MLB 2025 BEST BETS-NEWS THRU THE WORLD SERIES !

[Cnotes53]

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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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.

 

[Cnotes53]

Trends for all 30 MLB teams…….

— Arizona was 26-20 in one-run games, but 5-8 in extra innings.
Diamondbacks were 61-44 vs righty starters, 28-29 vs lefties.

— Atlanta is in playoffs for 7th year in row; they made World Series in only one of those years, when they won the Fall Classic in 2021.
Braves are 29-17 vs lefty starters, 60-56 vs righties.

— Cubs finished 83-79 for second year in row, but missed playoffs.
Manager Craig Counsell makes $8M a year, more than any other manager.

— Cincinnati missed playoffs for 4th year in row, 10th time in 11 years.
Reds were 15-28 in one-run games, big part of why they fired their manager.

— Colorado was 61-101, second year in row they lost 100+ games.
Last time the Rockies made the playoffs was in 2018.

— Dodgers are 98-64, making playoffs for 12th year in a row.
Dodgers are 36-17 vs lefty starters, 62-477 vs righties.

— Miami made playoffs LY but went 62-100 this year.
Marlins are 10-45 against lefty starting pitchers, 52-55 vs righties.

— Brewers won AL Central, is in playoffs for sixth time in seven years.
Milwaukee has been in one World Series; they won the series in 1982.

— Mets went 17-9 in September to make playoffs, with a payroll of $336,005,016
Mets are in playoffs for only second time in last eight years.

— Phillies are in playoffs for third year in a row, after a 10-year drought.
Phillies are 27-27 in day games, 68-40 in night games.

— Pirates were 76-86, their sixth consecutive losing season.
Their payroll was $86,495,129, 2nd-lowest in the majors.

— Cardinals were 83-79, but missed playoffs for second year in a row.
St Louis was 29-22 in one-run games (17-26 last year).

— San Diego is 93-69, in playoffs for third time in five years.
Padres are 10-2 in extra-inning games, only 22-19 in one-run games.

— Giants were 80-82, missing playoffs for third year in a row.
San Francisco fired their GM Monday, hired Buster Posey as president of baseball ops

— Washington went 71-91, 5th straight losing year since winning ’19 World Series.
Nationals were 14-23 in one-run games, 5-12 in extra innings.

— Orioles are 91-71, in playoffs for second year in row; they were 52-110 in 2021.
Orioles were 58-38 at the All-Star break, 33-33 after the All-Star break.

— Red Sox were 81-81 (78-84/78-84 previous two years).
Boston’s payroll this year was $176,458,748, #12 in MLB.

— White Sox were 41-121 this year, after 61-101 last year.
Chicago actually won five of its last six games.

— Guardians are 92-69, in playoffs for 6th time in nine years.
Cleveland is 29-12 vs lefty starting pitchers; LY, they were 24-35.

— Detroit went 15-5 in its last 20 games.
Tigers are in playoffs for first time in ten years.

— Houston 88-73, in playoffs for 8th year in a row.
Astros are 31-18 in their last 49 games.

— Royals are 86-76, made playoffs; LY, they were 56-106.
Kansas City is 4-9 in its last thirteen games.

— Angels were 63-99, missing playoffs for 10th year in a row.
Rendon makes $38,571,429, Trout makes $37,116,667. Oy.

— Minnesota went 82-80, missed Wild Card slot by four games.
Twins were 4-12 in their last 16 games.

— New York is 94-68, in playoffs for 8th time in ten years.
New York hasn’t won a World Series since 2009.

— A’s were 69-93, missing playoffs for fourth year in a row.
A’s were 32-32 after All-Star break, in their last season in Oakland.

— Mariners went 85-77, missed playoffs by one game.
In 2001, Seattle was 116-46; they’ve made playoffs once since then.

— Tampa Bay was 80-82, missed playoffs for first time in six years.
Rays were 30-22 in one-run games.

— Texas went 78-84 this year, after winning World Series LY.
15 different pitchers started a game for Texas this year.

— Toronto went 74-88, after going 89-73/92-70 the last two years.
Blue Jays were 19-30 in one-run games.

 

[Cnotes53]

Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Some teams who get the highest %age of their points on 3-pointers:
45.2%— North Dakota State
41.8%— Princeton
41.3%— IU Indy, Furman
41.2%— Northern Illinois
40.6%— Cal-Santa Barbara
40.5%— Liberty

Quote of the Day
“I don’t understand why we are not teaching our officials to call travel in this league. They do a great job and work their tails off and communicate well, but I see five or six travels a game that aren’t called…….the entire game is based on footwork. We need to enforce traveling violations and we are not doing it and I don’t understand why.”
Steve Kerr

Wednesday’s quiz
Who replaced Phil Jackson as coach of the Lakers, in 2011?
(Hint: He’s also coached two other NBA teams)

Tuesday’s quiz
In the history of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Randy Johnson has the most pitching wins.

Monday’s quiz
Of all the baseball players who have played since 1970, Manny Ramirez had the most RBI in a single season- he knocked in 165 runs in 1999.

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

— Famous birthdays, March 5th:
Samantha Eggar, 86
Phil Roof, 84
Joe Scarpati, 82
Rocky Bleier, 79
Kent Tekulve, 78
Mike Munchak, 65
Scott Skiles, 61
Michael Irvin, 59
Roman Phifer, 57
Paul Konerko, 49
Wally Szczerbiak, 48
Kyle Schwarber, 32
Bo Bichette, 27
Tanner Bibee, 26
Justin Fields, 26

— Rough week for the Dallas Mavericks and their fans; not only are the Lakers thriving with Luka Doncic in their lineup, but 32-year old Kyrie Irving tore his ACL Monday and is out for the season. Irving is the only player this season averaging 20+ ppg, shooting 40%+ on the arc and 90%+ from the foul line.
As if that wasn’t enough, Mavericks also raised their ticket prices 8.6% for next year.

— Super Bowl champion Eagles signed RB Saquon Barkley to a 2-year, $41.2M contract extension that makes him the highest-paid running back in NFL history.
Happy birthday to former Eagles/Saints DB Joe Scarpati; in 1970, he was the holder for Tom Dempsey’s 63-yard field goal, which for a long time was the longest FG in NFL history.

— Dallas Cowboys signed DT Osa Odighizuwa to a 4-year, $80M contract, with $58M of that money guaranteed. Odighizuwa would’ve made $25.1M in 2025 had the Cowboys put the franchise tag on him.

— For second year in a row, Cincinnati Bengals placed the franchise tag on WR Tee Higgins; he’ll make a guaranteed $26.2M next season. Higgins caught 73 passes for 911 yards and ten touchdowns for the Bengals last year.

— Milwaukee Brewers signed 36-year old P Jose Quintana for one year, $4.25M; he was 10-10, 3.75 in 31 starts for the Mets last season.

— Orioles closer Félix Bautista pitched a scoreless inning in an exhibition game Monday, the first time he was in a game since August, 2023, 556 days in between games.
Bautista had 33 saves for Baltimore in 2023, before he got hurt.

— Bronx P Luis Gil will start the season on the injured list with a shoulder injury; he is expected to miss at least six weeks. Gil was 15-7, 3.50 in 29 starts last season, was Rookie of the Year.

— First home run for the Houston Astros this spring was hit by Joseph Sullivan, a young OF who was picked by Houston in the 7th round of last summer’s draft.
Joseph Sullivan is the grandson of former NFL QB Pat Sullivan, who was a backup QB for the Atlanta Falcons for four years, after he won the Heisman Trophy in 1971.

 

[Cnotes53]

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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Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….​

— 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’……..

 

[Cnotes53]

Friday’s 6-pack:
Teams who shoot the highest %age on 2-point shots:
60.7%— Belmont 25-8
60.4%— Gonzaga 28-4
58.6%— Vermont 28-6
58.5%— Wake Forest 25-10
57.1%— Arizona 33-4
57%— Winthrop 23-9

Quote of the Day
“The fact that they missed the playoffs by one game, and didn’t go out and add an impact bat or two when you have the best pitching staff in baseball just seems absurd to me.”
Justin Turner, talking about the Seattle Mariners

Friday’s quiz
In the history of the Seattle Mariners, who has scored the most runs?

Thursday’s quiz
Of the 32 teams in the NFL, three teams have never had the first pick in the draft- Ravens, Broncos and Seahawks.

Wednesday’s quiz
Mike Brown replaced Phil Jackson as coach of the Lakers, in 2011.

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

— Modern college basketball: Duke assistant coach Jai Lucas is going to be the new head coach at Miami. Lucas is leaving Duke after Saturday’s game with North Carolina; he won’t be there for the ACC or NCAA Tournaments, which is unusual.
The transfer portal opens March 24; Miami is 6-24 this season, they need players and Lucas has a reputation as a relentless recruiter. Miami was in the Final Four two years ago, in the Elite 8 the year before that; we’ll see how he does.

— Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Alex Jensen is the new coach of the Utah Utes; Jensen played for the Utes when they made the Final Four in 1998, under Rick Majerus. He’s been an NBA assistant for the last 12 years, for the Jazz/Mavericks.

— Back in the day, when ESPN was a better product than it is now, they had tripleheaders on Big Monday: Big East/Big 10/Big West games. They should go back to that.
FOX has the Big East now, but ESPN shows Big X/ACC games every Monday. Why not strike a deal with the Big West and/or Big Sky to show a midnight game every week?

— Oregon football coach Dan Lanning signed a new contract, will bank $11M/year for coaching the Ducks, thru 2030.
Lanning made $8.2M last year; he has a 35-6 record at Oregon, and becomes the 8th college football coach who is getting paid $10M+/year.

— ESPN had a Phillies-Tigers game on the other day; Phillies manager Rob Thomson was on the mike during one inning, when Detroit hit home runs on three consecutive pitches, off of newly-acquired Jesus Luzardo.
Awkward silence followed; Thomson didn’t say a word for a few minutes.

— 35-year old IF Jose Iglesias signed a one-year, $3M deal with the Padres; he hit .337 in 118 games for the Mets last year, after playing AAA ball in 2023. Iglesias has played for seven teams in his 12-year career.

— NFL’s Chargers released 5-time Pro Bowl DE Joey Bosa, which frees up $25.3M of salary cap space. Bosa has missed 23 games the last three years, but only three of those were last year. He may go play for the 49ers, where his brother Nick plays.

— Jacksonville Jaguars are trading WR Christian Kirk to division rival Houston, in exchange for a 7th-round draft pick in 2026. Kirk caught 27 passes for 379 yards in eight games LY; he’s caught 404 passes, scored 29 TD’s in his 7-year career with Cardinals/Jaguars.

— Famous birthdays, March 7th:
Jeff Burroughs, 74
Lynn Swann, 73
Tommy Kramer, 70
Bryan Cranston, 69
Kent Hill, 68
Joe Carter, 65
Flipper Anderson, 60
Steve Beuerlein, 60
Ricky Proehl, 57
Jeff Kent, 57
Jenna Fischer, 51
Pharoh Cooper, 30
Pablo Lopez, 29
Michael Harris, 24
Joshua Karty, 23

— ASUN tournament
Lipscomb 81, Queens 75 OT
#6-seed Queens led #1-seed Lipscomb by 10 with 7:43 left to play.
Queens’ subs outscored Lipscomb’s subs 36-2. 36 to 2
Bisons were 27-29 on foul line at home; Queens was 9-12.

