Cnotes NL 2024-2025 Schedule, Best Bets, Opinons, News !

[Cnotes53]

Sunday, January 19​

Game	Time(ET)	Pick	Units
LA at PHI	03:00 PM	LA +7.0 O 43.0	+500 +500
BAL at BUF	06:30 PM	BUF +1.0 U 51.5	+500 +500

 

[Cnotes53]

NFL BEST BETS FOR WK # 18 THRU THE SUPER BOWL !

01/19/2025...................3 - 1 - 0..........75.00%............+ 9.50
01/18/2025...................3 - 1 - 0.........75.00%.............+ 9.50
01/13/2025...................1 - 1 - 0.........50.00%.............- 0.50
01/12/2025...................0 - 6 - 0.........00.00%.............- 33.00
01/11/2025...................1 - 3 - 0.........25.00%.............- 11.50
01/05/2025..................14 - 8 -0.........63.63%.............+ 26.00
01/04/2025...................3 - 1 - 0.........75.00%.............+ 9.50

TOTALS......................25 -21 - 0.........54.34%............. + 9.50

 

[Cnotes53]

Monday’s 6-pack:
University of Oregon’s spending on sports the last six years:
2019- $128,943,543
2020- $120,884,588
2021- $101,243,145
2022- $140,565,297
2023- $146,778,941
2024- $167,228,256

Quote of the Day
“Nothing ends well, or else it wouldn’t end.”
Doug Coughlin, Bryan Brown’s character in the movie Cocktail

Monday’s quiz
Kansas City Chiefs came into being in 1963, their fourth year in the old AFL. The previous three years, where did the team call home?

Sunday’s quiz
In the history of the NHL, 19 goals have been scored by goalies.

Saturday’s quiz
Before Dan Campbell, Jim Caldwell was the last Detroit Lions coach to have a winning record; he coached the Lions from 2014-17, going 36-30, 0-2 in playoff games.

***********************************

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend……..​

— Bills 27, Ravens 25
Ravens scored TD with 1:33 left, dropped pass for tying 2-point play.
Buffalo led 21-10 at halftime.
Bills in first half: 28 plays, 168 yards, 21 points.
Ravens were 7-10 on third down, outgained Buffalo, 416-273.
Bills visit Kansas City next week, in AFC title game.

— Commanders 45, Lions 31
Detroit gained 521 yards, but turned ball over five times (minus-5)
Pick-6 by Quan Martin put Commanders up 24-14 in second quarter.
Commanders averaged 9.6 yards/pass attempt.
Next week, Washington plays the Eagles in the NFC title game.

— NFC North teams were 33-11 SU/30-14 ATS outside their division this year, then they went 0-3 SU/ATS during the playoffs.

— Chiefs 23, Texans 14
Kelce caught seven passes for 117 yards and a TD.
Texans outgained Kansas City, 336-212; they were 10-17 on third down.
Texans (+9.5) covered spread when KC took an intentional safety with 0:11 left.
Chiefs are in the AFC Championship game for seventh year in a row.

— Eagles 28, Rams 22
Eagles played LA twice this year, ran ball for 314-285 yards.
Philadelphia averaged 8.4 yards/rush in this game.
Jake Elliott kicked three FG’s, missed two PAT’s on a snowy day.
Down 28-22, Rams had ball in red zone in last minute, but didn’t score.
If the Eagles win the Super Bowl this year, do they give Giants’ GM Joe Schoen a Super Bowl ring? After all, he’s done as much as anyone to help the Eagles win this year, allowing Saquon Barkley to walk away from the Giants.
Schoen wanted to build around overpaid QB Daniel Jones, but then he cut him, too!!! How the Giants haven’t fired Schoen is a mystery to me.

— Since 1967, 59 quarterbacks have been selected with a top-4 pick in the draft; Washington QB Jayden Daniels will be the first to start a conference championship game as a rookie.

— Famous birthdays:
Milt Plum, 90
Bill Kenney, 70
Ozzie Guillen, 61
Mark Stepnoski, 58
Brian Giles, 54
Eddie Kennison, 52
David Eckstein, 50
Nick Foles, 36
DeVante Parker, 32

— Random trivia: Magic Johnson/Larry Bird faced off in the 1979 Final Four, which helped popularize college basketball on a national level (that and ESPN starting up). The other two teams in the Final Four that year were DePaul and Penn; imagine an Ivy League team making the Final Four these days?
This was the year before the Big East Conference started; that became a big deal, and most of the other eastern colleges that weren’t included suffered for it.

— Dodgers added reliever Tanner Scott for four years, $72M; $21M of that $$$ is deferred.
Part of the appeal of signing Scott is that Shohei Ohtani is 1-9 against him in his career, but now they’re teammates, so that doesn’t matter.

— It amuses me to hear New York baseball fans whining about the Dodgers signing all these players; welcome to my world, Chief. I’ve been an A’s fan since the mid-60’s; I’m bleeping tired of having teams sign guys away from the A’s. Let’s see how you like it.

— I’ve been watching lot of mock fantasy drafts for baseball season on YouTube; problem is, there are some very good players who are in limbo right now (Bregman, Alonso, Arenad0, Profar) so hard to do a great fantasy draft until you know where those guys will be this year.

— Super Bowl is on FOX this year; FOX is still at war with DirecTV. I feel bad for bars that have DirecTV- they can’t show games from FOX, unless they add an extra antenna on their roof., and that doesn’t always result in a great picture.

— Tennessee Titans signed a new GM, former Chiefs’ assistant GM Mike Borgonzi, who spent the last 16 years in Kansas City.

No pressure; Borgonzi starts out with the Tennessee having the first pick in the 2025 draft.
— Maybe the Falcons shouldn’t have fired Dan Quinn; Atlanta lost the Super Bowl eight years ago, then went 24-24 the next three years and fired Quinn after an 0-5 start in 2020.
Since then, Falcons have gone 33-46, missing the playoffs every year, while Quinn will be in the NFC Championship game next week, in his first year coaching the Washington Commanders.

 

[Udog]

Guys,

Cnotes is in the process of moving to Nevada. He'll be out of pocket for a week or 10 days. His picks will resume once they're settled in. I'll keep the info going while he's away.

 

[Udog]

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Sunday, January 26

NFL
Dunkel

Conference Championships

NFL

Conference Championships

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Washington vs Philadelphia
Washington is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Washington is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games on the road
Philadelphia is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Philadelphia is 14-1 SU in its last 15 games

Buffalo vs Kansas City
Buffalo is 12-2 SU in its last 14 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Buffalo's last 6 games on the road
Kansas City is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Kansas City is 22-2 SU in its last 24 games


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Cnotes53]

Tuesday’s 6-pack:
— Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 23- OSU wins first national title in ten years.
— Georgetown 64, Villanova 63- Villanova didn’t score a point in last 4:52.
— Princeton 71, Columbia 67- Lions led 33-13 late in first half.
— Brown 83, Cornell 82- Cornell lost by 1, was 7-16 on foul line.
— UNCW 85, Wm & Mary 74- First CAA loss for the 5-1 Tribe.
— Montana 72, Idaho 67- Grizzlies shot 12-27 on the arc.

Quote of the Day
“I know we had a good training camp, but there was no confidence that this thing was gonna go this way. Ultimate surprise, really.”
Kenny Atkinson, coach of the 36-6 Cleveland Cavaliers

Tuesday’s quiz
Where were the baseball scenes filmed in the great baseball movie, The Natural?

Monday’s quiz
Kansas City Chiefs came into being in 1963, their fourth year in the old AFL. The previous three years, they were the Dallas Texans.

Sunday’s quiz
In the history of the NHL, 19 goals have been scored by goalies.

***************************************

Tuesday’s Den: NBA trends……​

NBA trends (thru Sunday, January 20th)
Hawks (22-19):
— 4-1 SU/3-2 ATS in their last five games.
— 1-5 ATS as a road favorite, 5-1 last six as a home dog.
— Over 10-2 last 12 home games

Celtics (29-13):
— 3-4 last seven games SU.
— 6-15 ATS last 21 home games.
— under 8-1 last nine road games.

Nets (14-29):
— lost 19 of their last 24 games SU.
— 2-8 ATS last 10 as home underdog.
— over 7-3 last ten road games

Hornets (10-28):
— won three of last four games SU.
— 5-1-1 ATS last seven as road underdog.
— over 3-0 last three games.

Bulls (18-25)
— 1-6 SU in last seven games.
— 4-0-1 ATS last five as a home underdog.
— under 6-2 last eight games
— 1-6 ATS if they played the night before.

Cavaliers (35-6):
— 18-3 SU last 21 games.
— 4-1 ATS as a road underdog, 7-0 last seven as a road favorite,.
— over 8-1 last nine road games.
— 5-2 ATS if they played the night before.

Mavericks (23-19):
— 3-8 SU/2-9 ATS last eleven games.
— under 7-3 last 10 games
— 5-2 ATS if they played the night before.

Nuggets (26-16):
— 6-1 SU last seven games
— 7-0 ATS last seven as a road favorite.
— over 13-3 last 16 home games.
— 6-2 ATS if they played the night before.

Pistons (21-21):
— 7-3 last ten games SU.
— 12-7 ATS on the road.
— 2-6 ATS as home favorite
— over 7-3 last ten games

Warriors (21-20):
— 7-11 last eighteen games SU.
— 6-9 ATS as a home favorite
— under 13-1 last 14 road games
— 1-5 ATS if they played the night before.

