Thursday’s 6-pack:
— Kennesaw State 27, Liberty 24- Liberty was favored by 27.5 points.
— Jacksonville State 42, MTSU 20- Gamecocks outscored MT 21-3 in 3rd quarter.
— Suns 116, Clippers 113 OT- Suns were +14 in 24:00 Royce O’Neale played.
— Grizzlies 126, Jazz 124- Ja Morant had 22 points,, ten assists.
— Pacers 115, Pistons 109- Indiana outscored Pistons 33-19 in 4th quarter.
— Hawks 120, Nets 116- Onyeka Okongwu scored a career-high 28 points.
Quote of the Day
“We are not making any changes.”
New Jersey Giants owner John Mara
Thursday’s quiz
In the old TV show Magnum PI, what holiday did Magnum always spend by himself?
Wednesday’s quiz
Last two times the New York Knicks won the NBA title, they beat the Lakers in the Finals both times.
Tuesday’s quiz
Arizona Cardinals have played in one Super Bowl; Hall of Famer Kurt Warner was their QB in that game.
******************************************
— UConn won the last two national titles; last team to win three in a row was UCLA, way back from 1971-73. Last spring, Danny Hurley turned down a chance to coach the Lakers; he lost four starters from last year, but his Huskies are still a preseason top 10 team.
— TV/radio personality Doug Gottlieb is the new coach at Green Bay; he’s making $215,000 this year coaching, as well as continuing as host of his national radio show during the week. He was a really good TV analyst on game broadcasts.
Gottlieb played point guard at Notre Dame/Oklahoma State; his late father was a coach, and his brother is still coaching. This should be interesting to follow.
— 6-3 guard PJ Haggerty scored 21.2 ppg last year for Tulsa, more than any freshman in the country; he then bolted to Memphi$, because that’s what happens in college sports now. Rooting for smaller college teams is like rooting for the A’s or the Pirates- your best players are bolting for $$$.
— No Pac-12 this year; it’ll be back down the road, but there is one less automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament this year, and one more at-large bid. Oregon State, Washington State are playing in the WCC this year, Gonzaga’s league.
— 15 of the 18 ACC teams will be in the ACC Tournament……10 of the 13 teams in the MAAC will be in their tournament. In the past, the whole league played in their conference tournaments.
— Since 2015, six ACC teams have made it to a Final Four:
Duke, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Syracuse, Virginia
— College sports has gone mad; realignment of leagues has been to maximize $$$ from football, and basketball (and other sports) are suffering as a result.
Stanford/Cal are in the ATLANTIC Coast Conference; they’ll take two-game road trips this winter. January 15, 18th Stanford plays at Wake Forest/North Carolina; this makes no sense, and must cost schools a ton of dollar$.
— Famous birthdays, October 24th:
Kevin Kline, 77
Chester Marcol, 75
Omar Moreno, 72
Jay Novacek, 62
Corey Dillon, 50
Eric Hosmer, 35
Jalen Ramsey, 30
Rafael Devers, 28
Jaylen Brown, 28
Amon-Ra St. Brown, 25
— David Patrick is a coach who has now quit as a head coach twice, to become an assistant coach somewhere else, an unusual career move.
From 2018-20, Patrick was coach at Cal-Riverside; they went 10-23/17-15 at UCR, improving from 4-12 to 7-9 in the Big West in his second year, but then he bolted to Arkansas, where he was an assistant for Eric Musselman.
The last two years, Patrick was an assistant at Sacramento State in the Big Sky, where he went 14-18/10-24 in two years. Last spring, Patrick moved on and is now an assistant at LSU.
— Only three Big East teams made the NCAA Tournament last year, the fewest amount of teams since the league re-booted in 2014. One of those teams won the national title, but St John’s and Seton Hall getting squeezed out of at-large bids was surprising.
— Eric Musselman is going to win big (eventually) at USC; he’s added 10 transfers this season, eight of them seniors. There is only one kid on USC’s team who was a Trojan last year, and he only scored 2.3 ppg last year.
— Last seven years, seven different teams have won the C0nference USA conference tournament; last 11 years, eight different teams have won the Big West tournament.
— Steve Lutz is the new coach at Oklahoma State; he was 22-12 in his one year at Western Kentucky last year, after he was 47-23, 21-11 in two years at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Oklahoma State was 21-9 in the one year Cade Cunningham played for them, but in the three years since, Cowboys went 8-10, 4-14. 4-14 in Big X games.
— Utah State is on its sixth head coach in 11 years, which is weird because during that time, they’ve had only one losing season.
— Since 2010, Ivy League teams are a surprisingly good 8-14 in the NCAA Tournament.
— Coaching carousel was in full gear this past spring:
Rob Lanier went from SMU to Rice
Andy Enfield went from USC to SMU
Eric Musselman went from Arkansas to USC
John Calipari went from Kentucky to Arkansas
Mark Pope went from BYU to Kentucky.
Kyle Smith went from Washington State to Stanford
Danny Sprinkle went from Utah State to Washington
Dusty May went from Florida Atlantic to Michigan
Pat Kelsey went from Charleston to Louisville
Former Louisville coach Chris Mack went to Charleston.
Should be a very interesting season; enjoy!!!