— Horizon tournament
Oakland 72, Milwaukee 64
Favored Panthers lost, shooting 3-12 on foul line.
Oakland shot 58.3% inside the arc.
Oakland played the #5 non-conference schedule; this is the payoff.

— Sun Belt tournament
Old Dominion 64, Texas State 61
Three guys on ODU played 38+ minutes.
Monarchs won despite shooting 35% from floor.
Texas State led by 6 with 5:33 left in game.

— Michigan State 91, Iowa 84
Hawkeyes led by 10 with 12:18 left in game.
Spartans were 20-30 on foul line, shot 64.7% inside arc.
Michigan State has won six in row, 20 of last 23 games.

— MVC tournament
Southern Illinois 86, Indiana State 85
Both teams shot over 58% inside the arc.
Ali Dibba scored 30 points, played all 40:00.
Indiana State ended season on a 2-6 skid.

— WCC tournament
San Diego 81, Pacific 77
Toreros won their last two games, after an 0-16 skid.
Pacific led by 5 with 7:18 left in the game.
San Diego moves on to play Loyola Marymount Friday.

— Sam Houston State 89, UTEP 87
Miners led by 9 with 14:16 left in game.
Wilkerson scored 29 points, had 2 assists; his job is to score.
Bearkats shot 63.6% inside the arc.

 

[Cnotes53]

Saturday’s 6-pack:
Teams with best roster continuity in country:
— Towson State (21-10)
— American (20-12)
— Fort Wayne (19-13)
— Gonzaga (23-8)
— Santa Clara (20-11)
— Texas A&M (21-9)

Quote of the Day
“We are trying to take it as far as we can as soon as we possibly can. I’m not looking for a grace period. … I don’t think that way at all.”
Raiders coach Pete Carroll

Saturday’s quiz
Where did Geno Smith play his college football?

Friday’s quiz
In the history of the Seattle Mariners, Edgar Martinez has scored the most runs (1,219)

Thursday’s quiz
Of the 32 teams in the NFL, three teams have never had the first pick in the draft- Ravens, Broncos and Seahawks.

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Saturday’s Den: Random stuff on a windy, winter night​

— Seattle Seahawks traded QB 34-year old QB Geno Smith to the Raiders, getting a 3rd-round draft pick in return. The trade re-unites Smith with Raiders coach Pete Carroll, who coached Smith in Seattle from 2020-23.
Smith is 40-44 as an NFL starter, 0-1 in playoff games; he was 28-25 with the Seahawks.
Right now, Sam Howell would be Seattle’s new QB, but there is speculation that the Seahawks will go after free agent QB Sam Darnold, who played briefly for Seahawks’ OC Klint Kubiak with the 49ers.

— Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s signed OF Lawrence Butler to a 7-year contract extension worth $66.5M; Butler hit .262 with an .807 OPS last year- he hit 22 home runs.

— Speaking of the A’s, watched the movie Moneyball again the other night; they made such a big deal about how the A’s didn’t want to start 1B Carlos Pena, like he was Jason Giambi or Mark Teixeira. At that time, he wasn’t close to that.
When the A’s traded dealt Pena to Detroit, he was hitting .218, which isn’t said in the movie; 5-6 years later, Pena did have a couple of huge seasons playing for Tampa Bay.

— Weird fact: Luis Arraez has won a batting title in each of the last three years, while playing for three different teams:
2022- hit .316 for Minnesota
2023- hit .354 for the Marlins
2024- hit .314 for Marlins/San Diego.

— Watched another one of my favorite movies late Thursday night, The Rookie, the real-life story of a high school teacher in Texas who tries out for major league team in his 30’s, and makes it to the big leagues for the first time, when he was 35 years old.
Dennis Quaid plays Jim Morris, the pitcher; the best two scenes in the movie and when his AAA manager tells Morris that he got called up to the big leagues, and then when he comes into his first major league, with a lot of friends/family in attendance in Arlington, TX.
In that first game, Tampa Bay’s starting pitcher was Bobby Witt Sr, whose son is a big star for Kansas City these days. The Rays’ only run in that game came on a home run by John Flaherty, who is now a TV analyst for the YES Network. Jose Canseco was Tampa Bay’s DH in that game.

— Sacramento Kings are 33-29 this year, which would be the Kings’ third season in a row over .500; despite that, Sacramento has had 10 different head coaches since 2011- they fired Mike Brown this season, when they were 13-18. Doug Christie has gone 19-11 as his replacement.

— Philadelphia 76ers are 21-39-2 against the spread this season, worst record in the NBA; last time the 76ers were this bad ATS was 1996, when they were 32-49-1.

— Famous birthdays, March 8th:
Susan Clark, 82
Jim Rice, 72
Buck Williams, 65
Camryn Manheim, 64
Kenny Smith, 6o
Jason Elam, 55
Lance McCullers Sr, 51
Hines Ward, 49
James Van Der Beek, 48
Marcus Spears, 42
Tommy Pham, 37
Kyle Allen, 29

— Dayton 79, VCU 76
Dayton has won 10 of its last 13 games.
Loss snaps VCU’s nine-game winning streak.
VCU was 25-31 on foul line, only 5-30 on the arc.

— Illinois 88, Purdue 80
Illini outscored Purdue 16-3 over the final 2:52 of this game.
Illinois shot 63% inside the arc.
Boilermakers lost five of their last seven games.

— WCC Tournament
Pepperdine 86, Portland 73
Waves outscored Portland 46-19 over the last 12:17 of game.
6-1 G Odum scored 31 points, had 11 assists.
Pepperdine advances to play Oregon State Saturday.

— Summit Tournament
Both underdogs won Friday’s games.
North Dakota 85, South Dakota State 69
Treysen Eaglestaff scored 51 points for the 12-20 Hawks.
Two games ago, he didn’t score against St Thomas.
Jackrabbits were 3-29 on arc, North Dakota was 13-32

— MVC Tournament
Valparaiso 64, Northern Iowa 63
11-seed upsets the #3-seed, shooting 11-21 on the arc.
Northern Iowa was only 6-11 on the foul line.
Cinderella Crusaders play #2-seed Bradley Saturday.

— Sun Belt Tournament
Old Dominion 61, Appalachian State 56
Monarchs win for third day in row; they were 8-10 in conference play.
ODU allowed 55.3 points/game the last three nights.
App State led this game 36-30 at halftime.

— Colorado State 83, Boise State 73
Boise State led by 9 with 10:14 left in game.
Rams post upset, clinch #2-seed in Mountain West tournament.
Colorado State has won seven in a row, winds up 16-4 in MW play.

 

[Cnotes53]

Sunday’s 6-pack:
Teams who use their subs the least:
14% of minutes— Saint Louis 18-13
17.4%— Little Rock 19-14
17.9%— St Bonaventure 21-10
18.5%— North Alabama 24-9
18.8%— Central Michigan 14-17
19.1%— Saint Mary’s 27-4

Quote of the Day
“We need to fix it now for next year, and we need to get this program back to the standard and the performance level that we expect as a program, that he expects, the staff expects and our fans expect.”
Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack, putting basketball coach Adrian Autry on the hot seat for next season

Sunday’s quiz
In baseball, how wide is home plate?

Saturday’s quiz
Geno Smith played his college football at West Virginia.

Friday’s quiz
In the history of the Seattle Mariners, Edgar Martinez has scored the most runs (1,219)

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

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

Don’t forget to turn your clocks ahead an hour…….

— Alabama 93, Auburn 91 OT
Sears scored only 9 points, but had the game-winning shot at the buzzer.
Alabama is only 3-4 last seven games, after a 21-3 start.
Auburn has lost two in a row, after a 27-2 start.

— St John’s 86, Marquette 84 OT
Red Storm has won six in a row, 16 of last 17 games.
St John’s went 18-2 in Big East, despite shooting only 26.8% on arc.
Marquette went 4-6 in last ten games, after an 18-3 start.

— OVC Tournament
SIU-Edwardsville 69, SE Missouri State 48
Cougars are first team officially in the NCAA Tournament
Cougars out-rebounded SE Missouri State, 50-31
SIU-Edwardsville has #35 eFG% defense in country.

— WCC Tournament
Pepperdine 77, Oregon State 73
Waves win for 2nd night in row; after losing 8 of previous 9 games.
6-8 senior Todorovic scored 34 points, was 5-9 on arc.
Pepperdine advances to play Santa Clara Sunday night,

— SoCon Tournament
Three of the four underdogs won Saturday’s games.
VMI 64, NC-Greensboro 57
Keydets are only 9-11 SU in SoCon games, but are 15-5 ATS.
VMI played only three subs, who in a combined 21:00, went 0-1 from floor.
Teams combined to shoot 5-33 on the arc.

— Upsets of the Day
Penn State (+11.5) 86, Wisconsin 75
Pepperdine (+10.5) 77, Oregon State 73
VMI (+10.5) 64, NC-Greensboro 57
LaSalle (+8.5) 81, St Joe’s 74
Alabama (+7.5) 93, Auburn 91 OT
Abilene Christian (+7.5) 82, Grand Canyon 81
Fairfield (+6.5) 83, Quinnipiac 74

— Arch Madness (MVC Tournament)
Drake 57, Belmont 50
Drake held its last seven opponents to 61 or fewer points.
Bulldogs are 17-1 in their last 18 games.

Bradley 70, Valparaiso 65
11-seed Valpo led by 11 points early on.
Braves won eight of their last nine games.
Drake-Bradley play for the MVC title Sunday.

— Summit Tournament
Omaha 100, South Dakota 75
Mavericks led 55-26 at halftime.
Omaha shot 71.8% inside the arc.

St Thomas 85, North Dakota 69
Game was tied at halftime.
St Thomas shot 12-29 on the arc.
Tommies are in only their 4th season as a D-I team.
Omaha-St Thomas play for the Summit title Sunday night.

— Kansas 83, Arizona 76
Big man Dickinson had 33 points in 34:00 for Kansas.
Arizona is 3-5 in last eight games, after a 14-6 start.
Last three games, Arizona gave up 84-100-83 points.

— Sun Belt Tournament
Arkansas State 77, Marshall 74
Marshall led 52-46 with 13:58 left to play.
Red Wolves advance to play South Alabama Sunday.

Troy 75, Old Dominion 59
Trojans won six of their last seven games.
Troy plays James Madison Sunday.

— Famous birthdays, March 9th:
Bert Campaneris, 83
Dennis Harrah, 72
Linda Fiorentino, 67
Shooty Babitt, 66
Darrell Walker, 64
Terry Mulholland, 62
Sean Salisbury, 62
Brian Bosworth, 60
Benito Santiago, 60

— Notre Dame 112, California 110, 4 OT’s
Cal led 103-99 with 2:40 left in the 4th overtime.
6-0 soph Burton scored 43 points for Notre Dame
Notre Dame won its last three home games, by 4-2-2 points.

— Indiana 66, Ohio State 60
Indiana was 23-31 on foul line, Buckeyes 10-15
Hoosiers won five of last seven games, finished 10-10 in Big 18.
Ohio State led by 10 with 12:12 left in the game.

— Arkansas 93, Mississippi State 92
Hogs led by 16 with 11:41 left, trailed 89-87 with 1:46 left.
Arkansas shot 62.9% inside the arc.
Miss State lost four of its last five games.