Rockets (28-13):
— 7-2 last nine games SU
— 2-6 ATS last eight as a home favorite
— 6-4-1 ATS as an underdog.
— over 10-4 last fourteen road games

Pacers (24-19):
— won/covered nine of their last 11 games.
— 5-0 ATS last five as a home favorite.
— under 7-1 last eight games.

Clippers (24-17):
— won/covered last four games
— 10-2 ATS as a home favorite
— under 10-2 last dozen road games.

Lakers (22-18):
— 2-4 SU last six games
— 1-4 ATS last five games overall.
— 2-6 ATS as a road favorite
— over 3-1 last four games.

Grizzlies (27-15):
— 3-1 SU/4-0 ATS last four games.
— 12-6 ATS as a home favorite.
— 5-1 ATS if they played the night before.
— over 9-1 last 10 games

Famous birthdays, January 21st:
Gary Garrison, 81
Mike Krukow, 73
Robby Benson, 69
Geena Davis, 69
Sidney Lowe, 65
Andy Hawkins, 65
Randy Wright, 64
Hakeem Olajuwon, 62
Detlef Schrempf, 62
Brandon Crawford, 38
Jake Diekman, 38
Zach Plesac, 30

Heat (21-20):
— 1-3 SU last four games.
— 1-6 ATS last seven games as a road favorite
— under 4-1 last five road tilts
— over 5-0 last five home games.

Bucks (24-17):
— 6-2 SU/ATS last eight games.
— 5-0 ATS last five as a home favorite.
— over 6-0 last six games.

Timberwolves (22-20)
— 0-3 SU/ATS last three home games.
— 4-14 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 4-1 last five games.

Pelicans (11-32):
— 4-1 SU/5-0 ATS last five games
— 4-2 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 7-2 last nine home games.

Knicks (27-16):
— 3-6 SU/ATS their last nine games.
— 4-7 ATS last 11 games as a home favorite.
— 5-2 ATS last seven games as a road favorite.
— over 4-1 last five games.

Thunder (35-7):
— 5-0-1 ATS last six home games.
— 9-6-1 ATS on road.
— over 6-1 last seven games

Magic (23-21):
— 1-5 SU/2-4 ATS last six games .
— 2-6 ATS last eight home games
— under 7-2 last nine home games.


76ers (15-26):
— 0-6 SU/0-5-1 ATS last six games
— 4-14-1 ATS at home
— 6-3 ATS as a road favorite
— over 3-1 last four games

Suns (21-20):
— 5-1 SU/2-3-1 ATS last six games.
— 4-10-1 ATS as home favorite.
— 2-5-1 ATS if they played the night before
— over 4-0 last four games

Trailblazers (14-28):
— 1-5 SU/2-4 ATS last six games.
— 2-6 ATS last eight home games.
— 5-2 ATS if they played the night before
— over 9-3 last 12 home games

Kings (22-20):
— 9-1 SU/6-1-3 ATS last ten games
— 4-1-1 ATS last five as home favorite
— 4-6-1 ATS as a road favorite.
— over 6-2 last eight games

Spurs (19-22):
— 1-6 SU/ATS last seven games
— 0-5 ATS last five as a home underdog.
— over 4-0 last four games

Raptors (10-32):
— 2-6 SU/3-5 ATS last eight games
— 13-5-1 ATS as a home underdog.
— over 5-2 last seven road games

Jazz (10-30):
— 6-18 SU last 24 games.
— 11-4 ATS last fifteen games.
— over 15-5 last 20 games.

Wizards (6-35):
— 4-33 SU/14-21-2 ATS last 31 games
— 3-1 ATS last four games
— over 6-2 last eight home games.

 

[Udog]

 

[Cnotes53]

Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Six best basketball conferences in country, according to kenpom.com
— SEC
— Big 18
— Big X
— Big East
— ACC
— Mountain West

Quote of the Day
“I really believe that he could look at the field and decide where he wanted to hit the ball and then he would hit it in a manner that would fall in front of outfielders. Although he had pop in his bat, he knew how to just hit it over infielders — almost like his bat was a fungo — and as if the pitcher was just tossing it up in the air and he would hit it somewhere; it was just really maddening to defend it.”
Former Angels manager Joe Maddon, talking about Ichiro Suzuki

Wednesday’s quiz
Which team did CC Sabathia break into the major leagues with?

Tuesday’s quiz
The baseball scenes filmed in the great baseball movie, The Natural were filmed in Buffalo.

Monday’s quiz
Kansas City Chiefs came into being in 1963, their fourth year in the old AFL. The previous three years, they were the Dallas Texans.

************************************

Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings……..​

— Chicago Bears hired Lions OC Ben Johnson as their new coach; had to be an interesting decision for Johnson, who turned down the Washington Commanders at this time last year, and also passed on coaching the Raiders next fall.
Johnson is a QB guru; he chooses working with Caleb Williams (in frigid weather) over Jayden Daniels, which seems like a mistake. Bears are also in the best division and are rivals with the team Johnson just spent the last six years working for.
Count on this: Bears-Lions is a Sunday night/Monday game in Week 1 next fall.

— Wake Forest 67, North Carolina 66
Deacons have won six in row, are 7-1 in ACC.
Wake was 21-27 on foul line, Carolina 6-10
Teams combined to shoot 10-47 on the arc.

— Ohio State 73, Purdue 70
Purdue led 41-28 at halftime.
OSU shot 59.1% inside arc, 11-23 on the arc.
Just second win in last six games for Ohio State.

— UConn 80, Butler 78 OT
UConn led by 15 late in first half.
Butler is 1-10 in its last eleven games.
UConn has #9 eFG% in the country.

— Minnesota 72, Iowa 67
Iowa lost its last three games, giving up 99-94-72.
Teams combined to shoot 10-45 on the arc.
Four of Minnesota’s last five games were decided by 6 or fewer points.

— UCLA 85, Wisconsin 83
Wisconsin led by 7 early in second half.
UCLA’s leading scorers had 22-19 points; neither guy started.
Wisconsin shot 15-30 on the arc, 10-19 inside arc.

— Ball State 82, Central Michigan 80 OT
Chippewas led by 13 early in second half.
Chippewas were +8 in turnovers (19-11)
Ball State was 19-25 on foul line, CMU 9-13.

Upsets of the Night:
Ohio State (+10.5) 73, Purdue 70
Minnesota (+8.5) 72, Iowa 67
Eastern Michigan (+8.5) 94, Ohio U 87
Arizona State (+8.5) 65, West Virginia 57
Ball State (+4.5) 82, Central Michigan 80 OT

— Famous birthdays, January 22:
Larry Conley, 81
Lester Hayes, 70
Jeff Rutledge, 68
Diane Lane, 60
Gabriel Macht, 53
Chone Figgins, 47
Carlos Ruiz, 46
Dillon Brooks, 29

— Ichiro Suzuki got in the Hall of Fame, along with CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner; one person didn’t vote for Ichiro- that person should be identified. They’re entitled to their opinion/vote but we should get to know who it is.

— Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 23
Notre Dame’s first drive: 18 plays, 75 yards, TD; 9:45 off clock
Notre Dame’s next three drives: 11 plays, 4 yards, no first downs.
Ohio State’s first four drives: 38 plays, 306 yards, 28 points.
Buckeyes win their first national title in ten years.

— QB Devin Brown transferred from Ohio State to Cal; he was 14-23/137 passing as a backup for the national champs this season. Now he is going to a team that will start him next fall.

— With Anthony Santander signing with Toronto, that means the Orioles will have three of the top 31 picks in this summer’s amateur draft.

— Texas agreed to a 7-year contract with football coach Steve Sarkisian, who is 38-17 in four seasons with the Longhorns; he made $10.3M this season, so it figures that he got a raise in addition to the extra years on the deal.

— Minnesota Vikings signed coach Kevin O’Connell to a multiyear contract extension; he is 34-19 in three years coaching the Vikings, 0-2 in playoff games.
Since 1989, Minnesota is 8-19 in playoff games; they’re 0-4 in Super Bowls, with their last appearance in a Super Bowl in 1977.

— Definition of awkward:
Josh Harris owns the Washington Commanders, who play the Eagles in the NFC title game Sunday afternoon in Philly.
Josh Harris also owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, who are struggling this season at 15-26.

 

[Cnotes53]

Thursday’s 6-pack:
Who scored the most runs in the major leagues last year:
134— Ohtani, LA
128— Soto, NYY
125— Witt, KC
122— Judge, NYY
121— Carroll, Ariz
118— Henderson, Balt

Quote of the Day
“I think Aaron is going to be himself. He’s very straightforward. He’s a very candid guy. I don’t think that will be a problem, I really don’t. I think he’ll just be Aaron Glenn, and I think that will be fine. He’s a very honest, principled guy. I have a high regard for him, I really do.”
Bill Parcells, talking about new Jets’ coach Aaron Glenn

Thursday’s quiz
Where did NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird play his college basketball?

Wednesday’s quiz
Hall of Famer CC Sabathia broke into the major leagues with Cleveland.

Tuesday’s quiz
The baseball scenes filmed in the great baseball movie, The Natural were filmed in Buffalo.

******************************************

Thursday’s Den: Taking a look thru college basketball info……​

— SEC
Florida 70, South Carolina 69
Gamecocks led 52-38 with 12:46 left, by 5 with 1:16 left.
Florida is 17-2; they’ve got the #5 eFG% defense in country.
Gamecocks were 4-8 on the foul line, in a one-point loss.
South Carolina is 0-6 in SEC, with three losses by 3 or fewer points.

