Author: Armadillo Sports

— Dodgers 6, Braves 5
Shohei Ohtani hit a walk-off home run on his Bobblehead Night.
Braves led this game 5-0 in second inning, 5-3 in 8th inning.
Dodgers are first defending champ EVER to start the next season 8-0.
Atlanta went 0-7 on its first road trip of the season.

Braves were 5-15 with runners in scoring position in this game; in their first six games, they were a combined 1-34 with RISP.

— Just spent an hour or so listening to a podcast about these new “torpedo bats”, which could very well be revolutionizing hitting. (they’re perfectly legal, by the way)

Wooden bats are only used at the professional level; there was a guy on TV explaining how they are now meeting with each specific player and design the bat to tailor it to that player’s swing, so what is good for one player might not be good for anyone else.

Some of the talk went over my head; the guy explaining it is a scientist, and I sucked at science, but it is possible that some players/teams will be ahead of the curve and will hit better than they have previously. The guy on TV said he’s been hired as a consultant by a major league team, but he wouldn’t say which team.

— On the Red Sox-Orioles telecast Wednesday night, Orioles TV guy Ben McDonald said that Mets’ SS Francisco Lindor used a torpedo bat last year, when he hit 33 home runs, had an OPS of .844. No one mentioned that last year. 

— Cubs 10, A’s 2
Cubs swept this 3-game series, scoring 35 runs in the first three major league games played in Sacramento’s minor league ballpark.

— San Diego Padres are 7-0, but they’re still a half-game behind the Dodgers in the NL West; Padres gave 21-year old OF Jackson Merrill a nine-year contract extension worth $135M, after he hit .292 with an .826 OPS last year. Merrill turns 22 in two weeks.

— Arizona Diamondbacks gave 2B Ketel Marte a contract extension that adds $64M in new money to his current contract, and extends the contracts thru 2031.

— Boston Red Sox gave 22-year old rookie IF Kristian Campbell an 8-year old contract worth at least $60M— the kid has played only six major league games- he is 8-20 with five runs scored, and now he is also really rich.

— Current standings in the AL Central:
Twins 2-4
Royals 2-4
Tigers 2-4
Guardians 2-4
White Sox 2-4

— Famous birthdays, April 3rd:
Marsha Mason, 83
Alec Baldwin, 67
David Hyde Pierce, 66
Tim Conroy, 65
Eddie Murphy, 64

Pervis Ellison, 58
Rodney Hampton, 56
Jay Bruce, 38
Jason Kipnis, 38
Andrew Vaughn, 27

— NBA coaching staffs are huge; Golden State Warriors list ten assistant coaches, in addition to head coach Steve Kerr. NBA rosters have only 15 players; why do they need 11 coaches?

Read kind of a disturbing article this week about how/why the Memphis Grizzlies fired their coach, even though they’re having their fourth winning season in the least five years.

After last season’s 27-55 disaster, Memphis fired five assistant coaches, kept head coach Taylor Jenkins, but the handwriting was on the wall. They brought in assistant coach Tuomas Iisalo, a Finnish coach who’d had a quick rise in Europe coaching circles by implementing innovative offensive concepts around pick-and-roll schemes and playing fast.

The fly in the ointment here is that the Grizzlies’ key player is G Ja Morant, who doesn’t seem like the most dependable guy in the world, on or off the floor (he’s never played more than 67 games in a season, played in nine last year, when he was suspended 25 games for brandishing guns) and isn’t a great pick-and-roll player, according to NBA analytics. 

Anyway, a coach who won a lot of games got fired; the whole situation seems like a mess; you want your best players to be dependable, hard workers, a good example for his teammates (think Jayson Tatum or Steph Curry)

— Tuesday night, Steph Curry scored 52 points against Memphis, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out 8 assists, had five steals. Not a bad night.

Denver’s Nikola Jokic scored 61 points for Denver, had 10 assists, 10 rebounds; he was 19-24 on the foul line. Minnesota’s whole team was 17-25 on the line, but the T-Wolves won 140-139 in double overtime.

— There are rumblings that flag football might be an Olympic sport at the 2028 Summer games in Los Angeles, and that NFL players might participate.

— NIT played their semi-finals Tuesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis: 

Cal-Irvine 69, North Texas 67
North Texas led 24-9 midway thru the first half.
Mean Green was +12 in turnovers, but shot only 34.3% from the floor.
Anteaters won their last three games by a total of 11 points.

Chattanooga 80, Loyola Chicago 73
Ramblers led 38-34 at halftime.
5-10 G Huff played all 40:00, didn’t have any turnovers, shot 4-10 on the arc.
Chattanooga was 9-7 on January 10; they’re 19-2 since then.

Cal-Irvine/Chattanooga play for a championship Thursday night. 

— NFL manages to stay in the news 49-50 weeks a year; they had their annual coaches’ meeting this week, with the overtime rules getting tweaked a little.

Both teams will get at least one possession in regular season overtime games now; before this, if a team scored a TD on their first possession, the game was over. 

Regular season overtime remain at a maximum of 10:00; will this result in more ties?

— Cleveland Browns have the 2nd pick in this year’s draft, which is in three weeks; the team is having a private concert in their stadium on draft night, with the famous band Journey the performers. Only season ticket holders can attend the concert.

— First downs will now be determined by Hawk-Eye technology, not the chains being dragged on the field, like they had been for the last 70 years.

— 17 players on the 49ers have left the team this offseason, whether by free agency, getting traded or released; they’re getting ready to give QB Brock Purdy a big pay raise, so some salary cap space had to be made.

— Washington Commanders have an over/under win total of 10.5 this fall, their highest figure since 2000, when their total was 11.5- they finished that season 8-8.

— Former Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams is the new coach at Maryland; Williams has had an interesting career, moving around a lot:

2006-07- New Orleans 14-17/9-9
2008-14- Marquette 139-69/69-39 (8-5 NCAAs)
2014-19- Virginia Tech 100-69/44-46 (2-3 NCAAs)
2019-25- Texas A&M 120-73/56-44 (2-3 NCAAs)

— BYU had a basketball player this year, Richie Saunders, whose great grandfather is the guy who invented Tater Tots.

— UNLV point guard Dedan Thomas, whose father also played for the Rebels, has transferred to LSU. College basketball has turned into a lesser version of the NBA, which is disappointing.

— Famous birthdays, April 2nd:
Reggie Smith, 80
Linda Hunt, 80
Roy Gerela, 77
Larry Drew, 67

Christopher Meloni, 64
Pete Incaviglia, 61
Roselyn Sanchez, 52
Austin Riley, 28

— Miami Marlins are the 5th team ever whose first three wins all came on walk-offs:
1900 Cincinnati
1914 Kansas City Packers
1998 New York Mets
2003 Tampa Bay Rays
2025 Marlins

— Only four pitchers to throw 200+ innings last year:
208.2- Logan Gilbert
206.2- Seth Lugo
204.2- Logan Webb
200- Zach Wheeler

— Angels 9, Cardinals 7 (11)
Both teams scored three times in 10th inning.
Angels are 4-1 for first time since 2021; last time they were three games over .500 was August 2, 2023 (56-53).

— Marlins 4, Mets 2
Sandy Alcantara allowed 3 baserunners in 5 IP, got his first win since 2023.
Marlins had only three hits; they’re off to a 4-2 start, all at home.

— Tigers 4, Mariners 1
Casey Mize allowed only one hit in 5.2 IP for Detroit.
Seattle is 2-4; they trailed all six games after five innings.

— Rangers 1, Reds 0
Wyatt Langford homered in first inning, for game’s only run.
Nathan Eovaldi, threw a 99-pitch complete game, allowing only four hits.

— Padres 7, Guardians 0
Michael King struck out 11 guys to get the win.
San Diego is 6-0 for the first time in franchise history. 

