Category: SPORTS

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

Wednesday- Trivia night 7:00
Thursday- Darts, plus Rams-49ers on TV
Friday- Ugly Sweater Christmas party, 8:00
Saturday- Out of Office live music, college football on TV
Sunday- $1 chicken wings, NFL games on TV

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

Saturday’s college football info is posted
Week 15 NFL knowledge is posted

Friday’s 6-pack:
Interesting bowl spreads……..
— Memphis -4.5 vs West Virginia
— California -1.5 vs UNLV
— Indiana @ Notre Dame -7.5
— SMU @ Penn State -9
— Clemson @ Texas -11
— Tennessee @ Ohio State -7.5

Quote of the Day 
“You can shear a sheep many times, but only skin him once.”
Amarillo Slim

Friday’s quiz
In the history of the New York Knicks, who has scored the most points?

Thursday’s quiz
Who is the Kansas City Chiefs’ all-time leader in passing touchdowns? 

Wednesday’s quiz
Jameis Winston played his college football at Florida State. 

NBA trends (thru Tuesday, December 10)

Hawks (13-12):
— 6-1 SU in their last seven games.
— 5-2 ATS as a road underdog.
— Over 5-1 last six home games

Celtics (19-5):
— 10-2 last 12 games SU. 
— 2-9 ATS last eleven games.
— over 6-3 last nine home games.

Nets (10-14):
— lost four of their last five games SU.
— 13-7 ATS as an underdog.
— under 3-1 last four games

Hornets (7-17):
— lost eight of last nine games SU.
— 8-5 ATS as a home underdog.
— under 8-3 last eleven home games.
— over 4-1 last five home games.

Bulls (10-15)
— 2-4 SU in last sis games.
— 4-6 ATS as a home underdog.
— over 7-3 last ten home games
— 1-5 ATS if they played the night before.

Cavaliers (21-4):
— 4-1 SU last five games.
— 11-3 ATS as a home favorite, 4-0 as a road underdog.
— under 4-2 last six games.
— 3-1 ATS if they played the night before.

Mavericks (16-9):
— 11-2 last 13 games SU.
— 5-1 ATS last six home games.
— over 9-3 last 12 games
— 4-0 ATS if they played the night before.

Nuggets (12-10):
— 2-3 SU last five games
— 3-11-1 ATS as a favorite.
— over 4-0 last seven road games.
— 3-1 ATS if they played the night before.

Pistons (10-15):
— 3-7 last ten games SU.
— 6-3 ATS as road underdogs.
— over 6-0 last six road games

Warriors (14-9):
— 2-6 last eight games SU.
— 7-3 ATS as an underdog
— under 9-2 last eleven games

Rockets (16-8):
— 4-3 last seven games SU
— 7-3 ATS as a home favorite, 5-2 as an underdog.
— over 5-1 last six games

Pacers (10-15):
— 1-5 SU in their last six games.
— 2-6-1 ATS as a home favorite.
— 1-3 ATS if they played the night before.
— over 5-2 last seven road games.

Clippers (14-11):
— 3-4 last seven games SU
— 9-6 ATS at home.
— 6-2 ATS as a favorite
— over 3-1 last four home games.

Lakers (13-11):
— 3-7 SU last ten games
— 2-5 ATS as a road underdog
— 3-9 ATS last 12 games.
— under 5-2 last seven road games.

Grizzlies (17-8):
— 9-1 last ten games SU.
— 8-4 ATS as a home favorite.  
— 4-0 ATS if they played the night before.
— over 5-1 last six road games

Heat (12-10):
— 3-0 SU last three games, scoring 125.7 ppg.
— 5-1 ATS last six games as a home favorite
— 4-2 ATS as a road underdog.
— over 5-1 last six home games.

Famous birthdays, December 12th:
Dionne Warwick, 84
Allan Lewis, 83
Ralph Garr, 79
Gorman Thomas, 74
Rafael Septien, 71

Andrew Whitworth, 43
Ervin Santana, 42
Luis Castillo, 32
Cristopher Sanchez, 28
Cole Ragans, 27

Frank Sinatra was born on this day, in 1915.
December 12th was also my Uncle Roy’s birthday.

Bucks (13-11):
— 9-2 last eleven games SU.
— 0-4 ATS last four games as home favorite.
— over 6-3 last nine games.
— 0-4-1 ATS if they played the night before

Timberwolves (12-11)
— 4-1 SU last five games.
— 3-8 ATS as a home favorite.
— 1-3 ATS if they played the night before
— under 4-1 last five games.

Pelicans (5-20):
— 3-20 last 23 games SU
— 3-10 ATS on the road (6-5 at home).
— 2-4 ATS if they played the night before
— over 4-0 last four games. 

Knicks (15-9):
— 5-1 SU last six games.
— 8-3 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 6-2 last eight home games. 

Thunder (19-5):
— 8-1 last nine games SU
— 8-4 ATS on road.
— 1-3 ATS if they played the night before
— under 7-5 last road games

Magic (17-10):
— 2-3 last five games SU.
— 9-1 ATS as home favorite, 3-6 as road underdog.  
— over 3-0 last three home games. 

76ers (7-15):
— 4-1 SU/5-0 ATS last five games 
— 2-4 ATS as road underdogs.
— under 6-2 last eight road games

Suns (12-11):
— 4-9 SU last 13 games.
— 4-8 ATS at home.
— 1-4 ATS if they played the night before
— over 5-1 last six road games

Trailblazers (8-16):
— 2-8 SU last ten games.
— 6-4 ATS as a home underdog.
— under 9-4 road games

Kings (12-13):
— 3-1 SU last four games (scored 140-141 last two).
— 0-4 ATS as home underdogs. 
— over 4-0 last four home games

Spurs (12-12):
— 2-4 SU in last six games
— 2-5 ATS as a road underdog, 2-4 as a home favorite.
— over 5-2 last seven games

Raptors (7-18):
— lost last three games SU, giving up 122.3 ppg.
— 6-1 ATS last seven games as home dog, 7-5 as road dog.
— under 7-2 last nine road games

Jazz (5-18):
— 2-10 SU last 12 games.
— 5-6 ATS as home underdog, 6-6 as road dog.
— over 5-0 last five road games.
— under 5-1 last six home games.

Wizards (3-19):
— 1-17 SU/4-13-1 ATS last 18 games
— 3-9 ATS as home dog, 4-6-1 as road dog
— over 4-1 last five games.

— Good week for baseball fans; lot of stuff going on.

Mets are going to be paying Juan Soto $51K a year for the next 16 years; last year, the entire payroll for the Oakland A’s was $63M. Awesome.

On Opening Day, when Soto suits up for the Mets, he’ll be playing for his fourth different team in the last four Opening Days. Very unusual for a 26-year old star.

— When they signed Soto, Mets’ odds to win the World Series plunged from 12-1 to 15-2.

— With Soto leaving the Bronx, New York has lot of extra $$$ to spend- Bombers signed P Max Fried to an eight year, $218M deal- that is $27.25M per year.

Fried will be 31 next month; he was 11-10, 3.25 in 29 starts for Atlanta last year. In his career, he is 73-36, 3.07 in 151 career starts, all with the Braves. Fried was an All-Star two of the last three seasons.

— P Nathan Eovaldi re-upped with the Texas Rangers, getting $75M for three years.

— Dodgers signed reliever Blake Treinen for two years, $22M; they also signed OF Michael Conforto for one year, $17M.

— Phillies signed reliever Jordan Romano for one year, $8.5M.

— Blue Jays signed reliever Yimi Garcia for two years, $15M. 

Toronto also acquired 2B Andres Gimenez from Cleveland.