Texas A&M 63, Ole Miss 62
Aggies led for first time in game with 0:12 left to play.
Ole Miss led 33-26 at halftime.
A&M out-rebounded the Rebels, 48-31.
Bracketology has 12 SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Big East
St John’s 79, Xavier 71 OT
Musketeers led 40-30 at halftime.
St John’s was 1-12 on arc; they’re shooting 22.4% on arc in Big East tilts.
Very bad beat, if you had Xavier +6.5
Bracketology has four Big East teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Big 18
Northwestern 79, Indiana 70
Wildcats have beaten Indiana in their last five meetings.
Indiana led 31-25 at halftime.
Northwestern shot 13-27 on the arc.

USC 78, Nebraska 73
Nebraska has lost five games in a row, after a 12-2 start.
Trojans are 7-3 in last ten games; they’re 4-4 in Big 18.
Teams combined to shoot 11-45 on the arc.
Bracketology has ten Big 18 teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Big X
Kansas 74, TCU 61
Horned Frogs led by 14 early, but were just 5-26 on the arc.
Kansas shot 64.9% inside the arc.
Jayhawks have won five of their last six games.
Bracketology has eight Big X teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— ACC
Clemson 86, Syracuse 72
Syracuse made 11-21 on arc to cover the big spread.
Clemson scored 1.34 points/possession, a very high number.
Tigers have won four in row, seven of last eight games.
Bracketology has five ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Mountain West
Colorado State 75, Boise State 72
Rams led by 17 with 12:29 left, blew the lead.
Colorado State outscored Boise 5-0 over final 1:09 of the game.
Rams made 11-24 shots on the arc.
Boise lost four of last six games, after an 11-3 start.
Bracketology has three Mountain West teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Famous birthdays, January 23rd
Kurt Bevacqua, 78
Pat Haden, 72
Gail O’Grady, 62
Mariska Hargitay, 61
Eric Metcalf, 57
Mark Wohlers, 55
Erubiel Durazo, 51
Tiffani Thiessen, 51
Phil Dawson, 50
Larry Hughes, 46
Jeff Samardzija, 40
Daniel Carlson, 30

— SoCon
Mercer 79, NC-Greensboro 78
Mercer was down 44-21 late in first half, trailed by 13 with 7:31 left.
Bears shot 56.8% inside arc; they snap 4-game losing skid here.
Samford leads SoCon at 5-1; four teams have two league losses. No one in this league is in KenPom’s top 100.
46.1% of shots taken in SoCon games are 3’s, the highest %age of any league in country.

— American
North Texas 76, Temple 67
Mean Green was 23-34 on foul line, Temple 14-18.
North Texas has won four in a row, eight of last nine games.
Should be a very good conference tournament; four teams are tied in loss column atop the AAC standings, Memphis/North Texas are in KenPom’s top 60.

— West Coast
Saint Mary’s in 6-0 in WCC games; San Francisco is 6-2, three other teams, including Gonzaga, are 5-2. Six of the 11 teams in this league are in the top 100.
Bracketology has Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s in the NCAA Tournament.

— Missouri Valley
Drake 81, Valparaiso 71
Drake scored 1.29 points/possession, made 9-16 on the arc.
Bulldogs are 17-2 with four starters who played D-2 ball last year.
Bradley is 8-1 in the Valley, Drake is 7-2, three other teams are 6-3.

— Big West
Cal-Irvine is 7-0 in Big West, Cal-San Diego 5-2; five other teams have three conference losses.
Big West teams are shooting 77.1% on foul line, best of any league in country.

— Sun Belt
South Alabama leads Sun Belt with a 6-1 record; Appalachian State/Arkansas State are both 5-2.
Sun Belt teams have a eFG% of 48.5%, 3rd-lowest of any league in country.

— MAAC
Quinnipiac is 7-1 in MAAC; Merrimack/Marist are both 6-1, in a league that at its lowest ranking in six years.

 

[Cnotes53]

Friday’s 6-pack:
Bonuses in Bill Belichick’s contract with North Carolina:
$1.75M— win national championship
$1.5M— lose national title game
$300,000— win ACC title game
$200,000— get to the ACC title game
$300,000— finish in top 20 in country
$150,000— get to a lower-level bowl game

Quote of the Day
“I think sooner than later, being able to get that clarity. Understanding clear, open and honest communication……..I think a lot sooner than later is an ideal scenario.I know he’s playing really good football. Obviously, I love him, love working with him. What he’s meant to our football team has been immeasurable in a positive way.”

Rams’ coach Sean McVay, talking about QB Matthew Stafford
Friday’s quiz
When was the last time an NBA team won consecutive championships?

Thursday’s quiz
NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird played his college basketball at Indiana State.

Wednesday’s quiz
Hall of Famer CC Sabathia broke into the major leagues with Cleveland.

***************************************

Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here……..​

— Jacksonville Jaguars have a new head coach; former Tampa Bay OC Liam Coen has left the Bucs to become the new coach in Jacksonville, which means that next season, Tampa Bay will have its fourth offensive coordinator in four seasons.

— Saint Mary’s 71, San Francisco 51
Dons have lost their last 22 visits to Moraga.
Saint Mary’s shot 66% inside arc; they were 1-5 on the arc for the whole game.
Gaels improve to 7-0 in the WCC.

— Maryland 91, Illinois 70
Julian Reese had 27 points, 17 rebounds for the Terps.
Maryland has won four of its last five games.
Illinois lost three of its last four games, after a 12-3 start.

— NC-Wilmington 85, Charleston 83
Seahawks shot 58.1% inside the arc.
UNCW has won five of its last six games.
Both teams are now 5-2 in CAA, a game behind Wm & Mary.

— Samford 73, Chattanooga 69
Mocs led 42-26 with 1:29 left in the first half.
Samford shot 58.3% inside arc, 5-17 on the arc.
Bulldogs are 16-4; they’ve won 12 of their last 14 games.

— Santa Clara 93, Washington State 65
Broncos are 11-2 in their last 13 games, after a 3-5 start.
Santa Clara was +9 in turnovers; they shot 13-32 on the arc.

— Utah Valley 72, Cal Baptist 69
Cal Baptist led 37-25 at halftime.
Dominick Nelson had 17 of his 25 points in second half.
Wolverines have won eight in a row, are 6-0 in the WAC.

— South Dakota State 65, Kansas City 64
Kangaroos led by 8 points late in first half.
Teams combined to shoot 9-40 on the arc.
Oscar Cluff had 23 points, 19 rebounds for the Jackrabbits.

— Famous birthdays, January 24th
Tim Stoddard, 72
Atlee Hammaker, 67
Neil Allen, 67
Matthew Lillard, 55
Ed Helms, 51
Scott Kazmir, 41
Jose Quintana, 36
Whit Merrifield, 36
Naji Marshall, 27
Tristan Wirfs, 26

— 25 Australian players have played for Saint Mary’s in the 24 years Randy Bennett has been the coach of the Gaels.

— Utah Jazz just traded three first round draft picks to Phoenix, but the Jazz still have 11 first round picks in the next seven drafts, two this coming summer and three more in 2027.

— In the last four years, 23 of 30 major league baseball teams have made the playoffs at least once.

— Weird fact that we’ll revisit in March: Last four years, the lower-seeded team has won the championship game in the ACC basketball tournament.

— Spurs 140, Pacers 110
These teams are playing two games in Paris this week.
Spurs shot 18-36 on the arc, only took six foul shots (6-6).

— Atlanta Braves signed OF Jurickson Profar for three years, $42M; He hit 24 homers, had 85 RBI for San Diego LY, with an .839 OPS, much higher than his career OPS (.726)

— SS Tim Anderson signed a minor league deal with the LA Angels; 31-year old Anderson was an All-Star with the White Sox in 2021-22, but hit the skids the last two years, hitting .245/.214.

— P Paul Sewald signed a one-year, $7M deal with the Cleveland Guardians; he has 84 saves in his 8-year career, but is expected to be a set-up guy for closer Emmanuel Clase.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Saturday’s 6-pack:
MLB players with most intentional walks, who hit less than 200 HR’s
203— Tony Gwynn (135 HR’s)
181— Ichiro Suzuki (117 HR’s)
180— Wade Boggs (118 HR’s)
167— Pete Rose (160 HR’s)
153— Ernie Lombardi (190 HR’s)
148— Tim Raines (170 HR’s)

Quote of the Day
“The most important thing for us is to keep improving and keep winning. We cannot take losses. It’s a non-negotiable thing for us, and that’s the attitude we have and that’s where we come back. I think these guys have a great fear of losing, a great fear, and that’s a good thing.”
St John’s coach Rick Pitino

Saturday’s quiz
Which Division I college basketball team are known as the Great Danes?

Friday’s quiz
2018 Golden State Warriors were last team to repeat as NBA champs.

Thursday’s quiz
NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird played his college basketball at Indiana State.

********************************************************

Saturday’s Den: Random stuff on a winter night……..

— Las Vegas Raiders hired Pete Carroll as their new head coach; 73-year old Carroll is 181-131-1 as an NFL head coach, 11-11 in playoff games. He was 137-89-1 coaching the Seahawks from 2010-23.

Raiders also signed up John Spytek as their new GM; he comes from Tampa Bay, where he was GM and crossed paths with Tom Brady- they also both went to Michigan.

— Dallas Cowboys promoted offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach; the 51-year old Schottenheimer has never been a head coach. His father Marty Schottenheimer was an NFL head coach for 21 years, going 205-139-1 with four teams.

Brian Schottenheimer has worked for nine NFL teams over the last 24 years, 14 of them as an offensive coordinator. He replaces Mike McCarthy, who was 50-38 as the Dallas coach, but was only 1-3 in playoff games with the Cowboys (he won a Super Bowl with Green Bay).