— Duke 82, North Carolina 69
Tar Heels led by 6 with 15:44 left in the game.
Duke has won eight in row, 24 of last 25 games.
North Carolina is 1-11 in Quad-1 games, not ideal.
Bracketology has them as the second team outside the Field of 68

— CAA Tournament
Three of the four underdogs won Saturday’s games.
Drexel 91, Elon 74
Dragons were only CAA favorite to win Saturday
Drexel led 45-22 at halftime.
Drexel advances to play #1-seed Towson Sunday.

 

[Cnotes53]

Monday’s 6-pack:
Six of the teams who use their subs the most:
43% of minutes— Cal-Fullerton 6-26
42.8%— Colorado 12-19
42.2%— Oklahoma State 15-16
41.8%— BYU 23-8
41.3%— Michigan State 26-5
41.2%— Southern Utah 12-18

Quote of the Day
“I’m so glad he’s back, nor did it surprise me when Bochy came back. Don’t ask me why. I just know those guys and I knew they weren’t done…….It’s not just one thing, it’s all of it. It’s the passion for the game. I don’t think it ever leaves you. When you have the desire to stay in it, to stay in the fight, it feels good.”
Rockies manager Bud Black, talking about Terry Francona/Bruce Bochy returning to managing in the major leagues

Monday’s quiz
Where did Josh Allen play his college football?

Sunday’s quiz
In baseball, home plate is 17 inches wide.

Saturday’s quiz
Geno Smith played his college football at West Virginia.

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

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a surprisingly busy Sunday……..​

NFL has an amazing capacity to stay in the headlines 50 weeks a year; here it is March 10 and they’re still getting headlines……..

— Buffalo Bills signed QB Josh Allen for six years/$330M, with $250M of that guaranteed; Allen is 83-40 as an NFL starter, 7-6 in playoff games.
Bills are opening a new stadium for the 2026 season; this announcement will encourage lot of fans to pay up for luxury suites and tickets.

— Buffalo released LB Von Miller Sunday, which opened $8.4M in salary cap space; Bills hope to re-sign the 35-year old Miller later this spring.

— Rams signed WR Davante Adams for two years, $46M; Adams caught 85 passes for 1,063 yards and 8 TD’s in 14 games for the Raiders/Jets last season.
This cements that the Rams will be trading WR Cooper Kupp.

— Seahawks got a 2nd-round pick from the Steelers for WR DK Metcalf, who caught 66 passes for 992 yards and 5 TD’s for Seattle last year. Metcalf will turn 28 in December, Kupp will be 32 in June, so Rams don’t figure to get a 2nd-round pick for him.

— Cleveland Browns gave DE Myles Garrett a 4-year, $160M contract extension, with $123.5M of that money guaranteed, making Garrett the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.

— Minnesota Vikings signed RB Aaron Jones to a 2-year, $20M extension, with $13M of that money guaranteed. Jones had 1,138 rushing yards last year, another 408 yards receiving- he scored seven touchdowns in his first year with the Vikings.

— Atlanta Falcons signed LT Jake Matthews to a 2-year, $45M contract extension; the son of Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews, Jake Matthews has been a Falcon for his entire 11-year career.

— Famous birthdays, March 10th:
Ron Mix, 87
Chuck Norris, 85
Austin Carr, 77
Sharon Stone, 67
Tim McCormick, 63
John Cangelosi, 62
Rod Woodson, 60
Jon Hamm, 54
Olivia Wilde, 41
Zach LaVine, 30
Justin Herbert, 27
Cole Kmet, 26

— WCC tourney
Pepperdine 78, Santa Clara 76
Waves post an upset win for third night in a row.
Santa Clara led 21-8 early on.
6-1 junior G Odum had 19 points, 13 assists; sad reality is that he has to be getting NIL offers from big $$$ schools.
Pepperdine will be a big underdog again Monday, vs Saint Mary’s.

— Atlantic Sun tourney
Lipscomb 76, North Alabama 65
Lipscomb shot 12-27 on the arc.
Bisons were 26-30 on foul line, North Alabama 15-24
Lipscomb is in NCAA’s for first time since 2018.

— Big South tourney
High Point 81, Winthrop 69
Winthrop led by 15 early in second half.
High Point’s bench outscored Winthrop’s subs, 50-15.
Panthers are going to NCAA Tournament for the first time.

— MVC tourney
Drake 63, Bradley 48
Drake allowed 50.3 ppg in its three Arch Madness wins.
Drake is in NCAA’s for third year in row, with a whole new team this year.
Bulldogs have won seven in row, 18 of last 19 games.

— Summit tourney
Omaha 85, St Thomas 75
St Thomas wasn’t eligible for NCAA’s this year; Omaha was in no matter what.
Omaha is in NCAA’s for first time; they joined Division I in 2011.
Mavericks shot 55.9% inside the arc.
Omaha is 22-12, after starting the season 4-9.

— SoCon tourney
Furman 80, Chattanooga 77 OT
Paladins shot 12-28 on arc as they upset the top-seeded Mocs.
Furman has won six games in row; they won SoCon tourney in 2023.
#5-seed Furman vs #6-seed Wofford is the SoCon final Monday night.

— Arkansas State 74, South Alabama 71
Final Four in Sun Belt all tied for first in regular season, so no real upsets here.
Arkansas State shot 12-33 on the arc, South Alabama was 2-13.
Red Wolves have #10 eFG% defense in country.

 

[Cnotes53]

Tuesday’s 6-pack:
Baseball teams with highest payrolls last year:
$333,262,507— Mets
$310,916,392— Bronx
$270,841,245— Dodgers
$249,094,493— Phillies
$244,875,028— Astros
$240,847,326— Rangers

Quote of the Day
“At first (retiring) was hard,. You didn’t know what to expect and you worry what people will say about you. You worry about that the first couple of years. But then you enjoy it. It takes time to get used to. I mean, for 20 years, you’re basically on the field and you’re working and spending more time with your teammates than your family.”
Former MLB catcher Yadier Molina

Tuesday’s quiz
In the TV show Friends, what was the name of the coffee shop where people hung out?

Monday’s quiz
Josh Allen played his college football at Wyoming.

Sunday’s quiz
In baseball, home plate is 17 inches wide.

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

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

— Sun Belt Tournament
Troy 94, Arkansas State 81
Trojans were 33-39 on foul line, Ark State 19-24.
Red Wolves led by 8 with 9:50 left in game.
Trojans are in NCAA’s for first time since 2017.

— SoCon Tournament
Wofford 92, Furman 85
Wofford outscored Paladins 13-2 over the last 2:30 of game.
Wofford shot 14-28 on arc, scored 1.37 points/possession.
Terriers are in NCAA’s for first time since 2019.

— WCC Tournament
Saint Mary’s 74, Pepperdine 59
Midnight struck for the Cinderella Waves, which had won three days in a row.
Gaels out-rebounded Pepperdine, 45-22.
St Mary’s shot only 2-13 on arc, 14-24 on foul line.

— CAA Tournament
Delaware 82, Towson State 72
12-seed Blue Hens upset top-seeded Towson.
Delaware has won four days in a row to get to the finals.
Blue Hens came into the CAA tourney on a 1-11 skid.

NC-Wilmington 68, Charleston 67
Seahawks led this game 40-30 at halftime.
Charleston lost despite shooting 14-31 on the arc.
UNCW-Delaware play for the CAA title Tuesday night.

— Horizon Tournament
Robert Morris 79, Oakland 76 OT
Oakland led by 13 early in the second half.
Robert Morris has won nine in row, 15 of last 16 games.
Colonials are in NCAA’s for first time since 2015.

Youngstown 56, Cleveland State 54
Penguins won despite shooting 12-23 on foul line.
Youngstown won seven of its last nine games.
Robert Morris-Youngstown play for the Horizon title Tuesday.

— NC State won the ACC Tournament last year, then made an unlikely run to the Final Four, but they fired coach Kevin Keatts Sunday, after the Wolfpack went 12-19, 5-15 this season.
Keatts coached NC State for eight years, making three NCAA Tournaments; he was 151-113 with the Wolfpack, 69-84 in ACC games. He won’t be out of work long; before coming to Raleigh, he was 72-28 in three years coaching NC-Wilmington.

— Murray State fired basketball coach Steve Prohm, who was 45-52 in his second stint coaching the Racers; he was 104-29 in his first stint coaching Murray State, from 2012-15.
What was the difference? In Prohm’s first stint coaching Murray State, the Racers were a big fish in a smaller pond. Ohio Valley Conference isn’t nearly as good as the Missouri Valley.
MVC is a deeper pond; harder to win there. The over-educated geniuses who run these schools don’t understand that concept. Winning is fun; rich boosters like contributing $$$ to teams that win. When teams lose, contributions go down, and coaches get fired.

— Under was 10-1 in games in the Missouri Valley tournament last week.

— Luke Loucks, a 34-year old assistant for the Sacramento Kings, is the new basketball coach at Florida State. Before going to Sacramento, Loucks spent five years as a video coordinator and player development coach for Golden State, where he won two NBA championship rings.
Loucks was point guard for the 2012 FSU squad that won the ACC Tournament. Loucks’ dad was a walk-on football player for Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles; his wife also went to Florida State and was a swimmer there, so he is a good fit in Tallahassee.

— Famous birthdays, March 11th:
Alex Kingston, 62
Peter Berg, 61
Bobby Abreu, 51
Cedric Henderson, 50
Elton Brand, 46
Dan Uggla, 45
Anthony Davis, 32
Jackson Chourio, 21

— Gerrit Cole is having Tommy John surgery Tuesday, is out for the year; Cole was 8-5, 3.41 in only 17 starts last year. With Cole done for the year and Luis Gil out until June, New York has issues with its starting rotation.

— Mariners’ P George Kirby has been shut down from throwing due to shoulder inflammation; Seattle says there is no structural damage, but he hasn’t felt well after throwing.

— Mets C Francisco Alvarez broke the hamate bone in his hand, is out 6-8 weeks; Alvarez hit .237 in 100 games last year, with a .710 OPS.

— Arizona Diamondbacks’ 1B/OF Pavin Smith was named after pro golfer Corey Pavin; Smith’s dad was a golf agent. Corey Pavin was one of his clients.

— Minor leaguers are faring better with the pitch challenge aspect of instant replay, because they have been doing it in the minor leagues the last few years.
Challenging ball/strikes is an experiment this spring, but it is going well and it seems like this will become a rule next year. Developing a strategy on what/when to challenge will be fun to follow.
Do you wait until the late innings?
Do you only challenge in two-out situations?
By the way, while I’m here, if you’re betting on spring training games (please don’t), keep in mind that the Reds are not challenging balls/strikes- Terry Francona said not to, because it isn’t a rule this year.
So the Reds aren’t challenging bad calls against them, while the other teams are challenging bad calls against them. Cincinnati is 8-7 in spring training games so far this year.

— A’s-Diamondbacks played two games in Las Vegas over the weekend, at the Aviators’ ballpark in Summerlin; they drew a sell-out crowd of 8,708 fans Saturday.
A’s have sold 6,500 season tickets for this season in Sacramento; they’ll be playing for three years in Sacramento, in a stadium with 10,624 seats and a capacity of 14,014, with standing room areas behind the outfield fence.