— Top two picks in July’s baseball draft:
1) Washington 2) LA Angels

— Mariners, Cardinals jumped the highest in the draft lottery; Marlins, Rockies have to be really disappointed with where they’re picking- they fell in the lottery.

— Tampa Bay Rays will draft 14th in July, highest pick they’ve had since 2017.

— Famous birthdays, December 11:
Rita Moreno, 93
Donna Mills, 84
Gary Dourdan, 58
Doug Nussmeier, 54
Shareef Abdur-Rahim, 48

Joe Blanton, 44
Jacoby Brissett, 32
Allen Lazard, 29
Hailee Steinfeld, 28
Mark Vientos, 25

— Bengals 27, Cowboys 20
Burrow threw a 40-yard TD pass to Chase with 1:01 for the winning TD.
Chase caught 14 passes for 177 yards, two TD’s.
Dallas muffed a blocked punt just before that, giving Cincinnati the ball back.
Bengals are 5-1 if they allow 24 or fewer points, 0-7 if they allow more than 24. 
Bengals are 4-0 ATS as a road favorite TY.

Dallas is 1-6 SU/ATS at home this season.
Cowboys are 1-8 when they allow more than 20 points.

Bengals outgained Dallas, 433-322.
Game was 17-17 after the third quarter.
Cowboys’ last three drives: 12 plays, 31 yards, no points.

— Central Florida hired Scott Frost as its new football coach; Frost led UCF to a 13-0 record in 2017, then bolted to Nebraska, where his teams struggled, going 16-31 over five years- they gave him $13M to take a hike during the 2022 season.

This season, Frost has been working with the LA Rams as a special assistant.

— Brandon Aubrey is the Dallas Cowboys’ kicker; he never played college football, he played soccer in college, but he was drafted by the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions and kicked for them for two years, before he made the Cowboys’ roster. 

Jake Bates is the Detroit Lions’ kicker; he kicked for the Michigan Panthers in the UFL last year and now he’s in the big time.

Spring football will be starting up at the end of March.

— Would Alabama have been left out of the college football playoff if Nick Saban was still their coach? Has their perception changed since he retired? You could make an argument that they wouldn’t have lost three games if he was still coaching, but that’s a different question.

— Kansas City Chiefs are 0-7 ATS in their last seven games; no team that won the Super Bowl has ever had an 0-6 ATS streak during that season.

— Duke’s football team is 9-3 this year, their best win %age since 1962, but QB Maalik Murphy is going into the transfer portal. He’s thrown for 2,932 yards, 26 TD’s, 12 INTs after coming over from Texas.

Duke was 9-4 last year with Riley Leonard at QB; he bolted to Notre Dame last spring.

— Arkansas 89, Michigan 87
This game had the feel of March, like a Sweet 16 game.
78-possession game, very fast pace.

— North Dakota State 71, Butler 68
Big East teams aren’t supposed to lose to Summit teams.
North Dakota State outscored Butler 9-1 over the final 2:39.
Bison shot 13-30 on the arc; that’s how upsets happen.

— Brown 84, Rhode Island 80 2OT
URI came in at 9-0; they led by 12 in first half.
Rams turned ball over 21 times (minus-7)

— Providence 70, DePaul 63 OT
DePaul led by 8 with 3:37 left in regulation.
Blue Demons have now lost their last 33 regular season conference games.

— Charleston 78, St Joe’s 75
St Joe’s led by 11 with 10:55 left in the game.
Chris Mack’s Cougars are 7-2; they were 13-13 on foul line. 

Early notes, thoughts, trends on bowl games:

— If you’re betting on bowl games, pay attention to the news:
Which coaches have moved on to other jobs
Which players are injured
Which players (if any) have opted out of playing
Weather

— If I was a kid playing in a bowl, my preference would be warm weather; in other words, almost anywhere other than Boise, Boston or the Bronx.

— This is the first year of the 12-team playoff; four games will be played at campus sites December 20-21. What impact will campus sites have on the games? Won’t be as many students around, with the games so close to Christmas.

— Will the teams who have first round byes have an advantage in second round games? Again, there is no road map for this, since this is the first year with this format.

Arizona State, Boise State, Georgia, Oregon have the first round byes.

—  Biggest spreads in bowls:
Florida -12 vs Tulane
Ole Miss -11.5 vs Duke
Alabama -11.5 vs Michigan

Clemson +11 @ Texas
South Carolina -10.5 vs Illinois
Army -10.5 vs Marshall

TCU -10 vs Louisiana
SMU +9 @ Penn State
Pittsburgh -9 vs Toledo

— Highest totals in bowls:
68.5- North Texas-Texas State
62.5- South Florida-San Jose State
60.5- Baylor-LSU

60.5- Syracuse-Washington State
59.5- Texas Tech-Arkansas
59.5- South Alabama-Western Michigan

59.5- TCU-Louisiana
59.5- NC State-East Carolina
58.5- Coastal Carolina-Tex-San Antonio

— Lowest totals in bowls:
40.5- Iowa-Missouri
42.5- Northern Illinois-Fresno State
43.5- Miami OH-Colorado State
43.5- Alabama-Michigan

44.5- Oklahoma-Navy
45.5- Boston College-Nebraska
46.5- Georgia Southern-Sam Houston State
47.5- Tennessee-Ohio State

— Famous birthdays, December 10:
Susan Dey, 72
Mark Aguirre, 65
Bryant Stith, 54

Carlos Rodon, 32
Nestor Cortes, 30
Joe Burrow, 28

— North Carolina-UConn, Fenway Bowl
Tar Heels fired 73-year old Mack Brown, who won’t coach this game; Brown led UNC to bowls the last six years, going 44-33, but lost his last four bowls. 

Adding to the intrigue is news that North Carolina is talking with 72-year old Bill Belichick about being the Tar Heels’ next coach, even though he has never coached in college. 

With the game being played in Boston, that only adds to the drama.

— UNLV coach Barry Odom has already bolted to Purdue, which is 5-19 the last two years. Odom was 19-8 the last two years at UNLV; there is debate as to whether Purdue is a better job than UNLV, big fish/small pond and all that……..

Rebels are playing the Cal Bears in the LA Bowl; UNLV’s QB quit the team after three games this year, now their coach has moved on to greener pa$ture$. Not ideal.

— Dowell Loggains was South Carolina’s offensive coordinator; now he is Appalachian State’s head coach. Gamecocks are a double digit favorite over Illinois in their bowl game.

— Duke running backs coach Willie Simmons is the new head coach at Florida International; he was 45-13 as head coach at Florida A&M before moving to Duke this past year. His departure could be a distraction to a Duke team that is an 11.5-point underdog to Ole Miss.

— Marshall is 10-3 this season, winning the Sun Belt championship, but the administration at Marshall didn’t get long well with coach Charles Huff, so Huff has bolted to Southern Miss.

Marshall is a 10-point underdog to Army in their bowl game.

— Ohio U is 30-10 the last three years; they won the MAC championship Saturday, but quickly lost coach Tim Albin, who bolted to Charlotte. Ohio is favored by 1.5 points over Jacksonville State in their bowl game; Albin misses out on a trip to Orlando.

— Good news: Sam Houston State is 9-3 in its second year as a I-A team.

Bad news: Temple poached Sam Houston’s coach, 65-year old KC Keeler, who is 271-112-1 as a head coach at multiple levels of college ball.

Bearkats are a 5.5-point underdog to Georgia Southern in their bowl game. 

Lot of stuff going on; let’s get to it.

— Mets signed OF Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765M contract; that’s $51M a year, $318K+ per game for a 26-year old outfielder with a career OPS of .953.

Soto is 26; he’ll be playing for his 4th team in eight years, which is odd, but he doesn’t have to move this time, seeing how he played in the Bronx last year, and will play in Queens from now on.

