Armadillo Sports

We have basketball info every day……..AAF Week 2 info is posted on the NFL page.

Monday’s 6-pack
— Seton Hall 81, Creighton 75— Pirates ended game on a 14-2 run.
— Michigan State 62, Ohio State 44- Spartans ended game on a 20-2 run.
— Quinnipiac 107, Siena 100, 3OT— Cameron Young scored 55 for the Bobcats; Jalen Pickett scored 46 for the Saints.
— St John’s 71, Villanova 65— Wildcats led this game 26-9 early on, but then……
— Jordan Spieth was 10-over par on his first 11 holes Sunday. Yikes.
— Free agent 3B Mike Moustakas signed a one-year, $9M deal with Milwaukee. 

Quote of the Day
“After hearing lots of new managers talk to the media these days I have only 1 wish, can you please stop talking like you’re launching a rocket? It’s baseball, I’ve sat next to a Hall a Fame  manager for 16 years, he never said stupid shit like that. Talk to the fans not the boss.”
Former SF Giants’ coach Tim Flannery

Monday’s quiz
When Michael Jordan played his one year of minor league baseball, what team did he play for?

Sunday’s quiz
Gonzaga has the nation’s longest current win streak, 15 in a row; Wofford is 2nd, at 14. 

Saturday’s quiz
William Henry Harrison was president for a month before he passed away, the shortest length of time of any president. 

With only two weeks before conference tournaments start, here is some research I did one night while all of you were sleeping…….

13) ACC:
— Six different teams have won the last seven ACC tournaments, with Virginia only team to win twice.
— North Carolina has been in ACC final 6 of last 8 years, but is 1-5 in those finals.
— Last six years, the higher seed is 5-1 in the ACC final. 

12) Atlantic 14:
— Lower-seeded team won last five A-14 tourney finals.
— Last time the #1 seed won the A-14 tournament was six years ago. 

11) Big 14:
— #1 seed won this conference tournament six of last seven years. 

10) Big X:
— Last six years, Kansas was this tournament three times, Iowa State won three times.
— West Virginia lost tournament final the last three years; they won’t get there this year. 

9) Big East:
— Villanova won three of last four tournaments, and lost final in the other one. 

8) Big Sky:
— Last four years, four different teams won tournament; they were all the #1 seed. 

7) Big West:
— Last eight years, eight different teams won this tournament, including one team (Pacific) that isn’t in the league anymore. Riverside/Northridge are only two teams that haven’t won the Big West tournament during that time. 

6) CAA:
— Last eight years, seven different teams won this tournament.
— Last five years, tournament was winner was #1 seed or tied for 1st during season
— #1 seed won only once in last six tournaments
— Since 2003, Hofstra is 11-15 in this event, going 0-2 in tournament finals.   

5) Horizon:
— Last five years, five different teams won this tournament.
— #1 seed won only one of those five tournaments. 

4) MAAC:
— Iona won the last three MAAC tournaments.
— Last time the #1 seed won this tournament: 2010. 

3) MAC:
— Buffalo won this tournament three of last four years. 

2) MVC:
— #1 seed won this tournament four of last five years. 

1) Mountain West:
— Last five years, five different teams won this event, none of them UNLV.
— Last 10 years, Rebels are 10-10 in this tournament; only once in last seven years has UNLV won two games in same tournament.

13) 12-2pm:
— Louisville 56, Clemson 55— Cardinals came damn close to blowing a 7-point lead in last 0:15 of the game; they had to block a 5-footer with 0:02 left to preserve the win.
— North Carolina 95, Wake Forest 57— Tar Heels led this game, 32-7. Oy.
— Georgia 64, Vanderbilt 53— Bryce Drew is a good coach, but Vandy is 0-12 in the SEC. 

12) 2-4pm:
— Minnesota 84, Indiana 63— On Jan 5, Hoosiers were 12-3; now, they’re 13-12.
— Virginia 60, Notre Dame 54— Red flag for the Cavaliers; they easily could’ve lost this.
— Fordham 66, Rhode Island 63, OT— URI lost five of last six games, after an 11-7 start. 

11) 4-6pm:
— Iowa State 78, Kansas State 64— Wildcats lost big guy Dean Wade with an ankle injury.
— Texas State 67, Ark-Little Rock 60— Bobcats lead Sun Belt by a game over Georgia State.
— VCU 69, Dayton 68— Rams led by 22 early in 2nd half, needed layup with 0:06 left for the win. 

10) 6-8pm:
— South Dakota State 78, North Dakota State 77— Jackrabbits banked in a 40-footer at the buzzer for the win.
— Temple 70, South Florida 69, OT— Owls improve to 18-7, 8-4 in the AAC.
— Iowa 71. Rutgers 69— Hawkeyes banked in a 3-ball from the corner (hard to do) with 0:00.2 left for the road win. 

9) 8-10 pm:
— Kentucky 86, Tennessee 69— Wildcats scored first 14 points of the second half.
— Mississippi State 77, Arkansas 67— Bulldogs suspended Nick Weatherspoon, then got a solid road win. Go figure.
— Washington 72, Washington State 70— Coogs led by 14 at one point, didn’t play well in last 3:00, but they’re getting better. 

8) 10pm-midnight
— Oregon State 72, Oregon 57— Beavers sweep Civil War for first time in nine years.
— Gonzaga 79, San Diego 67— Bulldogs won their 30th consecutive WCC road game.
— Stanford 104, UCLA 80— Game was delayed for a while by a broken rim, with score 49-40; Bruins seemed disinterested when game resumed.

7) Upsets of the Day
— Fordham (+10) 66, Rhode Island 63
— NC-Wilmington (+10) 87, Hofstra 79
— UAB (+7) 68, Western Kentucky 60
— SE Missouri State (+7) 88, Eastern Illinois 79
— Xavier (+6) 75, Providence 61
— Oklahoma (+5.5) 71, TCU 62
— Western Michigan (+5.5) 84, Miami OH 79, OT

6) Have to stay away from wagering on Baylor games, because of Makai Mason’s health issues; he is a damn good player, but his feet are so brittle that he missed  two of their last three games, after playing in only one game the last two years. With Mason in the lineup, Baylor can beat anyone; without him and without  a couple other injured Bears, not so much. 