— Giants 3, Astros 1
Logan Webb allowed only five hits in 7 IP.
Houston is off to a 2-3 start, scoring total of nine runs. 

— Way back in 1979, a team selected Dan Marino and John Elway in the same draft; you figure that team would’ve won a Super Bowl or two, but the Kansas City Royals play baseball.

Marino was a pitcher who never played pro baseball; Elway was an outfielder who actually hit .318 in 42 games as an OF for Oneonta in the NY-Penn League, in 1982. 

— Boston Red Sox opened their wallet, gave P Garrett Crochet a six-year contract extension worth $170M. Crochet was 6-12, 3.58 with a 1.07 WHIP for a dreadful White Sox team last year; he gave up two runs in 5 IP in his first start for Boston last week.

— Atlanta Braves’ OF Jurickson Profar was suspended 80 games by MLB for a PED violation, adding to the Braves’ troubles this spring. 32-year old Profar signed a three-year, $42M deal this winter. This suspension costs him $6M of that money.

Dodgers 6, Braves 1
Braves put P Reynaldo Lopez (shoulder) on the IL.
Atlanta is 0-5; they scored one run in their last three games. 

— Detroit Tigers put 2B Gleyber Torres on the IL with an oblique strain; Torres was 3-7 in first two games with the Tigers.

— Last 19 Opening Days, San Francisco Giants have started 19 different left fielders; this year’s left fielder was Heliot Ramos.

— No one said much last year when the Cubs signed P Shota Imanaga, but he’s started 31 games for Chicago, and they’re 24-7 in those 31 games.

— Of the 26 players on the Houston Astros’ Opening Day roster, 16 are international players, the most of any team in the big leagues.

— The record for most home runs in a game? 10, by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1987.

— Famous birthdays, April 1st:
Ali McGraw, 86
Annette O’Toole, 73
Jim Jeffcoat, 64
Mark Jackson, 60

Daniel Murphy, 40
Brook Lopez, 37
Robin Lopez, 37
David Dahl, 31

Happy heavenly birthday to my grandmother. Happy birthday Neeny!!! 

— Orioles’ OF Colton Cowser broke his left thumb, is out 6-8 weeks; he hurt the thumb sliding headfirst into a base at Toronto over the weekend.

— White Sox 9, Twins 0
Martin Perez threw six no-hit innings, was lifted after throwing 93 pitches.
Andrew Benintendi hit his 2nd HR for the 2-2 White Sox, who were 41-121 last year.

— Phillies 6, Rockies 1
Cristopher Sanchez allowed one run in 5.1 IP, but didn’t get the win.
Phillies scored four runs in 7th inning; Kyle Schwarber hit a 2-run dinger.

— Orioles 8, Red Sox 5
Tyler O’Neill went 4-4 in his first home game for the Orioles.
Cedric Mullins had four RBI for Baltimore.

— Cubs 18, A’s
Cubs’ C Carson Kelly hit for the cycle in the first major league game ever played in Sacramento, the first catcher to hit for the cycle since JT Realmuto two years ago.

— Reds 14, Rangers 3
Cincinnati led 6-0 in the second inning.
Elly De La Cruz homered twice, knocked in seven runs.
Brady Singer allowed only one hit in seven IP on a cold night.

— Angels 5, Cardinals 4 (10)
3 of the 5 runs the Angels scored came in on sacrifice flies.
Cardinals’ 1B Willson Contreras is off to an 0-18 start.
22-year old Ryan Johnson got a save in his 2nd MLB game; he has never pitched in the minor leagues. 

— All four #1-seeds get to the Final Four for the second time (2008 was the other)

— Houston 69, Tennessee 50
Tennessee shot 28.8% from the floor.
Cougars led 34-15 at halftime.
Houston is 30-1 since December 1st.

Houston is the first #1-seed since North Carolina in 2017 to make the Final Four by beating the hardest-possible opponents, the #8-4-2 seeds, to get there.

— Auburn 70, Michigan State 64
Auburn raced out to a 23-8 lead, led 33-24 at halftime.
Johni Broome had 25 points, 14 rebounds in 29:00.
Auburn-Florida is a Final Four game between SEC rivals Saturday in San Antonio.

— Ex-Maryland coach Kevin Willard bolted the Terrapins and signed to coach Villanova.

Maryland was 65-39/32-28 in three years under Willard, going 3-2 in NCAA Tourney games, making the Sweet 16 this season. It was the first Sweet 16 for Maryland since 2016. 

Villanova was 54-47/31-29 in three years under Kyle Neptune, missing the NCAA’s all three years. Neptune replaced Jay Wright, who won two national titles with the Wildcats.

— New Mexico signed former Cal-San Diego coach Eric Olen to be its new coach; Olen led the Tritons to a 30-5 record and an NCAA Tourney bid in their first year of being eligible.

New Mexico went 88-49/40-33 under Richard Pitino, 75-30 the last three years. Pitino left Albuquerque to become the new coach at Xavier.

— Cal-San Diego promoted from within, hired assistant coach Clint Allard to be its new coach; Allard played for the Tritons, has been an assistant there the last 14 years.

— Earlier this season, Timberwolves’ star Anthony Edwards was suspended for one game; his missing that game, one game, cost Edwards $242,393.

— Famous birthdays, March 31st
Shirley Jones, 91
Christopher Walken, 82
Rhea Perlman, 77
Mick Luckhurst, 67

Ron Brown, 64
JR Reid, 57
Steve Smith, 56
Kamren Curl, 26

— Four baseball teams had Sunday off; why the bleep are teams getting Sundays off?

— There have been 53 baseball games played so far:

In 17 of those 53 games, the game-winning run scored from the 7th inning on, which is a high percentage of close games.

106 starting pitchers, Chris Bassitt (106 PT) was the only guy to throw 100+ pitches.
27 pitchers threw 90+ pitches.

32 pitchers lasted 6+ innings; only 5 lasted seven innings.

— Arizona 10, Cubs 6- Diamondbacks scored eight runs in 8th inning of their comeback win.

Arizona lost its DH when Ketel Marte went in to play 2B in the 6th inning; P Ryne Nelson got a hit, scored a run and knocked one in during the 8-run uprising.

— Marlins 3, Pirates 2
Marlins are 3-1, with all three wins walk-off wins.

— Padres 5, Braves 0
Nick Pivetta allowed one hit in seven IP for San Diego.
Braves are 0-4; they got shut out the last two games.

— Rangers 3, Red Sox 2
Jacob deGrom tossed five shutout IP, threw 73 pitches.

— Nationals 5, Phillies 1
Mitchell Parker allowed 9 baserunners in 6.1 IP, but didn’t allow a run.
Nathaniel Lowe went 3-4 with a homer and two RBI

— New York 12, Brewers 3
New York scored 32 runs the last two games; their starting pitcher didn’t get the win in either game.
In three games, Aaron Judge has scored eight times, knocked in 11 runs. He doesn’t use the new type of bat (which is 100% legal, by the way)

— Angels 3, White Sox 2
Kyren Paris hit an 8th inning home run to break a 2-2 tie, after a 2-hour, 48-minute rain delay, as the Halos won two of three games in Chicago.

— Cardinals 9, Twins 2
St Louis outscored the Twins 19-6 in sweeping the three-game series.
Cardinals’ #6/#7 hitters both went 3-4, combined to score five runs. 

— Florida 84, Texas Tech 79
Red Raiders led by 9 with 3:14 left in the game.
Florida was 25-27 on foul line, Tech was 7-13.
Gators are in Final Four for first time since they won the 2007 title.

— Duke 85, Alabama 65
Blue Devils led 46-37 at halftime.
Alabama shot 35.4% from floor, 8-32 on arc.
Duke is going to the Final Four for the 18th time. 

