Monday’s 6-pack:
Teams that play the slowest tempo in the country:
364) Drake 27-3
363) Wagner 14-15
362) North Texas 21-6
361) Houston 25-4
360) Virginia 14-15
359) Saint Mary’s 27-4
Fact of the Day
“Kirk Cousins’ $10M 2026 roster bonus becomes fully guaranteed on March 16.”
Dan Graziano, ESPN
Monday’s quiz
Of all the baseball players who have played since 1970, who has the most RBI in a single season?
Sunday’s quiz
Steph Curry’s father Dell scored 12,670 points in his NBA career; he played his college basketball at Virginia Tech, which didn’t recruit Steph Curry. Whoops.
Saturday’s quiz
Braves’ 1B Matt Olson is the only major league ballplayer who played 162 games in each of the last three seasons.
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Central Arkansas 77, Stetson 71
Hatters led 37-32 at half, were outscored 40-29 in second half.
Freshman Turner had 37 points, 11 rebounds for the Bears.
Central Arkansas came into this game on a 3-13 skid.
Central Arkansas plays Lipscomb in second round Monday night.
Austin Peay 90, North Florida 69
North Florida led 45-38 at halftime.
Governors were +8 in turnovers (14-6)
Ospreys started year 3-0, beating South Carolina/Ga Tech- they wind up 15-17.
Austin Peay plays North Alabama Monday night.
— Memphis 88, UAB 81
UAB led by 9 with 12:00 left in game.
Memphis shot 60.8% inside the arc.
Tigers won 11 of their last 12 games.
— FAU 69, South Florida 63
FAU never trailed, led 34-25 at halftime.
Win snaps the Owls’ threegame losing skid.
USF shot 32.3% from the floor.
— Bradley 73, Northern Iowa 56
Braves won 6 of last 7 games, are #2-seed in Arch Madness.
Bradley is shooting 40.9% on arc, best in the country.
Northern Iowa lost 2 of last 3 games, is #3-seed in MVC tournament.
— Drake 68, Missouri State 60 OT
Bears lost despite shooting 10-19 on the arc.
Three guys on Drake played the whole 45:00.
Drake is 27-3, with four starters who played D-2 ball last year.
— Cornell 102, Princeton 70
Big Red shot 20-33 on the arc, scored 1.46 points/possession.
Cornell won its last three games, scoring 92.3 ppg.
Princeton has one-game lead for last spot in Ivy tournament, with one game left.
— Illinois 93, Michigan 73
Illini outscored Michigan 62-43 in second half.
Illinois is shooting 57.4% inside arc (#15), 30.8% on arc (#319)
Wolverines lost for only second time in their last ten games.
— Famous birthdays, March 3rd:
Willie Wise, 78
Dennis Shaw, 78
Randy Gradishar, 73
Eric Torkelson, 73
Herschel Walker, 63
Trung Canidate, 48
Jessica Biel, 43
Santonio Holmes, 41
Jayson Tatum, 27
Maikel Garcia, 25
— San Francisco 49ers traded WR Deebo Samuel to Washington, getting a 5th-round draft pick in return. Commanders are taking on the remainder of Samuel’s contract and paying his full $17.55M salary next season.
— Speaking of the Commanders, they were 20-23 on 4th down conversions last year, the best %age ever on 4th down conversions. All of that, with zero QB sneaks on the 23 plays. None.
— If HBO/Max puts Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team on their spring Hard Knocks program, I’ll be cancelling HBO in my house. This is an NFL Films show, and Belichick isn’t in the NFL anymore.
Tennessee Titans have the #1 pick in the draft; they’re eligible to be on Hard Knocks. This seems to be an easy decision.
— Philadelphia Eagles hired Bowling Green head coach Scot Loeffler as their new QB coach; Loeffler was the coach at Bowling Green for five years, going 20-19 the last three seasons.
That’s the state of mid-major college football now; guys who are head coaches quit to become a position coach, not even a coordinator, for an NFL team.
— If you have Colorado Rockies’ OF Brenton Doyle on your fantasy team, check this out: here are Doyle’s home/away splits from last season:
Home: .313 with a .900 OPS. Impressive
Away: .211, with a .636 OPS. No bueno.
— Ohio Valley Conference has their conference tournament in Evansville, IN, even though only one of their 11 teams (Southern Indiana) is located in Indiana, and the Screaming Eagles have been a D-I team for only three years.
— Alabama-Birmingham has a basketball player Bradley Ezewiro, who is a 6-9 with an interesting history:
2021-22- played for LSU- coach was fired after season for NCAA violations after a 22-11 year
2022-23- played for Georgetown- coach was fired after a 7-25 season
2023-24- played for Saint Louis- coach was fired after a 13-20 season
Given that history, UAB coach Andy Kennedy had to be pretty confident in his coaching abilities to sign this kid up. UAB is 19-10 this year, so Kennedy won’t get fired, but they’ll need to win the AAC tournament to make it into the NCAA’s.