— Forgot to mention this couple weeks ago, but RIP to former world chess champion Boris Spassky, who passed away February 27th at age 88.
When I was in junior high school, I loved chess, was actually pretty good at it (finished 2nd in a tournament with 50 kids in it). Bobby Fischer was the man back then; he beat Spassky in 1972 to become the world champ.
There is a great movie with Joe Mantegna, Searching for Bobby Fischer, about a sportswriter whose kid is great chess, for no apparent reason. Ben Kingsley is in it too; very good movie.

Anyway, RIP to Boris Spassky, a chess grandmaster.

 

[Cnotes53]

Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Baseball teams with lowest payrolls last year:
$66,467,058— A’s
$87,300,901— Pirates
$90,342,690— Rays
$98,142,446— Marlins
$101,035,919— Tigers
$105,416,838— Orioles

Quote of the Day
“We’ve had an inordinate amount of one-possession games. I think that’s why we’re such an interesting seed going into this NCAA Tournament. I think we were 350th in luck in Kenpom. We’ve had more banked 3s on us than I could ever, ever remember in my entire career. Whether it’s law of averages coming through or just a little resiliency … or maybe it’s just desperation by some seniors who don’t want this thing to end.”
Gonzaga coach Mark Few

Wednesday’s quiz
Of the 31 conference tournaments in college basketball, how many are held in Las Vegas?

Tuesday’s quiz
In the TV show Friends, the coffee shop where people hung out was called Central Perk.

Monday’s quiz
Josh Allen played his college football at Wyoming.

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

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

— WCC tournament
Gonzaga 58, Saint Mary’s 51
Zags were +14 in turnovers (18-4)
Teams combined to shoot a disturbing 1-31 on the arc.
Gonzaga is 43-5 SU in its last 48 WCC tourney games.
Gonzaga has won 11 of last 13 WCC tournaments.

— CAA tournament
NC-Wilmington 76, Delaware 72
#12-seed Delaware had won four days in a row to get to final.
Blue Hens played all five starters 37:00+ in this game.
UNCW has won six in a row, 15 of last 17 games.
Seahawks are in NCAAs for first time since 2017, when Kevin Keatts was coach.

— Horizon tournament
Robert Morris 89, Cleveland State 78
Robert Morris shot 11-22 on arc, scored 1.31 points/possession.
Colonials have won 10 in a row, 15 of last 16 games.
Colonials are in NCAAs for first time since 2015, when they were in the NEC.

— NEC tournament
St Francis 46, Central Connecticut 43
Red Flash are 16-17; they can pack their bags for Dayton/play-in game.
During regular season, St Francis lost to CCSU by 15-16 points.
Red Flash won this game, despite shooting 31.7% from floor.
This was first time this year St Francis beat a team ranked higher than #222.

— MAAC tournament
Rider 78, Siena 76
Siena led 58-45 with 13:31 left in the game.
Rider out-rebounded the Saints, 41-28, had 16 offensive boards.
Rider plays Quinnipiac for the MAAC title Wednesday night.

— California 82, Virginia Tech 72, 2OT
Cal was 29-40 on foul line, Tech 22-31.
Teams combined to shoot 8-51 on the arc.
Golden Bears came into ACC tournament on a 1-7 skid.
Local rivals Cal-Stanford play Wednesday, in Charlotte, NC. Oy.

— Maine 57, Vermont 42
Vermont had won five of last seven America East tournaments.
Vermont shot 28% from floor, was minus-14 in turnovers (17-3)
Maine visits Bryant for the league championship Saturday.
This is Black Bears’ first winning season since 2010.

— Famous birthdays, March 12th:
Barbara Feldon, 92
Jake Kupp, 84
Kent Nix, 81
Liza Minnelli, 79
Mark Moseley, 77
Dale Murphy, 69
Darryl Strawberry, 63
Titus Welliver, 63
Steve Finley, 60
Grant Long, 59
Aaron Eckhart, 57
JP Losman, 44

2025 NFL season officially begins today; lot of signings going on……..

— Seattle Seahawks are signing QB Sam Darnold to a 3-year deal worth $100.5M; Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 record last year- he is 35-39 as an NFL starter, 0-1 in playoff games.

— New Jersey Jets signed QB Justin Fields for two years, $40M; Fields has a 14-30 record as an NFL starter, running ball for 50.2 yards/game, second only to Lamar Jackson among QB’s.
Jets were 5-12 last year, have had nine consecutive losing seasons; they haven’t made it to the playoffs since 2010, when Rex Ryan was the coach, Mark Sanchez their QB.

— Daniel Jones sucks as an NFL QB; his record is 25-45-1, but he might get in the Business Hall of Fame someday. Indianapolis Colts signed him up for one year, $14M, giving the Colts two QB’s who can run but can’t throw the ball very well.
Anthony Richardson is 8-7 as an NFL starter, but he’s been hurt a lot, plus he completed only 47.7% of his passes last season.
Elsewhere in the world……..

— I’m not 100% sure what this means, but NBA star Stephen Curry has accepted a role with Davidson College (his alma mater) as an assistant general manager for the basketball program.
Curry will provide guidance to the men’s/women’s basketball teams based on his college and pro experience; a bunch of boosters have started an 8-figure fund to finance the two programs, so Davidson’s recruiting figures to get a lot better, very soon.

— Penn/Columbia both dumped their basketball coach this week.
Penn fired Steve Donahue, after 10 years; Quakers have made the NCAA’s once since 2007. From 1999-2007, Penn won the Ivy League seven times in nine years.
Columbia fired Jim Engles, after nine years; Lions started this season 11-1, with a win over Villanova, but they went 1-13 in the Ivy League. Lions haven’t been in the NCAA Tournament since 1968, so expectations are low, but not this low.

— LA Dodgers rewarded manager Dave Roberts with a 4-year contract worth $8.1M/year; Dodgers are 907-560 under Roberts, winning four NL pennants, two World Series titles.

— The pitch challenge aspect of instant replay will be interesting when it happens, which will probably be next year. Tuesday, the White Sox challenged the second pitch of the game, which is just a terrible idea, even more so because they lost the challenge.
You win the challenge, it doesn’t cost you anything; but you can only lose two challenges then you’re screwed the rest of the game.

 

[Cnotes53]

Thursday’s 6-pack:
Six teams that were awarded an extra 3rd round pick for the NFL Draft
97- Vikings
98- Dolphins
99- Giants
100- 49ers
101- Rams
102- Lions

Quote of the Day
“The harder you work, the luckier you get.”
Gary Player

Thursday’s quiz
Toronto Blue Jays won back/back World Series in 1992/1993; who was their manager?

Wednesday’s quiz
Of the 31 conference tournaments in college basketball, four were held in Las Vegas this year; usually it is five, but the Pac-12 took this season off.

Tuesday’s quiz
In the TV show Friends, the coffee shop where people hung out was called Central Perk.

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

Thursday’s Den: Wrapping up a busy Wednesday……..​

Thursday is probably my favorite day of the college basketball season; 44 games on TV all day, each of them pretty important, conference tournament games. Should be a fun day; have lot of food in the house, won’t be going anywhere.

— Big Sky tournament
Montana 91, Northern Colorado 83
Both teams shot 65% inside the arc.
Montana won 14 of its last 15 games.
Grizzlies are in NCAAs for first time since 2019.

— Southland Conference tournament
McNeese State 63, Lamar 54
Lamar out-rebounded McNeese 49-32, but Cowboys have won 11 in a row.
McNeese has #39 eFG% defense, forces turnovers 21.6% of time- they can defend.
McNeese went 4-5 against the #24 non-conference schedule; they’ll be an interesting Cinderella next week.

— Patriot League tournament
American 74, Navy 52
American shot 11-25 on the arc on their home floor.
American tied for 1st in regular season in Patriot, going 13-5 in the #27 league
Eagles are in NCAA’s for first time since 2014 (they lost by 40 to Wisconsin)

— Big X tournament
Kansas 98, Central Florida 94 OT
Jayhawks led by 12 with 12:29 left in regulation.
Four Jayhawks played 36:00+.
Kansas is 7-7 in its last fourteen games.

Colorado 67, West Virginia 60
Buffs pull upset for 2nd day in a row; they were 3-17 in Big X regular season tilts.
West Virginia led this game by 13 midway thru first half.
Buffs play tournament favorite Houston Thursday.

— Big 18 tournament
USC 97, Rutgers 89, 2OT
Trojans led this game 41-30 at halftime.
USC survived 21 turnovers; they shot 10-23 on the arc.
All five USC starters played 41:00+; three of them played 46:00+

— Big East tournament
Butler 75, Providence 69
Butler shot 59.5% inside arc; they snapped a 4-game losing skid.
Providence was 8-35 on the arc, took only four foul shots (3-4)
Butler plays St John’s next; they lost to Red Storm by 8-6 points in regular season.

— MAAC tournament
Merrimack 66, Sacred Heart 62 OT
Bad beat if you had Sacred Heart +3.5; good handicapping if you had Merrimack.
Merrimack started season 1-6; they’re 2nd-worst rebounding team in country.
Warriors shot 13-36 on the arc, 11-26 inside arc.

— Famous birthdays, March 13th:
William H Macy, 75
Dana Delany, 69
Mariano Duncan, 62
Will Clark, 61
Aaron Cox, 60
Trent Dilfer, 53
Johan Santana, 46
Caron Butler, 45
Nicky Lopez, 30

— Next week in Japan, Cubs-Dodgers will play two games that count in the standings; games will start at 6am here in New York, 5am in Chicago, 3am in Las Vegas/Los Angeles.
Way to market the sport, guys.

— Colorado Buffaloes have a basketball player Julian Hammond, whose grandfather Julian played for five years in the old ABA, scoring 10.8 points/game for the Denver Rockets.
The ABA was great fun to watch; faster-paced games. The 3-point shot came into prominence there. Basketballs in the ABA were red, white and blue; still think the NBA should have one weekend a year where the four ABA teams play each other, honoring their past.
Nuggets, Pacers, Nets, Spurs are the four ABA teams that still exist.

— Speaking of the ABA, the rapper Common (real name Lonnie Lynn) is the son of a guy who also played briefly in the ABA.
Lonnie Lynn played college ball at Upper Iowa; he played 52 games for Rockets and Pittsburgh Pipers in the ABA in 1970, scoring 5 points/game.

NFL comings/goings:
— QB Jacoby Brissett signed with the Cardinals. He’s had an interesting career:
2016- Patriots (1-1)
2017-20- Colts (11-15)
2021- Dolphins (2-3)
2022- Browns (4-7)
2023- Commanders (0-0; 23 passes in three games)
2024- Patriots (1-4)
2025- Cardinals

Brissett was the Colts’ backup QB in 2017; he came in to play when they lost to the Rams in the 2017 opener, Sean McVay’s first game coaching the Rams.

— Cleveland Browns acquired QB Kenny Pickett from the Eagles, for QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a 5th-round draft pick.
Pickett was the 20th pick in the 2022 draft by the Steelers; he went 14-10 in two years with the Steelers, then won his only start for Philly 41-7 vs Dallas last year. He also got himself a Super Bowl ring.

— Saint Mary’s Gaels are going to be in the NCAA’s for 5th time in last six tournaments, but they haven’t dome that well there.
Since 1997, Saint Mary’s is 4-7 in first round games.
Since 2010, Saint Mary’s is 1-3 in second round games.
Gaels’ one Sweet 16 in this century was in 2010, when Matthew Dellavedova was a key player.