— This year’s Elite 8: three games between #1-#2 seeds, and a #1-#3 seed game, making it the chalkiest Elite 8 since 2007, when the same thing happened.

In 2009, there were two 1-2 matchups, two 1-3 matchups.

In 2008, all four #1-seeds advanced to the Final Four, the last time that happened; that year, there was a #10-seed in the Elite 8. Davidson had some kid named Steph Curry.

— Final Four of the NIT this week will be in Hinkle Fieldhouse, home of the Butler Bulldogs and site of the climactic scene in Hoosiers, the great Gene Hackman movie. 

Semi-finals Tuesday:
North Texas vs Cal-Irvine and Chattanooga vs Loyola-Chicago.

— Does winning the NIT or CBI help a team the next season? Interesting question……..

Last six teams to win the CBI didn’t go to any postseason tournament the next year, so that’s a big no for the CBI, although in 2011, VCU made the Final Four the year after they won it, but that was 14 years ago. Since then, Pitt (2012), Nevada (2016) are only teams who made the NCAA’s the year after winning the CBI

Of the last nine NIT champs, only three made the NCAA’s the next year; Xavier made the Sweet 16 in 2022, Memphis (2021), TCU (2017) are the other two teams.

Since 2008, the 15 NIT champs are a combined 5-6 in NCAA Tourney games the next year.

— Memphis Grizzlies fired coach Taylor Jenkins this week, despite the team’s 44-29 record; Jenkins coached the Grizzlies to a 259-228 record, 9-14 in playoff games. This will be their fourth winning season in five years.

Memphis is 28-15 this year when Ja Morant plays, 16-14 when he doesn’t; this whole situation seems pretty strange- there must be an interesting backstory we don’t know about.

— Fordham Rams hired Cal-Riverside coach Mike Magpayo as its new coach; Riverside was 55-32 in Big West games during his time at Riverside, 89-63 overall.

Fordham was 25-8 two years ago, their only winning season since 2016.

— Arkansas State’s coach bolted to South Florida after the Red Wolves’ 25-11 season that ended in the 2nd round of the NIT; Ark State’s new coach is Ryan Pannone, an assistant coach at Alabama, just like the previous coach (Bryan Hodgson) was.

— Famous birthdays, March 30th
John Astin, 95
Warren Beatty, 88
Jerry Lucas, 85
Dave Chapple, 78
Paul Reiser, 69

Lomas Brown, 62
Celine Dion, 57
Chris Sale, 36
Alex Bregman, 31
Jacob Wilson, 23

— If you like baseball and you’re on Twitter, Umpire Scorecards is a good follow; they post a chart for every game, showing how accurate the home plate umpire was in that game, and where the pitches were that he missed. The one thing you learn is, these guys are pretty, pretty good.

— Padres 1, Braves 0
Pinch-hitter Yuli Gurriel knocked in the only run with a 7th inning single.
Braves are off to an 0-3 start, scoring total of seven runs.

— Angels 1, White Sox 0
Jose Soriano allowed only four baserunners, no runs in 7 IP (73 PT)
Angels’ TV guys even said that it seemed weird that they took him out.
Yoan Moncada’s 8th inning infield hit knocked in the game’s only run.

— Bronx 20, Brewers 9
Nestor Cortes returned to New York and gave up home runs to the first three hitters he faced, on the first three pitches he threw. Aaron Judge hit three homers, knocked in eight runs. 

Weird game; Bronx hit eight home runs in first four innings, made five errors in the first five innings. 

— Astros 2, Mets 1
Jeremy Pena homered for Houston.
Mets had only one hit, a Juan Soto double.
First three games of this series, total of only 11 runs have scored.

— Marlins 5, Pirates 4 (12)
Dane Myers’ RBI single was a walk-off winner.
Myers, Otto Lopez, Kyle Stowers had three hits apiece.
Marlins are 2-1 this weekend, with two walk-off wins.

— Rangers 4, Red Sox 3
Adolis Garcia was 3-3, with a double, two-run homer.
Texas used six pitchers, none of whom got more than six outs.
Wilyer Abreu is 6-9 this week, but Boston pinch-hit for him in 8th inning, because God forbid he hit against a lefty pitcher. 

— Michigan State 73, Ole Miss 70
Ole Miss led by 9 with 12:15 left in the game.
Michigan State was 19-22 on foul line, Rebels 9-10
Michigan State won 11 of its last 12 games.
Spartans are Elite 8 for first time since 2019.

— Tennessee 78, Kentucky 65
Tennessee shot 63.2% inside arc, led 43-28 at halftime.
Vols lost to Kentucky twice during the regular season.
Vols out-rebounded Kentucky, 34-24.
Tennessee is one win away from its first-ever Final Four.

— Auburn 78, Michigan 65
Auburn led 30-29 at halftime.
Pettiford scored 20 points in 29:00 off  the bench.
Michigan shot 38.1% inside the arc.
Auburn out-rebounded the Wolverines, 48-33

— Houston 62, Purdue 60
Milos Uzan’s layup on an inbounds play with 0:00.9 left was the game-winner.
Uzan scored 22 points, had 6 assists, shot 6-9 on the arc.
Cougars led by 10 points with just under 8:00 left to play.
Houston is a #1-seed for third year in a row; they lost in Sweet 16 the last two years.

— Mountain West Player of the Year Donovan Dent bolted from New Mexico to UCLA; Lobos lost their coach earlier this week, when Richard Pitino bolted to Xavier.

— Drake hired South Dakota State coach Eric Henderson as its new coach; Henderson led the Jackrabbits to two NCAA tourneys the last four years- he won 20+ games in four of his six years at South Dakota State.

— Penn Quakers hired former Iowa coach Fran McCaffery as their new coach; last two years, Quakers were 7-21 in the Ivy League- they haven’t make NCAA Tournament since 2-18.

McCaffery is a Penn alum, graduating in 1982; he coached Iowa for the last 15 years.

— Famous birthdays, March 29th
Denny McLain, 81
Walt Frazier, 80
Ed Ratleff, 75
Earl Campbell, 70

Billy Beane, 63
Brian Jordan, 58
Chad Pinder, 33
Matt Olson, 31

— A’s 7, Mariners 0
A’s have played two games; starting P’s threw 12 scoreless innings.
Rookie IF Max Muncy’s first big league hit was a home run.
Last year, Seattle scored 3 or fewer runs in 16 of Luis Castillo’s 30 starts.

— Dodgers 8, Tigers 5 (10)
Detroit scored twice in top of 10th, Dodgers scored five runs.
Mookie Betts hit a 3-run homer for the game-winning hit.
Gleyber Torres got hurt hitting a home run in the third inning.

Earlier this week, Pirates’ 1B Nick Gonzales broke his ankle, also while hitting a home run. He hobbled around the bases, but is on the injured list now.

— Rays 3, Rockies 2
Rookie Kameron Misner hit a walk-off homer for Tampa Bay: he is the first player EVER whose first MLB home run was a walk-off homer on his team’s Opening Day.

— Mets 3, Astros 1
Juan Soto hit his first home run for the Mets.
Tylor Megill allowed only four baserunners, one run in five IP.
Houston had only three hits.

— Padres 4, Braves 3
Tatis, Cronenworth homered for the Padres.
San Diego’s bullpen threw 4.2 scoreless IP.
San Diego won the first two games in this series.

— Rangers 4, Red Sox 1
Jonah Heim homered twice for Texas.
Jack Leiter threw 5 IP, got his first MLB win.
Five Texas relievers got the last 12 outs, didn’t allow a run.

— Arizona Diamondbacks signed P Brandon Pfaadt to a 5-year, $45M contract; Pfaadt was 11-10, 4.71 in 32 starts last year, his second in the big leagues. 