Baseball’s Winter Meetings are this week; they’re off to a flying start.

Dolphins 32, Jets 26 OT
Miami forced OT on a 52-yard FG with 0:07 left.
Sanders kicked four FG’s, two of 50+ yards, but also missed a PAT.
Miami drove 70 yards in 8 plays for game-winning TD in overtime.
Dolphins won nine of last ten series games.
Miami won four of its last five games overall. 

Jets outgained Miami 402-375, but had 10 penalties for 83 yards.
Jets are 1-9 SU/2-8 ATS in their last ten games.
Four of their last five losses were by 3-1-5-6 points.
Over is 6-2 in their last eight games.
Jets held last three opponents to 91-84-44 rushing yards.

Vikings 42, Falcons 21
Cousins threw for 344 yards, but also 2 INTs in his return to Minnesota.
Falcons lost their last three games SU, scoring 5 TD’s on 38 drives.
Atlanta is 2-7 ATS in last nine games as a road underdog.
Falcons had 3 turnovers, also 12 penalties for 127 yards. 

Vikings’ first five drives: 30 plays, 213 yards, 14 points.
Vikings’ last four drives: 24 plays, 275 yards, 28 points.
Minnesota won its last six games (4-2 ATS)
Minnesota has 26 takeaways in 13 games (+7 turnovers).
NFC North home favorites are 12-5 ATS in non-divisional games.

Rams 44, Bills 42
Rams blocked punt for TD early in 2nd quarter, giving them 17-7 lead.
Bills’ 7 drives after that: 41 plays, 407 yards, 35 points.
QB Allen threw for 342 yards, 3 TDs, ran for 82 yards, 3 more TD’s.
Buffalo gave up 35-23-44 points in its losses (9-0 allow less than 23).
Last eight Buffalo games went over the total.

Rams’ first five drives: 52 plays, 358 yards, 31 points.
Rams converted 11 of their 15 third down plays.
WR Nucua caught 12 passes for 162 yards and a TD.
Rams won six of their last eight games, after a 1-4 start.
Ten of their 13 games were decided by 8 or fewer points.  

Saints 14, Giants 11
Saints blocked a 35-yard FG with 0:11 left to preserve the win.
New Orleans is 3-1 SU/ATS since their coaching change.
Saints QB Carr injured his left hand late in game (check status)
New Orleans was 5-15 on third down, Giants 5-19.
Giants outgained the Saints, 325-292.

New Orleans led 14-3 after the third quarter.
Giants in 4th quarter: 30 plays, 162 yards, only 8 points.
Giants are 0-8 SU/1-7 ATS in last eight games.
Giants are 0-7 SU/2-5 ATS at home, scoring 10.1 points/game.
Giants haven’t had a positive turnover ratio in any games TY.

Steelers 27, Browns 14
Cleveland was 2-13 on 3rd down, Steelers 6-14.
Browns are 2-5 SU/ATS on road this season. 
Cleveland is 3-1 when it scores 18+ points, 0-9 when it doesn’t
Browns are 8-14-1 ATS last 23 games as a road underdog.
Browns are minus-9 in turnovers the last seven games.

Pittsburgh led 13-7 at halftime.
Steelers first two drives of 2nd half: 13 plays, 113 yards, 14 points.
Steelers won/covered seven of their last eight games. 
Pittsburgh is 13-4 ATS in last 17 AFC North home games.
Cleveland lost 5 in row, 22 of last 23 visits to Pittsburgh (1-7 ATS last 8)

Buccaneers 28, Raiders 13
Tampa Bay’s first 2 drives: 17 plays, 137 yards, 14 points.
Bucs won their last three games, after a 1-5 skid.
7-6 Tampa Bay leads NFC South by a game over Atlanta.
Mayfield threw for 295 yards, 3 TD’s.
Mayfield is 17-15 as Tampa Bay’s quarterback. 

Buccaneers outgained Las Vegas, 420-286.
Tampa Bay ran ball 26 times for 152 yards (5.8 yards/carry).
Raiders lost another QB: O’Connell hurt his knee, Ridder was 12-18/101 passing.
Las Vegas is 0-9 SU/3-6 ATS in last nine games.
Raiders have 25 turnovers in 13 games (minus-17).  

Famous birthdays, December 9th:
Darold Knowles, 83
Beau Bridges, 83
Michael Nouri, 79

John Malkovich, 71
World B Free, 71
Jim Haslett, 69

Otis Birdsong, 69
Juan Samuel, 64
Eric Bledsoe, 35

Eagles 22, Panthers 16
Carolina WR dropped a 38-yard TD pass in last 1:00 that would’ve given them the lead.
Panthers led 16-14 after 3rd quarter; they outgained Philly 302-292
Carolina is 2-3 SU/5-0 ATS in last five games. 
Those five games were decided by total of 16 points.
WR Thielen caught nine passes for 102 yards. 

Eagles ran ball for 209 yards, but Hurts threw for only 108 yards.
Safe to say that Philly’s receivers aren’t happy with those numbers.
Eagles are 9-0 SU/6-3 in their last nine games.
Philly is 4-1 SU/1-4 ATS at home this season.
Last seven games, Eagles are +10 in turnovers.

Jaguars 10, Titans 6
Tennessee led 6-0 after the third quarter.
Jaguars’ first 5 drives: 34 plays, 127 yards, 2 INTs, no points.
Jaguars’ last 3 drives: 24 plays, 151 yards, 10 points.
Jacksonville snaps its 5-game losing skid.
Jaguars covered six of their last seven games.

Tennessee is 2-7 SU/1-8 ATS in last nine games.
Titans were +2 in turnovers, but averaged only 4.3 yards/pass attempt.
Titans are 2-6 ATS in last eight AFC South home games.
QB Levis is 5-14 as an NFL starter.
Titans’ team total: under 9-3-1

Seahawks 30, Cardinals 18
Murray threw INTs on two of Arizona’s first three drives.
Seahawks’ first two TD drives were only 19-46 yards.
Seattle is 7-0 SU/6-1 ATS in last seven series games.
Seahawks are 4-0 since their bye, giving up 17-6-21-18 points. 
Seattle was 7-15 on third down, Arizona 4-12.

Arizona is 0-3 since its bye, losing 16-6/23-22/30-18. 
Down 27-18 in 4th quarter, Arizona missed a 40-yard FG.
Seahawks ran ball 31 times for 176 yards (5.7 yards/carry)
QB Murray is 34-44-1 SU as an NFL starter.

49ers 35, Bears 13
Bears scored first once in their 13 games (4-9).
Bears in first half: 17 plays, 9 yards, 5 punts.
49ers in first half: 37 plays, 310 yards, 24 points.
Maybe it wasn’t all the former coach’s fault.
Bears are 8-14-1 ATS last 23 games as a road underdog.

San Francisco snaps its 3-game losing skid.
49ers outgained Chicago 452-162; they averaged 11.9 yards/pass attempt.
49ers are 5-1 when they score 30+ points, 1-6 when they don’t.
QB Purdy is 27-11 as an NFL starter.
Over is 8-3 in their last eleven games.

Chiefs 19, Chargers 17
Chiefs drove 47 yards, kicked GW 31-yard field goal at the gun.
Kansas City wins AFC West for 9th year in a row.
Chiefs are 12-1, but they’re 0-7 ATS last seven games.
Kansas City has only one win this year by more than 10 points.
Chiefs are 16-22 ATS in last 38 games as a home favorite.

Chargers in first half: 27 plays, 122 yards, no points.
Chargers in second half: 31 plays, 210 yards, 17 points.
LA took a 17-16 lead, kicking a FG with 4:35 left in game.
Chargers are 5-2 SU/6-1 ATS in their last seven games.
LA is 3-5 scoring 23 or fewer points, 5-0 scoring 24+.

