Sunday’s 6-pack
Leading rebounders in the NBA:
12.5— Domantas Sabonis, Sac
11.9— Nikola Jokic, Den
11.8— Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milw
11.5— Rudy Gobert, Minn
11.3— Nikola Vucevic, Chi
11.1— Clint Capela, Atl
Quote of the Day
“Even though [our flight] was a charter, I thought, my goodness, those guys have to do this every other week to play a basketball game? It would be exhausting. It’s going to be a real challenge to be at their best with that kind of travel. I’m wishing them all the best, but that’s more travel than I would ever wish on anybody.”
San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher, talking about USC/UCLA joining the Big 14
Saturday’s quiz
Which college basketball team is known as the Gauchos?
Saturday’s quiz
2018 was the last time a Big East team won a national title in college basketball, when Villanova beat Michigan for the title.
Friday’s quiz
1997 was the last time a Pac-12 team won the national title in college basketball, when Arizona beat Kentucky in overtime to win the championship.
************************************************** *********
Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday……..
Florida Atlantic is in the Final Four; let that sink in for a minute.
— Florida Atlantic 79, Kansas State 76
K-State led 57-50 with 12:00 left in game.
#9-seed Owls survived being minus-10 in turnovers (22-12)
UCLA made Final Four two years ago as an #11-seed, but this was only the second time ever that FAU was even in the freakin’ tournament. Totally amazing achievement.
— UConn 82, Gonzaga 54
Huskies won their four NCAA Tournament games, by 24-15-23-28 points.
UConn is 29-8; they’re 1-5 in games decided by 6 or less points.
Gonzaga shot 33% from the floor, an ugly end to an excellent 31-6 season.
— Did some work Saturday, trying to identify which stats work best to identify teams that are going to prosper in the NCAA Tournament. There are no absolutes, but some things stand out:
Things that seem not to matter too much:
— Deep benches— longer TV timeouts in the tournament
— Reliance on 3-point shooting— hard to shoot it well six games in a row
— Continuity
Different teams succeed for different reasons; some teams just get cobbled together in the summer and they click, like Kansas State. K-State was an older team, #30 in experience, but #316 in continuity, but they defended well, their 5th-year PG had a monster year and they did great. No one would have predicted that back in November.
Defensive eFG%— Four of the top 10 in the country made the Sweet 16; the two worst teams in this category that made the Sweet 16 are Miami/Gonzaga- they were both in the top 25 in eFG% offense. So, teams that score easy baskets and/or prevent their opponents from getting easy baskets.
Forcing turnovers— UCLA, Texas, Tennessee were strong in this category; Creighton is terrible, but they’re still playing.
— Teams that rank high in eFG%, both offense and defense, those are the teams we need to focus on. That is what I’ll be searching for next March.
— Charlotte Hornets (+16) won in Dallas Friday night, the biggest upset in NBA this season.
— Ben Simmons is hurt again; he is making $35,448,672 this season, will make $88M combined over the next two seasons, talk about a guy who is stealing money.
In six NBA seasons (he sat one out completely), Simmons has played in 317 games; he is a career 56% shooter on the foul line, 5-36 on the arc. Great passer, very good defender, but over the last four seasons, he has played in only 157 out of a possible 300 games.
Not sure why you would want this guy on your team, in a sport with a salary cap.
— Baseball season starts on Thursday, some quick thoughts:
— In Japan, teams play six games a week, most teams use six starting pitchers, so one start per week. Oakland A’s signed a pitcher Shintaro Fujinami; word is that he will pitch every Saturday this season, that’s it, once a week. They’ll fill in with other guys around him.
I’ve seen Fujinami pitch couple times; he’s good. Has control lapses, but didn’t give up many hits in the Cactus League. Think he’ll help the A’s a lot; not sure he’ll be a great fantasy pitcher, not a lot of strikeout in his game.
Angels are also likely to wind up using six starting pitchers, letting Ohtani get extra rest between his starts. Could be a new trend, six-man starting rotations.
— Wonder what interpreters earn who work for major league teams? Pretty important job; Fujinami comes out of the game Saturday, he huddles with his catcher and the interpreter. Pitching coach goes to the mound, interpreter is right there.
— St Louis Cardinals used 14 starting pitchers last year, the most they’ve used in any one season since 2002.
Cardinals signed P Miles Mikolas to a 2-year, $40M contract extension.
— OF Jurickson Profar has visa issues, hasn’t joined his new team (Colorado Rockies) yet.
— LB Bobby Wagner went back to the Seahawks, after a year with the Rams; Wagner played 10 years in Seattle, before bolting to LA last season.
— NFC East is the only NFL division, where all four teams have won a Super Bowl.