— Texas Tech 85, Arkansas 83 OT
Arkansas led by 16 with 11:00 left in the game.
Tech tied it up on a 3-pointer with 0:09.7 left in regulation.
Tech out-rebounded Arkansas, 51-39
Red Raiders move on to play #1-seed Florida Saturday. 

— Duke 100, Arizona 93
Duke shot 11-19 on the arc.
Blue Devils are 30-1 since Thanksgiving.
Arizona started season 17-6, went 7-7 in their last 14 games.
Duke is in Elite 8 for third time in four years. 

— Florida 87, Maryland 71
Gators led 40-38 at halftime.
Florida out-rebounded Maryland, 42-20.
Gators shot 59.4% inside the arc.
Florida has won nine in row, 15 of last 16 games.

— Alabama 113, BYU 88
Alabama shot 25-51 on the arc, scored 1.43 points/possession.
BYU shot 6-30 on arc, 64.3% inside arc, and lost by 25.
Crimson Tide scored 62 points in the second half.
Alabama scored 94.3 ppg in its three NCAA tourney wins.

— Famous birthdays, March 28th
Rick Barry, 80
Len Elmore, 73
JK McKay, 72
Reba McIntyre, 70

Glenn Davis, 64
Byron Scott, 64
Vince Vaughn, 55
Chris Long, 40

Stefani Germanotta, 39 (Lady Gaga)
Christian Walker, 34
Derek Carr, 34
Will Smith, 30 (Dodgers’ catcher)

— Phillies 7, Nationals 3 (10)
Mackenzie Gore threw 6 shutout IP, struck out 13.
Nationals’ bullpen gave up seven runs in four innings. 

— Orioles 12, Blue Jays 2
Tyler O’Neill homered on Opening Day for the sixth year in a row.

— Padres 7, Braves 4
Padres took the lead with four runs in 7th inning.
Jackson Merrill drove in four runs for San Diego.

— Astros 3, Mets 1
Mets had 6 hits, drew 6 walks, were 0-6 with RISP.
Framber Valdez threw seven shutout IP (90 PT)

— Marlins 5, Pirates 4
Pittsburgh led 4-2 in the eighth inning.
Kyle Stowers had a walk-off single to send 31,590 fans home happy.

— Bronx 4, Brewers 2
Freddy Peralta gave up two home runs in his 5 IP:
Austin Wells’ homer would’ve only been a home run in this stadium.

Anthony Volpe’s homer would’ve been a homer in only 9 of 30 MLB stadiums.

In other words, Peralta gave up two cheap home runs.
(There is an app that says how many ballparks each home run would’ve gone out of)

— Word of the Day— Over-reaction- Responding to something with too strong an emotion.

Example: the nine hitters in my fantasy baseball lineup went 4-32 Thursday; the guys on my bench went 10-22.  A lesser person would’ve over-reacted and be annoyed by that 🙂

— Guardians 7, Royals 4 (10)
Kyle Manzardo was 3-4, scored twice, had four RBI
Royals led 3-0 early, tied game in bottom of ninth

Guardians’ ace Tanner Bibee was scratched (food poisoning); last month someone was boasting on social media how Bibee eats at Chipotle the day before all his starts. Oy. 

— Giants 6, Reds 4
Wilmer Flores hit a 3-run homer in the ninth inning.
Jeimer Candelario knocked in three runs for the Reds.

— Red Sox 5, Rangers 2
Wilyer Abreu hit a 3-run tater in 9th inning, his second homer of the day.
Boston’s bullpen threw four shutout innings.

— Dodgers 5, Tigers 4
Detroit was 0-15 with runners in scoring position.
Ohtani hit another home run, is off to a 5-12 start at the plate.

— White Sox 8, Angels 1
Sean Burke tossed six shutout innings for Chicago.
Andrew Benintendi hit a 3-run homer. 

Recent trends for major league teams……..
National League
Arizona- Missed playoffs six of last seven years, but in that one year, they got to the World Series, losing to Texas in five games. Last two years, Arizona was 84-78/89-73.

Atlanta- Made playoffs the last seven years, but made only one World Series in those years, beating Houston in six games in 2021. Braves’ last losing season? 2017. 

Cubs- Missed playoffs last four years, went 83-79/83-79 the last two years. From 2015-20, they made the playoffs five times in six years, winning 2016 World Series.

Cincinnati- Missed playoffs 10 of last 11 years, losing 2-0 to Atlanta in Wild Card round in 2020. Hiring Terry Francona as manager figures to be a huge upgrade for the Reds.

Colorado- Missed playoffs the last six years, losing 101/103 games the last two years. Since they got swept in the 2007 World Series, Rockies have made playoffs three times in 17 years.

Dodgers- Made playoffs the last 12 years, winning World Series in 2020/2024, losing Series in 2017/2018. Their last losing season was in 2010, when they were 80-82.

Miami- Marlins made playoffs twice in last four years, ending a 17-year drought; they went 62-100 last year, after making playoffs in 2023. They have their third manager in four years.

Milwaukee- Made playoffs six of last seven years; their last losing season in a 162-game schedule was 2016. Brewers won 92+ games in three of their last four seasons.

Mets- Made playoffs two of last three years, have made playoffs only four times since 2007. Mets fans are lucky to have a very wealthy owner who is also a fan and really wants to win.

Phillies- Made playoffs the last three years, ending a 10-year drought; From 2013-20, Phillies weren’t over .500 in any season. Phillies lost World Series to Houston in six games in 2022. 

Pittsburgh- Missed playoffs the last nine years, after making it three years in a row under Clint Hurdle, from 2013-15. Won 76/76 games last two years, after winning 61/62 in 2021-22.

St Louis- Missed playoffs last two years, after making it four years in a row before that; they’ve made the playoffs eight times in 13 years since winning the 2011 World Series.

San Diego- Made playoffs three of last five years, lost NLDS 3-2 to the Dodgers last year. Their owner died last year; is still unclear if the new ownership will still be spending $$$. 

San Francisco- Made playoffs once in last seven years; they were 107-55 in 2021, haven’t been over .500 since then. Made playoffs twice in last 10 years, since winning 3 WS in five years.

Washington- Won 2019 World Series, have had five losing seasons in a row since, but still have same manager/GM. They let Bryce Harper/Juan Soto/Trey Turner walk.

— Famous birthdays, March 27th:
Dick Ruthven, 74
Cliff Stoudt, 70
Randall Cunningham, 62
Quentin Tarantino, 62
Ed Pinckney, 62

Buster Posey, 38
Clay Holmes, 32
Brandon Nimmo, 32
Brycen Hopkins, 28
Tyler Kolek, 24

American League
Baltimore— Won 101-91 games the last two years; four years ago, they were 52-110, so a huge turnaround down by manager Brandon Hyde. Last World Series title: 1983.

Boston— Missed playoffs last three years, winning 78-78-81 games; they’ve made playoffs once in six years, since winning 2018 World Series- they’ve won four World Series since 2004.

White Sox— Were 41-121 last year, a historically bad season; they lost 101 games the year before, two years after they went 93-69, losing the ALDS. LY, they were 13-29 in one-run games.

Cleveland— Guardians made playoffs six of last nine years; they finished over .500 in 10 of their last 12 seasons. Cleveland was 10-3 in extra-inning games last year.

Detroit— Made playoffs last year for first time in 10 years; they were 21-12 vs lefty starters, 65-64 vs RHP. Detroit was 21-10 when Tarik Skubal was the starting pitcher.

Houston— Made playoffs the last eight years, winning World Series in 2017, 2022. Changed up some this year; Altuve will play LF, Christian Walker 1B, Paredes 3B. 

Kansas City— Made playoffs last year for first time since winning 2015 World Series; last year, Royals were 33-19 against AL Central rivals, 53-55 vs everyone else.