— Georgia 22, Texas 19 OT
Texas tied game on a 37-yard FG with 0:18 left.
Each team scored one touchdown in regulation.
Longhorns outgained Georgia, 389-277.
11-2 Dawgs won their last four games, the last two in overtime.
Georgia QB Beck hurt his right arm during the game, didn’t finish.

— Clemson 34, SMU 31
Clemson kicked a 55-yard FG at the gun for the win.
Tigers have won their last nine appearances in the ACC title game.
Clemson led this game 31-14 in 4th quarter.
SMU drove 79 yards, tied game 31-31 on TD with 0:16 left.

SMU’s punter Isaac Pearson was a coal miner for four years in Australia, before coming to America and going to college as a punter. 

— Oregon 45, Penn State 37
Ducks led this game 31-24 at halftime.
Oregon ran ball 35 times for 292 yards (8.3 yards/carry).
Ducks win the Big 18, in their first year in the league.

— Arizona State 45, Iowa State 19
Sun Devils ran ball 39 times for 245 yards (6.3 yards/carry).
ASU wins the Big X, in its first year in the league.
Sun Devils were picked 15th out of 16 team in the pre-season media poll.

— Marshall 31, Louisiana 3
WR Chapman caught 8 passes for 86 yards and a TD.
Thundering Herd was 8-15 on third down, Louisiana 2-16
Marshall outgained the Ragin’ Cajuns, 410-256.

— Ohio U 38, Miami OH 3
Bobcats outgained Miami, 467-189.
Bobcats threw ball for 235 yards, ran it for 232.
Ohio won its last six games, since a 30-20 loss at Miami.

— College Basketball Upsets of the Day:
New Mexico State (+20.5) 89, New Mexico 83 OT
Washington State (+8.5) 74, Boise State 69
Loyola Marymount (+8.5) 68, Nevada 64
Denver (+8.5) 68, Portland State 67
Long Beach State (+6) 76, Hawai’i 68
Indiana State (+4.5) 80, Missouri State 77

— SS/3B Willie Adames signed a 7-year, $182M deal with San Francisco; he hit 32 homers, knocked in 112 runs for Milwaukee LY. He’s hit 87 home runs the last three years

— OF Tyler O’Neill signed a 3-year deal with the Orioles worth $49.5M, filling the void in the Oriole outfield created by Anthony Santander’s free agency.

O’Neill hit 31 homers last year in his only season with the Red Sox; his OPS was .842 last year, his career OPS is .792.

— Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki is expected to be posted at the winter meetings, but he isn’t expected to sign until after January 15, when the international amateur signing period starts, and more $$$ will be available.

— Oklahoma State was paying football coach Mike Gundy $7.75M/year, but his contract has been re-done, and the money that was taken away from him will go into OSU’s NIL program, as they try to recruit better players.

Oklahoma State had gone to 18 consecutive bowls before this year, but they went 3-9, 0-9 in conference games. Gundy is the winningest coach in OSU history.

— Famous birthdays, December 8th:
Kim Basinger, 71
Steve Dils, 69
George Rogers, 66
Wendell Pierce, 61
Teri Hatcher, 60

Jeff George, 57
Mike Mussina, 56
Philip Rivers, 43
Josh Donaldson, 39
Dwight Howard, 39

— Kentucky 90, Gonzaga 89 OT
Gonzaga led 50-34 at halftime.
Kentucky survived being minus-10 in turnovers (16-6)
Zags shot 6-27 on the arc; right now, this is Gonzaga’s worst 3-point shooting team since 1997.

Gonzaga had won 175 games in a row when they led by 10+ points at halftime. 

— Marquette 88, Wisconsin 74
Marquette scored 88 points on 66 possessions; they were only 8-26 on the arc.
Marquette was +11 in turnovers (16-5), shot 63.9% inside the arc.
Badgers lost two in row after an 8-0 start; they led 39-37 at halftime. 

— New Mexico State 89, New Mexico 83 OT
Huge upset in the Land of Enchantment.
Aggies had lost five in row, had the #338 eFG% in country.
Lobos led by 14 early, but State made 14-31 shots on the arc.

— Rhode Island 69, Providence 63
Rams are 9-0, but they’ve played schedule #330.
Both of URI’s top 100 wins were by six points.
Providence led this game by 8 with 13:43 left in the game.

— NC State 84, Florida State 74 OT
Seminoles led 66-60 with 3:444 left to play.
Wolfpack snaps 3-game skid with their first top 100 win in four tries.
NC State shot 64.5% inside the arc.
Bad beat if you had the Seminoles +5.

— St John’s 88, Kansas State 71
K-State came a long way to play a game that started at 11:30am in Queens.
Wildcats led by 10 with 5:36 left in first half.
Red Storm outscored K-State 53-32 in the second half. 

— P Shane Bieber re-signed with the Cleveland Guardians, for one year, $10M, with a $4M buyout if they don’t keep him after 2025.

— P Clay Holmes signed with the Mets for three years, $38M; he’s going to start for the Mets, after making 300 relief appearances over the last six seasons. He did start four games for the Pirates in 2018.

— Dodgers star 1B Freddie Freeman had surgery on his right ankle Thursday, is expected to be ready for the start of spring training. Freeman hit .282 last year with 89 RBI and an .854 OPS; he hit .250 in LA’s postseason games, when he was hampered by the ankle injury.

— The St. Petersburg City Council voted to approve bonds necessary to finance a new $1.3B stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays, which could open in 2028.

The Rays have said it was impossible to play at the Trop next year and maybe not until 2026, because of the damage from a tropical storm in October.

— C Kyle Higashioka signed a 2-year deal with the Texas Rangers for $13.5M; the 34-year old catcher hit 17 homers in 263 plate appearances for San Diego last year.

— It turns out that referee Bill Vinovich worked four college basketball games in four nights in Palm Springs last week, then worked the Cardinals-Vikings game in Minnesota Sunday. 

Thursday night, Vinovich worked the Cal-San Diego-Santa Barbara basketball game in the Thunderdome.

— Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka was fined $50,000 by the NBA for his actions during Tuesday’s loss to Sacramento.

He was fined for confronting and directing profane language toward a game official, failing to leave the court in a timely manner after being ejected, and public criticism of the officiating.

“Missed calls, blatant missed calls right in front of you. You’re calling ticky-tack moving screens, little s— like that, but you don’t want to call the obvious ones right in front of you. That was it. Thought [Sengun] got fouled a few times on that drive and on the layup and they don’t want to call it. So I told him to get some f—ing glasses and open your eyes.”

Alrighty then.

— Famous birthdays, December 7th:
Ellen Burstyn, 92
Johnny Bench, 77
Larry Bird, 68
C Thomas Howell, 58
Eric Chavez, 47

Ryan Theriot, 45
Jake McQuaide, 37
Kyle Hendricks, 35
Yasiel Puig, 34
Pete Alonso, 30

— There were three college football conference title games Friday:
Jacksonville State 52, Western Kentucky 12
Gamecocks win C-USA in their second year as a I-A team.
Jax State won nine of last ten games, after an 0-3 start.
Gamecocks ran for 386 yards, outgained the Hilltoppers, 562-229. 

Back in 1985, Rams won NFC West with QB Dieter Brock, who played most of his career in the CFL. Dieter Brock played his college ball at Jacksonville State.

— Boise State 21, UNLV 7
Last eight years, Broncos are 6-2 SU in MW title games.
UNLV ran for 217 yards; they had an 87-yard run, but didn’t score on that drive.