— RIP to former NBA player Junior Bridgeman, who passed away this week at age 71; he played college ball at Louisville, then played 12 years in the NBA, scoring 13.6 ppg.
We hear a lot about pro athletes who squander their money when they retire, but Bridgeman was the total opposite; he made so much money after his playing days ended that he became a billionaire philanthropist and recently, a part-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.

RIP, sir.

 

[Cnotes53]

Friday’s 6-pack:
Teams that played the easiest non-conference schedules:
364) Marist 20-10
363) Georgetown 17-15
362) George Washington 21-11
361) Columbia 12-15- fired the coach
360) Penn State 16-15
359) Maryland 24-7

Quote of the Day
“Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.”
Ted Lasso

Friday’s quiz
Last time the Jets played in a playoff game, who was their quarterback?

Thursday’s quiz
Toronto Blue Jays won back/back World Series in 1992/1993; Cito Gaston was their manager.

Wednesday’s quiz
Of the 31 conference tournaments in college basketball, four were held in Las Vegas this year; usually it is five, but the Pac-12 took this season off.
*******************************************************

Friday’s Den: Wrapping up a long day of basketball…….​

Lot of conference tournaments going on; here is what we know:

— SEC
Ole Miss 83, Arkansas 80
Rebels shot 55% inside arc, but blew a 15-point lead.
Ole Miss outscored Hogs 6-0 in the last 0:29 of the game.
Arkansas played 7 guys; the 7th guy played only 8:00.

Texas 94, Texas A&M 89, 2OT
Aggies led by 5 with 2:32 left in the first overtime.
Texas had only six turnovers in a 50:00 game (+7)
A&M star Taylor was 17-18 on foul line, only 5-18 from floor.

Kentucky 85, Oklahoma 84
Kentucky shot 63.9% inside the arc.
Wildcats won their last three games, scoring 90.3 ppg.
Kentucky-Alabama is a quarterfinal game Friday night.

— Big X
BYU 96, Iowa State 92
Both teams led by 10 points in first half.
BYU was 18-36 on arc, 12-22 inside arc.
Not often you score 1.33 points/possession and lose, but Iowa State did.

Texas Tech 76, Baylor 74
Tech never trailed, led 52-39 at halftime.
Red Raiders shot 15-34 on arc, Baylor 4-16.
Tech is 14-3 in its last 17 games.

Arizona 88, Kansas 77
Arizona shot 57.5% inside the arc.
Kansas shot 14-31 on the arc, still lost by 11.
Jayhawks are 7-8 in their last fifteen games.

— Big East
Marquette 89, Xavier 87
Xavier led by 14 early in second half.
Marquette shot 14-33 on arc, had only 4 turnovers.
Bracketology has Xavier on the right side of the bubble (barely).

— ACC
Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
Duke star Flagg sprained his ankle, is likely done for the weekend.
Tech led 26-12 late in first half.
Blue Devils are 25-1 since Thanksgiving.

— Big 18
Illinois 106, Iowa 94
Illinois shot 12-26 on arc, scored 1.43 points/possession.
Illini was 24-30 on foul line, Hawkeyes 5-10.
Illini out-rebounded Iowa, 41-24
Illinois won its last four games, scoring 92 ppg.

— Mountain West
Boise State 62, San Diego State 52
First time since 2007 that Aztecs lost first conference tournament game.
San Diego State didn’t score a basket in last 9:01 of this game.
Boise shot 11-40 on the arc, 8-16 inside arc.

— Big West
Cal Poly 96, Cal-Riverside 83
Cal Poly is 9-4 in last 13 games, after starting Big West play 0-8.
Last two years, Mustangs were 1-38 in Big West games; coach DeGeorge has done a really impressive job rebuilding this program.
Cal Poly plays Cal-Irvine in semi-finals Friday night.

— Famous birthdays, March 14th:
Michael Caine, 92
Clyde Lee, 81
Billy Crystal, 77
Dave McKay, 75
Butch Wynegar, 69
Larry Johnson, 56
Corey Stoll, 49
Steph Curry, 37
Brandon Aubrey, 30

— American
Tulsa 75, Temple 71
Temple led 42-30 at halftime.
Tulsa is 5-10 in its last fifteen games.
6-9 senior Garcia scored 20 points in 19:00 off the bench.

— MAC
Toledo 90, Ohio U 85 OT
Bobcats led by five with 3:12 left in the game.
Toledo was 29-35 on foul line, Ohio 16-21.
Toledo won MAC regular season the last four years, but didn’t win MAC tourney in any of those years; they finished T4th this season.

— Atlantic 15
St Bonaventure 64, Duquesne 59
Duquesne led by 7 with 4:07 left in game.
Two Bonnies played all 40:00; third guy played 36:00.
Bonnies are 22-10, despite #331 team in continuity.

— Conference USA
Kennesaw State 80, New Mexico State 77
Owls shot 11-25 on arc, 23-29 on foul line.
Three Kennesaw starters played 35:00+
Aggies were only 15-27 on the foul line.

Middle Tennessee 77, Louisiana Tech 75, 2OT
Teams combined to shoot 6-45 on the arc (Tech was 1-15)
Tech was 14-26 on foul line, lost by two points.
Blue Raiders won five of their last six games.

— WAC
Cal Baptist 55, Tarleton State 51
Cal Baptist won despite shooting 31% from the floor.
Lancers blew an 11-point lead in second half.
Cal Baptist plays Grand Canyon Friday night.

— Metro Atlantic
Iona 77, Manhattan 65
Iona was 10-25 on arc, Jaspers were 6-31.
Gaels have won 11 of their last 15 games.
Iona won this tournament eight of last 13 years.

 

[Cnotes53]

Batting Around: After the Yankees lost Gerrit Cole for the year, who is the best team in the American League?​

Can the Bombers overcome the injury or is this an opening for the Rangers, Orioles or others?​

[IMG alt=" Mike Axisa
"]https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2016/05/04/ce897635-4b80-42b2-85aa-3c683000b0e5/thumbnail/80x80/aa92fe03e70945bfd424902b13f08c4d/mikeaxisa.png[/IMG]

By Mike Axisa

Mar 13, 2025 at 9:00 am ET•3 min read

USATSI
Throughout the offseason, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we discussed the ABS challenge system. This week we're going to tackle the American League's best team following Gerrit Cole's injury.

Now that Cole's hurt, who is the best team in the AL?​

Matt Snyder: I'm gonna keep pushing the Rangers here, just as I've done in a few installments of Power Rankings. The offense was so much worse last season than its potential. There were explanations all over the place, such as Marcus Semien's World Series hangover (he never misses games and when you tack on the extra month of a playoff run, of course he was compromised in 2024), Adolis Garcia's disaster of a season, the early injury to Josh Jung, Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter getting exposed due to inexperience, etc. There will be internal growth there while the additions of Joc Pederson and Jake Burger beef up the lineup as well. I love the rotation, too, with Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle both fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and youngster Cody Bradford ready to take another step forward. The bullpen has been retooled and might need more in front of the deadline, but I'm a huge believer in this squad.

R.J. Anderson: I'll go with the Orioles. They certainly have some issues of their own, like how Grayson Rodriguez's injury impacts their rotation depth and Gunnar Henderson's status for Opening Day, but I think they have the best chance of any American League team to win 90-plus games. That isn't to suggest they're without competition; this is as wide open as I can remember the top of a league being heading into the season. To wit, PECOTA has seven AL teams between 85 and 91 wins; ZiPS has 11 AL teams between 81 and 85 wins. That's absurd, and suggests we should be in for an entertaining summer.

Mike Axisa: I lean Orioles over Rangers and Astros, and I don't think the Yankees are too far behind them even with Cole missing the season. FanGraphs projections still have the Yankees as the best team in the AL, albeit by fractions of a win now rather 3-4 wins as with a healthy Cole. I don't love Baltimore's rotation, especially now that Rodriguez's triceps/elbow is acting up, but their position player talent is so good and so high upside. I think there's more upside to the O's roster than most. The Rangers are really good, though Tyler Mahle's forearm is barking, and it's hard to count on Jacob deGrom making 25 starts. The Astros lost some star power and some ceiling. Still a good team overall though. Let's not sleep on the Red Sox either, though they've had plenty of pitching injuries themselves this spring (Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, now Lucas Giolito), so they're taken their hits like the Yankees. To answer the question, I think it's the Orioles narrowly over the two Texas teams, then the Yankees and Red Sox not too far behind them.

Dayn Perry: The AL in general looks pretty weak this season, at least to the extent you can say such things about an entire league. I'll still say the Yankees are tops, and that in part reflects my expectation that they'll do something to address their rotation holes, either soon or leading up to the trade deadline. Max Fried is a perfectly credible No. 1 starter and honestly might be better than a healthy Cole at this stage of respective careers. I also think Cody Bellinger and his pulled-fly-ball tendencies are in for a big year at Yankee Stadium. Broadly, I still see the Yankees as capable of a win total in the low 90s, and that might be enough to top seed in the junior circuit this year.

 

[Cnotes53]

2025 managerial hot seat: Four MLB managers whose jobs are on the line, including John Schneider, Oli Marmol​

Opening Day is around the corner and it's time for these managers to prove they've still got it​

[IMG alt=" R.J. Anderson
"]https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2017/07/07/7ccc5316-db89-4357-8b13-1ed9506251d1/thumbnail/80x80/9a48915f2351dbd22e7205e11d767a88/rj-anderson-700.png[/IMG]

By R.J. Anderson

Mar 13, 2025 at 9:45 am ET•3 min read

USATSI
The start of another Major League Baseball season is just around the bend, making this the opportune time to get reacclimated with both the good and the bad of the industry. As the headline indicates, that includes figuring out which managers might already find themselves on the hot seat.
Let's face it: managers getting fired is an inevitable part of the sport's operation. They get the credit when their teams win, and in turn they also get the blame when their teams lose. That's the trade-off that comes with having one of the most prestigious gigs in sports.
Below, I've highlighted four skippers who I feel are under the greatest scrutiny entering the new season. That doesn't mean these individuals are certain to get removed from their posts before Opening Day 2026; it does, however, mean that their situations merit watching.
As always, keep in mind that these situations are liquid and things can change in a hurry. Now, let's get to it.

1. John Schneider, Toronto Blue Jays​

The Blue Jays are a team on the precipice of a transformation. Franchise mainstays Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette could both depart through free agency after this season, and they may not be alone in packing their bags. Schneider's contract includes a club option for 2026 that seems unlikely to be exercised if the Blue Jays suffer through another lean season. For some perspective, consider that Schneider will enter this season with a career 52.5% winning percentage; his predecessor, Charlie Montoyo, had a 52.3% winning percentage during the season he was fired.

2. Ron Washington, Los Angeles Angels​

Washington, MLB's oldest manager by several years, was always likely to be a short-term solution for the Angels. Here he is entering his second and final contracted season, and it's fair to wonder if he'll hold the gig all the way through the year. Part of that is because the Angels again project to be a losing team -- a .500 finish would be their first since 2015. Part of that is also because this franchise has burned through a lot of managers in short order. Washington is their fourth manager since the start of 2019. The odds seem in favor of them employing No. 5 by Opening Day 2026.