5) If I had Bryce Harper or Manny Machado on my fantasy team, I’d be very annoyed right about now; make a decision already!!! Doubt the offers are going to get any higher at this point. 

Also has to be screwing around with betting totals in Las Vegas on props regarding home runs over/unders and team wins over/unders, not to mention just fouling up the players’ actual preparation for the season. This is abnormal.

4) 5-foot-9 Chris Clemons of the Campbell Camels went over 3,000 career points Saturday, which is really hard to do. He is only the 9th D-I player ever to score 3,000 points. 

If you want to scoff at Clemons, the Big South and the Camels, keep in mind that they played at Georgetown November 24, and Clemons scored 45 points, going 9-19 on the arc, in a 93-85 loss to the Hoyas. Campbell is 15-11 this season, 8-4 in the Big South. 

3) When Alabama’s football team starts practice this spring, they’ll have seven new assistant coaches, which is very unusual. There were murmurs last season that Alabama’s staff was the weakest they had in the Nick Saban era; 7 of LY’s 10 assistants have moved on. 

2) Nevada 82, Wyoming 49— Wolf Pack is thought to be the first D-I team ever where all five starters transferred into that school. Five 5th-year starters for Eric Musselman. 

1) Wild year in the MAAC; with five games left in regular season, Canisius leads by a half-game at 9-4; three teams have five losses, two more have six. Highest-ranked team in the league is Rider, which is 8-6 in the league but is ranked only #216 (out of 353) by KenPom. 

13) Sitting in the front row at basketball games seems fun and all, but it can be dangerous, too. 

Thursday night in New York, Joel Embiid leaped into the stands after a loose ball, just barely clearing actress Regina King, but he did crash feet-first into Dave Fried, the MSG Network statistician working next to broadcaster Mike Breen. Fried was OK; he worked the Houston-UConn game in Hartford Thursday night. 

Few years ago, Lebron James crashed into golfer Jason Day’s wife and she got hurt; these are really big guys and you have to pay attention if you’re that close to the action. 

12) Rick Pitino is coaching pro ball in Greece this year; Pitino’s Panathinaikos team was up 40-25 at halftime in the semifinals of the Greek Cup, when the Olympiakos team went home and refused to play the second half, protesting the officiating in the first half. 

Seriously, they didn’t play the second half because they were mad at the refs. Olympiakos is coached by former Cavaliers’ coach David Blatt. 

I’m anxious to see if either UCLA or UNLV makes a run at hiring Pitino this spring. 

11) Jamal Crawford is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer (19,218 points) amongst guys who never made an All-Star Game. 

10) ACC is going to a 20-game conference schedule next year, to coincide with the start of the new ACC Network. Big money leagues are expanding their conference schedules to try and lock the mid-major schools from getting at-large bids to the NCAA’s. 

9) It makes me laugh when I see major league hitters batting off a tee at the start of spring training. Understood that you start with the basics every year, but it just looks funny. 

8) New Orleans Pelicans are firing GM Dell Demps, not really sure why. is it his fault that the Pelicans’ star player doesn’t want to be in New Orleans anymore? 

Wonder if he’d still have his job if he had traded Anthony Davis to the Lakers? 

7) Detroit Lions cut safety Glover Quin, who started every game for Detroit since 2013. 

6) Pac-12 has only one team ranked in the KenPom top 50, and if Washington falters down the stretch, then the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas becomes like a mid-major event, where the only team going to the NCAA’s is the winner of the tournament. 

5) Yale 70, Columbia 64— Bulldogs lead Harvard/Cornell by a game in Ivy League; Princeton leads Penn by a game for 4th place and last spot in the Ivy’s postseason tournament. 

4) Georgia State 90, South Alabama 81— Jaguars led by 14 at half, but lost for 8th time in last 11 games. Teams combined to go 27-66 on the arc. 

3) We mentioned the other day how golfer Matt Kuchar gave his caddy $5,000 after he won a PGA event in Mexico last year; he finally ponied up $50,000 to the guy this week, which is still less than a 5% tip (standard rate for a caddy when the player wins is 10%). 

2) Jameis Winston helped me win some picks when he was at Florida State, so I’ve pretty much ignored his antics since, but if I was a Bucs’ fan now, having Winston as the franchise QB would make me queasy, after reading some quotes from him that kind of blamed Dirk Koetter and his coaches for Winston’s struggles in the NFL. 

If Winston doesn’t thrive under Bruce Arians, a noted QB guru, then what? Arians is going to speak the truth, probably less diplomatically than Koetter did. Can Winston take being coached hard? And at some point, do his off-field issues suggest a lack of character?

Winston has a 21-33 W-L record in four years for the Buccaneers; Arians will be his 3rd HC in five years. 

1) Five people died Friday in a shooting in Aurora, IL, at a trucking company.

Last year in our country, there were 323 mass shootings in 365 days. I’ll just leave that number there, and let you draw your own conclusions. 

13) In the first 7.5 months of legalized sports gambling in New Jersey, a total of $1.63B was wagered; how much did those people also spend on restaurants/shopping while they were out gambling in the Garden State? It is time for New York State to wake up and legalize sports wagering. 

12) 76ers are a combined 1-7 against Toronto, Milwaukee and the Celtics, which doesn’t bode well for the Eastern Conference playoffs this spring.

 11) Denver Broncos’ Super Bowl odds before the Flacco trade: 60-1
Denver Broncos’ Super Bowl odds after the Flacco trade: 60-1

The guy who is the head of the Westgate SuperBook is a Broncos’ fan, by the way.

10) Saw a video on Twitter the other day of a woman throwing a chair off a 45th story balcony along a busy downtown Toronto street; now that woman is facing charges, She is charged with mischief endangering life, mischief endangering property and common nuisance.

I’m watching this video and thinking “Why would someone do this?” Luckily, no one got hurt; if there had been a car accident and someone died, thats criminally negligent homicide, right? 

9) Golfer Matt Kuchar apparently paid his caddy $5,000 during his win at the Mayakoba Classic last fall, where he won $1.3M. Thats a 0.38% tip. Not good. 

Going rate for caddies is 10% if the player wins, which obviously would be $130,000. 

The caddy is not Kuchar’s normal caddy; he offered the guy an additional $15,000 later on, which the caddy (for some reason) turned down. 