Teams that play the slowest tempo in the country:
364) Drake 27-3
363) Wagner 14-15
362) North Texas 21-6
361) Houston 25-4
360) Virginia 14-15
359) Saint Mary’s 27-4
Fact of the Day
“Kirk Cousins’ $10M 2026 roster bonus becomes fully guaranteed on March 16.”
Dan Graziano, ESPN
Monday’s quiz
Of all the baseball players who have played since 1970, who has the most RBI in a single season?
Sunday’s quiz
Steph Curry’s father Dell scored 12,670 points in his NBA career; he played his college basketball at Virginia Tech, which didn’t recruit Steph Curry. Whoops.
Saturday’s quiz
Braves’ 1B Matt Olson is the only major league ballplayer who played 162 games in each of the last three seasons.
*******************************************
Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend……..
— First conference tournament tipped off Sunday, the Atlantic Sun:Central Arkansas 77, Stetson 71
Hatters led 37-32 at half, were outscored 40-29 in second half.
Freshman Turner had 37 points, 11 rebounds for the Bears.
Central Arkansas came into this game on a 3-13 skid.
Central Arkansas plays Lipscomb in second round Monday night.
Austin Peay 90, North Florida 69
North Florida led 45-38 at halftime.
Governors were +8 in turnovers (14-6)
Ospreys started year 3-0, beating South Carolina/Ga Tech- they wind up 15-17.
Austin Peay plays North Alabama Monday night.
— Memphis 88, UAB 81
UAB led by 9 with 12:00 left in game.
Memphis shot 60.8% inside the arc.
Tigers won 11 of their last 12 games.
— FAU 69, South Florida 63
FAU never trailed, led 34-25 at halftime.
Win snaps the Owls’ threegame losing skid.
USF shot 32.3% from the floor.
— Bradley 73, Northern Iowa 56
Braves won 6 of last 7 games, are #2-seed in Arch Madness.
Bradley is shooting 40.9% on arc, best in the country.
Northern Iowa lost 2 of last 3 games, is #3-seed in MVC tournament.
— Drake 68, Missouri State 60 OT
Bears lost despite shooting 10-19 on the arc.
Three guys on Drake played the whole 45:00.
Drake is 27-3, with four starters who played D-2 ball last year.
— Cornell 102, Princeton 70
Big Red shot 20-33 on the arc, scored 1.46 points/possession.
Cornell won its last three games, scoring 92.3 ppg.
Princeton has one-game lead for last spot in Ivy tournament, with one game left.
— Illinois 93, Michigan 73
Illini outscored Michigan 62-43 in second half.
Illinois is shooting 57.4% inside arc (#15), 30.8% on arc (#319)
Wolverines lost for only second time in their last ten games.
— Famous birthdays, March 3rd:
Willie Wise, 78
Dennis Shaw, 78
Randy Gradishar, 73
Eric Torkelson, 73
Herschel Walker, 63
Trung Canidate, 48
Jessica Biel, 43
Santonio Holmes, 41
Jayson Tatum, 27
Maikel Garcia, 25
— San Francisco 49ers traded WR Deebo Samuel to Washington, getting a 5th-round draft pick in return. Commanders are taking on the remainder of Samuel’s contract and paying his full $17.55M salary next season.
— Speaking of the Commanders, they were 20-23 on 4th down conversions last year, the best %age ever on 4th down conversions. All of that, with zero QB sneaks on the 23 plays. None.
— If HBO/Max puts Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team on their spring Hard Knocks program, I’ll be cancelling HBO in my house. This is an NFL Films show, and Belichick isn’t in the NFL anymore.
Tennessee Titans have the #1 pick in the draft; they’re eligible to be on Hard Knocks. This seems to be an easy decision.
— Philadelphia Eagles hired Bowling Green head coach Scot Loeffler as their new QB coach; Loeffler was the coach at Bowling Green for five years, going 20-19 the last three seasons.
That’s the state of mid-major college football now; guys who are head coaches quit to become a position coach, not even a coordinator, for an NFL team.
— If you have Colorado Rockies’ OF Brenton Doyle on your fantasy team, check this out: here are Doyle’s home/away splits from last season:
Home: .313 with a .900 OPS. Impressive
Away: .211, with a .636 OPS. No bueno.
— Ohio Valley Conference has their conference tournament in Evansville, IN, even though only one of their 11 teams (Southern Indiana) is located in Indiana, and the Screaming Eagles have been a D-I team for only three years.
— Alabama-Birmingham has a basketball player Bradley Ezewiro, who is a 6-9 with an interesting history:
2021-22- played for LSU- coach was fired after season for NCAA violations after a 22-11 year
2022-23- played for Georgetown- coach was fired after a 7-25 season
2023-24- played for Saint Louis- coach was fired after a 13-20 season
Given that history, UAB coach Andy Kennedy had to be pretty confident in his coaching abilities to sign this kid up. UAB is 19-10 this year, so Kennedy won’t get fired, but they’ll need to win the AAC tournament to make it into the NCAA’s.