Cowboys special teams coach John Fassel has moved on to the Tennessee Titans.

— Jets fired Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as their new head coach; Glenn played for 15 years in the NFL, for the Jets from 1994-2001.

Glenn helped the Lions vault into prominence the last three years- Detroit was 27-7 the last two regular seasons, now they’ve lost both coordinators this week.

— Last two years, Houston Texans went 10-7 both years. 2-2 in playoff games with a rookie QB playing last year, but in the last week, they’ve fired their team president and now their OC Bobby Slowik got told to take a hike, as well as the team’s offensive line coach.

Will be interesting to see where the Texans turn for a new offensive coordinator.

— Cleveland Browns are promoting Tommy Rees to offensive coordinator, although head coach Kevin Stefanski will go back to calling plays. 32-year old Rees was a ballboy for the Browns 18 years ago; his father was the Browns’ director of player personnel.

Rees is the Browns’ third offensive coordinator in three years.

— After they missed the playoffs, Cincinnati Bengals fired defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo; Indianapolis Colts scooped him up for the same job this week.

Weird thing is that the Bengals won their last five games and narrowly missed the playoffs; had they snuck into the playoffs, they would’ve been a popular dark-horse candidate to win some games, but that didn’t happen and Anarumo got fired.

— Bengals replaced Anarumo with Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden, who was the Bengals’ linebackers coach when they won the AFC title in 2021.

— Famous birthdays, January 25th
Carl Eller, 83
Gene Washington, 81 (Vikings’ WR)
Mark Duper, 66

Mark Schlereth, 59
Chris Mills, 55
Patrick Willis, 40

Missed a couple birthdays yesterday; Rams’ coach Sean McVay turned 39, the great singer Neil Diamond turned 84.

— I live in the same house I grew up in, so I’m familiar with the area; went to the Wendy’s near my house Friday, for first time in several years. Walked in and the person taking the orders did not speak much English. He even apologized to me for not speaking much English.

Person who ordered before me was speaking Spanish with the guy; just thought it was really unusual to have someone taking orders who struggled to speak English.

Food was fine, service was quick enough. It just seemed odd.

— If the Astros are still offering 3B Alex Bregman $156M for six years, why the hell hasn’t he jumped on it?

He’s not going to get more somewhere else; I understand that agent Scott Boras is a scumweasel lawyer who drags things out, but get this deal done, and yes, the only reason I care is because Bregman is on my fantasy team (so is Jose Altuve/Isaac Paredes).

— Marquette 87, Villanova 74
Marquette shot 63.3% inside arc; they’re 17-3, 8-1 in Big East.
Villanova has lost four of last five games; they’re trending towards being an NIT team.

— VCU 75, St Bonaventure 61
Bonnies led 33-25 at the half; they got outscored 50-28 in second half.
VCU outscored its last 12 opponents in the second half.
VCU was +10 in turnovers, shot 11-24 on the arc.

Read an article Friday about Adrian Wojnarowski, who quit his job at ESPN to become the GM of the St Bonaventure basketball team.

“Woj” was ESPN’s information guy on the NBA; he was making $7.3M a year, but quit to work at his alma mater, where he is making $75,000 a year and is living in an apartment over a bar.

Bonnies have almost no depth; their 3rd-to-last in the country in bench minutes.

— Ohio U 61, Kent State 59
Kent State lost by 2,, was only 14-25 on foul line.
Flashes had 22 offensive rebounds, out-rebounded Ohio 46-28.
Teams combined to shoot 8-37 on the arc.

— Purdue 91, Michigan 64
Michigan split their previous two games, both OT games; they got pummeled here.
Purdue led 51-26 at halftime.
Braden Smith had 24 points, 10 assists for the Boilers.

— Iowa 76, Penn State 75
Hawkeyes were 11-23 on the arc, Penn State 5-22.
Iowa led by 10 with 7:09 left to play, hung on for dear life.
Penn State has lost five of its last six games.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Sunday’s 6-pack:
Six of the college basketball teams with the best roster continuity this year:
— Gonzaga 15-6, 6-2
— Towson State 11-9, 6-1
— Fort Wayne 15-7, 8-3
— Columbia 11-6, 0-4
— Santa Clara 14-8, 6-3
— Houston 16-3, 8-0

Quote of the Day
“Personally, this has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation. I mean, [Juan Soto’s negotiation] was tough. This is worse. A lot of it is, we’ve made a significant offer. I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. I think it’s highly asymmetric against us and I feel strongly about it.”
Mets owner Steve Cohen, talking about negotiations with 1B Pete Alonso

Sunday’s quiz
The last time the Chiefs didn’t play in the AFC Championship game, in 2018, who were the two QB’s?

Saturday’s quiz
UAlbany’s basketball team are known as the Great Danes.

Friday’s quiz
2018 Golden State Warriors were last team to repeat as NBA champs.

***********************************************

Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a college basketball Saturday………

— Big X
Houston 92, Kansas 86, 2OT
Kansas led 79-73 with 0:20 left in the first OT
Jayhawks also led by 10 midway thru second half.
Teams combined to shoot only 31-55 on foul line.
Houston has won 12 games in a row, is 8-0 in Big X.

Houston (8-0) leads the Big X by a game, over Iowa State/Arizona.

Big X home favorites are 22-18 ATS; home underdogs are 3-15 (favorites 37-21)

Bracketology had nine Big X teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— SEC
Texas 70, Texas A&M 69
Texas A&M led by 22 points in the second half.
Aggies shot 12-23 on foul line, only 3-8 on foul line.
Texas took lead with 0:03 left, their only lead of the game.

Auburn 53, Tennessee 51
Auburn outscored the Vols 6-1 over final 2:08.
Teams combined to shoot 7-42 on the arc.
Tennessee split its last six games, after a 14-0 start.

Auburn (6-0) leads Alabama by a game, Florida/Missouri by two games.

SEC home favorites are 23-17 ATS, home underdogs are 9-4

SEC teams are shooting 32.1% on arc (#28 of 31 leagues).

Bracketology has 13 SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Big East
Xavier 76, UConn 72
Musketeers won four of their last five games.
UConn shot 65.5% inside arc. 7-26 on the arc.
UConn is 2-3 in last five games, after an 8-0 run.

Marquette/St John’s lead the Big East at 8-1; Creighton is 7-2.

Big East home favorites are 15-18 ATS, home underdogs are 5-8.

There aren’t lot of fouls called in Big East games (#26 of 31 leagues in FT’s taken)

Bracketology has four Big East teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Missouri Valley
Underdogs were 5-1 ATS in Valley games Saturday.

Drake 69, Missouri State 62 OT- 8-2 Drake beat the 0-10 Bears in overtime. Arch Madness is going to be excellent this year.
Drake led by 15 points early in the game.
Missouri State shot 57.1% inside the arc, but was minus-8 in turnovers.

Belmont 95, Murray State 77
Belmont led 55-37 at halftime.
Bruins scored 1.44 points/possession, a huge number.
Three subs scored in double figures for Belmont.

9-1 Bradley leads the Valley a game over 8-2 Drake, two games over Belmont, Northern Iowa.

MVC home favorites are 9-21 ATS, home underdogs are 7-4.

— Mountain West
New Mexico 75, UNLV 73
Lobos outscored UNLV 5-1 over the final 3:10.
Rebels’ PG Thomas is a really good pass-first point guard; when he Is the leading scorer for UNLV, that’s a bad thing. He led the Rebels in this game,, with 18 points.

9-1 New Mexico, 8-1 Utah State lead the Mountain West; Colorado State is 7-2.

Mountain West home favorites are 8-14 ATS, home underdogs are 8-8.

Bracketology has three Mountain West teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Upsets of the Day:
Southern Illinois (+7.5) 89, Ill-Chicago 85
Evansville (+7.5) 78, Valparaiso 68
Campbell (+6.5) 69, Hofstra 67 OT
Northern Illinois (+6.5) 76, Ball State 66
Tennessee Tech (+5.5) 89, Tenn-Martin 85 OT

— Ivy League
Yale was the only one of four favorites to win Saturday.

Dartmouth 84, Brown 83
Dartmouth trailed by 13 early in second half.
Big Green shot 10-18 on the arc.
Brown lost by a point, was only 11-19 on the foul line.

4-0 Yale leads Cornell/Princeton by a game in the Ivy standings.

Ivy League home favorites are 3-7 ATS, home underdogs are 3-2.

Ivy League teams are shooting 38.2% on arc in league games, best in country.

— Big 18
Minnesota 77, Oregon 69
Minnesota led 26-9 early on, blew that lead, but won anyway.
Gophers shot 58.5% inside the arc.
Oregon missed 26 shots, had only four offensive rebounds.

Michigan State leads the Big 18 at 8-0; 8-2 Purdue/6-2 Michigan are next.

Big 18 home favorites are 28-20 ATS, home underdogs are 14-6.

Bracketology has ten Big 18 teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Sun Belt
Arkansas State 80, Texas State 65
Red Wolves have won five in row, have #12 eFG% defense in country.
Arkansas State shot 11-25 on the arc.

Troy 65, South Alabama 55
Troy was 12-40 on the arc, 11-24 inside the arc.
Trojans had 20 offensive rebounds in this game.
Only one player scored in double figures for South Alabama.

Arkansas State leads the Sun Belt at 7-2; South Alabama is a half-game behind them.

Sun Belt home favorites are 20-10 ATS, home underdogs are 8-5.

Sun Belt teams have 2nd-worst eFG% of any league in the country; not sure if that is good defense or bad offense.

