Month: March 2024

— Denver Broncos are going to cut QB Russell Wilson next week, take an NFL-record $85M cap hit for next season. Denver signed Wilson to a 5-year, $242.6M contract two years ago, but the Broncos went 11-19 in his starts, and now they’re moving on without him. 

Wilson has a career record of 124-79-1, 9-7 in playoff games, 1-1 in Super Bowls. Last three years however, Wilson was 17-27. He turns 36 in November.

— Five biggest salary cap hits in the NFL:
$85M- Russell Wilson, Den, 2024
$40.5M- Matt Ryan, Atl, 2022
$40.3M- Aaron Rodgers, GB, 2023
$35.1M- Tom Brady, TB, 2023
$33.8M- Carson Wentz, Phil, 2021

— Former NFL QB’s Matt/Tim Hasselbeck both used to work for ESPN; next fall, they’ll be coaching high school ball together at The Ensworth School in Nashville.

— Tampa Bay Bucs re-signed WR Mike Evans with a 2-year, $52M deal; $35M of that money is guaranteed. He’s had 1,000+ receiving yards in all ten of his seasons in the NFL.

— Philadelphia Phillies re-signed P Zack Wheeler with a 3-year, $126M deal; in four years with the Phillies, Wheeler is 43-25, 3.06 in 101 starts.

— Most starting pitchers used last season: A’s 24, Royals 23
Fewest starting pitchers used last season: Giants, Nationals, Blue Jays, all with 8.

— Word of the Day: Discombobulate- to confuse or disorient someone.

— When you’re filling out your brackets in two weeks, some things to think about:
Last six years, 18 of the 24 Final Four teams were in the top 35 in country in eFG%, either offense or defense. Making shots/forcing missed shots is very important.

One of the six teams that wasn’t in either top 35 was North Carolina in 2017, but they were #1 in country on the offensive boards; it helps to be great at SOMETHING.

#1-seed won seven of last 10 NCAA Tournaments.

Five of the last six years, a #7-seed or lower made it to the Final Four.

Two stats that don’t appear to mean much:
1) Bench minutes- TV timeouts are longer in NCAA’s, depth seems less important. Two years ago, all four Final Four teams were outside the top 300 in bench minutes.

2) % of points scored on foul line- Last six years, only one of the 24 Final Four teams was ranked above #96 in this category, and they were a fluke-ish #7-seed.

— Pacific fired basketball coach Leonard Perry, who went 29-65 in three years with the Tigers, 10-36 in WCC games. Pacific has had one winning season the last 10 years; their last NCAA Tournament appearance was in 2013.

— Marquette G Tyler Kolek won’t play in the Golden Eagles’ last two regular season games; he has an oblique injury, and will be reevaluated before next week’s Big East tournament.

— Famous birthdays on March 5th:

Rocky Bleier, 78
Rob Reiner, 77
Kent Tekulve, 77
Scott Skiles, 60
Michael Irvin, 58
Connie Britton, 57
Wally Szczerbiak, 47
Bo Bichette, 26
Justin Fields, 25

Atlantic Sun tournament:
— Jacksonville 92, Kennesaw State 86
Dolphins made an astounding 13-21 on the arc.
Kennesaw won A-Sun last year, but lost 10 of their last 12 games this year.

— Queens 69, Florida Gulf Coast 63
Queens was 18-22 on the foul line, FGCU 7-14.
Royals made 11-25 on arc; they’ve won four of last five games.

Both higher-seeded teams lost in the A-Sun Tournament games Monday.
Winners get to play again Tuesday night.

— Duke 79, NC State 64
NC State led 9-0; it was all downhill from there.
Duke shot 33% from floor in first half, 63% in second half.

— Baylor 93, Texas 85
Longhorns led 48-40 at halftime.
Baylor was 34-42 on foul line, Texas 16-21

— RIP to Ed Ott, the former major league catcher, who died at age 72. Ott played eight years in the majors, mostly for the Pirates- he was on their 1979 World Series championship team. 

RIP to UL Washington, the former major league shortstop, who died at age 70. Washington played 11 years in the majors, mostly for Kansas City; he stole 40 bases for the Royals in 1983. 

— March Madness starts tonight, when the Atlantic Sun tournament tips off with a couple of games. Three other conferences start their tournaments Tuesday. One of the best times of the year; the next two weeks will be full of conference tournament games, with the Field of 68 announced March 17.