Weird story that basically makes Kuchar look like a cheap bastard. 

8) Lot of times, I rattle on in this space about things I think should happen, and it is just me typing stuff that has no chance of ever happening, but every once in a while……..

Late last month, the San Diego Padres informed MLB that starting in 2020, they’ll have new uniforms, and those uniforms’ main colors will be brown and gold!!!!!

This is excellent, the Padres returning to their Nate Colbert/Randy Jones roots, when they had very cool uniforms. Can’t wait to see them. 

7) Donald Trump played golf with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods couple weeks ago after not having left Washington since Thanksgiving; you know he had to have been practicing golf somewhere. Least surprising news ever: There is a golf simulator in the White House, where you can play simulated “rounds” on courses all over the world.

The new $50,000 simulator replaced an older one that President Obama used in the White House. Stressful job, the president needs an outlet to release his frustrations, and just to have fun with.

6) San Francisco Giants signed Gerardo Parra to a minor-league deal, which could be a signal that they’re out of the Bryce Harper sweepstakes, seeing how Parra is a lefty-hitting OF, just like Harper.

5) Oregon Ducks’ football team fired DC Jim Leavitt this week; he was making $1.75M after Willie Taggart wanted to bring him to Florida State, but Oregon boosters were mad at Taggart because he used one of their planes to fly to a job interview with FSU, so they overpaid Leavitt to prevent him from going to the Seminoles.

4) Mississippi State DT Jeffery Simmons, projected to be a top 15-pick in the NFL Draft, suffered a knee injury during training that is thought to be a torn ACL. Simmons was already not invited to the NFL Combine; he was seen on video in 2016 striking a woman.

3) Utah’s great point guard John Stockton missed a total of 22 games in his entire 19-year career, so I’m guessing he didn’t need “maintenance days” when the Jazz had games on consecutive nights. 

2) Unusual fact that annoys me a little; I pay for the NBA Full Court package, so I can see every NBA game live, but when games are re-broadcast late at night, those games get blacked out on the local cable channels, except for Knicks/Nets and anything on NBA TV. Since I’m paying a decent amount of money, shouldn’t I be able to watch those replays? 

I do not have the NHL package, but their late night replays aren’t blacked out, I can watch any of those games I want to- it makes no sense. Too bad I like basketball better than hockey. 

1) Last three NFL teams who appeared on HBO’s Hard Knocks went a combined 16-31-1 that season; all three of those coaches have been fired, two during the season where they were on Hard Knocks. Of course, those two coaches were also breaking in rookie QB’s that year. 

This year, looks like the final five are: Lions, Redskins, Raiders, Giants, 49ers. We’ll be seeing a lot of one of those teams next summer on HBO, and I’m guessing they’re saving the Raiders for 2020, when they move to Las Vegas.

Starting today, we’re starting something different here, something that hopefully you like and hopefully something that won’t drive me crazy. 

I’ll post a selection EVERY DAY going forward, whether it be a college game, an NBA game, a futures bet or even an NHL or AAF game. Picks will be posted by noon each day. 

Only exceptions will be during the baseball All-Star break, and the short time in October between the end of baseball season and the beginning of the NBA. 

Been debating this for several months, but Wednesday, while shoveling snow (oddly enough) I decided that this was the way to go. So if this doesn’t go well, blame my snowplow guy, who for some reason, is on vacation this week. 

Wrapping up college hoop games the last two nights…….
13) Duke 71, Louisville 69— Cardinals led by 23 with 9:20 left, then collapsed down stretch, turning ball over nine times from that point on as Duke ratcheted up their pressure. 

Chris Mack has some serious psychology work ahead of him the rest of this week. 

12) Nets 148, Cavaliers 139, 3OTs— D’Angelo Russell scored 28 of the Nets’ 39 points in the OT’s; he had only 8 points in regulation. Kenny Atkinson is doing a great job to have the Nets a 29-29 with two of his best players missing large chunks of the season with injuries. 

Jordan Clarkson scored 42 for Cleveland in this game, and he didn’t start. 

11) Miami 65, Clemson 64— Hurricanes tore Clemson’s heart out, hitting an off-balance jumper with 0:00.4 left for the unlikely win. Tigers had fought their way into being “in” projections of the Field of 68, but this bad loss likely drops them back out.

10) Kansas State 71, Texas 64:

Texas coach Shaka Smart to his team during a first half timeout: “This is a basketball game against a team we’re better than!!!” 

Well, maybe not. K-State is 19-5, 9-2 in the league; Texas is 14-11, 6-6 in the league. You tell me which team is better. 

Matthew McConaughey was sitting on the end of the Longhorns’ bench, which I’m assuming is legal, since its not the first time he’s done it, but since when do boosters sit on the bench during the freakin’ game?

9) Western Kentucky basketball coach Rick Stansbury will miss Thursday, Saturday games this week; he is having back surgery Friday. Assistant coach Mark Hsu, who served as interim coach in Stansbury’s place last week, will continue in that role.

8) LSU 73, Kentucky 71— Outstanding game ended on an LSU tip-in at the buzzer, that was really close to being offensive goaltending. Two very good, young teams; this game had a March feel to it.

7) Xavier 64, Creighton 61 OT— Bluejays lose third straight game, two of them in OT. Xavier ends a 6-game losing streak. 

6) UCLA 75, California 67, OT— Bruins were down 7 at half, came back and kept Golden Bears winless in Pac-12 play. Last Pac-12 team to go 0-18 in conference was Oregon State 11 years ago, but league was a hell of a lot better then than it is now. 

5) St Bonaventure 76, St Joe’s 51—Bonnies won for 4th time in last six games, climb over .500 (6-5) in the A-14- they’ve won their last four road games. 

Coach Mark Schmidt has now tied Larry Weise for the most coaching wins in St Bonaventure history, with 202, and he did it on his birthday, which is nice. 

4) Ole Miss 60, Auburn 55— Rebels were 13-33 on arc, only 6-18 inside arc, which is weird. Auburn was 5-20 on arc, which is how upsets happen. 

3) Quinnipiac 98, Rider 88 OT— Rider just played three games in five nights and lost all three, the first two by 1-2 points, then this; they led this game by 9 with 0:49 left, by 7 with 0:24 left. 