— American
Temple 82, Rice 71
Temple outscored Rice 46-34 in second half.
Temple won five of its last seven games.
Temple shot 61.9% inside arc, Rice 32%.

UAB, Memphis and North Texas are tied for first, at 5-1.

American home favorites are 9-17 ATS, home underdogs are 6-3.

— Famous birthdays, January 26th:
David Strathairn, 76
Jack Youngblood, 75
Ellen DeGeneres, 67
Rick Schu, 63
Merril Hoge, 60

Vince Carter, 48
Joshua Dobbs, 30
Travis Etienne, 26
Darius Garland, 25

Today would’ve been Paul Newman’s 100th birthday, Bob Uecker’s 91st birthday

— Metro Atlantic
Home teams were 0-6 ATS in Saturday’s games.

Iona 72, Siena 68
Iona led by 13 early in second half.
Dejour Reeves led the Gaels with 24 points.

Siena lost four of its last six games.

Marist, Merrimack and Quinnipiac are tied for first, at 8-1.

MAAC home favorites are 16-16 ATS, home underdogs are 7-7.

56.8% of baskets in MAAC games are assisted, most in the country.

— WCC
Saint Mary’s 80, Washington State 75
Saint Mary’s won its 8th game in a row.
Gaels are #2 team in country on the offensive boards.
Saint Mary’s has #29 eFG% defense in country.

8-0 Saint Mary’s leads Gonzaga by two games.

WCC home favorites are 16-14 ATS, home underdogs are 7-9.

WCC teams are shooting 53.2% inside are, 3rd-best of any league.

Bracketology has Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s in the NCAA Tournament.

— Big West
Big West is #12 league, highest they’ve been ranked at any time in the last 25 years,

Cal Poly 78, Long Beach State 69
Mustangs get their first win in nine conference games.
Cal Poly is playing #3 pace in country, but they’re turning ball over 22.4% of time (#355)
Long Beach never led in this game, turned ball over 23 times.

8-1 Cal-Irvine leads 7-2 Cal-San Diego by a game.

Big West home favorites are 15-11 ATS, home underdogs are 4-9.

Big West teams are shooting 76.6% on foul line, best of any league.

— Southern
Chattanooga 71, East Tennessee State 63
ETSU led by 12 points early in the game.
Chattanooga shot 57.9% inside the arc.
Mocs shot 57.9% inside arc, ETSU 33.3%.

7-1 Samford leads 6-2 NC-Greensboro by a game.

SoCon home favorites are 6-9 ATS, home underdogs are 6-4.

45.6% of shots taken in SoCon games are 3’s, most of any league.

— Summit
St Thomas 68, Kansas City 65
Kangaroos shot only 7-28 inside the arc.
St Thomas won 11 of its last 13 games.
Tommies are shooting 39% on the arc (#9)

7-0 Omaha leads 6-1 St Thomas by a game.

SoCon home favorites are 7-6 ATS, home underdogs are 3-6.

Summit League teams are shooting 54.2% inside arc, best in country.

 

[Udog]

NFL
Weather Report

Sunday, January 26

NFL
Armadillo's Write-up

Conference Championships

Sunday’s games
Commanders @ Eagles (-6)
Commanders (14-5)
Commanders won last seven games, scoring 31.3 points/game.
Washington allowed 26+ points in all five losses.
Commanders are 4-5 if they give up more than 22 points.
Rookie QB Daniels is 14-5 as an NFL starter.
Quinn is 60-49 as an NFL coach, 5-2 in playoffs.


Commanders are 4-3 ATS as a road underdog this season.
Over is 7-4 in their last eleven games.
Last two weeks are Commanders’ first playoff wins since 2005.
Washington is 8-4 in games decided by 8 or fewer points.
This is Washington’s fourth consecutive week on the road.


Eagles (16-3)
Eagles won 14 of their last 15 games (10-4 ATS last 14)
Eagles’ only loss since September: 36-33 @ Washington in Week 16.
Last five games, Philly is +14 in turnovers.
QB Hurts is 50-23 as an NFL starter, 4-3 in playoff games.
Sirianni is 52-23 as an NFL coach, 4-3 in playoff games.
In their three losses. Eagles allowed 22-33-36 points.


Philly is 9-1 SU/5-5 ATS at home this season
Eagles are 7-2 in games decided by 6 or fewer points.
Eagles are 8-8-1 ATS last 17 games as a home favorite.
Under is 7-3 in their home games this year.
Since they won Super Bowl in 2017, Eagles are 5-5 SU in playoffs.


Teams split their two meetings this season.
Eagles won six of last eight series games.
Commanders are 2-6 SU/4-4 ATS in last eight visits to Philly.
Over is 5-2 in last seven series games.
Underdogs are 4-2 ATS in last six NFC championship games.


Bills @ Chiefs (-1.5)
Bills (15-4)
Bills won 12 of their last 14 games (10-4 ATS)
Buffalo scored 30+ points in 11 of last 14 games.
Bills are +28 in turnovers, +13 in last seven games.
McDermott is 93-51 as an NFL coach, 7-6 in playoffs.
QB Allen is 83-39 as an NFL starter, 7-5 in playoffs.


Bills are 9-5-1 ATS last 15 games as an underdog.
11 of last 14 Buffalo games went over the total.
Buffalo lost its last seven road playoff games.
Their last road playoff win was in 1992.
Since 2020, Buffalo is 7-4 SU/4-7 ATS in playoff games.
Nine of those 11 games were at home.


Chiefs (16-2)
QB Mahomes is 105-26 as an NFL starter, 16-3 in playoff games.
Chiefs won seven of last eight games (3-2 ATS last five games)
Mahomes didn’t play in their last loss.
Last five games, Kansas City is +10 in turnovers.
Chiefs are 11-0 in games decided by 8 or fewer points.


Chiefs won the last two Super Bowls.
Since 2019, Chiefs are 15-2 SU in playoff games.
Kansas City is 3-6 ATS as a home favorite this year.
Under is 6-1 in Chiefs’ last seven games.
Chiefs ran for less than 100 yards in seven of last ten games.


Since 2020, Chiefs are 3-0 vs Buffalo in playoff games.
Bills won five of last six regular season meetings.
Bills (-2) beat Kansas City 30-21 at home in Week 11.
Bills are 3-2 SU/ATS in last five visits to Arrowhead.
Underdogs are 4-3 ATS in last seven AFC championship games.




NFL
Dunkel

Conference Championships

NFL

Conference Championships

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Trend Report
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Washington vs Philadelphia
Washington is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Washington is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games on the road
Philadelphia is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Philadelphia is 14-1 SU in its last 15 games

Buffalo vs Kansas City
Buffalo is 12-2 SU in its last 14 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Buffalo's last 6 games on the road
Kansas City is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Kansas City is 22-2 SU in its last 24 games


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[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Monday’s 6-pack:
— Maryland 79, Indiana 78- Terps outscored Indiana 5-0 over final 0:38.
— Texas Tech 64, Oklahoma State 54- Tech shot 58.3% inside the arc.
— Illinois 83, Northwestern 74- Illinois out-rebounded Wildcats, 50-27
— North Texas 77, FAU 64- Florida Atlantic led 34-27 at halftime.
— Tulsa 84, Wichita State 77- Tulsa shot 13-21 on the arc.
— Fordham 65, Duquesne 63- Rams were 20-24 on foul line, Dukes 8-14.

Quote of the Day
“You think of all the ups and downs and around you went through during the season. The injuries, all those things. Things have to happen the right way. The margin of winning or losing in this league is so small. Parity is unbelievable…….”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid

Monday’s quiz
Andy Reid’s first year as an NFL coach was 1999 with the Eagles; which QB started the most game for the Eagles that year?

Sunday’s quiz
The last time the Chiefs didn’t play in the AFC Championship game, the two QB’s were Tom Brady and Blake Bortles (Jaguars)

Saturday’s quiz
UAlbany’s basketball team are known as the Great Danes.

**************************************************

Monday’s Den: My 13 favorite Super Bowls……..

Before we get into the list of my favorite Super Bowls, I’d like to recommend a golf simulator/sports bar you should visit.

The Bunker recently opened another location in Latham, on Route 2 next to the Scarlet Knife restaurant. It is a very good place; they have golf simulators, good food, a ton of TVs to watch ballgames. The people are great; book your next party there, you’ll be glad you did.

Now, on to my 13 favorite Super Bowls……not the 13 BEST, my 13 FAVORITE Super Bowls

13) Super Bowl XV (1980 season)
Raiders 27, Eagles 10
One of two Super Bowl wins for Jim Plunkett.
Oakland was +4 in turnovers.
Kenny King caught an 80-yard TD pass to put Oakland up 14-0.

Dick Vermeil coached the Eagles in this game; had Philadelphia won, he might not have come back to coaching in 1997, after a 15-year absence— he won a Super Bowl with the Rams in 1999. More on that later…….

12) Super Bowl XXXVII (2002)
Buccaneers 48, Oakland 21
Jon Gruden coached the Bucs in this game; he coached the Raiders from 1998-2001.
Not often a coach works a Super Bowl against the team he coached the year before.
Tampa Bay led 20-3 at halftime.
Buccaneers ran three INT’s back for touchdowns.

11) Super Bowl LII (2017)
Eagles 41, Patriots 33
Eagles outscored New England 9-0 over the final 2:21.
Nick Foles threw for 373 yards, 3 TD’s; he even caught a TD pass.
Corey Clement caught four passes for 100 yards and a TD.
Tom Brady threw for 505 yards in a losing cause.