Angels— Have had nine straight losing seasons; Mike Trout has been in big leagues 14 years, has played in three playoff games. They still owe Anthony Rendon $77M+ the next two years.

Minnesota— Missed playoffs three of last four years; since 2006, they’re 3-18 in playoff games. Last year, Twins were 18-28 vs NL teams, 10-21 vs AL East, 29-23 vs AL Central rivals.

Bronx— Made playoffs 12 of last 16 years; lost World Series LY, their first WS since 2009. Last year, they were 73-46 vs lefty starters, only 21-23 vs lefties.

A’s— Last three years, lost 102-112-93 games; they were in the playoffs in 2020. .Will play home games the next three years in Sacramento. LY, from July 1st on, A’s were 39-37.

Seattle— Have made playoffs once since 2001; losing 3-0 to Astros in ALDS. Last year, Mariners were 32-20 vs AL West rivals, 53-57 vs everyone else- they missed the playoffs by a game.

Tampa Bay— Missed playoffs LY for first time in six years; they were 80-82, 30-22 in one-run games. This year, Rays are playing in a spring training stadium in Tampa; their dome got shredded by a hurricane this winter..

Texas— Made playoffs once in last eight years, winning 2023 World Series. Bruce Bochy has won four World Series, in his last 12 years as a manager. Rangers were 9-2 in extra innings LY.

Toronto— Made playoffs three of last five years, but went 0-6 in playoffs; last year, Blue Jays were 14-22 vs lefty starters, 19-30 in one-run games. 

— New Jersey Giants signed QB Russell Wilson for one year, $21M, with $10.5M of that $$$ guaranteed; Wilson will be playing for his fourth team in five years. He is 130-85-1 as an NFL starter, 9-8 in playoff games, but he is also 23-32 the last four years.

Giants signed QB Jameis Winston last week, would appear that they’re out of the market for a QB in next month’s draft.

— New England Patriots signed WR Stefon Diggs for three years, $69M; Diggs caught 47 passes for 496 yards in only eight games for Houston last year, after six straight seasons with 1,000+ receiving yards. New England will be his third team in three years.

— Last three years in the NCAA Tournament, #1 seeds are 4-5 SU/2-7 ATS in their Sweet 16 games. From 2016-21, #1-seeds were 11-1 SU/7-5 ATS in Sweet 16 games, so 9-12 ATS over an 8-year span isn’t very good. 

— Arkansas is the only team seeded 9th or worse still alive in March Madness; since 2017, #9 or lower seeds are 9-3 ATS when they play in a Sweet 16 game.

— St Francis PA lost 70-68 in a play-in game to Alabama State, after winning the NEC tourney, but this week they announced they’re dropping down to D-III sports, much like Hartford did a couple years ago. Some schools have no desire/ability to compete with bigger-money schools for good players.

— Drake star Bennett Stirtz is following his coach Ben McCollum to Iowa; Drake was 31-4 this year, won a first-round NCAA Tourney game. McCollum won four DII national titles in his days at Northwest Missouri. The question: how good is Iowa’s NIL program?

— UNLV signed former Memphis/Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner as their new coach; Pastner followed John Calipari at Memphis, went 130-44 the first five years, but only 2-4 in the NCAA tourney. When Memphis faded the next two years, they fired him and he went to Georgia Tech, a much harder job. 

Pastner was 109-114 at Tech, making NCAA’s once in seven years. He spent the last two years as a studio analyst on ESPN. Pastner will he UNLV’s 7th coach in 16 years.

— Xavier is hiring Richard Pitino as its new coach; Pitino was 75-30/35-21 the last three years at New Mexico, winning a game in this year’s tournament.

— Sacramento State named former NBA star Mike Bibby its new head coach; Bibby was on the Sacramento Kings for 6+ seasons. He scored 14.7 ppg in his NBA career.

Sac State will be on its fifth coach in six years; their last winning season in Big Sky games was in 2015. Hornets have never played in the NCAA Tournament.

— Famous birthdays, March 26th:
Martin Short, 75
Catherine Keener, 66
Marcus Allen, 65
Mike Warren, 64

John Stockton, 63
Kevin Seitzer, 63
Keira Knightley, 40
Cristian Javier, 28

— Seattle Mariners signed C Cal Raleigh to a six-year deal worth $105M; Raleigh has hit 91 home runs the last three years.

— Arizona P Jordan Montgomery is going to have Tommy John surgery, is out for at least a year; he had a 6.23 ERA in 21 starts last season. He won’t be back until late in the 2026 season.

— NIT
Chattanooga 67, Bradley 65
Bradley led 38-25 at halftime.
Honor Huff played all 40:00, shot 5-13 on arc, scored 21 points.
Bradley lost, despite shooting 66.7% inside the arc.

North Texas 61, Oklahoma State 59
Mean Green led 27-22 at halftime.
Cowboys shot 4-15 on the arc, only 9-16 on the foul line.

— CBI
Illinois State 78, Incarnate Word 73
Redbirds outscored the Cardinals 17-9 over the final 5:00. 

Chase Walker scored 27 points, had 8 rebounds for Illinois State.
Three players on Incarnate Word played all 40:00. 

Cleveland State 72, Florida Gulf Coast 65
Vikings led 36-29 at halftime.
Cleveland State was 20-23 on foul line, FGCU 8-14.
Cleveland State was +5 in turnovers (13-8)

— Kentucky Wildcats are the only team in the last 20 years to make the Sweet 16, when they had zero returning points from the year before- kudos to them for that. Mark Pope rebuilt his roster and the Wildcats are

— I’m wondering what its like to be traded; you make a lot of money playing ball, but you get the call that you have to pack up and move somewhere else. Has to be weird, especially for guys who have a family.

— My brain is tired; have watched a ton of college basketball, spring training games and also a lot of fantasy baseball podcasts. Looking forward to watching a lot of baseball that counts on Thursday, as well as the four Sweet 16 games. 

— Tennessee-Kentucky are SEC rivals playing in the Sweet 16, only the fifth time in the last 20 years that conference rivals have met in the Sweet 16:

2015- 4- Louisville (-2.5) 75-65 over 8- NC State
2018- 2- Duke (-11) 69-65 0ver 11- Syracuse
2019- 1- Duke (-7) 75-73 over 4- Virginia Tech
2021- 7- USC (-2) 82-68 over 6- Oregon (favorites 4-0 SU/2-2 ATS)
2025- 2- Tennessee (-4.5) ??-?? vs 3- Kentucky

In the Elite 8, underdogs have fared better vs conference rivals, but we’ll get into that over the weekend.

— March Madness is down to 16 teams, the Sweet 16; this year, only four leagues will have teams playing this weekend, the fewest ever. 7 of 14 SEC teams are still alive.

Things go in cycles; Florida Atlantic was in the Final Four two years ago; in three of the last six tournaments, an 11-seed made it to the Final Four. This year, #10-seed Arkansas is the only team left that is seeded lower than 6th.

— Monday was the first day the college basketball transfer portal was open; at 3:30, there were already 500 names in the portal. Trying to keep up with what players are on what team, you wind up like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, with your head spinning all over the place.

— Speaking of which, a 6-4 guard named Devin Askew is in the portal:
2021- Kentucky- scored 6.5 ppg in 28.9 minutes/game
2022- Texas- scored 2.1 ppg in 14.9 minutes/game
scored 3 points in 24:00 in his only two NCAA Tourney games
2023- California- scored 15.5 ppg in 31.8 minutes/game
2024- California- scored 6.2 ppg in 24.3 mpg, in only six games.
2025- Long Beach State- Long Beach lost their last fifteen games this season.

Will be interesting to see where he re-surfaces in the fall.

— College basketball coaching carousel:
Minnesota hired alum Niko Medved as its new coach; Medved was a student manager for the Gophers. He was 143-85/78-50 at Colorado State, making NCAAs three of the last four years in Fort Collins, after also coaching at Furman, Drake.