3. Oliver Marmol, St. Louis Cardinals​

If you look at the various public-facing projection systems, there's a real chance this Cardinals team manages a winning season. Still, I'm including Marmol because there are some forces working against him retaining this gig beyond 2025. He's entering his penultimate contracted year, a fancy way of saying that he could achieve lame-duck status ahead of the 2026 season if he doesn't earn an extension first. The catch is that the Cardinals are in the process of transitioning executive power over to Chaim Bloom, and it's only fair to think he may want his own hire in place in the dugout. Who knows. I think that, of anyone else named here, Marmol has the greatest potential variability.

4. Bud Black, Colorado Rockies​

Black's longevity is inexplicable and remarkable, the managerial equivalent of a naked mole rat. He's now entering his 18th season at the helm despite winning fewer than 47% of his career games. Although it's easier than ever to make the playoffs, he's guided just two clubs to October (and none more recently than 2018). Placing the Rockies' woes at Black's feet would be misguided. At the same time, he's enjoyed a level of job security (both in Colorado and San Diego) that's typically reserved for the elite of the elite or, in a different day and age, part-owners. I'm including Black, but my guess is that he'll get tired of managing the Rockies before they get tired of him.

 

[Cnotes53]

Saturday’s 6-pack:
According to ESPN’s Bracketology, these are last six teams in Field of 68:
63) West Virginia
64) Vanderbilt
65) San Diego State
66) Xavier
67) Boise State
68) North Carolina

Quote of the Day
“We went 30-4 against the ACC. Put their high-end teams in our league, and they’re in a very different place. You do that with the Big 12, they’re in a very different place.”
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, campaigning for his league’s teams to get into the NCAA’s

Saturday’s quiz
Bruce Pearl has been Auburn’s basketball coach for 11 years; what other SEC team has he coached?

Friday’s quiz
Last time the Jets played in a playoff game, Mark Sanchez was their quarterback.

Thursday’s quiz
Toronto Blue Jays won back/back World Series in 1992/1993; Cito Gaston was their manager.

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

Saturday’s Den: Wrapping up a Friday full of basketball…….​

Lot of conference tournaments going on; here is what we know:

— SEC
Alabama 99, Kentucky 70
Crimson Tide outscored 54-35 in second half.
Alabama had three subs score in double figures
Crimson Tide is shooting 59.9% inside the arc (#3)

Auburn 62, Ole Miss 57
Fewest points Auburn has scored since January 25 vs Tennessee
Game was tied with 6:26 left; then Auburn went on a 10-1 run.
Teams shot a combined 10-44 on the arc.

Saturday’s semi-finals:
Auburn-Tennessee…….Florida-Alabama

— Big X
Arizona 86, Texas Tech 80
Caleb Love scored 27 points for Arizona.
Wildcats shot 8-16 on the arc, scored 1.26 points/possession.
Texas Tech’s best player was sick, barfing during timeouts.

Saturday’s final: Arizona-Houston

— ACC
Duke 74, North Carolina 71
Duke star Flagg didn’t play, is done for the weekend.
Duke led 45-24 at halftime.
Teams combined to shoot 8-39 on the arc.
Blue Devils are 26-1 since Thanksgiving.

Louisville 76, Clemson 73
Cardinals led 69-54 with 3:24 left, held on for dear life.
Lousiville’s wins last two nights were by 2-3 points.
Cardinals have won 11 games in a row.
Loss snaps Clemson’s nine-game winning streak.

Duke-Louisville is Saturday’s ACC final

— Big East
St John’s 79, Marquette 63
6-9 Ejiofor scored 33 points, had nine rebounds.
Marquette led 24-9 early on, 37-35 at halftime.
Marquette is 5-7 in its last 12 games.
St John’s is in Big East final for first time in 25 years.

Creighton 71, UConn 62
Bluejays had only 4 turnovers, scored 1.27 points/possession.
Creighton was 13-18 on foul line, UConn 2-4
Creighton is shooting 60.6% inside arc (#1 in country)

St John’s-Creighton is the Big East final Saturday

— Big 18
All four games Friday were decided by 10+ points.
Wisconsin 86, UCLA 70
Badgers shot 19-32 on arc, 12-17 in first half.
UCLA split its last eight games.

Saturday’s semi-finals:
Wisconsin-Michigan State
Michigan-Maryland

— Mountain West
Boise State 72, New Mexico 69
#1-seed New Mexico led 34-28 at halftime.
Boise State shot 64% inside the arc.
Broncos won 11 of their last 13 games.

Saturday’s final is Boise State-Colorado State

— Big West
Cal-San Diego 69, Cal-Santa Barbara 51
Gauchos led 27-26 at halftime.
Cal-San Diego shot 62.5% inside the arc.
Tritons have won their last 14 games.

Saturday’s final is Cal-San Diego/Cal-Irvine.

— Famous birthdays, March 15th:
Judd Hirsch, 90
Mike Kruczek, 72
Clay Matthews, 69
Stump Mitchell, 66
Harold Baines, 66
Terry Cummings, 64
Eva Longoria, 50
Kevin Youkilis, 46
Tavon Austin, 35
Nick Ahmed, 35
Taylor Heinicke, 32
Matt Gay, 31

— American
Memphis 83, Wichita State 80
Wichita led 20-10 early in the game.
PJ Haggerty scored 42 points, shot 16-23 inside arc.
Tigers have won six in row, 14 of last 15 games.
Bubble teams all over America are rooting for Memphis; if they lose in this tournament, whoever wins AAC tournament would be a bid stealer.

Saturday’s semi-finals:
Memphis-Tulane…….North Texas-UAB

— MAC
Miami OH 72, Kent State 64
Kent State led by a hoop with 4:57 left to play.
Golden Flashes were only 11-21 on the foul line.
Miami is 19-4 in its last 23 games.

Saturday’s final is #1-seed Akron vs Miami.

— Atlantic 15
St Joe’s 73, Dayton 68 OT
Dayton led by 4 with 0:18 left in regulation.
St Joe’s was 20-28 on foul line, Flyers 7-11.
Hawks have won seven of their last eight games.

Saturday’s semi-finals: Saint Louis-VCU…….St Joe’s-George Mason

— Conference USA
Jacksonville State 70, Middle Tennessee 68
Middle Tennessee played a 2pm game, after playing a 2OT game Thursday nite
Blue Raiders shot 11-24 on arc, but were only 9-17 on foul line.
Jax State senior G Pierre played all 40:00, scored 19 points.

Saturday’s final: #1-seed Liberty vs Jacksonville State

— WAC
Grand Canyon 75, Cal Baptist 66
Grand Canyon led 25-16 at half; 2nd half had a faster pace.
Grand Canyon is trying to win WAC tourney for third year in a row.
Antelopes have won eight of their last nine games.

Saturday’s final: Utah Valley-Grand Canyon

— Metro Atlantic
Iona 81, Quinnipiac 73
Iona shot 59.2% inside arc, upsets top-seeded Quinnipiac
Iona has been in six of last eight NCAA tournaments.
Quinnipiac shot 9-29 on arc; for year, they’re shooting 29.8% on arc (#346)

Saturday’s final: Iona-Mount St Mary’s

 

[Cnotes53]

Sunday’s 6-pack:
Teams with the best 2-point shooting %age defense:
42.6%— Hofstra 15-18
43%— Cal-Irvine 28-5
43.4%— Duke 31-3
43.9%— Houston 30-4
44.1%— VCU 27-6
44.5%— George Mason 26-7

Quote of the Day
“I have to look at it like, hey, I can pitch at that velocity [from 2018]. It is less stress on your body. You get out there and you’re throwing pitches at 100 miles an hour for however many pitches it is — it’s a lot of stress. It’s something that I’m going to look into — using it when I need it, backing off and just trusting that I can locate the ball.”
Jacob deGrom

Sunday’s quiz
Which NBA team did Dick Vitale coach?

Saturday’s quiz
Bruce Pearl has been Auburn’s basketball coach for 11 years; he has also coached Tennessee in the SEC.

Friday’s quiz
Last time the Jets played in a playoff game, Mark Sanchez was their quarterback.

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

Sunday’s Den: Thinking out loud as we wait for the brackets……..​

Have watched a ton of college basketball this week; the teams that win are really happy, the teams that don’t win tend to fire their coach……..

— UNLV fired Kevin Kruger, who was 77-65/40-34 in four years with the Rebels. UNLV hasn’t been in the NCAA’s since 2013, when UNLV alum Dave Rice was the coach, but only four of those 12 years were with Kruger as coach.

UNLV’s point guard/best player Dedan Thomas missed the last seven games this year, but UNLV went 7-3 in its last ten games, played hard until the end. I’m not sure who they’re going to hire to replace Kruger, but this seems like a bad decision.

Why? Because UNLV’s coach next year will be their 7th head coach in 16 years; this isn’t 1990 anymore, when the Rebels were like Gonzaga is now, a huge fish in a shallow pond (Big West wasn’t a great league and UNLV dominated it).

Plus, back when Jerry Tarkanian’s Rebels were awesome, UNLV had Las Vegas to itself; now there is an NHL team in Las Vegas, an NFL team in a domed stadium. UNLV basketball isn’t as big a deal as it used to be in Las Vegas. A coach goes 23-15 in league games over two seasons, not really sure why he got fired.

— Iowa fired Fran McCaffery, who was at Iowa for 15 years; he made the NCAA’s seven times, going 4-7 in NCAA Tournament games.

— Villanova fired Kyle Neptune, who was 54-47/31-29 in three years there, taking over for Jay Wright, who quit after leading the Wildcats to the Final Four three years ago.
Villanova made the NCAA’s 16 of last 17 years with Wright as coach; they haven’t made it back since he left. This will be an interesting hire; does Villanova spend a lot of NIL money????

— Minnesota fired coach Ben Johnson, who was 56-71/19-57 in four years- they went 19-15 last year, but the Big 18 is a really tough league. Gophers have finished over .500 in conference play once in the last 19 years; this isn’t a good job.

— How is Mark Schmidt still the coach at St Bonaventure? The guy wins at a place that is a few miles past the middle of nowhere.

Seriously, go on MapQuest and look up Olean, NY, then draw a 50-mile circle around it.
Lot of trees, maybe some hockey players, not many, if any basketball players, but Schmidt has won fairly consistently with the Bonnies- they don’t get on TV very often.

Over the last ten years, Bonnies are 111-65 in conference games; they’ve made the NCAA’s three times since 2012. Someone (you listening UNLV???) Should give the guy a chance.

— Movie of the Day:
The Ides of March– A campaign’s press secretary becomes involved in a scandal that threatens his candidate’s chance to get elected.
Excellent cast: George Clooney, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti…….I’ve become exhausted with all the political BS, but this is a very good movie.

— WR Cooper Kupp was the 69th player taken in the 2017 draft; he was awesome for eight years, the MVP of the Super Bowl three years ago when the Rams beat Cincinnati.

But the NFL is a business, and Kupp turns 32 in June. He’s missed 18 games the last three years; Seattle Seahawks signed him this week for three years, $45M.

In his eight years with the Rams, Kupp caught 634 passes, for 12.3 yards/catch, with 57 TDs. He went to college at Eastern Washington, so now he goes home to finish his career.

Kupp’s father and grandfather both played in the NFL; his dad played one game at QB for the Cardinals in 1991, his grandfather was an offensive lineman for 12 years, mostly with the Saints.

— Atlanta Falcons are keeping QB Kirk Cousins for now; they had to pay him $27.5M next fall whether they kept him or not, but now he is guaranteed another $10M in 2026.
You get the idea there is a battle of wills going on within the Falcons’ organization; they drafted Michael Penix with the 8th pick of the ’24 draft- he started three games and did pretty well last year, but not well enough for them to let Cousins walk.