— March 2010, I’m at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the NCAA Tournament; excellent sportsbook there. I’m watching a second round game with Northern Iowa-Kansas; there were lot of Jayhawk fans around- they were a #1-seed, with high expectations.

Early in the game, before the second TV timeout, kid on Northern Iowa makes a basket, and three young guys sitting next to me start hugging each other. I ask one of them if the kid who scored the basket was their brother or something…….

“No, they got to 15 first!!! We had Northern Iowa to be the first team to 15!!!”

This was the first NCAA Tournament I had seen in Las Vegas, I had no idea you could bet on which team got to 15 points first.

You learn something new every day.

— Memphis 106, UAB 87
UAB led this game 61-46…….at halftime.
Memphis was +9 in turnovers; they scored 1.39 points/possession.
Tigers have won seven of their last nine games.

— Indiana State 89, Murray State 77
Sycamores win MVC regular season title for first time since 2000.
Indiana State is shooting 62.1% inside arc, #2 in country.
Indiana State is #359 in bench minutes; could be tough for them in MVC tournament when they have to win three games in three days to win the title.

— Drake 74, Bradley 66
Darian DeVries has been Drake’s coach for six years; Bulldogs are 147-54 under DeVries, 79-33 in MVC games, with two NCAA appearances.

Drake’s best player is Tucker DeVries, the coach’s son, who is a junior; will he come back for his senior season, and if not, will his dad bolt for a job in a bigger conference? 

— Indiana 83, Maryland 78
Hoosiers trailed 51-35 early in the second half.
Indiana shot 61.9% inside the arc.
Maryland lost seven of its last nine games.

— Movie of the Day: The Client (1994)- A young boy who witnessed the suicide of a mafia lawyer hires an attorney to protect him when the District Attorney tries to use him to take down a mob family.

Great cast; Susan Sarandon becomes the boy’s lawyer, Tommy Lee Jones is the District Attorney, Anthony LaPaglia is a mobster.

William H Macy, Mary Louise Parker, JT Walsh Anthony Edwards and Bradley Whitford are all in this movie, adapted from one of John Grisham’s books.

— San Francisco Giants signed 3B Matt Chapman, for three years, $54M.

— Arizona Diamondbacks signed SS Elvis Andrus to a minor league deal; he hit .251 with six HRs, 44 RBIs for the White Sox last year. 35-year old Andrus has 2,091 career hits; Arizona will be his fourth MLB team.

— Saturday night, Lebron James became the first NBA player to score 40,000 career points; he scored 26 points in the Lakers’ 124-114 loss to Denver.

— Luka Doncic has 14 technical fouls this season, most in the NBA.

— NBA unders went 8-0 Sunday night, are now 61-25-1 since the All-Star break

— Famous birthdays on March 4th:
Patricia Heaton, 66
Steven Weber, 63
Draymond Green, 34
Nick Castellanos, 32

— There are murmurs that the NFL is going to go to an 18-game schedule when the next TV contract comes up, which would put the Super Bowl on Presidents’ Day weekend.

— San Francisco 49ers hired former Chargers’ coach coach Brandon Staley as assistant head coach; they also named Nick Sorensen their new defensive coordinator.

— Bill Vinovich was the referee at the Super Bowl February 11th in Las Vegas; two nights later, he worked a Colorado State-San Diego State basketball game. He’s worked six other basketball games since then, including another visit to Las Vegas Saturday, when the Rebels beat San Jose State.

Vinovich has worked 26 basketball games this season, in addition to his NFL games. Busy guy.

— RIP to ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen,, who passed away this week at age 72; the tributes he’s gotten tonight from friends/co-workers at ESPN tell you what a good guy he was.

Mortensen joined ESPN in 1991 and was a regular contributor to the network’s NFL shows for 30 years; in 2016, he received the Pro Football Writers of America’s Dick McCann Award and was honored during the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s enshrinement ceremony.

RIP, sir. 

— WCC
Gonzaga 70, Saint Mary’s 57
Zags sweep the USF/Saint Mary’s road trip; they’re off the bubble.
Gonzaga has won eight games in a row, seven of them by 13+ points.
Saint Mary’s loses for first time since December 23, when they were 8-6.

Santa Clara 69, San Francisco 62
Teams combined to shoot 9-40 on the arc.
USF lost three of its last four games; they’re #3 seed in WCC, Santa Clara is #4.

— Big X
Baylor 82, Kansas 74
Both teams shot 62% inside the arc.
Kansas is 2-6 SU in Big X road games.
Baylor passes the Jayhawks, is now in 3rd place in Big X.