— Army 35, Tulane 14
Army wins the AAC in their first season in the league.
Cadets ran ball for 335 yards; they were 4-9 on 3rd down, 4-5 on 4th down.
Army scored 35 points while throwing two passes the whole game. 

— Northwestern 70, Illinois 66 OT
Illinois loses its Big 18 opener, slips to 7-2, 1-2 against top 100 teams.
Wildcats’ last four games were all decided by 5 or fewer points.

— West Virginia 73, Georgetown 60
Hoyas led 30-28 at halftime.
Senior G Small scored 26 for West Virginia, which is 6-2, 3-2 vs top 100 teams.

— Niagara 69, Siena 68
Niagara outscored Saints 6-2 over the final 2:12
Purple Eagles were 17-20 on foul line, Siena 9-14.

— Oklahoma State wants football coach Mike Gundy to re-do his contract so that he makes less $$$, then use the money he gives back to help fund their NIL program.

There will be lawyers.

— In the movie Moneyball, when they make such a big thing about trading 1B Carlos Pena, Pena was hitting .218 when he got traded to Detroit. He wound up having a 14-year career with eight different teams, he hit 286 home runs with a career OPS of .808. 

John Mabry hit .275 with 11 homers for the A’s that year, stepping in at 1B For Pena. 

— Good day to be an A’s fan…….
A’s relocation to Las Vegas cleared a major hurdle Thursday with the approval of three long-anticipated agreements that were needed before ballpark construction can begin.

A’s will play in Sacramento the next three years, hope to begin playing in a new stadium on the Las Vegas Strip in 2028.

Damn near choked on my lunch Thursday when I got a text saying the A’s signed P Luis Severino to a 3-year, $67M contract, the biggest contract the A’s have given out since 2004, when Eric Chavez got paid. 

This past year, Severino was 11-7, 3.91 in 31 starts for the Mets, after previously pitching for eight years in the Bronx. His career record is 65-44, 3.81 in 156 starts.

— Lions 34, Packers 31
Lions drove 63 yards, kicked 35-yard FG at the gun.
Detroit won its last eleven games (8-3 ATS).
Goff threw for 283 yards, three TD’s.
Detroit was 7-15 on third down, 4-5 on 4th down.
Only 5 of Packers’ 44 plays were on 3rd down (1-5). 

Green Bay’s first three drives: 10 plays, 46 yards, no points.
Green Bay rest of the game: 34 plays, 249 yards, 31 points.
Detroit led 17-7 at halftime.
Packers scored two TD’s in first 3:45 of third quarter.
GB is 17-7 ATS in last 24 games as a road underdog

— North Carolina has interviewed 72-year old Bill Belichick about their coaching job; while Belichick has won six Super Bowls, he’s never coached in college. 

Tar Heels just fired 73-year old Mack Brown as coach, after going 23-16 the last three years.

Belichick’s son is defensive coordinator for the Washington Huskies.

— If you like the NFL, Hard Knocks on HBO Max is great to watch; this year’s show is focusing on the entire AFC North. Get to see some behind-the-scenes stuff, which is educational.

— Quarterbacks/receivers should get stat credit for interference penalties.

— UCLA fired offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy after the Bruins ranked 126th in scoring this year, 118th in yardage. Bieniemy gets paid $1.2M to go away.

Bieniemy worked for the Washington Commanders LY, after working with the Chiefs for ten years before that. Rumor was he didn’t get along well with Patrick Mahomes, but Kansas City won two Super Bowls while he was there.

UCLA replaces Bieniemy with Indiana OC/QB coach Tino Sunseri.

— Oklahoma State fired both coordinators after their 3-9 season, where they were 0-9 in Big X games. Problem is, OSU had gone to bowl games the previous 18 years, going 12-6 in the bowl games and suddenly, this year the assistants aren’t good enough? 

Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn has worked for the Cowboys since 2011; that had to be a tense/awkward conversation when he was told to take a hike.

— Famous birthdays, December 6th:
Larry Bowa, 79
Steven Wright, 69
Bill Hanzlik, 67

Lance Blankenship, 61
Sarah Rafferty, 52
Judd Apotow, 57

Kevin Cash, 47
Johnny Manziel, 32
Giannis Antetokounmpo, 30

— Penn State 81, Purdue 70
Nittany Lions led by 27 midway thru second half.
Purdue turned ball over 24 times in their conference opener.

— TCU 76, Xavier 72
Xavier led by 6 with 7:28 left in the game.
Horned Frogs put five guys in double figures, including two subs.
Xavier shot 63% inside the arc, only 9-28 outside arc.

— Detroit 79, Fort Wayne 78
Mastodons led Detroit by 8 with 8:51 left in game.
Titans shot 11-25 on the arc.
Detroit is 5-5 under new coach Montgomery; they were 1-31 last year.

— Oakland 66, Wright State 64
Wright State shot 16-31 on arc, but 6-20 inside arc, only 4-5 on foul line.
Oakland starts four seniors; they played non-conference schedule #8.

— Drake 66, Valparaiso 60
Drake is 8-0, with four starters who used to play D-2 ball.
Bulldogs are forcing turnovers 22.4% of time (#27)
Drake already has three top 100 wins.

— Long Beach State 73, Fullerton 56
Long Beach gets its first win in nine D-I games.
Favored Titans were 1-13 on arc, 9-18 on foul line.

— Cal-Irvine 82, Bakersfield 66
Irvine was 33-40 on foul line, Bakersfield 17-19.
Anteaters are 9-0, with only two top 150 wins.
Six of Irvine’s eight I-A wins are by 12+ points. 

— SEC pounded on the ACC this week, going 14-2 in their challenge.

Chances are we’ll hear about this week on Selection Sunday, when most of the SEC gets in the Field of 68.

— Alabama 94, North Carolina 79
83-possession game, very fast pace. Alabama scored 1.13 points/possession.
North Carolina was 5-28 on the arc.
Alabama is #68 in bench minutes; they put six guys in double figures.

— Duke 84, Auburn 78
Auburn led 13-2 out of the gate, but Duke shot 55.6% inside the arc.
Duke had only four turnovers, in a 63-possession game.
Auburn started 5 seniors; Duke played one senior more than 5:00.

— Creighton 76, Kansas 63
Kansas never led; they shot 35.7% from the floor.
Creighton led 41-31 at halftime.
Bluejays are shooting 60.2% inside the arc (#11)

— UConn 76, Baylor 72
UConn was 26-33 on foul line, Baylor 12-19
Baylor led by 11 early on, led 37-36 at halftime.
Baylor is 5-3, 2-3 against top 50 teams (schedule #10).

— Oregon 68, USC 60
Oregon held the Trojans to 34.5% from the floor.
Ducks are 9-0, with four top 100 wins.
Trojans other than Claude (9-20) were 10-35 from the floor.

— Iowa State 81, Marquette 70
This game was 61-61 with 8:43 left.
Marquette star Jones was only 6-21 from the floor.
Cyclones are 3-1 vs top 100 teams, scoring 87.5 ppg

— Famous birthdays, December 5th:
Jeroen Krabbe, 80
Jim Plunkett, 77
Bill Simpson, 73
Cliff Floyd, 52

Charlie Batch, 50
Josh Smith, 39
AJ Pollock, 37
Christian Yelich, 33

— Maryland 83, Ohio State 59
Terps led this game 63-23 at one point; they shot 59.5% inside arc.

— Belmont 99, Illinois State 97 OT
Belmont led MVC opener 54-45 at the half.
Illinois State shot 18-33 on the arc and still lost.
Belmont is 7-2, playing schedule #285.

— New Mexico 83, San Jose State 77
San Jose led 17-4 early, 71-65 with 7:16 left in game.
Lobos had 16 offensive boards, out-rebounded San Jose 42-31.

