quiz
What was the last team to beat Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament?
Saturday’s quiz
Jameis Winston played his college football at Florida State.
Friday’s quiz
In the movie
The Natural, Wilford Brimley played the manager of the New York Knights.
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— Arkansas 75, St John’s 66
St John’s was dismal, shooting 28% from floor.
Teams combined to shoot 4-41 on the arc. Brickfest.
St John’s led 32-28 with 2:14 left before halftime.
Arkansas has won seven of its last nine games.
— BYU 91, Wisconsin 89
BYU led 47-36 at halftime.
Cougars shot 12-26 on arc, scored 1.28 points/possession.
John Tonje scored 37 points for the Badgers.
BYU has won 11 of its last 12 games.
— Houston 81, Gonzaga 76
First time in 10 years Gonzaga missed the Sweet 16.
Houston never trailed, scored 1.25 points/possession.
LJ Cryer scored 30 points for the Cougars.
Gonzaga was 2-9 in games decided by 8 or fewer points.
— Auburn 82, Creighton 70
Creighton led 37-35 at halftime.
Auburn freshman G Pettiford scored 23 points; he didn’t start.
First trip to Sweet 16 for Auburn since 2019.
Auburn-Michigan is a Sweet 16 game Friday.
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Famous birthdays, March 23rd:
Bucky Pope, 84
Barbara Rhoades, 79
Pat Bourque, 78
Ron Jaworski, 74
Mark Buehrle, 46
Maurice Jones-Drew, 40
Gordon Hayward, 35
Kyrie Irving, 33
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, 30
— Purdue 76, McNeese State 62
Purdue led 38-20 at halftime.
Boilers out-rebounded McNeese, 41-24.
Kaufman-Renn scored 22 points, had 15 rebounds.
Since 2017, Purdue is 5-1 ATS in second round games.
— Michigan 91, Texas A&M 79
Aggies led 60-50 with 13:17 left in the game.
Michigan was 29-36 on foul line, A&M 18-26.
Roddy Gayle scored 26 points; he didn’t start.
Michigan won its last five games, scoring 77 ppg.
— Texas Tech 77, Drake 64
Texas Tech shot 68.4% inside the arc.
Drake shot only 40.5% inside the arc.
Tech was 13-46 on arc Thursday, only 2-13 in this game.
Texas Tech-Arkansas is a Sweet 16 game Thursday.
— Tennessee 67, UCLA 58
Tennessee shot 11-22 on the arc, only 37% inside arc.
Vols led 32-25 at halftime.
Tennessee is 15-0 outside the SEC this season.
Big 18 winds up the first three days 10-2, losing twice Saturday.
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Movie of the Day:
Morning Glory (2010)- A young television producer gets a job to revive a struggling morning program, which has co-hosts who don’t like each other.
Rachel McAdams is the producer, Harrison Ford/Diane Keaton are the co-hosts. Jeff Goldblum is also in this movie. Harrison Ford’s character is frustrating, because he seems miserable, but that is part of what makes this a good movie.
Trying to catch up with the rest of the world……..
— It was 45 degrees here in Albany Friday, with 30 mph winds, a cold day. When my mailman came to my house at 2:30, the freakin’ guy had a coat on, but he was wearing shorts!!!! He had to be so cold, I mean it was a freakin’ nasty wind.
— Giants signed QB Jameis Winston for two years, $8M; Winston is 36-51 as an NFL starter for three different teams- he was 2-5 in seven starts for Cleveland last year.
— Former NFL player/head coach Ron Rivera was named general manager for the Cal Bears’ program, his alma mater. He was 105-108-3 as an NFL head coach (Carolina/Washington).
— #1-4 seeds went 16-0 SU in first round, only 6th time that has happened since 1985, but three of them lost in the second round Saturday.
Favorites were 4-4 ATS Saturday, as 23-17 so far.
Over is 5-3 Saturday; under is 23-17 in the tournament’s first three days.
— Former VCU coach Ryan Odom is the new coach at Virginia, which will be his 4th job in six years. Odom went 52-21 in two years at VCU, after going 44-25 in two years at Utah State, which followed five years at UMBC, where he posted the first-ever 16-seed over 1-seed upset in NCAA Tournament history, ironically over Virginia.
Odom’s father Dave Odom was an assistant coach at Virginia for seven years, before he moved on to Wake Forest, where he coached Tim Duncan.
— When #2-seed Alabama was favored by 22.5 points over Robert Morris in the first round, it was the most points a #2-seed was favored by since Arizona was -23 over Eastern Illinois, way back in 2001. Neither one of those big favorites covered those games.
— Boston Celtics were sold this week to William Chisholm, managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group, for a mere $6.1B. Thats billion, with a B.
“Growing up on the North Shore and attending college in New England, I have been a die-hard Celtics fan my entire life. I understand how important the Celtics are to the city of Boston…..”
Celtics were last sold in 2002, for $360M; the previous owners make a boatload of $$$$; they also won two NBA titles while they owned the franchise.
— Congrats to Stephen Curry on making his 4,000th 3-point shot as an NBA player; Curry has a 42.3% career %age on 3’s, making 4,010 of them. He is clearly the best shooter, ever.