Iona hired NBA assistant coach Dan Geriot to replace Tobin Anderson; Geriot has worked the last nine years for the Cavaliers/Pelicans- he was also a head coach in the G League for a year.

Ryan Miller is the new coach at Murray State; he’s been an assistant coach at seven different schools, most recently Creighton.

Racers have gone 29-31 in their three years in the Missouri Valley Conference- they made the NCAA’s three of the last five years they played in the OVC.

— Iowa Hawkeyes signed up former Drake coach Ben McCollum as their new coach, after he led the Bulldogs 31-4 record this year. McCollum won four national titles in six years at the D2 level.

— Rick Pitino is a GREAT basketball coach, one of the best ever. St John’s was 31-5 this year, winning the Big East tournament and an NCAA tourney game, both for the first time since 2000, but they lost 75-66 to Arkansas Saturday, and we live in a fickle society.

Late in the game, down by 2 points, Pitino benched one of his best players, who was 3-17 from the floor in that game. Since then, certain media members have criticized the coach, because, well it was Monday and they had to have something to talk about. 

But Jalen Rose did it on live TV Saturday night, then again Sunday night, over 24 hours after the game ended. Almost like Jalen Rose has a vendetta against Pitino.

— Famous birthdays, March 25th:
Bonnie Bedelia, 77
Lee Mazzilli, 70
Avery Johnson, 60
Sarah Jessica Parker, 60

Tom Glavine, 59
Dale Davis, 56
Travis Fryman, 56
Domenick Lombardozzi, 49

Kyle Lowry, 39
Mike White, 30
Hyun Jin Ryu, 28
Pete Crow-Armstrong, 23

— Long time ago, maybe ten years or so, I’m at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the first week of the NCAA Tournament. The early games on Thursday tip off (really early, it was 9am in Las Vegas) and before the second TV timeout, a guy hits a 3-pointer from the right side, and his team is winning 15-9.

(MGM Sportsbook is excellent, by the way; good place to hang out and watch games, with good food options very close by)

Three young guys sitting to my left start yelling, hugging each other; I asked one of them “Was that your brother who made that shot??”

“No, man, they got to 15 first; that was our bet!!!”

I had no idea that was a thing, that you could bet on which team got to 15 points first. Every now and then, I still debate researching this and keeping track of it, but it seems kind of random to me, so I haven’t done it.

— When the San Francisco Giants play Thursday night, they’ll be starting their 19th different left fielder over the last 19 Opening Days, the longest-such streak by any team at one position in the last 120 years.

— Cleveland Guardians signed P Tanner Bibee for five years, $48M; he was 12-8, 3.47 in 31 starts last year, his second year in the majors.

— World Champion Dodgers used 17 starting pitchers last year; also-ran Angels used 18 starting pitchers. Takes a lot of quality depth in your organization to have a winning team.

— Kansas City Royals acquired 36-year old OF/1B Mark Canha from Milwaukee, in exchange for a player to be named later.

Canha has played for five teams in his 10-year career; he could see some time at 1B for Kansas City, with Vinnie Pasquantino out with a bad hamstring.

— Angels acquired P Ian Anderson from the Braves, in exchange for lefty reliever Jose Suarez.

Anderson 22-13, 3.97 in 52 starts for Atlanta, but he missed the last two years after he had his elbow operated on. He walked 18 batters in 17 IP this spring; he was out of options, so Halos had to trade him or risk losing him via waivers.

— Tigers ace Tarik Skubal was getting interviewed last week, and someone asked him how he dealt with analytics. Skubal gave analytics their due, then referred to the office the analytics guys for Detroit used as……..”the nerd room”

Maryland 72, Colorado State 71
Freshman C Queen banked in a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer.
Maryland is in Sweet 16 for first time since 2016.
Colorado State led by five with 4:36 left in the game.
Rams out-rebounded Maryland, 39-29. 

Florida 77, UConn 75
UConn led by 6 with 9:01 left in the game.
Florida was 22-34 on the foul line, Huskies 19-22.
Gators were 9-19 on the arc, UConn was 8-29.
Florida is in Sweet 16 for first time since 2017.

Kentucky 84, Illinois 75
Kentucky is in Sweet 16 for first time since 2019.
Since 2006, Illinois is 1-6 in second round games.
Wildcats were +9 in turnovers (14-5)
SEC rivals Kentucky-Tennessee play in Indianapolis Friday. 

Alabama 80, Saint Mary’s 66
Alabama held Saint Mary’s to 34.3% from the floor.
Since 1997, Gaels are 1-4 in second round games.
Six guys on Alabama scored in double figures; no one had more than 13 points.
Crimson Tide is shooting 60% inside the arc (#3)

Duke 89, Baylor 66
Blue Devils shot 73.9% inside arc, led 47-30 at halftime.
Duke shot 12-22 on the arc, scored 1.51 points/possession.
Duke has won 13 in a row, are 29-1 since Thanksgiving.
Baylor loses in second round for fourth year in a row. 

Ole Miss 91, Iowa State 78
Ole Miss is in Sweet 16 for first time since 2001.
Coach Beard is in Sweet 16 for third time in last seven tournaments.
Rebels shot 11-19 on the arc, led 40-29 at halftime.
Absence of injured PG Gilbert really hurt Iowa State.

Michigan State 71, New Mexico 63
New Mexico led 31-29 at halftime.
Spartans are in Sweet 16 for third time in last six tournaments.
Michigan State was 19-28 on foul line, Lobos were 5-10.
Spartans put three players in double figures; two of them didn’t start.

Arizona 87, Oregon 83
Arizona led 42-38 at halftime.
Caleb Love scored 29 points, had 9 rebounds, 4 assists.
Oregon was only 12-22 on the foul line.
Arizona plays Duke in New Jersey Thursday. 

— Famous birthdays, March 24th:
Garry Templeton, 69
Bruce Hurst, 67
Mike Woodson, 67
Kelly LeBrock, 65

Lara Flynn Boyle, 55
Steve Karsay, 53
Peyton Manning, 49
Aaron Brooks, 49

Jessica Chastain, 48
Chad Gaudin, 42
Chris Bosh, 41
Damar Hamlin, 27

— College basketball coaching news:
Texas fired Rodney Terry, hired Xavier’s Sean Miller.

Terry went 69-38/27-27 at Texas, making the NCAA’s all three years, going 4-3 with an Elite 8 appearance, but that didn’t appease the Longhorns’ rich boosters.

Miller was 65-40/37-23 in three years in his second stint at Xavier, making the Sweet 16 couple years ago. 

Miller will be the Longhorns’ fourth coach in six years. 

— Whoever replaces Miller at Xavier will be the Musketeers’ fourth coach in nine years.

— NC State officially hired Will Wade as its new coach, after Wade led McNeese State to a 58-11 record in two years, including its first-ever NCAA Tournament win over Clemson this week.

Does Wade bring any McNeese players with him to Raleigh?

— Longwood College coach Griff Aldrich quit his head coaching job to become as assistant coach for Ryan Odom at Virginia.

Aldrich got the Lancers to two NCAA Tournaments in his seven years at Longwood; he played college basketball with Odom at Division-III Hampden Sydney and later earned a law degree from Virginia.

Aldrich was an assistant for one year in 1999, before leaving the profession for 16 years.

In baseball……..
— Baltimore Orioles threw a combined no-hitter against Pittsburgh Saturday; seven pitchers combine to blank the Pirates.

Orioles also signed 37-year old P Kyle Gibson for one year, $5.25M; two years ago, Gibson was 15-9, 4.73 in 33 starts for the Orioles. Last year, he was 8-8, 4.24 in 30 starts for St Louis.

