Month: March 2025

September’s Too……..is a good bar
1165 Central Avenue in Colonie, just west of Osborne Road

Tuesday- On Tap Tuesday; $5 pints all day, open noon-midnight
Wednesday- Trivia, 7:00
Thursday- Open mic night, 8:00
Friday- Karaoke with Dan Leto
Saturday- Ill Funk Ensemble, 8:00….open 4pm-2am

They have 12 TV’s and good food/drinks.
Check it out, it’s a fun place
———————————————————————

Info on Wednesday-Thursday NCAA Tournament games is posted……..

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. 

— 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. 

— North Carolina 95, San Diego State 68
Tar Heels led 47-23 at halftime.
North Carolina shot 14-24 on the arc.
North Carolina has won its last nine games that weren’t against Duke. 

— 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, 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. 

— 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

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, though that game being an afternoon tip-off probably helps Auburn a little bit.

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. 

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 last 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. 

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

— SEC
Alabama 99, Kentucky 70
Crimson Tide outscored Kentucky 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

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. 

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. 

— 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. 

— 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 ver 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. 

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. 

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-St Thomas play for the Summit title Sunday night, but St Thomas has only been a D-I team for five years, so they’re ineligible to go to the NCAA’s. No matter what happens here, Omaha is going to the NCAA’s.

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.

— 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. 

— 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. 

— 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. 

— 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’……..