10) Super Bowl IV (1969)
Chiefs 23, Vikings 7
KC coach Hank Stram was miked for this game by NFL Films.
“Keep on matriculating the ball down the field, boys!!!”
Chiefs were a 12-point underdog in this game.
Minnesota turned ball over five times (minus-4)

9) Super Bowl XLII (2007)
Giants 17, Patriots 14
New England would’ve had a perfect 19-0 season if they won this game.
Patriots led 7-3 after three quarters.
Plaxico Burress caught a 13-yard TD pass with 0:35 left for the win.
Giants outgained New England, 338-274

8) Super Bowl LVII (2022)
Chiefs 38, Eagles 35
Chiefs kicked a 27-yard FG with 0:08 left for the win.
Philly led 24-14 at halftime.
Eagles were 11-18 on 3rd down, 2-2 in 4th down.
Eagles outgained Kansas City, 417-340

7) Super Bowl XXXV (2000)
Ravens 34, Giants 7
Got my dad a ticket to see this game, on the condition that he call me when he got back to the condo he was renting in Florida. He said he a good time, even though he was a Giants’ fan, and that made it worth every penny.

— Famous birthdays, January 27th:
John Lowenstein, 78
Mimi Rogers, 69
Cris Collinsworth, 66
Matt Stover, 57

Bruce Gradkowski, 42
Julio Teheran, 34
Bryan Reynolds, 30
Luis Ortiz, 26

6) Super Bowl LIV (2019)
Chiefs 31, 49ers 20
Any day the 49ers lose is a good day in my house.
49ers led 20-10 after the third quarter.
Damien Williams had 133 total yards, two TD’s.

5) Super Bowl LVIII (2023)
Chiefs 25, 49ers 22 OT
Four years later: same teams, same result.
Brock Purdy was SF’s QB; Jimmy Garoppolo was the QB in 2019.
49ers led 10-3 at halftime.
Chiefs forced OT on a field goal with 0:03 left.

4) Super Bowl XLIII (2008)
Steelers 27, Cardinals 23
Pittsburgh led 17-7 at the half, after a 100-yard pick-6.
Kurt Warner threw 64-yard TD pass with 2:35 left; Arizona led 23-20.
Steelers scored TD with 0:35 left for the win.
Cardinals outgained Pittsburgh, 407-292.

3) Super Bowl XIV (1979)
Steelers 31, Rams 19
Rams led 19-17 after three quarters.
It was only 54 degrees in Pasadena for this game.
Rams were +2 in turnovers, but were outgained, 393-301.
This was Steelers’ 4th Super Bowl title in six years.

2) Super Bowl LVI (2021)
Rams 23, Bengals 20
Bengals led 20-16 after three quarters.
Stafford threw TD pass to Kupp with 1:25 left for the win.
Rams won despite being minus-2 in turnovers.
Game was played at SoFi Stadium, the Rams’ home field.

1) Super Bowl XXXIV (1999)
Rams 23, Titans 16
Hall of Fame Kurt Warner threw 73-yard TD pass to Hall of Famer Isaac Bruce with 1:25 left.
Warner threw for 404 yards and two TD’s.
Rams led 16-0 late in third quarter; Titans tried game with 2:12 left.
Rams led 9-0 at the half, with three field goals, all less than 30 yards.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Tuesday’s 6-pack:
NFL coaching changes so far this winter:
— Chicago- Ben Johnson
— Dallas- Brian Schottenheimer
— Jacksonville- Liam Coen
— Las Vegas- Pete Carroll
— New England- Mike Vrabel
— New Jersey Jets- Aaron Glenn

New Orleans’ Saints job is still open.

Quote of the Day
“…..I want them playing on the edge. It’s a violent game. They have to be that way. I want them to play that way. So that’s where it starts. If we can get that out of these guys, I think we’ll be moving in the right direction.”
Jaguars coach Liam Coen

Tuesday’s quiz
When was the last time an SEC team won the college basketball national title?

Monday’s quiz
Andy Reid’s first year as an NFL coach was 1999 with the Eagles; former Eagles/Jaguars coach Doug Pederson started the most games at QB for Philadelphia that year.

Sunday’s quiz
The last time the Chiefs didn’t play in the AFC Championship game, the two QB’s were Tom Brady and Blake Bortles (Jaguars)

*******************************************************************

Tuesday’s Den: Nobody asked me, but……..

— Arizona 86, Iowa State 75 OT
Arizona’s Caleb Love hit a half-court shot at buzzer to force OT
Arizona’s bench outscored Iowa State’s subs, 31-7.
Wildcats take over 2nd place in Big X, a game behind Houston.

— Do ballplayers tell their agents what they want, or do they just let the agent do their thing, figuring the agent will get them the most $$$?

I’m thinking of Alex Bregman/Pete Alonso, who are both represented by Scott Boras; if Bregman told Boras he’ll take the six-year, $156M offer from the Astros, would Boras try to talk him out of it?

These negotiations would be great reality TV; baseball needs a Hard Knocks-type program.

— Jimmy Butler is getting paid $48,798,677 to play basketball this year, which amounts to $595,105.81 per game- he’s already been suspended for nine games, so he has already lost $5,355,952.35 in fines this season.

Butler went to the Heat’s shoot-around Monday, was told that he won’t be starting anymore; he walked out, and was suspended indefinitely by the team. Not good.

Miami has five games before next week’s trade deadline; if he doesn’t get traded until the last minute, he gets fined another $2,975,529, bringing the total to $8,331,481.40.

Just show up, do what they want you to do and you pocket an extra $8 MILLION!!!! What is difficult about this?

My next/last question is this: are the Heat so spiteful that they wouldn’t trade the 35-year old Butler, suspend him for the rest of the year, which would force him to turn down his player option for next year, which is over $50M???? Stay tuned.

— Championship Week figures to be very busy this year, but in the ACC and Big 18, only 15 of their 18 teams will be playing in their conference tournaments.

I’m guessing the six head coaches who miss the conference tournaments are on the hot seat, as far as their future employment is concerned.

— There were 14 overtime games in college basketball Saturday, the most in any day since 2020.

— Michigan 76, Penn State 72
Wolverines outscored Penn State 9-0 over the final 2:07.
Nittany Lions lost six of their last seven games.
Michigan is 7-2 in the Big 18; they were 3-15 last year.

— UCLA 82, USC 76
Bruins win their fourth straight game.
UCLA scored 1.26 points/possession.
USC was 11-31 on the arc, 16-24 inside arc.

— Eastern Illinois 56, Little Rock 54
EIU outscored Little Rock 10-1 over the final 1:56.
Tony Romo’s alma mater snaps a 7-game losing skid.
Loss snaps the Trojans’ 5-game winning streak.
Eastern Illinois was a 10.5-point underdog.

— UL-Monroe 77, South Alabama 66
Warhawks snap a 10-game losing skid; they were a 12-point home dog.
ULM was 24-26 on foul line, Jaguars were 8-13.
South Alabama shot 34.3% from the floor.

— Famous birthdays, January 28th:
Alan Alda, 89
Harley Jane Kozak, 68
Michael Cage, 63
Tom Hodson, 58

Jermaine Dye,, 51
Magglio Ordóñez, 51
Mark Madsen, 49
Daunte Culpepper, 48

Andre Iguodala, 41
Hunter Renfroe, 33
Ke’Bryan Hayes, 28
Payton Pritchard, 27

— Eagles 55, Commanders 23
Philly scored a TD on four of five first half drives.
Eagles ran ball 36 times for 229 yards (6.4 yards/carry)
Washington turned ball over four times (minus-4)
Eagles outgained the Commanders, 459-350

— Chiefs 32, Bills 29
Chiefs kicked 35-yard FG with 3:37 left for the win.
Kansas City led 21-16 at halftime.
Buffalo converted 4-6 fourth down plays.
Bills failed on a pair of 2-point conversions.

— Since 2020, Bills-Chiefs have met four times in the playoffs:
2020: Chiefs 38-24 (-3.5)
2021: Chiefs 42-36 (-2.5)
2023: Chiefs 27-24 (+2.5)
2024: Chiefs 32-29 (-2.5)

During that same time (2020-24), Buffalo went 4-1 against the Chiefs in regular season games, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

— Baseball writer Melissa Lockard was on TV Monday; she thinks there is a less than a 50% chance that the A’s wind up in Las Vegas, which is disappointing to me. We’ll see how all this plays out, but leaving Oakland for Sacramento doesn’t seem ideal.

— Favorites went 9-2 ATS in the college football playoffs this season.

If you care about such things, Ohio State is favored by 9.5 points over Michigan in their football matchup next November.

— An 11-year old kid from Los Angeles found the one-of-a-kind baseball card featuring Pirates’ P Paul Skenes that was in some cards he bought; the card has Skenes’ autograph and a patch from a game-worn jersey with it. Apparently it is worth a lot of $$$.

Not sure why, but the Pirates tried to buy the card back from the kid, putting together a package that included 30 years’ worth of season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park and the chance to play a softball game on the field in exchange for the card.

Why would an 11-year old from Los Angeles want tickets for ballgames in Pittsburgh?

The kid’s family decided to put the card up for auction on Fanatics Collect in March; the curious side of me wants to know more about the kid’s family.

 

[Cnotes53]

Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Six teams who get lot of their points on 3-point shots:
46.3% of points— North Dakota State (16-6)
42.6%— IU Indy (7-15)
41.1%— Cal Poly (7-14)
40.7%— Furman (16-5)
40.6%— Akron (15-5)
40.5%— Princeton (14-5)

Quote of the Day
“Don’t mistake kindness for weakness.”
Al Capone

Wednesday’s quiz
Which active NBA player has scored the most points in the history of the Toronto Raptors?