— Guardians/Rockies pulled off a trade Friday; Cleveland re-acquires OF Nolan Jones, Colorado gets utility guy Tyler Freeman, who they need after losing 2B Thairo Estrada during the week with a broken right wrist.

— A’s 2B Zack Gelof broke the hamate bone in his right hand, will start the season on the IL. Gelof hit .211 last year, after hitting .267 in a strong rookie season.

Luis Urias or rookie Max Muncy (not that Max Muncy) figure to replace Gelof at 2B.

— Atlanta Braves added outfield depth, signed Alex Verdugo for one year, $1.5M; Verdugo hit hit only .233 with a poor .647 OPS for New York last year. In 2019-20, his OPS was over .800 both years- he is still only 28 years old, so the Braves are giving him a look.

— RIP to the great boxer George Foreman, who passed away at age 76. Foreman won an Olympic gold medal in 1968, was a two-time heavyweight champion; he was also a pretty good businessman. 

In 1999, he sold the commercial rights to the George Foreman grill for $138M; I have one of his grills in my kitchen.

RIP, sir. 

— Arkansas 75, St John’s 66
St John’s was dismal, shooting 28% from floor.
Teams combined to shoot 4-41 on the arc. Brickfest.
St John’s led 32-28 with 2:14 left before halftime.
Arkansas has won seven of its last nine games.

— BYU 91, Wisconsin 89
BYU led 47-36 at halftime.
Cougars shot 12-26 on arc, scored 1.28 points/possession.
John Tonje scored 37 points for the Badgers.
BYU has won 11 of its last 12 games.

— Houston 81, Gonzaga 76
First time in 10 years Gonzaga missed the Sweet 16.
Houston never trailed, scored 1.25 points/possession.
LJ Cryer scored 30 points for the Cougars.
Gonzaga was 2-9 in games decided by 8 or fewer points.

— Auburn 82, Creighton 70
Creighton led 37-35 at halftime.
Auburn freshman G Pettiford scored 23 points; he didn’t start.
First trip to Sweet 16 for Auburn since 2019.
Auburn-Michigan is a Sweet 16 game Friday.

— Famous birthdays, March 23rd:
Bucky Pope, 84
Barbara Rhoades, 79
Pat Bourque, 78

Ron Jaworski, 74
Mark Buehrle, 46
Maurice Jones-Drew, 40

Gordon Hayward, 35
Kyrie Irving, 33
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, 30

— Purdue 76, McNeese State 62
Purdue led 38-20 at halftime.
Boilers out-rebounded McNeese, 41-24.
Kaufman-Renn scored 22 points, had 15 rebounds.
Since 2017, Purdue is 5-1 ATS in second round games.

— Michigan 91, Texas A&M 79
Aggies led 60-50 with 13:17 left in the game.
Michigan was 29-36 on foul line, A&M 18-26.
Roddy Gayle scored 26 points; he didn’t start.
Michigan won its last five games, scoring 77 ppg.

— Texas Tech 77, Drake 64
Texas Tech shot 68.4% inside the arc.
Drake shot only 40.5% inside the arc.
Tech was 13-46 on arc Thursday, only 2-13 in this game.
Texas Tech-Arkansas is a Sweet 16 game Thursday.

— Tennessee 67, UCLA 58
Tennessee shot 11-22 on the arc, only 37% inside arc.
Vols led 32-25 at halftime.
Tennessee is 15-0 outside the SEC this season.
Big 18 winds up the first three days 10-2, losing twice Saturday.

— Movie of the Day: Morning Glory (2010)- A young television producer gets a job to revive a struggling morning program, which has co-hosts who don’t like each other. 

Rachel McAdams is the producer, Harrison Ford/Diane Keaton are the co-hosts. Jeff Goldblum is also in this movie. Harrison Ford’s character is frustrating, because he seems miserable, but that is part of what makes this a good movie. 

Trying to catch up with the rest of the world……..
— It was 45 degrees here in Albany Friday, with 30 mph winds, a cold day. When my mailman came to my house at 2:30, the freakin’ guy had a coat on, but he was wearing shorts!!!! He had to be so cold, I mean it was a freakin’ nasty wind.

— Giants signed QB Jameis Winston for two years, $8M; Winston is 36-51 as an NFL starter for three different teams- he was 2-5 in seven starts for Cleveland last year.

— Former NFL player/head coach Ron Rivera was named general manager for the Cal Bears’ program, his alma mater. He was 105-108-3 as an NFL head coach (Carolina/Washington).

— #1-4 seeds went 16-0 SU in first round, only 6th time that has happened since 1985, but three of them lost in the second round Saturday.

Favorites were 4-4 ATS Saturday, as 23-17 so far.
Over is 5-3 Saturday; under is 23-17 in the tournament’s first three days.

— Former VCU coach Ryan Odom is the new coach at Virginia, which will be his 4th job in six years. Odom went 52-21 in two years at VCU, after going 44-25 in two years at Utah State, which followed five years at UMBC, where he posted the first-ever 16-seed over 1-seed upset in NCAA Tournament history, ironically over Virginia.

Odom’s father Dave Odom was an assistant coach at Virginia for seven years, before he moved on to Wake Forest, where he coached Tim Duncan.

— When #2-seed Alabama was favored by 22.5 points over Robert Morris in the first round, it was the most points a #2-seed was favored by since Arizona was -23 over Eastern Illinois, way back in 2001. Neither one of those big favorites covered those games.

— Boston Celtics were sold this week to William Chisholm, managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group, for a mere $6.1B. Thats billion, with a B.

“Growing up on the North Shore and attending college in New England, I have been a die-hard Celtics fan my entire life. I understand how important the Celtics are to the city of Boston…..”

Celtics were last sold in 2002, for $360M; the previous owners make a boatload of $$$$; they also won two NBA titles while they owned the franchise.

— Congrats to Stephen Curry on making his 4,000th 3-point shot as an NBA player; Curry has a 42.3% career %age on 3’s, making 4,010 of them. He is clearly the best shooter, ever.

— Baylor 75, Mississippi State 72
Baylor shot 55.3% inside arc, had 16 offensive rebounds.
Miss State shot 72.7% inside arc, only 10-30 on arc.
Baylor has won its last seven first round games.
Miss State lost its last six NCAA Tournament games.

— Ole Miss 71, North Carolina 64
Ole Miss led 44-26 at halftime.
Coach Beard is 6-0 in first round games, for four different schools.
Tar Heels shot only 5-24 on the arc.
UNC was 2-6 this year in non-ACC games vs top 100 teams.

— Saint Mary’s 59, Vanderbilt 56
Vandy led 29-22 at half 0f a slow-paced (59 possessions) game.
Saint Mary’s out-rebounded the Commodores, 41-28
Vandy finished 20-13, making their first NCAA since 2016.
Saint Mary’s-Alabama Sunday will definitely be worlds colliding.

— Colorado State 78, Memphis 70
Rams outscored Memphis 47-34 in second half.
Colorado State was 11-30 on arc, Tigers 6-23
Memphis star Haggerty was only 7-23 from the floor.
Rams have now won 11 games in a row.

This was first time since 2017 that a #12-seed was favored over a #5-seed.

— Iowa State 82, Lipscomb 55
Cyclones shot 68.3% inside arc, led 40-24 at halftime.
Last six years, #3-seeds are 16-8 ATS in first round.
Lipscomb was 0-3 vs top 100 teams, losing by 16-29-27 points.
Iowa State-Ole Miss will be fun to watch Sunday.

— Alabama 90, Robert Morris 81
Most points a #2-seed allowed in a 1st round win since Arizona in 2017..
Underdog Colonials led by a point with 7:01 left to play.
Alabama shot 75.7% (28-37) inside the arc.
Horizon teams have now covered their last six NCAA Tourney games.

This was the most points a #2-seed was favored by Arizona in 2015.