2) There was a big NFL trade Wednesday; Ravens traded Joe Flacco to Denver, for what is expected to be a 4th round pick in April’s draft. 

Flacco was a Raven for 11 years, winning Super Bowl XLVII; he was 96-67 as a starter, 10-5 in playoff games, so a very productive Raven.

By way of comparison, Eli Manning is 116-114 as a starter, 8-4 in playoff games; I’ve never heard anyone suggest that Flacco is a Hall of Famer, so why would Manning be one?

Ravens-Broncos do not play next season, which is too bad for the NFL’s schedule makers.

1) Then there is Case Keenum, who could be playing for his 4th team in four years in 2019, as he dashes towards the Ryan Fitzpatrick career path. 

13) We talk now and then about the football handicapping contests in Las Vegas, the best one being at the Westgate SuperBook, and another really good one at the Golden Nugget. 

Signups for the Golden Nugget contest start March 8, $1,000 an entry; you pick seven games a week, college or NFL. Each person can have three entries. Seems like football season just ended; oh wait, it did……. 🙂

More and more of these contests are going to pop up around the country, as legalized gambling spreads. Good way to get people in the door of your casino. 

12) Cleveland Browns signed former Chiefs’ RB Kareem Hunt, who got into trouble with the NFL after he got into a scuffle with his girlfriend in a hotel last fall, a scuffle that was captured on camera.

11) Jacob deGrom informed the Mets that he will not negotiate a new deal during the season; deGrom’s camp has set Opening Day as the deadline to complete any potential long-term deal.

deGrom can become a free-agent after the 2020 season; he wants a contract that would buy out his remaining arbitration year and extend his agreement with the Mets long term.

10) You can wager one of these four teams (Duke, Michigan, Gonzaga and Kansas) to win the national title at -$125 vs the field (+105). Interesting wager. Gonzaga/Kansas have injury issues, but someone is going to have to beat Duke for you, if you play the field. 

9) Surprising fact; according to Wikipedia, El Paso has 683,577 citizens; Boston has 685,094. Wouldn’t have thought that.  

8) In case you were wondering, Las Vegas sportsbooks took $145,939,025 in bets on the Super Bowl, 2nd-most of all time; the bettors lost $10,780,319 on those wagers. 

7) Atlanta Falcons added former Chiefs’ DC Bob Sutton to its stuff, to help coach Dan Quinn with game management. Quinn is expected to run the Falcons’ defense next year. 

6) TCU basketball coach Jamie Dixon grew up in the Los Angeles area; when was a kid, he starred in several TV commercials, including ads for Volvo, Rice Krispies, Mattel and Bud Light. 

5) AAF’s Memphis Express signed QB JaMarcus Russell, who last played in the NFL in 2009; he went 7-18 as a starter in three years with the Oakland Raiders. Memphis got shut out in its AAF opener; they could use some help, but I’m not sure if Russell will help. 

4) A’s signed oft-injured lefty starter Brett Anderson; it’ll be his third stint with Oakland. 

3) Virginia 69, North Carolina 61— Solid road win for the Cavaliers Monday night, 48 hours after they lost at home to Duke. 

2) Nine of 32 NFL teams will have new offensive coordinators next season. 

Rich Scangarello is he new OC in San Francisco; he’s made coaching stops at Carleton (2001), Milsaps (’10-’11), Northern Arizona (’12-’14), Wagner (’16). Not exactly football hotbeds. 

1) Understood that Kyler Murray is free to choose his own career path, but when a team pays you $210,000 like the A’s did for basically doing nothing, you owe them a phone call or a text to clue them in on your decision before you go in the other direction.

It is common courtesy; Murray’s advisors made him look bad Monday. 

13) Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray chose football over baseball Monday, ending speculation as to whether he would show up at Oakland’s training camp later this week. 

Murray forfeits the vast majority of his $4.66M signing bonus from the A’s, but he’ll make a lot more than that when he gets picked in the first round of the NFL Draft. Read Monday that Murray winds up earning $210,000 from the A’s, for pretty much doing nothing. 

The 58th overall pick in last year’s NFL draft got a contract worth $4.86M, so as long as Murray is picked higher than 58th (which he will be), he makes money on this deal.

Meanwhile, A’s had the 9th pick in the MLB draft LY and totally wasted it. No bueno. They do retain Murray’s baseball rights, but those are basically worthless now. 

12) With Hall of Fame baseball player Frank Robinson passing away this past week, there were pictures of him posted on the Interweb; one of them was when he was managing the Nationals, in 2005 or 2006. He is leaning against the front rail of the dugout. 

You look right behind the dugout and you can see the fans in the front row; one of the fans is Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court judge who was under scrutiny last year for how much money he spent back then on tickets to Nationals’ games. Pretty sweet seats he had.

11) Cincinnati Bengals’ new offensive coordinator is Brian Callahan, whose father Bill coached the Oakland Raiders for a while; the Bengals’ new head coach is Zac Taylor, who played QB for Bill Callahan at Nebraska. 

10) Weird stat: Duke hasn’t won or shared the ACC regular season title since 2010; they haven’t won it by themselves since 2006. 

9) Tennessee is 22-1 and ranked #1 in country, even though none of their players were top 100 recruits nationally coming out of high school. 

8) Indians’ SS Francisco Lindor has a right calf strain that will keep him sidelined from 7-9 weeks, which makes him doubtful to start the regular season. 

7) From Tyler Bischoff: 

UNLV’s basketball team has never had a defense finish outside the top 200 in kenpom.com‘s defensive efficiency rating. This goes back to 2002. 

With seven games left this season, Rebels are ranked #238 in defensive efficiency, which helps explain their 12-11 record. Losing their best player Shakur Juiston for the season was a back-breaker. 

6) Once you watch an AAF game on TV and you hear the replay official as he gives his verdict to the referee, it is obvious that the NFL has to do this next year, just to give transparency to the replay process. Makes the broadcast more interesting. 

5) Three of eight AAF teams ran 70+ plays in Week 1; NFL teams rarely run 70 plays in a game, so it looks like the shorter play clock will result in more action during their games. 

4) New Orleans Saints hired Darren Rizzi as special teams coordinator; he spent the last eight years as Miami’s special teams coach.