— Upsets of the Night:
Coastal Carolina (+5.5) 58, Campbell 57
Creighton (+4.5) 76, Kansas 63
North Dakota State (+4.5) 77, Weber State 73
St Thomas (+4.5) 87, Northern Colorado 75
IU Indy (+4.5) 84, Green Bay 75

— Texas 63, NC State 59
59-possession game; very slow pace.
NC State lost last three games, scoring 61-61-59 points.
Wolfpack was 5-14 on arc, 6-14 on foul line.

— Summit League went 5-4 against the Big Sky in their challenge; underdogs were 5-4 ATS in the nine games.

— Jacksonville Jaguar QB Trevor Lawrence was put on IR, is most likely out for the year; he got a concussion Sunday after a late hit by a Houston defender.

— South Korean star 2B Hyeseong Kim was posted, will be available as a free agent starting Thursday at 5:00. KIm will be 26 next month; he hit .326 LY, with 11 homers, 75 RBIs while stealing 30 bases for the Kiwoom Heroes in the KBO.

— Red Sox signed reliever Aroldis Chapman for one year, $10.75M. In 61⅔ IP for Pittsburgh last year, Chapman struck out 98, walked 39, had a 3.79 ERA. He’ll be 37 years old soon; Boston will be his 7th major league team. 

— Rough night for the ACC; their teams went 1-8 against the SEC in their annual challenge, with Clemson’s win over Kentucky the only bright spot.

— Clemson 70, Kentucky 66
Clemson F Schieffelin was 4-20 from floor, also had 20 rebounds.
Clemson is 8-1, with three top 100 wins.
Kentucky is 7-1, splitting two top 100 games.

— Arkansas 76, Miami 73
Miami led this game by 7 with 6:51 left to play.
Arkansas was 11-23 on arc, Miami 9-29.
I’m still a little amazed that Kentucky didn’t want Calipari to coach anymore.

— Missouri 98, California 93
Cal Bears led 51-33 at halftime.
Mizzou was 32-44 inside arc, 3-9 outside arc, 25-38 on foul line.
Cal is an ACC team, by the way. No idea why, but they are.
Mizzou is off to a 7-1 start, after going 0-18 in SEC last year.

— Ole Miss 86, Louisville 63
7-1 Rebels shot 65% inside the arc.
Ole Miss was 8-20 on arc, Louisville 5-30
This was Louisville’s 4th top 60 game in the last seven days.

— Oklahoma 72, Georgia Tech 61
Tech led this game 34-30 at halftime.
Oklahoma was 26-30 on foul line, Tech 12-18.
Sooners are 8-0, with three top 100 wins, plus this win.

— South Carolina 73, Boston College 51
Gamecocks were 10-19 on the arc, BC was 2-15.
Opponents are shooting 44.6% inside arc vs Carolina (#39)
Eagles are shooting 46.3% inside arc (#298) vs schedule #284.

— Famous birthdays, December 4th:
Jeff Bridges, 75
Bernard King, 68
Lee Smith, 67

Frank Reich, 63
Marisa Tomei, 60
Jeff Blake, 54

Blake Snell, 32
Paul Blackburn, 31
Jackson Holliday, 21

— Clemson won the last eight times they played in the ACC football championship game; last time they lost was in 2009, 39-34 to Georgia Tech.

— Michigan 67, Wisconsin 64
Wolverines are off to a 7-1 start, after going 8-24 LY.
Michigan is forcing turnovers 23.3% of time (#14 in country).

— Iowa 80, Northwestern 79
Hawkeyes outscored Northwestern 12-5 over the final 1:43
Iowa led 38-21 late in the first half.

— Villanova 68, Cincinnati 60
Wildcats get their first top 100 win in four tries.
Villanova was 14-17 on foul line, Bearcats 6-11.
Cincinnati is 6-1, but they’ve played schedule #308.

— Army 103, LeMoyne 100 3OT
Army led by 14 with 5:07 left in regulation.
Teams combined to shoot 18-70 on the arc; no bueno.
LeMoyne’s subs outscored Army’s bench, 35-5.

— Murray State 63, Evansville 61
Purple Aces shot 55% inside arc, but never led this game.
Murray State starts five seniors; three of them played 38:00+.
Evansville is 3-5; this was their first loss by less than 11 points.

— Cavaliers 118, Wizards 87
Washington is 2-17; they’ve lost 15 games in a row.
Wizards are 2-6-1 ATS in their last nine games.
Washington’s last win was October 30th. Oy. 

Broncos 41, Browns 32
Winston threw for 497 yards, four TD’s.
He also threw 3 INT’s, 2 of which were returned for Denver TD’s.
Jeudy caught nine passes for 235 yards and a TD.
Last time a Cleveland QB threw for 400+ yards? Josh McCown (457) in 2015

Nix threw a 93-yard TD pass to put Denver ahead, 28-17.
Lutz kicked 27-yard FG to put Denver ahead 34-32 with 2:54 left.
Cleveland outgained the Broncos, 552-400.
Denver is 7-0 if they score more than 20 points, 1-5 if they score 20 or less.

— Rhode Island 84, Yale 78
Archie Miller’s Rams are 8-0, albeit against schedule #337.
Yale, Charleston are only teams in top 150 that URI has played so far.
Providence @ URI is an interesting game on Saturday’s schedule.

— Washington State 68, Nevada 57
Nevada was favored by 11.5 points.
Wazzu was 12-29 on the arc, Wolf Pack 4-20. 

— Purdue fired football coach Ryan Walters after going 1-11 this season, 0-11 vs I-A teams, with only three of the 11 losses by less than 17 points.

Purdue was 5-19 in Walters’ two seasons as head coach; they lost 66-0 to rival Indiana Saturday- they’re 129th in the country in offense, 130th in defense.

— Good news for Sam Houston State- they went 9-3 this year, in their 2nd year as a I-A team.

Bad news for Sam Houston State- Temple hired Sam Houston’s coach KC Keeler as their new head coach. Keeler was 97-39 overall at Sam Houston, winning the I-AA national title in 2020;

— Duke 23, Wake Forest 17
Duke threw a 39-yard TD pass on the last play of the game for a walk-off win. 

Wake Forest led 17-3 with 1:00 left in the third quarter,
Duke is 9-3, with six wins by 7 or fewer points.

— Former NFL QB/Stanford alum Andrew Luck was named as the Cardinal’s general manager; he will manage aspects of both the football and business sides of the program.

On the business side, he will handle duties typically held by NFL team presidents — fundraising, sponsorships, attendance, sales, in-stadium experience and alumni relations.

For football, Luck will oversee the coaching staff, player personnel, recruiting, roster management and student-athlete experience, whatever that is.

— Chicago Cubs signed P Matthew Boyd to a 2-year deal worth $29M; Boyd will be 34 on Ground Hog Day- he was 2-2, 2.72 in eight starts for Cleveland this past year, 0-0, 0.77 in three playoff starts for the Guardians. For his career, Boyd is 46-69, 4.85 in 168 career starts, mostly with Detroit.

— Famous birthdays, December 2nd:
Bobby Howfield, 88
Tom Woodeshick, 83
Jim Brewer, 73
Daryl Hannah, 64

Julianne Moore, 64
Brendan Fraser, 56
Lindsey Hunter, 54
James Laurinaitis, 38

— Washington Commanders were 4-13 last year; they’re 8-5 this year, despite playing a rookie QB, who has done really well.

Commanders were minus-14 in turnovers last year; they’re +3 this week,

— Started watching re-runs of the old TV series Criminal Minds, never watched that show much. One of the first shows I watch, the bad guy is played by Michael O’Keefe, who played Danny Noonan in the classic movie Caddyshack.

Michael O’Keefe will be 70 in April, which makes me feel old; he played Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke in the HBO series Winning Time couple years ago.