Iowa State 60, Central Florida 52
UCF led 50-49 with 3:31 left in the game.
Knights were 1-19 on the arc.
Iowa State won seven of last eight games, is in 2nd place in Big X.

Houston 87, Oklahoma 85
Houston hit an off-balance jumper at the buzzer for the win.
Cougars shot 10-19 on the arc, Oklahoma 12-25.
Houston led by 15 with 12:04 left in the game.

Bracketology has nine of 14 Big X teams getting in the NCAA’s.

— Big 14
Minnesota 75, Penn State 70
Penn State led 41-18 late in first half.
Gophers were 24-27 on foul line, Penn State 9-11

Illinois 91, Wisconsin 83
Illini was 9-16 on arc, scored 1.30 points/possession.
Illinois starts four seniors; they’re #10 experience team.
Wisconsin is 2-7 in last nine games, after a 16-4 start.

Bracketology has six Big 14 teams in the tournament.

— American
South Florida 76, Charlotte 61
Bulls have won 14 in a row; their last loss was January 7th.
USF has #35 eFG% defense in the country.
USF is #54 in experience, #281 in continuity; they used the portal very well.

Tex-San Antonio 77, SMU 73
Third straight loss for the Mustangs, who were favored by 17.5 points.
SMU led 21-8 early on.
11-19 Roadrunners have won 3 in a row; they were 12-28 on arc.

Bracketology has South Florida/FAU in the Field of 68, but barely.

— SEC
Tennessee 81, Alabama 74
Vols were 12-40 on the arc, 12-26 inside the arc.
Alabama led by 6 with 9:15 left in the game.
Crimson Tide was 9-37 on the arc.

Kentucky 111, Arkansas 102
Kentucky won its last three games, scoring 106.3 ppg.
Seven Wildcats (seven!!!) scored in double figures.

Bracketology has seven SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

— Pac-12
Forgot to mention this Friday, but UCLA coach Mick Cronin got a technical foul 20 seconds into the Bruins loss at Washington Thursday. Never heard of that before.

Washington State 77, UCLA 65
Coogs are going to the NCAA’s for the first time since 2008.
Wazzu was 24-33 on the foul line, UCLA was 9-11.
Bruins lost their last four games, are 9-9 in Pac-12.

Bracketology has Arizona/Washington State as the only Pac-12 teams in the NCAA’s.

— Upsets of the Day:
Tex-San Antonio (+17.5) 77, SMU 73
Mercer (+9.5) 82, Furman 75
SE Missouri State (+7) 70, Southern Indiana 66
Western Michigan (+6.5) 78, Ball State 76
Minnesota (+6.5) 75, Penn State 70
Tulsa (+6.5) 72, Temple 67
Notre Dame (+6.5) 69, Clemson 62

— Famous birthdays on March 3rd:
Eric Torkelson, 72
Herschel Walker, 62
Jessica Biel, 42
Jayson Tatum, 26

Wee Willie Keller was born on March 3, 1872.
Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1922

— MAC
Western Michigan 78, Ball State 76- Ball State tied game on a foul shot with 0:01.6 left; kid on WMU overthrows a teammate on a full-court pass, the ball bounces untouched to another teammate who lays the ball in at the buzzer for an unlikely win. Big kid on Ball State let the ball bounce right past him; no idea what he was thinking.

MAC is a one-bid league; neither one of these teams figures to win the MAC Tournament, but this was a hell of a way to win/lose a game.

— Mountain West
Boise State 89, New Mexico 79
Broncos won their last five games, scoring 86.4 ppg.
New Mexico is 3-5 in last eight games, is probably beneath the bubble.

— WAC
Grand Canyon 80, Stephen F Austin 58
Antelopes are tied for first with Tarleton State, with one game left.
Grand Canyon was 22-22 on the foul line.
Antelopes get 24.3% of their points on foul line (#9)

Tarleton State 88, Southern Utah 83
Texans are coached by Billy Gillispie, the old Kentucky coach.
Tarleton State has won 10 games in a row.

— Atlantic 15
Richmond 79, VCU 76
VCU led by 7 with 13:32 left in this inner-city rivalry.
Spiders win their first-ever regular season title in the A-15.
Richmond won 17 of its last 19 games, after a 5-5 start.

— Ivy
Princeton 79, Cornell 77
Cornell shot 69% inside arc, 9-32 on the arc.
Princeton is tied atop Ivy League with Yale, with one game to go.