3) Los Angeles Rams hired Wes Phillips as their new TE’s coach; he worked with Sean McVay in Washington and is the son of Rams’ DC Wade Phillips.

2) When the Texas Longhorns were recruiting Patrick Mahomes, they recruited him as a DB, not a quarterback, which makes you question what the hell were they thinking about? How many QB’s in the NFL right now played at Texas? 

1) It snowed in Las Vegas Sunday night; that doesn’t happen much. There was a video on Twitter of a guy driving around Las Vegas, with the traffic lights and street lights both out, but all the casinos were lit up like usual. Was a little eerie, though. 

13) Interesting stat; 32.5% of NFL players who played in Week 17 games weren’t drafted by an NFL team, which is part of what makes the new AAF so interesting. The best guys in the AAF will probably get invites to NFL training camps next summer. 

12) 338 NFL prospects are going to Indianapolis for the NFL Combine at the end of this month. Thats a lot of wind sprints, measurements and interviews.

11) Don’t Knicks’ fans deserve a rebate for their season tickets? New York lost its last 16 games and doesn’t even seem to be trying to win. They’re 10-45 this season. 

I see these commercials for the Big East tournament that tout Madison Square Garden as “the mecca of basketball” and its all such BS. 

Last five years, Knicks are 119-264; they haven’t been in the playoffs since 2013, haven’t been in the NBA Finals since 1999, haven’t won an NBA title since 1973. 

They can’t do better for a head coach than David Fizdale? Really? Why? 

10) Providence coach Ed Cooley must agree that MSG is the mecca of basketball; he is 14-5 in games at Madison Square Garden; 5-1 against St John’s, 9-4 against everyone else in the Big East tournament. His Friars beat St John’s again Saturday. 

9) When the 76ers acquired Tobias Harris from the Clippers at the trade deadline, they dropped from 16-1 to 10-1 to win the NBA title.

8) When an NFL team hires a head coach, the first big thing the coach has to do is to put together a coaching staff; new Jets’ coach Adam Gase assembled an interesting crew. 

Joe Vitt and Gregg Williams were members of the Saints’ coaching staff implicated in the 2012 BountyGate scandal; in the bounty hearings, Vitt accused Williams of lying in his testimony, so their working together again shouldn’t be awkward at all. 

Vitt is also Adam Gase’s father-in-law. 

Gregg Williams’ son Blake was also hired by the Jets; he has never been on an NFL staff that his father wasn’t also on. Rams fired Blake Williams after one year because pretty much no one could stand him.

Former Lions’ OC Jim Bob Cooter is the Jets’ new RB coach; he was Peyton Manning’s backup at Tennessee. 

7) Turner Sports has a deal with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to have a Bleacher Report-branded studio inside its sports book that will be its hub for gambling content.

Caesars will also be a presenting sponsor of some Turner-produced events

6) Ohio State 55, Indiana 52— Hoosiers lost nine of their last ten games, but there will be people on TV stumping for their being in the NCAA’s. If a team is 4-9 in a conference, any conference, then they don’t belong in the field of 68. I’d rather see a second team from the SoCon or WCC. 

5) Houston 65, Cincinnati 58— Bearcats led 58-57 with 6:11 left, then never scored another point, snapping their 8-game win streak. 

4) Random opinion; of the eight AAF teams, Arizona’s green/gold uniforms are by far the best; excellent helmets. Not fond of having the uniform number on one side of the helmet, like all the teams do, would rather have the team’s logo on both sides of the helmet. 

3) I’m scrambling for information on the AAF; apparently the players signed 3-year deals, for $70K this year, $80K next year and $100K in 2021, with the stipulation that they can’t jump to the XFL next year, when that spring league starts. 

Matt Linehan plays QB for the Salt Lake Stallions; he played college ball at Idaho, and is the son of Scott Linehan, who was recently fired as offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. 

2) Missouri State 66, Illinois State 65— Homestanding Bears had ball out of bounds under the basket with 0:07.8 left; the ball wound up in a wild scramble at mid-court, with all ten players involved, before a kid on Missouri State grabbed the ball and drained a half-court shot at the buzzer to win the game. Very bitter loss for the Redbirds. 

1) Happy birthday to the great actor Joe Pesci, who celebrated his 76th birthday over the weekend. Out of all his movies, My Cousin Vinny is my favorite. 

13) Noon-2pm:
— Michigan 61, Wisconsin 52— Wolverines avenge an earlier loss to the Badgers.
— UMass 54, Davidson 51— Just 2nd win in last 11 games for the Minutemen.
— North Carolina 88, Miami 85 OT— Tar Heels needed a 3-pointer with 0:11 left just to get to OT, against a shorthanded Miami team that had four starters play 39:00+.

12) 2-4pm:
— Monmouth 61, Fairfield 49— Hawks started season 0-12, are now 10-16, 9-4 in MAAC.
— LSU 83, Auburn 78— Bayou Bengals won 12 of their last 13 games.
— Marquette 66, Villanova 65— Preview of likely Big East tourney final. Howard scored 38 of Marquette’s 66 points.

11) 4-6pm:
— Utah 93, UCLA 92— Utes were down 22 with 12:10 left; they hit a 3 at the buzzer.
— Florida State 80, Louisville 75 OT— FSU made 11-12 foul shots in overtime.
— Texas State 66, Oklahoma 54— Sliding Sooners lost their last four games. 

10) 6-8pm:
— Duke 81, Virginia 71— Does Jay Bilas call every Duke game? Seems like it.
— Kansas State 70, Baylor 63— Makai Mason didn’t play; Bears are decimated by injuries.
— Youngstown State 96, Green Bay 77— Much-improved Penguins won last four games. 

9) 8-10pm
— Washington State 69, Arizona 55— When was last time Wazzu swept their Arizona trip? (answer is 2007, when Tony Bennett was coaching the Coogs)
— Cornell 67, Harvard 61— Crimson won in 3OT’s Friday, lost here as double digit favorites.
— Dartmouth 82, Columbia 66— Lions lost in 3 OT’s Friday, got pummeled here. 

8) 10pm-12
— Arizona State 75, Washington 63— First conference loss for the Huskies.
— Texas 75, West Virginia 53— Very rough season for the Mountaineers.
— Washington State 69, Arizona 55— Fifth straight loss for the Wildcats. 