— Kennesaw State 27, Liberty 24- Liberty was favored by 27.5 points.
— Jacksonville State 42, MTSU 20- Gamecocks outscored MT 21-3 in 3rd quarter.
— Suns 116, Clippers 113 OT- Suns were +14 in 24:00 Royce O’Neale played.
— Grizzlies 126, Jazz 124- Ja Morant had 22 points,, ten assists.
— Pacers 115, Pistons 109- Indiana outscored Pistons 33-19 in 4th quarter.
— Hawks 120, Nets 116- Onyeka Okongwu scored a career-high 28 points.
Quote of the Day
“We are not making any changes.”
New Jersey Giants owner John Mara
Thursday’s quiz
In the old TV show Magnum PI, what holiday did Magnum always spend by himself?
Wednesday’s quiz
Last two times the New York Knicks won the NBA title, they beat the Lakers in the Finals both times.
Tuesday’s quiz
Arizona Cardinals have played in one Super Bowl; Hall of Famer Kurt Warner was their QB in that game.
******************************************
Thursday’s Den: Very early college basketball information…….
College basketball starts in 10 days…..some stuff to think about— UConn won the last two national titles; last team to win three in a row was UCLA, way back from 1971-73. Last spring, Danny Hurley turned down a chance to coach the Lakers; he lost four starters from last year, but his Huskies are still a preseason top 10 team.
— TV/radio personality Doug Gottlieb is the new coach at Green Bay; he’s making $215,000 this year coaching, as well as continuing as host of his national radio show during the week. He was a really good TV analyst on game broadcasts.
Gottlieb played point guard at Notre Dame/Oklahoma State; his late father was a coach, and his brother is still coaching. This should be interesting to follow.
— 6-3 guard PJ Haggerty scored 21.2 ppg last year for Tulsa, more than any freshman in the country; he then bolted to Memphi$, because that’s what happens in college sports now. Rooting for smaller college teams is like rooting for the A’s or the Pirates- your best players are bolting for $$$.
— No Pac-12 this year; it’ll be back down the road, but there is one less automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament this year, and one more at-large bid. Oregon State, Washington State are playing in the WCC this year, Gonzaga’s league.
— 15 of the 18 ACC teams will be in the ACC Tournament……10 of the 13 teams in the MAAC will be in their tournament. In the past, the whole league played in their conference tournaments.
— Since 2015, six ACC teams have made it to a Final Four:
Duke, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Syracuse, Virginia
— College sports has gone mad; realignment of leagues has been to maximize $$$ from football, and basketball (and other sports) are suffering as a result.
Stanford/Cal are in the ATLANTIC Coast Conference; they’ll take two-game road trips this winter. January 15, 18th Stanford plays at Wake Forest/North Carolina; this makes no sense, and must cost schools a ton of dollar$.
— Famous birthdays, October 24th:
Kevin Kline, 77
Chester Marcol, 75
Omar Moreno, 72
Jay Novacek, 62
Corey Dillon, 50
Eric Hosmer, 35
Jalen Ramsey, 30
Rafael Devers, 28
Jaylen Brown, 28
Amon-Ra St. Brown, 25
— David Patrick is a coach who has now quit as a head coach twice, to become an assistant coach somewhere else, an unusual career move.
From 2018-20, Patrick was coach at Cal-Riverside; they went 10-23/17-15 at UCR, improving from 4-12 to 7-9 in the Big West in his second year, but then he bolted to Arkansas, where he was an assistant for Eric Musselman.
The last two years, Patrick was an assistant at Sacramento State in the Big Sky, where he went 14-18/10-24 in two years. Last spring, Patrick moved on and is now an assistant at LSU.
— Only three Big East teams made the NCAA Tournament last year, the fewest amount of teams since the league re-booted in 2014. One of those teams won the national title, but St John’s and Seton Hall getting squeezed out of at-large bids was surprising.
— Eric Musselman is going to win big (eventually) at USC; he’s added 10 transfers this season, eight of them seniors. There is only one kid on USC’s team who was a Trojan last year, and he only scored 2.3 ppg last year.
— Last seven years, seven different teams have won the C0nference USA conference tournament; last 11 years, eight different teams have won the Big West tournament.
— Steve Lutz is the new coach at Oklahoma State; he was 22-12 in his one year at Western Kentucky last year, after he was 47-23, 21-11 in two years at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Oklahoma State was 21-9 in the one year Cade Cunningham played for them, but in the three years since, Cowboys went 8-10, 4-14. 4-14 in Big X games.
— Utah State is on its sixth head coach in 11 years, which is weird because during that time, they’ve had only one losing season.
— Since 2010, Ivy League teams are a surprisingly good 8-14 in the NCAA Tournament.
— Coaching carousel was in full gear this past spring:
Rob Lanier went from SMU to Rice
Andy Enfield went from USC to SMU
Eric Musselman went from Arkansas to USC
John Calipari went from Kentucky to Arkansas
Mark Pope went from BYU to Kentucky.
Kyle Smith went from Washington State to Stanford
Danny Sprinkle went from Utah State to Washington
Dusty May went from Florida Atlantic to Michigan
Pat Kelsey went from Charleston to Louisville
Former Louisville coach Chris Mack went to Charleston.
Should be a very interesting season; enjoy!!!