Brown 89, Dartmouth 67
Bears clinched the 4th and final slot in the Ivy League tournament.

— Southern
Samford 92, Citadel 80
Bulldogs win the SoCon by 3 games; they haven’t been in NCAA’s since 2000, when they won the TAAC (Trans-American Conference). 

— Long time ago, I went to Colonie High School here in beautiful upstate New York; our mascot was a Garnet Raider, a Native American guy riding on a horse.

Found out this week that the NY State Board of Regents voted to drop all mascots that were tied to Indigenous people; more than a dozen schools in this area are changing their nickname.

Now a Raider isn’t necessarily a native American (see Las Vegas Raiders) but the powers that be announced this week that Colonie teams will now be the Wolfpack (one of the main streets near the high school is Wolf Road).

No one asked me, but I would’ve kept “Raiders” and just changed the picture of the mascot, but that isn’t going to happen. Strange times we live in.

— When you’re making our your college basketball brackets in a couple weeks, remember that Gonzaga has been in the Sweet 16 the last nine years, but when the Zags have been lower than a #4-seed under Mark Few, they’ve only made the Sweet 16 three of ten times.

Gonzaga will almost definitely be lower than a #4-seed this year.

— 20 of the last 22 national champs in college basketball were a #3-seed, or better; the two exceptions were both UConn, in 2014 (#7-seed) and last season (#4-seed).

— Out in the Big West, Cal Poly fired hoop coach John Smith, who in five years is 30-114 coaching the Mustangs, 8-74 in conference games. Cal Poly has been in the NCAA’s once in this century, back in 2014.

— Prop Bet of the Week: You could bet on whether someone will get a hole-in-one at the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic this weekend:

Yes, -130
No, +120

Nick Dunlap got a hole-in-one on the 7th hole Friday, cashing the win tickets.

— Three weeks ago, Bill Vinovich was the referee at the Super Bowl, a game watched on TV by 123.7M people; Thursday night, he was one of the refs at the Stephen F Austin-Cal Baptist basketball game, where the attendance was 2,111.

— Average salary in major league baseball last year was $4,525,719, a 7.1% raise over 2022.

— Philadelphia Phillies are ditching their popular promotion “dollar hot dog nights” because of rowdy fans and long lines at concession stands.

Instead of $1 hot dogs every Thursday, Phillies will run a 2-for-1 frankfurt promotion on certain days, April 2nd/16th being the first two.

— Diego Castillo is a 26-year old shortstop who had an interesting winter:
December 22- DFA’d by Arizona

January 5- claimed by the Mets
January 12- DFA’d by the Mets. 

January 19- claimed by Bronx.
January 29- DFA’d by Bronx.

February 5- claimed by the Phillies.
February 13- DFA’d by the Phillies.

February 16- claimed by the Orioles.
February 20- sent to AAA by the Orioles.
He’ll start the season playing for AAA Norfolk. 

— Famous people with birthdays on March 2nd:
Terry Steinbach, 62
Jon Bon Jovi, 62
Ben Roethlisberger, 42
Reggie Bush, 39
Adolis Garcia, 31
Tua Tagovailoa, 26

— Loyola 77, Dayton 72
Dayton turned ball over 22 times, Loyola 11.
Ramblers shot 11-27 on the arc.
Loyola moves into 2nd place in A-15, a half-game behind Richmond.

— Lipscomb 81, Eastern Kentucky 67
Eastern Kentucky led by 15 late in first half.
Lipscomb outscored the Colonels 51-29 in second half.
Despite the loss, EKU is the #1 seed in Atlantic Sun tourney.

— Marist 58, Fairfield 55
Fairfield led by 13 late in first half.
Teams combined to shoot 14-49 on the arc.
Red Foxes won six of their last seven games.

— Quinnipiac 82, Iona 64
Bobcats snap a 4-game losing skid, lead MAAC by half-game.
Quinnipiac shot 56.5% inside the arc.
Eight of their nine players scored between 8-13 points.

— Texas State 82, Troy 79 OT
Trojans led by 14 late in first half.
Davion Sykes had 30 points, 12 rebounds for the Bobcats.
Troy is the #3 seed in the Sun Belt tournament. 

— I can’t put my finger on why, maybe it is because I’m getting older, but if I was an NFL team with a high draft pick, no way in hell would we draft USC QB Caleb Williams. Just a feeling in my gut that he ain’t worth the trouble.