— Backup QB news

Chiefs signed up Gardner Minshew to be the backup QB; Minshew has started 46 NFL games for four teams. Fans in Kansas City pray that they never get to see him play.

Steelers brought back Mason Rudolph to be their backup QB; they have zero idea who their starting QB will be this fall, but Rudolph is 8-4-1 as a Steeler backup over the years- he was 1-4 starting for Tennessee last season.

49ers gave former Patriots/Jaguars’ QB Mac Jones $7M to be their backup QB the next couple years. Jones was 18-24 in three years as a starter in Foxboro, replacing Tom Brady.

— It is odd that Russell Wilson/Aaron Rodgers are free agents; Wilson will be 37 in November; he is going to be on his fourth team in five years.
Rodgers tore his achilles in 2023; he’ll be 42 in December, will be on his third team in four years.

— Famous birthdays, March 16th:
Erik Estrada, 76
Kate Nelligan, 75
Joe DeLamielleure, 74
Sammy White, 71
Ozzie Newsome, 69
Rodney Peete, 59
Todd Heap, 45
Curtis Granderson, 44
Blake Griffin, 36
Tim Hardaway Jr, 33
Joel Embiid, 31
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 26

— Random bet for this baseball season:
Will any pitcher win more than 19.5 games?
Over last four years, only three pitchers have won 20+ games in a season.

— Two more baseball prop bets:

Will the Dodgers get the most regular season wins?
Yes -200/No +175

Will the White Sox get the most regular season losses?
Yes -200/No +175

— St John’s star Kadary Richmond had a triple-double vs Marquette March 8th; it was the first triple-double for a St John’s player since Ron Artest, in 1999.

— Next year, Delaware is bolting from the CAA to Conference USA, which is bad for basketball as they ramp up their football program.
UMass is going from the Atlantic 15 to the Mid-American Conference, which is good for their basketball program.

— UFL starts up in two weeks; an 8-team league with a 10-game regular season. Going to be a lot of stuff going on in two weeks; second weekend of the NCAA’s, first weekend of baseball, plus the NBA, NHL and UFL. Should be a lot of fun.

 

[Cnotes53]

Monday’s 6-pack:
Six highest-rated teams who missed the NCAA Tournament:
— Ohio State 17-15
— Northwestern 17-16
— SMU 23-10
— Indiana 19-13
— Boise State 24-10
— West Virginia 19-13

Quote of the Day
“I’d rather steal 30 (bases) and play the whole season as opposed to trying to steal 70, injuring myself and missing the whole year.”
Ronald Acuna Jr, on his plans when he comes back in May from his second ACL tear

Monday’s quiz
Which college basketball team has had only two head coaches since 1976?

Sunday’s quiz
Dick Vitale coached the Detroit Pistons for 94 games from 1978-80.

Saturday’s quiz
Bruce Pearl has been Auburn’s basketball coach for 11 years; he has also coached Tennessee in the SEC.

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

Monday’s Den: Quick thoughts/facts after my first look at the brackets……​

We’ll get into the games more as the week goes on, but here are some quick thoughts, facts after seeing the brackets/Field of 68.

— #8-seeds are a prominent group: UConn, Gonzaga, Louisville, Mississippi State.
How would you like to be a #1-seed and see the two-time champ Huskies in your bracket?
Auburn-Louisville would be in Lexington, KY; Bruce Pearl must be thrilled with that.
Gonzaga has made nine straight Sweet 16’s; they’re going to have to upset Houston to make it ten in a row.

— Brackets came out out between 6-7 pm; Maryland coach Kevin Willard was on a CBS brackets show at 8:30- he said his team had already had a film session on Grand Canyon, their first round opponent in Seattle Friday.
These teams don’t waste any time studying their opponents.

— Iowa State point guard Keshon Gilbert is out for the NCAA Tournament; he missed four of the Cyclones’ last seven games, and Iowa State went 1-3 in those games.

— Clemson-McNeese State is a first round game; McNeese coach Will Wade was a student manager at Clemson, later a grad assistant coach there.
Wade’s Wikipedia page says that he is the new coach at NC State, which might be wishful thinking by whoever posted that note.

— Teams that played on Sunday who have a tournament game this Thursday:
VCU, Yale, Michigan, Wisconsin, all in Denver, in high altitude. Tennessee plays in Kentucky.
Sunday/Thursday is a quick turnaround, especially if a lot of travel is involved.

— Arkansas-Kansas; John Calipari vs Bill Self, with the winner probably playing against Rick Pitino’s St John’s team. Lot of Hall of Famers in that bracket.
St John’s hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000, which is also the last time they won the Big East tournament (before this week).

— With no Pac-12 this season or next, there was an extra at-large bid this season; two years from now, the Pac-12 will be back, and the tournament will have one fewer at-large team.

— Famous birthdays, March 17th:
Cito Gaston, 81
Patrick Duffy, 75
Kurt Russell, 74
Gary Sinise, 70
Danny Ainge, 66
Arye Gross, 65
Sam Bowie, 64
Rob Lowe, 61
Kyle Korver, 44
Juan Lagares, 36
Cordarrelle Patterson, 34
Rhys Hoskins, 32

— 14 of 16 SEC teams made the tournament; Texas was the lowest ranked of the 14- they play Xavier in a play-in game in Dayton.

— #1-seeds won 17 of the 31 conference tournaments this year.
Some trends on conferences in the NCAA’s:

— Since 2019, Mountain West teams are 3-14 SU/2-15 ATS in first round games.
New Mexico, Utah State, Colorado State, San Diego State are in this year’s tournament.

— Since 2010, Ivy League teams are 10-3 ATS in first round games; Yale is a 7.5-point underdog against Texas A&M Thursday.

— CAA teams are 0-11 SU in the last 11 NCAA Tournaments, 0-5 ATS in the last five. NC-Wilmington is a 15.5-point underdog against Texas Tech Thursday night.

— Big West teams are 7-3 ATS in their last ten first round games; the last five years, five different schools have represented the Big West.
Was surprised to see that Cal-San Diego is only a 3.5-point underdog vs Michigan in their first round game. This is the first year the Tritons were eligible for March Madness- they’re 30-4 and have won their last 15 games. They’re 3-2 vs teams ranked in the top 100.

— There must be a lot of $$$ involved with the advertising involved in these bracket pools; ESPN pushes their contest pretty hard.

— I’m off to do more studying; will be back tomorrow with some more knowledge.

 

[Cnotes53]

Tuesday’s 6-pack:
NIT games scheduled for tonight:
— Kent State @ St Bonaventure (-4.5)
— Jacksonville State @ Georgia Tech (-5.5)
— Chattanooga @ Middle Tennessee (-2.5)
— Saint Louis @ Arkansas State (-4.5)
— Wichita State @ Oklahoma State (-5.5)
— Cal-Northridge @ Stamford (-6.5)
— Cal-Riverside @ Santa Clara (-10.5)

Quote of the Day
“I’m not perfect, but I’m grateful for being here right now, including all the imperfections. I’m also really thankful to the people in America who helped develop and bring baseball to Japan.”
Shohei Ohtani

Tuesday’s quiz
Who was the Chicago Cubs’ manager when they won the 2016 World Series?

Monday’s quiz
Michigan State has had only two basketball coaches since 1976.

Sunday’s quiz
Dick Vitale coached the Detroit Pistons for 94 games from 1978-80.

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Tuesday’s Den: NCAA Tournament trends…….​

— Final Four by seed, the last five tournaments:
2024- 1-1-4-11 (NC State was #11)
2023- 4-5-5-9 (Florida Atlantic was #9)
2022- 1-2-2-8 (North Carolina was #8)
2021- 1-1-2-11 (UCLA was #11)
2019- 1-2-3-5

Last five tournaments, only six #1-seeds made the Final Four

— Final Four by conference, the last five tournaments:
2024- ACC, Big East, Big 18, SEC
2023- ACC, Big East, C-USA, Mountain West
2022- ACC (2), Big East, Big X
2021- AAC, Big X, Pac-12, WCC
2019- ACC, Big 18, Big X, SEC
5- ACC
3- Big East, Big X
2- Big 18, SEC
1- AAC, C-USA, Mountain West, Pac-12, WCC

First round trends…….
— Last four years, #1-seeds are 9-7 ATS in first round games.

— Last three years, #2-seeds are 8-4 ATS

A #2-seed has been upset in first round in three of last four years.

— Last five years, #3-seeds are 13-7 ATS.

Last seven years, only 2 of 28 #3-seeds lost in first round.

— Last six years, underdogs are 16-8 ATS in 4-13 first round games.

— Last five years, underdogs are 11-9 ATS in 5-12 games.

— Last six years, the underdog is 6-0 SU/ATS in the 6-11 game in the Midwest region; this year, #6-seed Illinois will play the Texas-Xavier play-in winner.

— Last six years, underdogs are 14-10 SU/20-4 ATS in 8-9 games.

— Famous birthdays, March 18
Jeff Mullins, 83
Dwayne Murphy, 70
Vanessa Williams, 62
Pat Terrell, 57
Andre Rison, 57
Rob Johnson, 52
Brian Griese, 50
Adam Levine, 46
JT Realmuto, 34
Trey Mancini, 33

Conference trends:
— Last three years, ACC teams are 11-4 ATS in first round
Since 2018, ACC teams are 18-8 ATS in second round.

— No team from the A-15 has made the Sweet 16 since Dayton in 2014.

— Last three years, Big East teams are 9-5 ATS in first round
Last three years, Big East had a team in Final Four (Villanova-UConn-UConn)

— Since 2006, Big Sky teams are 0-17 SU/3-13-1 ATS in first round games.
Last Big Sky team to win an NCAA game: Montana 87, Nevada 79 in 2006.

— Last three years, Big 18 teams are 13-8-1 ATS in first round
Last four years, Big 18 teams are 9-12 ATS in second round.
Last four years, only one Big 18 team made the Final Four (Purdue LY)
Last Big 18 team to win a national title? Michigan State, in 2000.

— Since 2019, Big X teams are 21-11 ATS in first round
Since 2021, Big X teams are 6-16 ATS in second round

— Since 2015, Big West teams are 7-3 ATS in first round

— Since 2013, CAA teams are 0-11 SU/5-6 ATS in first round

Last five years, CAA teams are 0-5 ATS

— Since 2015, U-USA teams are 6-3 ATS in first round

— Last three years, Horizon teams are 5-0 ATS in play-in/first round games.

— Since 2010, Ivy League teams are 10-3 ATS in first round.

— Since 2010, MAAC teams are 3-12 ATS in first round (3-2 in last five)

— Since 2017, MAC teams are 6-2 ATS in first round

— Last three years, MVC teams were 0-3 ATS in first round

From 2013-21, MVC teams were 11-3 ATS in first round

— Since 2019, Mountain West teams are 3-14 SU/2-15 ATS in first round

— Last three years, SEC teams are 9-12 ATS in first round

Since 2016, SEC teams are 11-18 ATS in second round

— Last six years, SoCon teams are 5-1 ATS in first round.