—  I’m watching the Duke-Kansas game on TV last week; the game was played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was sitting courtside with his wife. Sitting to Krzyzewski’s left was the actor Ken Jeong, who was in the Hangover movies.

Made me wonder what those two guys would talk about, if anything, and if Coach K had ever seem The Hangover. Funny movie.

— Colorado-Iowa State was the 5th place game at the Maui Classic, which is unusual only because those teams are in the same league now. Usually teams from the same league aren’t in the same tournament, but with all the jumping between leagues, this happened.

Same thing at the Battle for Atlantis, where Arizona-West Virginia played in the 3rd place game.

— Last year, 1,962 college basketball players entered the transfer portal, with over 1,100 of them changing teams. With 364 Division I teams now, that works out to 5+ players per team looking to jump ship.

— Dartmouth 88, Boston College 83
ACC teams aren’t supposed to lose to Ivy League teams, especially lower-level Ivy teams.
Dartmouth made 17-31 3-pointers in the game, which was last Friday.

— Notre Dame’s basketball team has a freshman guard Brady Stevens, who scored over 1,000 points in high school at Wellesley High in Massachusetts. The reason I mention this is that his father is Brad Stevens, the President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics. 

Eagles 24, Ravens 19
Eagles’ first four drives: 14 plays, 23 yards, four punts.
Eagles’ last seven drives: 43 plays, 237 yards, 24 points.
Philly is 8-0 SU/6-2 in their last eight games.
Philly is 9-1-1 ATS in last 11 games with spread of 3 or fewer points.

Saquon Barkley ran ball 23 times for 107 yards and a TD.
Baltimore led 9-0 after the first quarter.
K Tucker missed a PAT and FG’s of 47-53 yards (he made 34-50 yard FGs).
Baltimore is 8-0 if they score 28+ points, 0-5 if they score less than 28.

Vikings 23, Cardinals 22
Vikings drove 62 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:13 left.
Kevin O’Connell is 24-9 as a HC in one-score games, really good.
Arizona ran for 154 yards, most RY Vikings have allowed this year.
Minnesota is 8-17 ATS in last 25 games as home favorite.

Cardinals outgained Minnesota 406-273, but scored only one TD.
Arizona had 10 drives; 5-6 on FG’s, one TD, two INT’s on last three drives.
Arizona is 17-9 ATS in last 26 games as a road underdog.
Vikings have won 5 in row, are 10-0 giving up less than 30 points. 

Seahawks 26, Jets 21
Jets led 21-7 after a 99-yard kick return in second quarter.
DE Marshall had 92-yard pick-6 that made score 21-13.
Seahawks are 3-0 since their bye, giving up 17-6-21 points. 
Seattle allowed 26+ points in losses, 21 or less in wins.

Jets first three drives: 18 plays, 110 yards, 14 points.
Jets rest of game: 44 plays, 155 yards, outscored 7-0 by Seattle defense.
Jets are 9-15 ATS last 24 games as a home underdog. 
Jets are 1-8 SU/ATS in their last nine games. 

Steelers 44, Bengals 38
Wilson threw a pick-6 on Pittsburgh’s third play of the day.
Steelers’ next five drives: 35 plays, 302 yards, 27 points.
Steelers won/covered six of their last seven games. 
Steelers are 11-5 ATS in last 16 games as a road underdog.

Wilson was 29-38/414 passing, with three TD’s.
Last eight games, Steelers are +13 in turnovers.
Cincinnati is 0-7 SU in games decided by fewer than 7 points.
Bengals are 4-1 if they allow 24 or fewer points, 0-7 if they allow more than 24. 

Buccaneers 26, Panthers 23 OT
Carolina led 16-10 after the third quarter.
Carolina scored on 25-yard TD pass with 0:30 left to go ahead 23-20
Tampa Bay kicked 51-yard FG at the gun to force overtime. 
Seven of Tampa Bay’s last nine games went over the total.

Carolina QB Young threw for 298 yards; he has gotten a lot better.
WR Thielen caught 8 passes for 99 yards and a TD.
Last four games, Panthers are 2-2 SU/4-0 ATS.
Carolina is 6-2-1 ATS in last nine NFC South home games.

Chargers 17, Falcons 13
Chargers’ only TD was 61-yard pick-6 late in third quarter.
Chargers won/covered five of last six games.
Bolts in first half: 31 plays, 148 yards, 3 FG’s on four drives.
Chargers held on in 2nd half: 15 plays, 40 yards, no points.

Atlanta lost its last three games SU, scoring 3 TD’s on 29 drives.
Cousins threw 4 INT’s, 3 of them on Falcons’ last four drives.
Falcons were held to 17 or fewer points in all six losses.
Falcons/Tampa Bay are now tied for first atop NFC South.

— Famous birthdays, December 2nd:
Steven Bauer, 68
Mark Kotsay, 49
Britney Spears, 43

Aaron Rodgers, 41
Gary Sanchez, 32
Aaron Jones, 30

Colts 25, Patriots 24
Down 24-17, Colts drove 66 yards, scored TD with 0:12 left.
Then they went for 2 points; QB Richardson ran for the winning score.
6-7 Colts are 5-4 in games decided by 6 or fewer points.
Despite the win, Indianapolis is 1-4 ATS in its last five games.

NE outgained Colts 422-253, but had only 2 TD’s in 6 trips to red zone.
Patriots lost their last three games, giving up 28-34-25 points.
Over is 5-1 in New England’s home games.
Patriots are 1-10 when they allow more than 10 points.

Rams 21, Saints 14
First regular season game in McVay era Rams didn’t score in 1st half.
Rams in first half: 23 plays, 93 yards, no points.
Rams in second half: 29 plays, 239 yards, 21 points.
Rams won five of their last seven games, after a 1-4 start.

Saints in first half: 43 plays, 159 yards, only six points (led 6-0 at half).
NO is 1-4 in one-score games this year.
Saints are 6-9 ATS last 15 games as a home underdog.
New Orleans is 9-16-2 ATS last 27 games coming off a win.

Texans 23, Jaguars 20
Texans first five drives: 33 plays, 125 yards, six points.
Texans last four drives: 23 plays, 171 yards, 17 points.
WR Collins caught 8 passes for 119 yards.
Houston has six wins by 6 or fewer points.

Jaguars’ QB Lawrence was KO’d (concussion( by a violent hit.
Jaguars lost last five games, by 3-5-5-46-3 points.
Jacksonville covered five of their last six games.
Jaguars are 7-3 ATS last ten games as a home underdog.  

Commanders 42, Titans 19
Washington’s first four drives: 26 plays, 197 yards, 28 points.
Commanders led 21-0 after first quarter, outgained Titans 463-245.
Washington is 7-0 when it gives up less than 26 points.
McLaurin caught 8 passes for 73 yards, two TD’s. 

Washington ran ball for 267 yards (5.9 yards/carry)
Titans are 2-6 SU/1-7 ATS in last eight games.
Titans scored 31-20-32 points in wins, 19 or fewer in their losses.
Tennessee is 4-10 ATS in last 14 games as a road underdog.

Bills 35, 49ers 10
49ers lost last three games, giving up 35-38 points in last two.
Buffalo ran ball for 220 yards, outgained SF 372-239 on a snowy night.
Star RB McCaffrey (knee) could be out for the season.
49ers are 0-6 when they gain less than 400 yards. 

Buffalo’s first four drives: 26 plays, 238 yards, 21 points.
Bills won their last seven games (6-1 ATS); they clinched AFC East.
Last eight games, Bills are +12 in turnovers (17-5).
Last seven Buffalo games went over the total.