I’m not a big fan of starting QB’s who transfer; he bolted from Oklahoma to USC, then USC lost five of its last six games last year, Williams skipped the Trojans bowl game (they won 42-28). Too much drama; after a loss to Washington; he was sobbing in the stands with his parents after the game.

By the way, I feel the same way about Wake Forest/Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman; you don’t start at QB for a team for four years, then jump ship to another college. You want to jump ship, go to the NFL; that would’ve made a lot more sense. 

Now this week in Indianapolis, Williams isn’t working out, and he declined the medical exams, which are considered to be one of the most essential elements of the combine.

An NFL source thinks Williams is the first player to attend the NFL Combine after declining the medical exam. He isn’t doing any passing at the Combine, either.

NFL Draft is April 25; it should be interesting.

— Old Dominion is hiring Maryland assistant Mike Jones as its new basketball coach; Jones is an Old Dominion alum who led the Monarchs to NCAA tournaments as a player in 1992, 1995. He’s also worked as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech.

— There was a lot of complaining about court storming after the Duke-Wake Forest debacle the other night, when Kyle Filipowski limped off the floor while the Wake Forest students ran on the court to celebrate the Deacons’ win.

Four nights later, after a lot of complaining on TV, Filipowski played 30:00, had 9 points, 10 rebounds, six assists in an easy win over Louisville, so he survived the incident.

For the record, there is a way to have court storming while making sure the visiting team gets off the floor safely; set the clock at 1:00 or 1:30 when the game ends, get the visitors off the floor, then the fans can run on the court when the clock hits 0:00.

— One of the cool parts of spring training is that some teams bring in retired players to mentor the younger players on skills. Mets had Darryl Strawberry in camp this week; Reds had former big league OF Brett Butler teaching their players how to bunt for base hits.

— Time flies, man; Atlantic Sun basketball tournament starts Monday; three other conference tournaments start Tuesday. One of the best times of the year is almost here.

— Word of the Day: Quirk- an unusual habit or way of behaving.

— Of the fifteen teams in the Atlantic 10 (Atlantic 15???), three of them have Rams as their mascot; Fordham, Rhode Island, Virginia Commonwealth.

— People who run college sports should keep the NCAA Tournament the way it is; it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

— 41 years ago this week, the last episode of M*A*S*H aired on CBS; 105.9M people watched it, the end of one of the best TV shows ever.

— Utah State is 8-0 this season in games decided by 5 or less points; four of their five losses were by 13+ points. Aggies are 23-5 this season, despite not having any players on their team who scored a point for Utah State last year.

— In his last 11 games, Edmonton Oilers’ star Connor McDavid has 26 points, but only one goal- he scored the game-winner in overtime against St Louis Wednesday night. 

— Famous people with birthdays on March 1st:
Roger Daltrey, 79
Ron Howard, 70
Chris Webber, 51
Trevor Cahill, 36
Michael Conforto, 31
Tyreek Hill, 30
Justin Bieber, 30

— Charleston 96, Campbell 73
Cougars win the CAA regular season title for the first time.
Charleston has won 8 in a row; they still need to win CAA tourney to get in the field of 68.

— Ohio State 78, Nebraska 69
Buckeyes are 3-1 since they fired their coach, including a win over Purdue.
Ohio State was 24-28 on foul line, Nebraska 7-8.

— South Dakota State 72, North Dakota 62
Jackrabbits were down 3 at half; they shot 12-26 on the arc.
South Dakota State clinches the Summit League regular season title. 

— Saint Mary’s 83, Pepperdine 57
On December 2, Saint Mary’s was 3-5, a very, very disappointing start.
On March 1, Saint Mary’s is 24-6, 15-0 in WCC; they’re the ONLY team in the country that hasn’t lost a conference game this season.

— Gonzaga 86, San Francisco 68
Zags outscored USF 51-34 in the second half.
Gonzaga shot 71.1% inside the arc.
Gonzaga hasn’t lost to the Dons since 2012. 
USF made some extra $$$; this game was in the Warriors’ arena.

— Washington 94, UCLA 77
Huskies shot 15-24 on the arc.
UCLA lost its last three games, they’re 14-14, 9-8 in Pac-12.
Bruins have the #334 eFG% in the country.

— Eastern Washington 89, Montana 79
Eagles lost their first six D-I games this season, but they’re 18-4 in last 22 games.
EWU will be the #1-seed in Big Sky Tournament; they’ve got #8 eFG% in country.