— Last five years, WAC teams are 2-3 SU?5-0 ATS in first roun

 

[Cnotes53]

Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Favorites to win the NCAA Tournament:
+350— Florida
+360— Duke
+400— Auburn
+600— Houston
+1200— Alabama
+1400— Tennessee

Quote of the Day
“Either you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don’t. It’s that simple. That’s the pitch. If you want me to recruit, that’s the recruiting pitch. Pittsburgh Steelers. If you want to be part of it, so be it. If you don’t, no skin off my back.”
Steelers’ Cameron Heyward, talking about Aaron Rodgers possibly joining the Steelers

Wednesday’s quiz
Which two teams played a 6-overtlme game in the 2009 Big East tournament?

Tuesday’s quiz
Joe Maddon was the Chicago Cubs’ manager when they won the 2016 World Series.

Monday’s quiz
Michigan State has had only two basketball coaches since 1976.

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

— Alabama State 70, Saint Francis 68
Hornets scored layup off a length-of-court pass with 0:01 left for the win.
Saint Francis led 39-34 at half; they were 10-14 on foul line, Alabama State 1-4.
Alabama State was +9 in turnovers (15-6); they play #1-seed Auburn Thursday.

— Dodgers 4, Cubs 1
Cubs led 1-0 after 4 innings, but Imanaga left after 4 scoreless IP (69 PT)
Dodgers scored three runs in the fifth inning.
Yamamoto allowed 4 baserunners, one run in five IP (72 PT).
Ohtani was 2-5 with two runs scored.
Mookie Betts (illness), Freddie Freeman (ribs) sat game out.

— Darian DeVries is the new basketball coach at Indiana; he leaves West Virginia after only one season at West Virginia, where his team was 19-13, 10-10 in Big X games. Before that, DeVries was 150-55 at Drake, 79-33 in conference games.
Tucker DeVries is the coach’s son, a very good player; he hurt his shoulder this year and played in only eight games. If he gets the extra year of eligibility from the NCAA, he figures to follow his father to Bloomington.
Next season, West Virginia will have its fourth coach in four years.

— Over the last four years, Cal-Irvine is 58-16 in Big West games during the regular season, but they’re only 2-4 in Big West tournament games, with the losses coming to four different teams.
For mid-majors, Champ Week is the big thing. Irvine has won 20+ games 10 of the last 13 years, but made the NCAA’s only twice- they upset Kansas State in a 2019 tournament game.

— Iona fired basketball coach Tobin Anderson after only two years on the job; Iona was 17-17 this year, 12-8 in MAAC games. Gaels didn’t make the NCAA’s in either of Anderson’s seasons with the Gaels; they made it in six of seven tournaments before that, but this seems like a very quick decision.
Three years ago, Anderson was coach at Fairleigh Dickinson when they upset Purdue in only the second-ever upset by a #16-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

— Famous birthdays, March 19:
Ursula Andress, 89
Glenn Close, 78
Pat Leahy, 74
Scott May, 71
Mike Norris, 70
Bruce Willis, 70
Rick Mirer, 55
Andre Miller, 49
Casey Jacobsen, 44
Clayton Kershaw, 37
EJ Manuel, 35
Nico Collins, 26

— Word of the Day– Democracy- a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
We’re lucky to live in a democracy; it needs to stay that way.

— Kansas Jayhawks are a 7-seed in this year’s tournament, the first time since 2000 that Kansas was seeded lower than 4th in the NCAA’s.

— Michigan Wolverines were 12-1 in conference games this season that were decided by 4 or fewer points. Coach Dusty May led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four two years ago; he appears to be a keeper for the Wolverines.

— Cincinnati Bengals signed WR’s Ja’Marr Chase to a 5-year, $161M contract, WR Tee Higgins to a 4-year, $115M deal.
Bengals are 40-27 the last four years, losing the Super Bowl after the 2021 season.

— Baltimore Ravens signed QB Cooper Rush to back up Lamar Jackson; Rush was 9-5 in 14 starts for Dallas, over his seven seasons there.

— Houston Texans/Washington Commanders made a pretty big trade:

Washington gets:
OT Laremy Tunsil
4th round pick in next month’s draft

Houston gets:
3rd and 7th round picks in next month’s draft.
2nd and 4th round picks in the 2026 draft.

— Texas Rangers signed P Patrick Corbin to replace Jon Gray, who broke his wrist when he was hit by a comebacker last week. 35-year old Corbin pitched for Washington the last six years, going 6-13, 5.62 in 32 starts last season.

— Marlins OF Jesus Sanchez hurt his oblique, is out for four weeks; he hit 18 homers, stole 16 bases for Miami last season.

— Looks like the ball-strike instant replay thing will become a rule in 2026; it will be fascinating to see how teams use the new rule.
During a Bronx-Toronto exhibition game Monday, someone challenged the first pitch of the game, and they lost that challenge. Teams only get two challenges a game and you lose the challenge if you’re wrong, so if this had been a regular season game, it would’ve been an awful mistake.
Why are you challenging the first freakin’ pitch of the game?
Once this season starts and then is no more challenge system (for this year), will umpires call more strikes? It’ll be interesting to follow.

 

[Cnotes53]

Friday’s 6-pack:
How six best teams in continuity did this year:
1) Towson— 22-11, lost 2nd round CAA tournament
2) American— lost play-in game Wednesday
3) Fort Wayne— 19-13, lost 1st round Horizon tournament
4) Gonzaga— won first first round game Thursday
5) Texas A&M— won first first round game Thursday
6) Notre Dame— 15-18, lost 2nd round ACC tournament

Quote of the Day
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect this, I expected exactly this. I expected [my players] to compete. I brought winners with me. That’s what I brought. I guess my superpower is finding winners, finding tough kids and believing in them. So I kind of expected this. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t……..I know I try to be humble in other words. But man, I believe in these kids.”
Drake coach Ben McCollum

Friday’s quiz
In the movie The Natural, what famous actor played the manager of the New York Knights?

Thursday’s quiz
Michael Jordan finished his NBA career with the Washington Wizards.

Wednesday’s quiz
Syracuse beat UConn 127-117 in a six-overtlme game in the 2009 Big East tournament; they won again the next night, also in overtime.

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Friday’s Den: Wrapping up the first day of March Madness…..​

Thursday was March 20, 2025, which reminded me of something………
Back in 1978, Warren Beatty starred in a movie, Heaven Can Wait; he played a QB for the Rams (Joe Pendleton) who got hit by a truck while riding his bicycle. An over-anxious angel sent his body to heaven but he hadn’t died in the accident, but by the time they realized this, it was too late. His body had to stay in heaven.

Buck Henry played the angel; James Mason was his supervisor. When the supervisor asked the angel to research when Joe Pendleton was supposed to die, the angel looked it up and came back with a sheepish look on his face.

“March 20, 2025”

In real life, Warren Beatty turns 88 on March 30th.

— McNeese State 69, Clemson 67
McNeese led 40-16 early in the second half.
Brandon Murray scored 21 for McNeese; he didn’t start.
McNeese coach Will Wade was a student manager in college……at Clemson.
Last 5+ years, #12-seeds are 9-12 SU vs #5-seeds.

— Purdue 75, High Point 63
Purdue out-rebounded the Panthers, 45-24.
Junior G Smith scored 20 points, had 6 assists, played all 40:00.
Purdue-McNeese State should be fun to watch Saturday.
Purdue is 6-2 ATS in last eight first round games.

— BYU 80, VCU 71
VCU was 15-38 on arc, only 4-6 on foul line, a bad combination.
BYU shot 58.8% inside the arc
BYU has the #6 eFG% offense in the country.
Cougars have won 10 of their last 11 games.

— Wisconsin 85, Montana 66
Wisconsin shot 72.7% inside the arc.
Badgers out-rebounded Montana, 41-29.
Big Sky teams haven’t won an NCAA game since Montana, in 2006.
BYU-Wisconsin will be one of the better games Saturday.

— Creighton 89, Louisville 75
Bluejays shot 11-24 on arc, scored 1.27 points/possession.
Creighton was 14-21 on foul line, Louisville 7-8.
6-5 senior Neal scored 29 points, had 12 rebounds, 6 assists.
Creighton wins its fifth straight first round game.

— Auburn 83, Alabama State 63
Auburn led 32-31, ended first half on a 9-0 run.
Auburn was only 18-32 on foul line, Alabama State 11-19.
Tigers were 11-35 on the arc, 16-25 inside the arc.
Last five years, #1-seeds are 17-3 SU/10-10 ATS in 2nd round.

— Gonzaga 89, Georgia 68
Zags raced out to an early 27-3 lead.
Gonzaga shot 12-20 on the arc.
Zags are 24-0 in games decided by 9+ points, 2-8 in games decided by 8 or fewer points.
Georgia finished 20-13; this was their first NCAA Tournament since 2015.

— Houston 78, SIU-Edwardsville 40
#1-seed Houston led 52-24 at halftime.
Underdog SIU-E shot 2-24 on the arc.
Houston is 5-1 ATS in last six first round games.
Houston-Gonzaga is an interesting game on Saturday.

— Famous birthdays, March 21st
Tom Flores, 88
Manny Sanguillén, 81
Gary Oldman, 67
Matthew Broderick, 63
Shawon Dunston, 62
Scott Williams, 57
Tony Horne, 49
Carlos Carrasco, 38
Frankie Montas, 32
Sebastian Joseph-Day, 30
A’Shawn Robinson, 30
Nick Mullens, 30

— Drake 67, Missouri 57
Drake has four starters who were playing D2 basketball last year.
Drake has won 19 of its last 20 games.
Missouri shot only 33.3% from the floor.
Bulldogs had two starters play 40:00; no one else played more than 25:00.

— Michigan 68, Cal-San Diego 65
Michigan led 41-27 at halftime.
Tritons led 65-63, but didn’t score in last 2:29.
Michigan survived going 11-20 on foul line.
Wolverines play Texas A&M Saturday.

— Texas Tech 82, NC-Wilmington 72
Red Raiders led only 38-34 at halftime.
Tech shot 13-46 on arc, 14-23 inside arc.
First time in six years a CAA team covered in NCAA’s.
Texas Tech-Drake Sunday; the two head coaches are good friends.

— Arkansas 79, Kansas 72
Arkansas led by 11 early in second half.
Kansas led by 3 with 3:10 left in game.
Arkansas was +6 in turnovers (16-10)
Razorbacks have won six of their last eight games.

— Texas A&M 80, Yale 71
Just third win in last eight games for Texas A&M.
Aggies led 40-29 at halftime.
Texas A&M shot 71.4% inside the arc.
6-9 junior Payne had 25 points, 10 boards; he didn’t start.

— Tennessee 77, Wofford 62
Stress-free win for Vols, who shot 61.5% inside arc.
Senior G Lanier scored 29 points, shot 6-13 on arc.
Under Barnes, Tennessee is 3-2 in second round games.
SoCon teams are 1-3 SU/2-2 ATS so far this week.

— UCLA 72, Utah State 47
Stress-free win for Bruins, who led by 12 at halftime.
UCLA shot 10-24 on arc, scored 1.22 points/possession.
Mountain West is 2-17 ATS in its last 19 first round games.
UCLA-Tennessee Sunday should be quite the defensive struggle.

— St John’s 83, Omaha 53
St John’s shot 14-37 on arc, tied for most 3’s they made in a game this year.
3:07 into the game, Omaha led 7-0; Johnnies led 33-28 at halftime.
Omaha shot 5-36 on the arc.
St John’s-Arkansas should be the featured game Sunday.