— Maryland 81, Grand Canyon 49
Dismal performance by the Antelopes, who shot 32.1%
Could’ve been worse; Terps were 12-24 on foul line.
Maryland has won 13 of its last 16 games.
Maryland plays Colorado State in the 2nd round Sunday.

— Duke 93, Mt St Mary’s 49
Awful game; Duke led 54-28 at halftime.
Duke had only two turnovers in 70 possessions.
#1-seeds went 4-0/2-2 in first round (wins by 20-38-44-26 points)
Blue Devils play Baylor Sunday.

— Famous birthdays, March 22nd:
William Shatner, 94
Matthew Modine, 66
Jimbo Covert, 65
Brian Shaw, 59

Ramón Martínez, 57
Shawn Bradley, 53
Marcus Camby, 51
Reese Witherspoon, 49

Marques Tuiasosopo, 46
Dexter Fowler, 39
Ike Davis, 38
JJ Watt, 36

— New Mexico 75, Marquette 66
Marquette led by 3 with 12:29 left in the game.
Lobos were 18-21 on foul line, Marquette 7-12.
Mountain West is 2-2 SU in NCAA’s this week; previous three years, they were 3-16.
Lobos play Michigan State in second round Sunday. 

— UConn 67, Oklahoma 59
Sooners led by a point with 9:03 left in the game.
UConn shot 58.1% inside arc, 6-25 on the arc.
Oklahoma shot 32.1% from the floor.
Huskies won 6 of last 7 games, after a 6-6 stretch.

— Kentucky 76, Troy 57
Kentucky led 35-27 at the half, pulled away in second half.
Amari Williams only had 5 points, but had 12 rebounds, 4 assists.
Troy took lot of 3’s, but made only 8-32.
Kentucky-Illinois should be a good game Sunday.

— Illinois 86, Xavier 73
Illini out-rebounded Xavier, 45-25.
Xavier was +9 in turnovers (14-5)
Illinois is in bottom 5 in country at forcing turnovers.
Illini shot 57.1% inside arc, scored 1.21 points/possession.
Last year was the first Sweet 16 for Illinois since 2005.

— Michigan State 87, Bryant 62
Bryant actually led 19-15 midway thru first half.
Spartans out-rebounded Bryant, 54-29.
Michigan State shot 10-26 on arc, scored 1.23 points/possession.
This was Bryant’s second trip to NCAA’s in last four years.

— Florida 95, Norfolk State 69
Gators won easily, led 53-32 at halftime.
Florida shot 67.9% inside arc, scored 1.44 points/possession.
Florida had 21 offensive rebounds, Norfolk 14 defensive rebounds.
Gators-UConn is an interesting matchup for Sunday.

— Arizona 93, Akron 65
Arizona out-rebounded the Zips, 53-22.
Wildcats outscored Akron 52-34 in second half.
Akron shot 33.3% from the floor.
Arizona shot 12-25 on the arc, scored 1.24 points/possession.

— Oregon 81, Liberty 52
Ducks sprinted out to 25-8 lead, jogged to an easy win. (do ducks jog?)
Oregon out-rebounded Liberty, 43-27
Liberty shot 8-37 on the arc.
Oregon won nine of last ten games; they play Arizona Sunday. 

Thursday was March 20, 2025, which reminded me of something………

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

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

“March 20, 2025”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Famous birthdays, March 21st
Tom Flores, 88
Manny Sanguillén, 81
Gary Oldman, 67
Matthew Broderick, 63

Shawon Dunston, 62
Scott Williams, 57
Tony Horne, 49
Carlos Carrasco, 38

Frankie Montas, 32
Sebastian Joseph-Day, 30
A’Shawn Robinson, 30
Nick Mullens, 30

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Xavier 85, Texas 80
Longhorns led by 10 with 12:31 left to play.
Xavier shot 12-25 on the arc.
Xavier had home crowd edge, with game in Ohio.
Musketeers advance to play Illinois next.

— Mt St Mary’s 83, American 72
Mt St Mary’s shot 70% inside the arc.
Mountaineers led 48-38 at halftime.
American was 13-35 on the arc, 14-22 inside arc.
Mt St Mary’s advances to play Duke Friday.

— Famous birthdays, March 20th:
Hal Linden, 95
Pat Riley, 80
Rick Langford, 73
Steve McCatty, 71
Amy Aquino, 69

Spike Lee, 68
Holly Hunter, 67
Mookie Blaylock, 58
Jose Tena, 24
Taj Bradley, 24

— I’m in a fantasy baseball league, a dynasty league, so you keep your players from year to year, if you want to. This is the 21st year of our league.

Been watching lot of YouTube shows about fantasy baseball; in one mock draft, out of the first 43 players drafted, only one of them was on my team. I’m like, good grief my team isn’t going to have a good year. The geniuses on this show hate my players.

Lot of those geniuses tend to overvalue younger players, and guys who had great years last year. We’ll see what happens; my team is usually pretty good, more wins than losses, would be nice to the championship one of these years. We’ll see what happens.

— 6am games baseball from Japan are a BAD IDEA; what about out in Las Vegas— what poor bastards have to work in the sportsbook at 2am-3am, taking bets on these games? Casinos are open 24/7, but sportsbooks aren’t, unless something is going on.

Obviously MLB somehow made a boatload of $$$ on those two games, or else they wouldn’t do it, but market the sport better in this country.

— When the NBA expands in the next few years, they need to put a team back in Seattle. NBA screwed Seattle when they pulled the SuperSonics out of there in 2008; the city supported the team very well, they just wouldn’t build a new arena that wasn’t needed.

17 years later, Seattle has a new arena; they have an NHL team now, and hopefully soon, the NBA will be back there. Las Vegas would probably get the other expansion team.

— The ball/strike instant replay challenge system continues to be interesting to follow; they’ve done it in AAA the last three years. It’ll probably become a major league rule next year.

Last year, there were an average of 3.9 pitches/game challenged, with 51% of the calls being overturned by instant replay.

Quick look at the first round of the NIT:

— Chattanooga 109, Middle Tennessee 103, 3OT
93-possession game; kid on MTSU scored 31 points and he didn’t start.
Both teams shot over 64% inside the arc; fun game to watch.

— Dayton 86, FAU 79
Dayton’s arena hosts the play-in games for the NCAA’s, so they can’t host NIT games.
Dayton shot 65.4% inside arc, scored 1.26 points/possession.
5-10 G Bennett scored 30 points, had one assist; his job was to shoot.

— UAB 69, St Joe’s 65
Blazers outscored St Joe’s 13-4 over the last 4:12 of this game.
UAB was 21-54 inside the arc, 4-14 on arc; unusual in this day and age.

— How do you handicap NIT games? I don’t; everyone is disappointed to be there, impossible to tell who is still motivated to play ball. After you see these first round games, you can evaluate and make decisions, but first round games, 48-72 hours after the NCAA brackets come out?

No thank you.

— Jacksonville State 81, Georgia Tech 64
Take this game; how does a team from Conference USA go to an ACC gym and crush their hosts? Gamecocks never trailed, shot 15-30 on the arc, won easily. Go figure.

— Arkansas State 103, Saint Louis 78
Red Wolves scored 1.36 points/possession against a team whose eFG% defense was still in the top 100, even after this debacle. Arkansas State had a week since they lost in Sun Belt tourney, Billkens had three days. Maybe that is something to keep track of.

— Cal-Irvine 82, Northern Colorado 72
Northern Colorado led this game by 9 early in second half.

Few years ago, I met Irvine coach Russell Turner at an AAU tournament in Las Vegas; he’s a good guy and a very good coach. Last three years, Anteaters are 76-28; would be fun to see them make a run and get to the NIT Final Four. Irvine has the #16 eFG% defense in country.

— Favorites went 11-5 ATS in the first round of the NIT