Tuesday’s quiz
2012 was the last time an SEC team won the college basketball national title, when John Calipari’s Kentucky team won the championship.

Monday’s quiz
Andy Reid’s first year as an NFL coach was 1999 with the Eagles; former Eagles/Jaguars coach Doug Pederson started the most games at QB for Philadelphia that year.

*********************************************

Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings……..​

— Kentucky 78, Tennessee 73
Wildcats were 12-24 on the arc, Tennessee 11-45.
This was 2nd-most 3’s Tennessee has ever taken in a game.
All five Kentucky starters scored in double figures.
Tennessee is 4-4 in the SEC, after a 13-0 pre-conference mark.

— Louisville 72, Wake Forest 59
Louisville led this game 45-21 at halftime.
Cardinals are 16-5, 9-1 in ACC games; last three years, they were 25-71, 11-49 in ACC games, so a tremendous coaching job being done by Pat Kelsey.

— BYU 93, Baylor 89 OT
BYU led this game 44-36 at halftime.
BYU shot 64.9% inside the arc.
Baylor shot 13-28 on the arc.
Both teams are 5-4 in the Big X.

— Pittsburgh 73, North Carolina 65
Pitt played only seven guys and the 7th guy played four minutes.
Tar Heels led 44-42 at the half, were outscored 31-21 in second half.
North Carolina lost three of its last four games.
Pitt was 16-20 on foul line, North Carolina 6-9.

— Kansas 91, Central Florida 87
Jayhawks pounded UCF 99-48 when they played in Florida January 5th.
Knights led this game by 9 early in second half.
Kansas was 25-29 on foul line, UCF 15-17.
Jayhawks shot 47.6% on the arc, 41.9% inside the arc.

— Wyoming 83, Fresno State 72 OT
Bad Beat of the Night, if you had Fresno State +8.5
Fresno led by 4 with 0:41 left in regulation.
Wyoming was 17-36 on the arc, Bulldogs 5-22.

— Marquette 78, Butler 69
Butler led 42-35 at halftime.
Marquette shot 59% inside the arc.
Marquette is 18-3, 9-1 in Big East, tied with St John’s for first place.

— Famous birthdays, January 29th:
Katherine Ross, 85
Tom Selleck, 80
Ann Jillian, 75
Oprah Winfrey, 71
Terry Kinney, 71
Steve Sax, 65
Mike Aldrete, 64
Aeneas Williams, 57
Sara Gilbert, 50
Jose Abreu, 38
Ka’imi Fairbairn, 31
Quentin Lake, 26

— Baltimore Ravens signed former Colts’ Chuck Pagano as their secondary coach; Pagano was 56-46 in six years as coach of the Colts, 3-3 in playoff games.

— 19 major leaguers hit 20+ home runs last year, while also stealing 20+ bases.

— P Trevor Bauer signed a contract to pitch for the Yokohama BayStars in the Japanese League this coming year. He had a 2.76 ERA for the BayStars LY; he hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2021, when he went 8-5, 2.59 in 17 starts for the Dodgers.

— Chicago White Sox lost 23 games last year that they led after six innings; they had a dismal season, going 41-121. Their over/under win total for this year is 51.5.

— Pittsburgh Pirates signed 2B/OF Adam Frazier for one year, $1.525M. Frazier was an all-star in 2021, but this will be his 4th team in four years since then.

— New York Mets made the playoffs last year; they had 14 players on that team who were/are free agents this winter. Detroit Tigers also made the playoffs LY; they didn’t have any players who were free agents this winter.

— LA Dodgers signed reliever Kirby Yates for one year, $13M; Yates had 33 saves last year, for the Texas Rangers.

 

[Cnotes53]

Thursday’s 6-pack:
Average salary in major leagues, the last six years:
2019- $4,051,490
2020- $3,881,021
2021- $3,679,335
2022- $4,222,193
2023- $4,525,718
2024- $4,655,366

Quote of the Day
“There will constantly be challenges that arise that you don’t expect. The better you handle those unexpected situations, the more successful your life will turn out.”
Dean Smith

Tuesday’s quiz
Which NFL team drafted Hall of Fame QB John Elway?

Wednesday’s quiz
DeMar DeRozan has scored the most points in the history of the Toronto Raptors.

Tuesday’s quiz
2012 was the last time an SEC team won the college basketball national title, when John Calipari’s Kentucky team won the championship.

**********************************************

Thursday’s Den: Wrapping up a full night of college basketball​

— SEC
Alabama 88, Mississippi State 84
Crimson Tide shot 15-31 on the arc; Miss State was 8-25.
Alabama was only 11-20 on the foul line.
5-11 G Hubbard scored 38 points for Miss State.

Ole Miss 72, Texas 69
Texas led by 13 late in first half.
Ole Miss had only 4 turnovers (+7) in a 67-possession game.
Longhorns are 3-5 in their last eight games.
Ole Miss coach Beard beats team he coached three years ago.
SEC home underdogs are 11-6 ATS; home favorites are 24-19.
Bracketology has 13 SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Missouri Valley
Ill-Chicago 93, Bradley 70
UIC trailed 22-9 early on, but made 14-27 shots on the arc.
UIC was picked for last in MVC in the preseason; they’re tied for 3rd now.
Flames have won 10 of their last 13 games.
Loss snapped Bradley’s 5-game winning streak.
Drake/Bradley are now tied for first in the Valley, at 9-2.
MVC home favorites are 14-28 ATS; home underdogs are 12-11.

— Big East
UConn 72, DePaul 61
Blue Demons led 28-14 early on.
Tarris Reed had 16 points, six rebounds in 24:00 off the bench.
UConn is only 3-3 in its last six games.

Creighton 86, Xavier 77
Bluejays have won six games in a row.
Creighton shot 59.4% inside the arc.
Creighton is shooting 60.1% inside arc (#6)
Big East home favorites are 16-20 ATS; home underdogs are 8-11.
Bracketology has four Big East teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Big X
Houston 63, West Virginia 49
Houston led this road game 39-19 at halftime.
Houston has #2 eFG% defense in the country.
Cougars have won 13 games in a row; their last loss was November 30th.
Big X home underdogs are 4-14 ATS; home favorites are 24-24
Bracketology has eight Big East teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Upsets of the Night:
VMI (+12.5) 74, Wofford 67
Old Dominion (+11.5) 78, Appalachian State 77
Virginia Tech (+10.5) 76, Florida State 66
Ill-Chicago (+8.5) 93, Bradley 70
Rutgers (+7.5) 79, Northwestern 72
Fordham (+4.5) 88, LaSalle 72
Evansville (+4.5) 78, Murray State 74

— Saint Mary’s 67, Santa Clara 54
Gaels have won nine games in a row.
Saint Mary’s led 61-33 with 5:52 left in the game.
Santa Clara shot 35.3% from the floor.
WCC home favorites are 17-14 ATS; home underdogs are 9-10
Bracketology has Saint Mary’s/Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament.

— Southern
Furman 72, Samford 70
Paladins survived shooting 11-21 on foul line.
Furman never trailed; they led by 12 with 10:57 in the game.
Cooper Bowser was 8-8 from floor, scored 21 points.
Samford has three starters who are playing at their third different college.
SoCon home favorites are 11-18 ATS; home underdogs are 9-7.

— Big 18
Rutgers 79, Northwestern 72
6-10 freshman Bailey scored 37 points.
Rutgers shot 57.1% inside arc, 57.1% (8-14) on the arc.
Northwestern lost six of its last eight games.
Big 18 home favorites are 31-29 ATS; home underdogs are 12-10
Bracketology has nine Big 18 teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Mountain West
Utah State 76, UNLV 71
Utah State shot 60% inside the arc.
UNLV was only 4-20 on the arc.
Rebels lost their last three games, by 2-2-5 points.
Mountain West home favorites are 15-20 ATS; home underdogs are 11-9.
Bracketology has three Mountain West teams in NCAA Tournament.

— ACC
Virginia 82, Miami 71
Miami has lost 10 in a row, 17 of last 18 games.
Hurricanes have #360 eFG% defense in country.
Virginia scored 1.37 points/possession in this game.
ACC home favorites are 28-28 ATS; home underdogs are 11-16
Bracketology has five ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Famous birthdays, January 30th:
Gene Hackman, 95
Davey Johnson, 82
Phil Collins, 74
Charles Dutton, 74
Nolan Cromwell, 70
Michael Thompson, 70
Jalen Rose, 52
Jorge Cantú, 43
Kodai Senga, 32
Bryan Woo, 25

— Atlantic Sun
Florida Gulf Coast 83, Jacksonville 79
Dolphins led 56-32 early in second half.
Dolphins led by 9 with 2:46 left in the game.
FGCU shot 55.8% inside the arc.
Both teams are 7-2 in ASUN

— American
Temple 90, Charlotte 89, 2 OTs
Charlotte led by 5 with 4:05 left in regulation.
Jamal Mashburn Jr scored 34 points for Temple.
Owls were 24-27 on the foul line.
7-1 North Texas leads 6-1 Memphis by half-game atop AAC standings.
AAC home favorites are 11-19 ATS; home underdogs are 8-6

— Atlantic 15
George Mason 58, Loyola Chi 53 OT
Patriots won despite shooting 11-22 on the foul line.
Mason has won six in a row; 2 of their last 3 wins came in overtime.
Teams combined to shoot 9-48 on the arc.
George Mason leads VCU/Saint Louis by a game atop A-15 standings.
A-15 home favorites are 14-21 ATS; home underdogs are 16-9

— Summit
South Dakota 91, Omaha 87
Omaha led 64-49 with with 14:56 left in the game.
Loss snaps Mavericks’ 8-game win streak vs D-I teams.
South Dakota outscored Omaha 54-37 in second half.
Omaha/St Thomas are tied for first atop the Summit standings.
Summit League home favorites are 9-11 ATS; home underdogs are 6-8.

