Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Sweet 16 matchups/spreads:
Thursday
Arizona (-7.5) vs Clemson
UConn (-11.5) vs San Diego State
North Carolina (-4.5) vs Alabama
Iowa State (-1.5) vs Illinois
Friday
Marquette (-6.5) vs NC State
Purdue (-5.5) vs Gonzaga
Houston (-4.5) vs Duke
Tennessee (-2.5) vs Creighton
Quote of the Day
“There is a standard here. It’s a high standard. And if you play or coach here, you gotta know what that standard is and love it, relish it. It’s hard.”
Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari, who will be back with the Wildcats next season
Wednesday’s quiz
In the movie
The Natural, when Robert Redford played a 30-ish ballplayer who came out of nowhere to become a star, what famous actor played the manager of the New York Knights?
Tuesday’s quiz
2021 was last time two #1-seeds played for the college basketball national title, when Baylor beat Gonzaga, 86-70.
Monday’s quiz
Carl Crawford has the most hits in Tampa Bay Rays history (1,480)
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Greetings from Las Vegas, America’s favorite city. This was a long day, was in airplanes/airports all day, but the world doesn’t stop because I’m on vacation. Lot of stuff happened Tuesday.
— You’d think being in an airport at 4:45am on a Tuesday morning would be quiet, but today was anything but; they’re doing construction at Albany Airport, and the lines at the security checkpoint were long, very long. 45 minutes worth of long.
— Somehow, my luggage got to Las Vegas before I did; for a few minutes, I thought they lost by suitcase, but they paged me and told me it got to Las Vegas on a different flight than the one I was on, so that was a relief.
— Lakers-Bucks NBA game was the feature attraction in the sportsbook tonight; guys yelling for both sides in a double overtime game. It was fun to listen to.
— Sportsbooks take bets on everything; they had soccer scores up on the board between countries I’ve never heard of.
— In Las Vegas hotels, if you put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door three days in a row, turning down housecleaning, they do a wellness check on you, to make sure you’re not dead, I guess. They actually told me that today when I checked in.
— Vancouver Canucks are 15-1 to win the Stanley Cup, even though they have 98 points, tied for most in the NHL. Vegas Golden Knights are 6-1, even though they only have 86 points, but they are the defending champs.
— New England Patriots are 150-1 to win the Super Bowl next season, which just seems wrong, but times change quickly.
— Peter Marshall, host of the
Hollywood Squares and one of the best game show hosts ever, turns 98 years old Saturday; they’re doing a show on YouTube Saturday, some of the old shows from the Hollywood Squares. Should be fun.
Marshall’s son is Pete LaCock, who played in the major leagues for nine years, for the Cubs and Royals, hitting .257 for his career.
—
Famous birthdays for March 27:
Randall Cunningham, 61
Ed Pinckney, 61
Danny Fortson, 48
Buster Posey, 37
Brandon Nimmo, 31
— Sweet 16 games are where Purdue coach Matt Painter has struggled; in his career, he is 1-5 SU/ATS in Sweet 16 games. Purdue plays Gonzaga; since 2015, the Zags are 5-3 in Sweet 16 games.
— Clemson is 8-1 against the spread as an underdog this year; they’re getting 7.5 points from Arizona Thursday.
— In the Big West, Cal Poly hired Mike DeGeorge as its new basketball coach; DeGeorge led Colorado Mesa to five NCAA Tournaments in his six years as the D-II school. Cal Poly hasn’t had a winning season since 2013; they were 30-117 in five years under the previous coach, 8-77 in conference games. Not good.
— In the NBA, Houston Rockets are 11-1 ATS in March.
— Sacramento Kings C Domantas Sabonis has had 55 games in a row with a double-double, the longest such streak since at least 1977.
— Arizona Diamondbacks signed P Jordan Montgomery for one year, $25M, getting agent Scott Boras off the hook for leaving his clients hanging this spring.
— Monday’s Cleveland-Arizona game got rained out, which is odd- the Diamondbacks play in a domed stadium. Game was called after six innings when an unexpected rainstorm hit Chase Field. Because of ongoing mechanical issues, the retractable roof at Chase Field can’t be opened or closed with fans in attendance.
— Colorado Rockies signed SS Ezequiel Tovar for seven years, $63.5M; if the Rockies exercise their option for 2031, the contract would be worth $84M.
— All the pro teams have social media accounts, but the Oakland A’s Twitter account is different; you can’t respond to their posts, because lot of us A’s fans despise the cheap bastard who owns the team. A’s seem to be a little bit better this year but seeing how they were 50-112 last year, that won’t take much.
— Actor Bryan Cranston is an avid baseball baseball fan, a Dodger fan; he named one of his dogs Vin Scully.
— Back in 1963, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax started 42 games; Dodgers went 36-6 in those 42 games, as Koufax won the Cy Young Award, the MVP and the Dodgers won the World Series. Pretty good year.
Last year, Miles Mikolas started 35 games, Zac Gallen 34, the most of anyone in the big leagues.
— NFL Owners Meetings are going on this week; they changed the kickoff rule, making it more like the one the spring leagues use. It figures to double the amount of kickoff returns next year.
— Christmas is on a Wednesday nine months from now; NFL will actually have two games that day, with those four teams also playing on Saturday the previous week, the 21st.
— Week 1 Friday night game will involve the Eagles and is being played in Brazil, because the NFL takes money from everywhere; apparently that game will be shown on Peacock, and only Peacock, which is disappointing, but there will be baseball on TV that night, too.
— NFL moved its 2024 trade deadline back a week, until the Tuesday after Week 10.
