Thursday’s 6-pack:
Teams who shoot the highest %age on 2-point shots:
60.7%— Creighton
59.9%— Cornell
59.8%— Alabama
59.2%— BYU
59%— Saint Louis
58.5%— Northern Colorado
Quote of the Day
“I talked to them this offseason about that (playing in OF). Just in case a guy was available [at first] that we needed to have, needed to get. I’d be more than open to it, if we had a guy like that who was going to change our lineup or change the demeanor of our team. They like me at first base. But I’d go out there to have a guy who was going to play first base and hit 35 or 40 homers.”
Bryce Harper
Thursday’s quiz
Of the 32 teams in the NFL, how many have never had the first pick in the draft?
Wednesday’s quiz
Mike Brown replaced Phil Jackson as coach of the Lakers, in 2011.
Tuesday’s quiz
In the history of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Randy Johnson has the most pitching wins.
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— Florida 99, Alabama 94
Gators shot 60% inside arc, had 16 offensive boards.
Florida won eight of its last nine games.
Alabama lost four of its last six games.
— Ole Miss 78, Tennessee 76
Underdogs were 3-0 SU in SEC games Wednesday.
Tennessee led by 8 early in second half.
Brakefield had 19 points in 24:00 off the Rebels’ bench.
— UConn 72, Marquette 66
Huskies out-rebounded Marquette, 44-29
Marquette shot 62.9% inside arc, 3-22 on arc.
UConn won both meetings this year, by 8-6 points.
— Maryland 71, Michigan 65
Terps were 14-19 on foul line, Michigan 4-7
Maryland won 10 of its last 12 games.
Terps have #31 eFG% defense in country.
— Oklahoma 96, Missouri 84
Big win for a Sooner team that is squarely on the bubble
Sooners shot 64.1% inside arc, 25-26 on foul line.
Freshman G Fears scored 31 points, had five assists.
— Texas Tech 91, Colorado 75
Red Raiders shot 16-33 on the arc.
Tech won 12 of its last 15 games.
Colorado slips to 2-17 in conference games.
— Sun Belt tournament
Georgia Southern 78, Southern Miss 64
Old Dominion 67, Louisiana 49
Both teams that won Tuesday got whacked Wednesday.
—
Famous birthdays, March 6th:
Cookie Rojas, 86
Jerry Rhome, 83
Bob Trumpy, 80
Rob Reiner, 78
Mike Boryla, 74
Connie Britton, 58
Shaquille O’Neal, 53
Michael Finley, 52
Sage Rosenfels, 47
Jake Arrieta, 39
Josh Hart, 30
Joe Milton, 25
— I’m going to sound like an old guy here, which is fine, but there was a great basketball player named Artis Gilmore who led Jacksonville to the Final Four in 1970. Yes, Jacksonville played in a Final Four; they haven’t been in the NCAA Tournament since 1986.
Artis Gilmore was a lefty big man who wound up playing 17 years in the ABA/NBA, scoring 24,941 points. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
His first eight years as a pro, Gilmore played in EVERY GAME, 84 in his five ABA seasons, 82 in his NBA years. He played 37+ minutes/game in seven of those years, he played 35.1 mpg in that eighth year.
My point is this: today’s NBA players are coddled; the game is softer, travel is way easier. In 1978-79, Gilmore played games on back/back nights 15 times, and four other times, the Bulls played games on three consecutive nights (yes, NBA teams played Fri-Sat-Sun at times back then). And no, teams didn’t have chartered planes back then; they flew commercial.
— There is a college basketball ref, Doug Sirmons. Here is his schedule for the last week or so:
Feb 25- Mississippi State @ Alabama
Feb 26- Vanderbilt @ Texas A&M
Feb 27- UAB @ Wichita State
Feb 28- Iowa @ Northwestern
March 1- Arizona @ Iowa State
March 2- Missouri State @ Drake
March 3- Kansas @ Houston
March 4- Baylor @ TCU
March 5- Colorado @ Texas Tech
Colorado @ Texas Tech was the 103rd game Sirmons has worked this season; that is 103 games in 122 days. No load management for college basketball refs.
— Dallas Cowboys created nearly $57M in salary cap space by re-working the contracts of QB Dak Prescott, WR CeeDee Lamb.
— Chicago Bears have a new head coach, Ben Johnson, who is a QB guru; Bears have already traded for two offensive linemen to protect QB Caleb Williams.
Bears traded a 4th-round pick to Kansas City for G Joe Thuney, a 6th-round pick to the Rams for G Jonah Jackson.
Thuney is 32 years old, has only one year left on his contract; Chiefs were $14M over the salary cap Wednesday morning, they’re $2M under the cap now. In this day and age, that matters.
Jackson signed a 3-year, $51M deal with the Rams last year, but was banged up and played in only four games. Jackson played for the Lions, so he knows Ben Johnson’s system.
— Las Vegas Raiders signed DE Maxx Crosby to a 3-year, $106.5M contract extension; he is now the highest-paid non-QB in NFL history.
$91.5M of that money is guaranteed; he is under contract thru 2029.
— In 10 days, Cubs/Dodgers are playing two games that count in Japan, as Shohei Ohtani plays in his home country, as well as a few other players.
This is where I point out that Major League Baseball should have a
Hard Knocks-type program that could take us behind the curtain to events like this, to promote the sport better.
Seems to have worked for the NFL. I’m just sayin’……..