7) Upsets of the Day
— Washington State (+13.5) 69, Arizona 55
— Cornell (+10) 67, Harvard 61
— Charlotte (+10) 69, UAB 62
— TCU (+9.5) 92, Iowa State 83
— Citadel (+8.5) 67, Mercer 61
— Providence (+7) 70, St John’s 56
— Ill-Chicago (+5.5) 76, IUPUI 75

6) Duquesne 74, Fordham 66— Dukes are 2-3 in their last five games; in the two wins, they were trailing by 17, 16 points at halftime. 

5) Harvard 98, Columbia 96, 3OT— Kid named Bryce Aiken scored 47 points in his first four games this year; he scored 44 points in this game, his 5th of the season after he missed almost a whole year with a knee injury. 

Aiken was 4-10 on the arc, 16-18 on foul line in this Friday night marathon.

4) Gonzaga’s Killian Tillie has a partially torn plantar fascia (foot); Zags think Tillie will miss rest of regular season, are hopeful he can return for the postseason. Big blow for Gonzaga if he doesn’t come back. 

3) One really good thing about AAF telecasts is that the replay official in the booth is miked, so you hear his verdict as he tells the referee on the field. NFL should do that. 

2) Non-basketball thing I learned from listening to Bill Walton Saturday night; amongst cities, Seattle is the 11th biggest economy in our country, Phoenix is 16th. 

1) Bad Beat of the Day:
Samford (-6.5) 84, VMI 77, OT

13) After spreading lot of rumors to the contrary this week, turns out that Major League Baseball has no plans to adopt a universal DH before the 2022 season, which is disappointing. 

This collective bargaining agreement ends in three years; the DH will apparently be a bargaining chip in the next CBA. Too bad it couldn’t be put into place sooner. 

12) Gonzaga won its first nine WCC games by n average of 29.2 ppg, the biggest average margin of victory in a team’s first nine conference games over the last 21 years. 

11) Pac-12 is having a dismal basketball season, right now, Washington is 10-0 in conference, with the next eight teams in the standings all either 6-4 or 5-5. 

Pac-12 has slipped below the AAC in conference ratings; Washington is the only Pac-12 team with a shot at an at-large bid. Pac-12 is a one-bid league if Washington wins Pac-12 tourney, and maybe even a one-bid league no matter what if the Huskies stumble down the stretch. 

10) Front office of the New Orleans Pelicans think the Lakers were tampering with Anthony Davis, so they purposely jerked the Lakers around in trade talks the last two weeks, never intending to send their star player to LA, at least not to the Lakers. 

We’ll see if the Pelicans cut off their own nose to spite their face; can they can get a better deal for Davis from another team?  

9) Kansas basketball star Lagerald Vick is taking a leave of absence for unsaid reasons, but its not good news for a Jayhawk squad that lost four of its last six games. 

8) Eight NHL games went to overtime Thursday night, the most ever in one day. 

7) Former Texas Longhorn QB Shane Buechele is leaving the Longhorns and will transfer to SMU, where he will be eligible to play next season. 

6) Friday, the NCAA approved a waiver that allows sophomore transfer quarterback Justin Fields to play right away for Ohio State. Fields played as a true freshman at Georgia in 2018 and transferred to the Buckeyes in January following bowl season.

5) NCAA basketball conferences that are playing the fastest tempo:
Atlantic Sun, Ohio Valley, Sun Belt, Southern Conference

Slowest tempos:
Missouri Valley, Colonial, America East, Big West

4) NCAA basketball conferences that are making highest %age of 3’s:
Summit, Southern Conference, Sun Belt, Big West

Lowest %age of 3’s made:
Ivy League, Atlantic 14, MEAC, SWAC

3) NCAA basketball conferences that are making highest %age of foul shots:
Summit, CAA, Horizon, Big East

Lowest %age of FT’s made:
SWAC, MEAC, Ivy, Big West

2) NCAA basketball conferences with highest home court win %:
SWAC, AAC, Big X, Big South

Lowest home court win %:
Big West, MEAC, Big Sky/SEC. 

1) NCAA basketball conferences with highest %age of close games:

Lowest %age of close games:
Mountain West, Pac-12, Atlantic Sun, ACC

13) Most guys in the NBA seem unhappy; they’re all getting paid a ton of money to play ball, but they don’t seem happy about it. It is a little sad. Hell, I’m almost 60 years old and I still shoot baskets now and then when the weather is nice. 

Just once, ONCE, I want to hear the media quiz a player on trade speculation and have a guy say, “You know what, I make 20 million bleeping dollars a year. As long as the direct deposit in my bank works, I’ll play anywhere, because this sport is making me freakin’ rich!!!” 

The honesty would be refreshing. 

12) NBA trade deadline was Thursday; biggest news was probably Memphis trading Marc Gasol to the Raptors, as Eastern Conference teams jockey for position to make the NBA Finals, so they can lose to Golden State in five or six games. 

Memphis did keep PG Mike Conley, which was a little surprising. 

11) From Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:

“Today’s Lakers-Clippers trade is the first between the teams since 1983! Norm Nixon, Eddie Jordan and a 1986 2nd-round pick that became Jeff Hornacek went from the Lakers to the Clippers for Byron Scott, Swen Nater and a pick (Bruce Dalrymple)”

10) Star in the making on TV: former Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy is very good doing SEC basketball games on the ESPN family of networks. He is low-key funny, honest, knows his stuff and is humble. 

Several years ago, when I used to go to the AAU Nationals in Orlando for a couple weeks every summer and watch games for 10-12 hours a day, I spent an afternoon sitting near Kennedy and listened to him talk about ball for a few hours. He wasn’t funny that day, but he is smart and I learned some interesting stuff. Glad he is on TV now. 

9) Miami Marlins traded catcher JT Realmuto to Philadelphia for catcher Jorge Alfaro, pitching prospects Sixto Sanchez, Will Stewart, and an international bonus slot. 

Realmuto is only 27, figures to be a big upgrade for the Phillies behind the plate. 

8) Feel bad for the people who sell preseason preview magazines for baseball; with 120+ guys still unsigned, and Realmuto getting traded Thursday, the preview magazines aren’t going to be as informative as they usually are. 

7) Major League Baseball will rename the disabled list the “injured list”; it has been called the disabled list since 1966. It is a cosmetic change for now; the rules of it remain the same.

6) Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray will leave spring training with the A’s to attend the NFL Combine at the end of March; hopefully he’ll do really well and will give up his baseball dream and the A’s can save the $4.66M they unwisely promised him last summer. 

5) St Francis, PA gets a 5pm tipoff game on ESPNU, and the team known as the Red Flash wears………black uniforms. Go figure.

4) Harrison Barnes was sitting on the Mavericks’ bench Wednesday night when he found out he had been traded to Sacramento, which had to be at least a little awkward. 

Kind of like a few years ago when a Mets fan told Wilmer Flores he was getting traded while Flores was in the on-deck circle- when he went out in the field the next inning, he had tears on his face, he didn’t want to get traded, and it turns out, he didn’t get traded. The fan was wrong. 

3) Washington 67, Arizona 60— Wildcats lost four straight games in Pac-12 for first time in ten years; given all their off-court issues, Sean Miller’s job has to be in jeopardy. 

2) Now that the NBA trade deadline has passed, Anthony Davis will be back in the lineup for the New Orleans Pelicans. Pelicans will probably have to trade him this summer. 

1) RIP Frank Robinson 83, the great outfielder who is the only guy ever to win the MVP in both leagues, and was also the first African-American manager in the major leagues. 

13) MLB has suggested a rule requiring pitchers to face a minimum of three batters in each appearance, to lessen the tedious lefty/righty pitching changes that make the end of games drag out endlessly. In one game last year, a team used five relievers in one inning, with each pitcher facing one guy. 

12) Also looks like the DH could be in the NL soon, as soon as in this year or next, which makes the Mets’ acquiring Robinson Cano look better. The players’ union would like the DH to be put into place this season in the NL, probably because DH’s make a lot more money than the average player. 

Last season, pitchers batted .115 with a .144 on-base %age and .149 slugging %age in 4,524 at-bats. 

11) Big trade in the NBA late Tuesday night;  Clippers traded Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, Mike Scott to the 76ers for Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, a ’20 1st-round draft pick, ’21 unprotected 1st round pick and two 2nd round picks.

Elton Brand is Philly’s GM, and he is being very aggressive in his trading.  

10) Kansas-Kansas State game Tuesday night was a joy to listen to; Jon Sciambi calling the action, with Stan Van Gundy/Chauncey Billups doing analysis. Really good team of guys, no screaming, no BS, they talked about basketball with enthusiasm and it was great.

9) Tuesday night also was the 20th anniversary of the first time Mike Breen/Walt Frazier worked together on a Knicks’ telecast; they’re an excellent team.

I was lucky enough to meet Walt Frazier at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas a few years ago; he was friendly, enjoyed talking when he really had no reason to be nice to me, a stranger. He’s a good guy, a great ambassador for the NBA and the Knicks.

8) Atlanta Falcons released 43-year old kicker Matt Bryant, who had two years left on his contract; he was 20-21 on FG’s this past season, and had been with the Falcons for the last decade.

7) Odds to win the AAF, the new football league:
5-2: Arizona Hotshots
4-1: Salt Lake Stallions
5-1: Atlanta, Orlando, San Antonio
10-1: Birmingham, Memphis, San Diego

Not sure how you come up with odds for a brand-new league, but they did. 

6) One thing that will be coming up soon that is a little odd; Conference USA has left the last four games of its teams’ conference schedules blank. After the games of Feb 16, the league will then schedule those games, with top teams playing each other, to increase all their power rankings, in hopes of getting an at-large (they ain’t getting one). 

Maybe the C-USA survivor will get a better NCAA seed; this is the first time this approach has been tried, so we’ll see how it works.

5) Roger Staubach turned 77 this week; typing that made me feel old. 

He is my sleeper answer to the question: “If you had the ball on your 20 with 2:00 left, down 3, who would you want as your QB?” I’m not a Dallas fan, but he was a great player. 

4) Former Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops re-emerged Wednesday as the coach/GM of the Dallas franchise in the XFL, a new league that will begin play in the spring of 2020. 

3) This is an interesting number: 40% of all men’s basketball players who enter Division I directly out of high school leave their first college by the end of their sophomore year.

2) Damn, that happened fast; one of Kirk Herbstreit’s sons signed on to play DB at Clemson next season. I remember when Herbstreit would bring his kids on the College GameDay set, and they were all little kids. Time flies. 

1) Next year is the NFL’s 100th season, and it sounds like they’re going to start with a Packers-Bears Thursday night matchup in Week 1, the oldest rivalry in the league.

13) Happy New Year to any Chinese friends we may have reading this: 2019 is Year of the Pig. This is from chinesenewyear.net:

“The Pig is the twelfth of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party. Pig was late because he overslept. Another story says that a wolf destroyed his house. He had to rebuild his home before he could set off. When he arrived, he was the last one and could only take twelfth place.”

12) Looks like the bubble for the Field of 68 in March isn’t going to be very strong; Indiana just lost seven games in a row, and they’re still hanging on to one of the play-in spots. 

Nebraska has been awful recently, losing their last five games; they’re 3-8 in the Big 14 and they’re not even listed as a 10-seed, not even a play-in team. They’re not a good team. 

St John’s lost five of its last eight games, losing by 30 at Duke, but they’re an 11-seed. 

A lot of this will play itself out, but the quality of college basketball has dropped a lot the last few years— just not as many real good teams, even with the big boys poaching role players from low major schools. Too many kids leave school early, hoping to get to the NBA, but they wind up in the G-League or in Europe. Staying in school would help them, and would help college ball. 

11) Washington is the best team in the Pac-12; right now, they’re listed as an 8-seed, which means they probably don’t get out of the first weekend, if they even win a game. The Pac-12 is having a terrible season, in large part because they have a ton of inexperienced players. 

10) Washington Wizards’ star John Wall ruptured an achilles tendon, is out for a year; he last played Dec 26, had one procedure Jan 8 for a lesser achilles injury, then fell in his home and thats when his achilles tendon ruptured. 

Wall has four years left on his contract after this year; he is scheduled to make $169.2M during those four years. No pressure on the surgeon who fixes his Achilles. 