 

[Cnotes53]

Friday’s 6-pack:
Odds on first player to score a TD in next week’s Super Bowl:
+425— Saquon Barkley
+600— Jalen Hurts
+800— Kareem Hunt, Travis Kelce
+1000— AJ Brown, Xavier Worthy
+1500— Dallas Goedert
+1800— Patrick Mahomes, Devonta Smith, Marquise Brown

Quote of the Day
“You’re a goddamn quarterback! You know what that means? It’s the top spot, kid. It’s the guy who takes the fall. It’s the guy everybody’s looking at first – the leader of a team – who will support you when they understand you. Who will break their ribs and their noses and their necks for you, because they believe. ‘Cause you make them believe. That’s a quarterback.”
Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday

Friday’s quiz
Other than the Chiefs, what is the only NFL team Patrick Mahomes hasn’t beaten in a regular season game?
(Hint: He beat them in a playoff game)

Thursday’s quiz
Baltimore Colts drafted Hall of Fame QB John Elway, then traded him to Denver.

Wednesday’s quiz
DeMar DeRozan has scored the most points in the history of the Toronto Raptors.

*****************************************

Friday’s Den: Thinking out loud on the last day of the month​

— CAA
Charleston 81, Stony Brook 74
Stony Brook led 18-2 out of the gate.
Cougars shot 62.9% inside the arc.
Seawolves are 1-8 in the CAA, Charleston is 7-2.

Monmouth 104, Drexel 97, 2OT
Monmouth led by 18 late in first half.
Madison Durr was 10-11 from floor, 19-19 on the foul line.
Drexel lost despite making 12-26 on the arc.
8-1 Towson leads UNCW, Charleston, Wm & Mary by a game atop the CAA.

— Big Sky
Montana 92, Portland State 78
Grizzlies shot 10-15 on the arc.
Montana has won seven of its last nine games.
7-1 Northern Colorado leads Montana by half-game atop the Big Sky.

— Horizon
Cleveland State 68, Fort Wayne 58
Vikings have won 13 games in a row, after starting season 4-6.
Chase Robinson scored 20 points for Cleveland State; he didn’t start.
Fort Wayne was 5-32 on the arc.
Cleveland State leads Milwaukee by two games atop the Horizon, but the winner of the Horizon tournament is only team going to the NCAA’s. No pressure there.

— Conference USA
This is #9 league in country, highest they’ve been ranked since 2011.
New Mexico State 61, Middle Tennessee 57
Aggies snap a three-game losing skid.
Teams combined to shoot 9-44 on the arc.

Jacksonville State 71, FIU 67
Gamecocks outscored FIU 9-4 over the final 3:53.
Jacksonville State has won five games in a row.
6-2 Jacksonville State leads four other teams by a game atop C-USA standings.

— Famous birthdays, January 31st:
Nolan Ryan, 78
Feed Kendall, 76
Bob Apodaca, 75
Anthony LaPaglia, 66
Rod Higgins, 65
Doug Peterson, 56
Minnie Driver, 55
Justin Timberlake, 44
Cole Irvin, 31
Donte DiVincenzo, 28
Ronnie Rivers, 26
Zach Neto, 24

— Toronto Blue Jays signed P Max Scherzer for one year, $15.5M; 40-year old Scherzer has 223 career wins- he was 2-4, 3.95 in only nine starts for Texas last year.

— Tampa Bay Rays signed IF Ha-Seong Kim for two years, $29M; he is a .242 hitter with a .706 OPS in four big league seasons. Kim is expected to miss the first month of this season— he is recovering from shoulder surgery.

— Detroit Tigers signed reliever Tommy Kahnle for one year, $7.75M; Kahnle has pitched for four teams in his 10-year career- he has a 1.23 WHIP, 3.47 ERA in 390 big league games.

— Reliever Carlos Estévez signed a 2-year deal with the Royals worth $22.2M; Estevez had 26 saves last year, pitching for the Angels/Phillies. Overall, he has 82 career saves.

— Reliever Ryne Stanek signed on with the Mets for this year; he had seven wins, seven saves last year, pitching for Seattle and the Mets. He’s pitched for five different teams in his eight-year big league career.

— Washington Nationals signed Japanese left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara to a 2-year deal; last year, Ogasawara was 5-11, 3.12 ERA in Japan, throwing 144.1 IP in 24 games.

— Happy birthday to former Mets manager Davey Johnson, who turned 82 this week; Johnson led the Mets to the 1986 World Series title. The other time the Mets won the World Series, in 1969, Johnson made the last out in Game 5, while a 2B for the Orioles.

 

[Udog]

NFL CHAMPIONSHIP

Sunday, February 9

NFL
Dunkel

Championship

NFL

Championship

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
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Kansas City vs Philadelphia
Kansas City is 23-2 SU in its last 25 games
Kansas City is 11-2 SU in its last 13 games on the road
Philadelphia is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Philadelphia is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Cnotes53]

Saturday’s 6-pack:
According to Bracketology, leagues getting more than one team in NCAA’s:
13 teams- SEC
9- Big 18
8- Big X
5- ACC
4- Big East
3- Mountain West
2- WCC

Quote of the Day
“There’s one writer that I wasn’t able to get a vote from. I would like to invite him over to my house and we’ll have a drink together, and have a good chat.”
Ichiro Suzuki, talking about the one vote he didn’t get for the Hall of Fame

Saturday’s quiz
What famous baseball player was the QB for the Tennessee Vols just before Peyton Manning played QB for Tennessee?

Friday’s quiz
Other than the Chiefs, Colts are the only NFL team Patrick Mahomes hasn’t beaten in a regular season game; he did beat them in a playoff game.

Thursday’s quiz
Baltimore Colts drafted Hall of Fame QB John Elway, then traded him to Denver.

****************************************

Saturday’s Den: Random stuff on a winter day…….​

— Miami Heat President Pat Riley owns at least six trademarks for the term “three-peat”, so if the Chiefs win their third consecutive Super Bowl next week, Riley figures to bank as much as $1M, since anyone who uses the phrase on team merchandise — hats, shirts, jackets, mugs, backpacks, and more, has to pay Riley first.
He filed for the trademark in 1989, after his Lakers won consecutive NBA titles.

— Purdue 81, Indiana 76
Purdue was 21-28 on full line, Hoosiers 9-16.
Indiana led 41-37 at halftime.
Braden Smith scored 24 points, had 7 assists, 6 steals.
Boilers won nine of their last ten games.

— Yale 77, Princeton 70
Yale shot 9-16 on arc, scored 1.18 points/possession.
Bulldogs have won six in a row, are 5-0 in Ivy League.
Princeton was 14-42 on the arc, 10-27 inside arc.

— Georgetown 73, Butler 70
Hoyas shot 63% inside arc, 2-17 on the arc.
Just second win in last eight games for Georgetown.
Butler lost 12 of its last 14 games.

— Dayton 71, Saint Louis 63
Dayton was +7 in turnovers (19-12)
Fourth win in last five games for the Flyers.
Saint Louis drops to third in the A-15, two games behind George Mason.

— Akron 85, Kent State 71
Zips ran out to a 48-31 lead at halftime.
Zips were 11-27 on arc, scored 1.16 points/possession.
Akron went 9-0 in January, after a 7-5 pre-conference record.
— I still think that assists on 3-point shots should count as 1.5 assists.

— Famous birthdays, February 1st:
Bill Mumy, 71
TR Dunn, 70
Tim Mazzetti, 69
Linus Roache, 61
Sherilyn Fenn, 60
Brett Anderson, 37
Sean Manaea, 33
Jazz Chisholm, 27

— Detroit Lions have lost seven assistant coaches since their season ended, including both of their coordinators.
New Jersey Jets hired former Lions assistant Tanner Engstrand as their new OC; he spent five years with Detroit, and also spent a year in the XFL, serving as the offensive coordinator for the DC Defenders.
Earlier this week, Jets hired former Charlotte coach Steve Wilks as their new DC.

— Tampa Bay Bucs promoted Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator,, replacing Liam Coen, who is the new head coach in Jacksonville.
This past season, Bucs were 3rd in the NFL in passing yards, 4th in rushing yards. Grizzard was Tampa Bay’s pass game coordinator this year.
Grizzard will be the 8th OC Baker Mayfield has had in his eight years as an NFL QB.

— Dallas Cowboys hired Arizona’s offensive line coach Klayton Adams as their new OC. New head coach Brian Schottenheimer will call plays for Dallas; Adams will make sure Dak Prescott is protected, and the run game goes well.

— At least ten Super Bowl commercials for next week’s game have sold for $8M; all the ad spots for the game have been sold. Roughly 124 million people watched last year’s Super Bowl, 115 million the year before.

— Since 1994, Baltimore Ravens have gotten 54 compensatory draft picks, which they got for their players bolting to other teams. That is the most in the NFL during that time. Ravens are getting four comp picks in this year’s draft.

— Four teams that the NFL can force to be shown on HBO’s Hard Knocks next summer, and also the draft-related shows this spring:
Falcons, Panthers, Seahawks, Titans. Tennessee has the first pick in the draft, so they probably make more sense for the draft Hard Knocks.

— Only four NBA players ever with 25,000+ points, 8,000+ assists:
James Harden
Lebron James
Oscar Robertson
Russell Westbrook