Leading rebounders in the NBA:
12.5— Domantas Sabonis, Sac
11.9— Nikola Jokic, Den
11.8— Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milw
11.5— Rudy Gobert, Minn
11.3— Nikola Vucevic, Chi
11.1— Clint Capela, Atl
Quote of the Day
“Even though [our flight] was a charter, I thought, my goodness, those guys have to do this every other week to play a basketball game? It would be exhausting. It’s going to be a real challenge to be at their best with that kind of travel. I’m wishing them all the best, but that’s more travel than I would ever wish on anybody.”
San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher, talking about USC/UCLA joining the Big 14
Saturday’s quiz
Which college basketball team is known as the Gauchos?
Saturday’s quiz
2018 was the last time a Big East team won a national title in college basketball, when Villanova beat Michigan for the title.
Friday’s quiz
1997 was the last time a Pac-12 team won the national title in college basketball, when Arizona beat Kentucky in overtime to win the championship.
************************************************** *********
Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday……..
Florida Atlantic is in the Final Four; let that sink in for a minute.
— Florida Atlantic 79, Kansas State 76
K-State led 57-50 with 12:00 left in game.
#9-seed Owls survived being minus-10 in turnovers (22-12)
UCLA made Final Four two years ago as an #11-seed, but this was only the second time ever that FAU was even in the freakin’ tournament. Totally amazing achievement.
— UConn 82, Gonzaga 54
Huskies won their four NCAA Tournament games, by 24-15-23-28 points.
UConn is 29-8; they’re 1-5 in games decided by 6 or less points.
Gonzaga shot 33% from the floor, an ugly end to an excellent 31-6 season.
— Did some work Saturday, trying to identify which stats work best to identify teams that are going to prosper in the NCAA Tournament. There are no absolutes, but some things stand out:
Things that seem not to matter too much:
— Deep benches— longer TV timeouts in the tournament
— Reliance on 3-point shooting— hard to shoot it well six games in a row
— Continuity
Different teams succeed for different reasons; some teams just get cobbled together in the summer and they click, like Kansas State. K-State was an older team, #30 in experience, but #316 in continuity, but they defended well, their 5th-year PG had a monster year and they did great. No one would have predicted that back in November.
Defensive eFG%— Four of the top 10 in the country made the Sweet 16; the two worst teams in this category that made the Sweet 16 are Miami/Gonzaga- they were both in the top 25 in eFG% offense. So, teams that score easy baskets and/or prevent their opponents from getting easy baskets.
Forcing turnovers— UCLA, Texas, Tennessee were strong in this category; Creighton is terrible, but they’re still playing.
— Teams that rank high in eFG%, both offense and defense, those are the teams we need to focus on. That is what I’ll be searching for next March.
— Charlotte Hornets (+16) won in Dallas Friday night, the biggest upset in NBA this season.
— Ben Simmons is hurt again; he is making $35,448,672 this season, will make $88M combined over the next two seasons, talk about a guy who is stealing money.
In six NBA seasons (he sat one out completely), Simmons has played in 317 games; he is a career 56% shooter on the foul line, 5-36 on the arc. Great passer, very good defender, but over the last four seasons, he has played in only 157 out of a possible 300 games.
Not sure why you would want this guy on your team, in a sport with a salary cap.
— Baseball season starts on Thursday, some quick thoughts:
— In Japan, teams play six games a week, most teams use six starting pitchers, so one start per week. Oakland A’s signed a pitcher Shintaro Fujinami; word is that he will pitch every Saturday this season, that’s it, once a week. They’ll fill in with other guys around him.
I’ve seen Fujinami pitch couple times; he’s good. Has control lapses, but didn’t give up many hits in the Cactus League. Think he’ll help the A’s a lot; not sure he’ll be a great fantasy pitcher, not a lot of strikeout in his game.
Angels are also likely to wind up using six starting pitchers, letting Ohtani get extra rest between his starts. Could be a new trend, six-man starting rotations.
— Wonder what interpreters earn who work for major league teams? Pretty important job; Fujinami comes out of the game Saturday, he huddles with his catcher and the interpreter. Pitching coach goes to the mound, interpreter is right there.
— St Louis Cardinals used 14 starting pitchers last year, the most they’ve used in any one season since 2002.
Cardinals signed P Miles Mikolas to a 2-year, $40M contract extension.
— OF Jurickson Profar has visa issues, hasn’t joined his new team (Colorado Rockies) yet.
— LB Bobby Wagner went back to the Seahawks, after a year with the Rams; Wagner played 10 years in Seattle, before bolting to LA last season.
— NFC East is the only NFL division, where all four teams have won a Super Bowl.