9) Michigan State loses G Joshua Langford for the season with an ankle injury; he was averaging 28.6 mpg, scoring 15.0 ppg, 2.3 assists/game and 3.6 rebounds/game. Spartans lost their last three games, at Purdue, Illinois and at home to Indiana, after an 18-1 start. 

8) Eagles put the franchise tag on Nick Foles, in hopes of getting a 3rd-round draft pick in a trade for him, but then Foles negated that option by saying he’d pay Philly $2M to become a free agent.

There are several teams who need a quarterback.

7) Tennessee is #1 in country in basketball, but the last time Tennessee won the SEC basketball tournament was 1979; ten other schools have won the SEC tourney since then. 

6) Why did Texas dump Rick Barnes? Longhorns are 16-29 in Big X games the last three years, and don’t play the “havoc” style that made Shaka Smart’s VCU teams successful.  Smart seems out of place at Texas; at VCU, he out-recruited his league and pressed successfully. 

Barnes is 31-15 in SEC games the last three years at Tennessee. 

5) Right now, Cal-Irvine and Stony Brook are the only two college basketball teams with ten road wins this season. 

4) NBA teams with worst records vs spread on second night of back/backs:
Celtics 0-7, Nets 1-9, Kings 2-8, 76ers 2-6

NBA teams with best records vs spread on second night of back/backs:
Raptors 7-2, Wizards 6-2, Hornets 5-2, Nuggets 5-2-1

3) The new AAF that starts this weekend has no kickoffs, and teams that score TD’s have to go for 2 points every time- no PAT’s. No TV timeouts; games are expected to last 2:30 at most. 

2) Odd fact: Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts have played in four Super Bowls, all of which were played in Miami. Next year’s Super Bowl is in Miami. 

1) Sports Illustrated throws a party the night before the Super Bowl every year; saw a clip on Twitter of this year’s party, where Snoop Dawg was talking to Urban Meyer for a couple minutes. Would’ve been fun to listen in on that; talk about worlds colliding. Snoop does know his football, though.

13) Jeremiah Martin is a 6-3 senior at Memphis; he was scoreless in the first half Saturday at South Florida, when the Tigers fell behind USF 27-1; it was 38-13 at halftime. 

Then Martin scored 41 points in the second half. By himself. 

Martin made 7-9 on arc as Memphis made a run but fell short, losing 84-78 to the Bulls. 

12) Oakland Raiders will play next season at the SF Giants’ baseball park, before moving to Las Vegas in 2020. Two new NFL stadiums in ’20, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. 

11) Deondre Francois was dismissed from the Florida State football team on Sunday by coach Willie Taggart one day after a video was posted to Instagram by a woman — believed to be Francois’ girlfriend — where you could hear (but not see) a man making threats and admitting to various forms of physical and mental abuse. 

Francois is a pretty good QB; schools will be interested in him, despite all that. 

10) A new football league kicks off this Saturday, the AAF, with 8 teams playing a 10-game schedule. Most of the head coaches are well-known names, but coach of the Atlanta team is a guy named Kevin Coyle, a 63-year old football lifer. Here is his coaching resume:

— 1978-79: U of Cincinnati, grad assistant
— 1980: Arkansas, coaching assistant
— 1981: Merchant Marine Academy, defensive coordinator
— 1982-5: Holy Cross, assistant coach
— 1986-90: Holy Cross, defensive coordinator
— 1991-93: Syracuse, defensive coordinator
— 1994-96: Maryland, defensive coordinator
— 1997-2000: Fresno State, defensive coordinator
— 2001-02: Cincinnati Bengals, cornerbacks’ coach
— 2003-11: Cincinnati Bengals, defensive backs’ coach
— 2012-15: Miami Dolphins, defensive coordinator
— 2016-17: Cincinnati Bengals, defensive backs’ coach
— 2018: LSU, defensive analyst

Quite a career. 

9) All the AAF games will be televised this season, either on NFL Network, CBS Sports Network, Turner Sports or B-R Live (I’m not really sure what that is). 

8) Bill Walton told a great story on TV Saturday about way back in the mid-60’s, when freshmen were ineligible to play college basketball, so they had freshman teams. 

UCLA’s varsity had won the national title the year before, but now they had a freshman named Lew Alcindor; the freshman team beat the defending national champs by 20 in a preseason exhibition game. UCLA’s fans were stunned. 

After the game in the locker room, coach John Wooden looked at his current varsity and said, “Looks like we’ll have a pretty good team next year.”

Bruins didn’t win that year (Texas Western did), but then they won the next seven national titles.

7) Bob Valvano brought up an interesting point Sunday night; Super Bowl commercials aren’t funny anymore, because advertisers are terrified of offending someone in our more politically correct world. To be funny is to be edgy, but if you’re edgy SOMEONE will get offended, and then you lose that someone’s business. No one wants to lose business. 

Our society, to a large extent, has lost its sense of humor. Or, to paraphrase what Michael Jordan once said, “(Fill in demographic) buy sneakers, too.”

6) Big East is a two-horse race this year: 

Villanova is 9-0, Marquette is 8-1 in conference games. 

No one else in the Big East is at .500 in conference; St John’s, Creighton, Georgetown are all 4-5 in league games. Butler, Seton Hall and DePaul are 4-6. Providence is 3-6, Xavier 3-7.

Any game between teams in the bottom 8 is interesting; Marquette has more skilled shooters than anyone else. Villanova seems to be improving a lot as the season goes on. 

5) We have a minor league baseball team here in the Albany area, the Tri-City Valley Cats, who play games at Hudson Valley CC in a nice ballpark. Valley Cats’ manager this year will be Ozney Guillen, son of the former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. 

Valley Cats are a Class A affiliate of the Astros, playing in the NY-Penn League. 

4) Wednesday of this week is National Signing Day for college football, then Thursday is the NBA trade deadline, so there will be lot of news this week made off the field/court. 

3) Nevada sportsbooks won $10,780,319 off of $145,939,025 worth of bets on the Super Bowl

New Jersey sportsbooks lost $4.5M statewide on the Super Bowl off of $34.8M wagered

2) Last year’s Final Four was the first one since 2005 where all three favorites covered the three Final Four games.

1) So I go to the mall for lunch the other day, looking forward to some pizza and a Coke; I get there, and the freakin’ pizza place is boarded up, closed. How does a mall not have a pizza place?

No bueno.