— Hall of Fame basketball coach Lou Carnesecca, who led St John’s to two Big East tournament titles and a 1985 Final Four appearance, died Saturday at age 99.

Carnesecca led St. John’s to eighteen 20-win seasons and 18 NCAA tournament appearances; he had a 526-300 record, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

RIP, coach.

— New York Mets signed P Frankie Montas to a 2-year, $34M deal; Montas was 7-11, 4.84 in 30 starts last year, for the Reds/Brewers. He is 44-46, 4.09 in 129 MLB starts.

— Bill Vinovich was the referee for the Cardinals-Vikings game in Minnesota Sunday; during the week, he was a basketball referee at the Acrisure tournament in Palm Springs, CA. I saw him do at least two games during the week (Thursday/Friday??) Busy week for a good official. 

— Marshall 35, James Madison 33 OT
James Madison led this game 17-0 at halftime.
Marshall tied game on a TD with 5:04 left.
Marshall-Louisiana is the Sun Belt title game next week. 

—  Texas 17, Texas A&M 7
Texas outgained A&M 458-248; they led 17-0 at halftime.
A&M’s only score was a 93-yard pick-6 in third quarter.
Longhorns ran ball 50 times for 240 yards (4.8 yards/carry)

— Iowa State 29, Kansas State 21
Cyclones are 10-2, program’s first-ever 10-win season.
Teams combined to convert 7-29 third down plays.
K-State completed only 12-29 passes, was minus-2 in turnovers. 

— Syracuse 42, Miami 38
10-2 Hurricanes led this game 21-0 early in second quarter.
This score means SMU-Clemson is the ACC title game next week.

— Michigan 13, Ohio State 10
Wolverines beat Ohio State for 4th year in a row.
Buckeyes were a 20-point favorite in this game.
Underdogs are 8-2 ATS in last ten series games.

— South Carolina 17, Clemson 14
QB Sellers ran 20 yards for game-winning TD with 1:08 left.
South Carolina ran ball for 267 yards (6.4 yards/carry)
Both teams finish regular season 9-3.

— Georgia 44, Georgia Tech 42 OT
Tech led 17-0 at halftime.
Dawgs scored two TD’s in last 3:39 of regulation to force OT.
Yellow Jackets outgained Georgia, 563-405.

The college overtime system is strange; liked the old format better.

— College football upsets of the week:
Michigan (+20.5) 13, Ohio State 10
Memphis (+12) 34, Tulane 24
Syracuse (+11) 42, Miami 38
Utah (+9.5) 28, Central Florida 14
Rice (+5.5) 35, South Florida 28

College basketball notes:
— Monmouth 63, Seton Hall 51
Big East teams aren’t supposed to lose to CAA teams.
Monmouth shot 10-21 on the arc, Seton Hall 5-21.

— Creighton 80, Notre Dame 76
Bluejays shot 11-24 on the arc.
Notre Dame lost its last four games; they’re 1-3 vs top 100 teams.

— San Diego State 73, Houston 70 OT
Aztecs scored 25 points in first half, 40 in second half.
Houston shot 11-24 on arc, only 12-38 inside arc.
7 of the 10 starters in this game played 36+ minutes.

— Oregon 83, Alabama 81
Ducks put in a rebound with 0:04.4 left for the win.
Oregon is 8-0; they win the Players’ Era tournament.
Barthelemy scored 22 points for Oregon; he didn’t start. 

— Famous birthdays, December 1st:
Bette Midler, 79
Charlene Tilton, 66
Larry Walker, 58
Steve Walsh, 58

DeSean Jackson, 38
Dan Straily, 36
Gary Payton II, 32
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, 25

— UConn 47, UMass 42
Huskies are quietly 8-4 under Jim Mora Jr, who was an NFL head coach for four years.
UMass led this game 28-27 at halftime.
UConn ran for 253 yards, outgained the Minutemen, 434-390.

— Utah 28, Central Florida 14
UCF finishes season 4-8, its worst record since 2015.
Coach Gus Malzahn is going to resign and become offensive coordinator at Florida State.
Utes’ win snaps their 7-game losing skid.

— Rice 35, South Florida 28
EJ Warner threw for 430 yards, three touchdowns.
Rice overcame 12 penalties for 93 yards; they averaged 10.2 yards/pass attempt.
Owls led 27-7 at halftime.

— NC State 35, North Carolina 30
Wolfpack scored game-winning TD with 0:25 left.
UNC had taken lead on a 47-yard TD pass with 1:51 left.
Teams converted only 5-23 third down plays.
NC State is 6-6; both teams are bowl eligible.

— Notre Dame 49, USC 35
Trojans are 6-6 this year, 8-10 in last 18 games overall.
Notre Dame had two pick-6’s in 4th quarter, 99 and 100 yards.
Notre Dame beats USC for sixth time in last seven meetings.

— Western Kentucky 19, Jacksonville State 17
WKU kicked a 50-yard field goal with 0:03 left for the win.
These teams meet again next week, in the C-USA championship game.
WKU was 7-20 on third down, Gamecocks were 2-13. 

— Does winning the Maui Classic help you in the NCAA Tournament? Winning three games in three days in November; obviously, it helps your seeding, but how have the teams who have done well in Maui done in March?

I looked at the teams who played in the finals at Maui since 2000……..

4 teams who won the Maui Classic also won the national title, but North Carolina was three of those four teams (2005, 2009, 2017). UConn was the 4th team, in 2011. 

Three other teams won the Maui Classic but lost in the Final Four; Arizona (2001), UCLA (2007), Purdue (last year). 

2017-18 Notre Dame team is only Maui Classic champ that missed the NCAA’s; of the last 23 Maui champs, 18 won at least one NCAA Tourney game- those 18 teams went 12-6 in their second round game, so 12 of 23 Maui champs made the Sweet 16.

— Of the last 23 teams to lose the final at Maui, only two (Kentucky 2010/Kansas 2011) made it to the Final Four- neither won the national title.

The last 13 Maui runner-ups made the NCAA’s; those teams went 10-3 in their first round NCAA game, 7-3 in their second round game.

Auburn beat Memphis in this year’s Maui final; expect to hear a lot from those teams in March.

Lions 23, Bears 20
Bears in first half: 19 plays, 38 yards, trailed 16-0 at halftime.
Bears in second half: 40 plays, 259 yards, 20 points.
Chicago had ball on Lions’ 25-yard line on last drive, but didn’t score.
Bears lost last six games, four of then by 3 or fewer points.

Detroit’s first five drives: 61 plays, 352 yards, 2 TD’s, 3 FG’s.
Lions ran ball for 194 yards, outgained Chicago 405-301.
Detroit won its last ten games (8-2 ATS).
Detroit snapped a 7-game losing streak on Thanksgiving Day. 

— Bears fired their offensive coordinator two weeks ago; Friday, they fired head coach Matt Eberflus, despite the improvement shown by rookie QB Caleb Williams. Eberflus was 14-32 as coach of the Bears, 4-7 this season, but Williams hasn’t thrown an INT in his last 232 passes.

This is the first time ever that the Bears fired their coach during a season.

Cowboys 27,  Giants 20
Cowboys won their first home game in six tries this season.
Dallas was 7-15 on third down, Giants 3-12
Cowboys are 9-0 SU/7-2 ATS in last nine games against the Giants.
Backup QB Cooper Rush is 7-3 as an NFL starter.

Giants are 0-7 SU/ATS in their last seven games.
Last seven games, Giants were outscored 97-29 in first half.
Giants averaged only 3.4 yards/pass attempt.
Dallas outgained the Giants, 317-247. 

Packers 30, Dolphins 17
Green Bay led this game 24-3 at halftime.
Miami is 0-6 when it gives up 20+ points, 5-1 if they allow less.
Tagovailoa threw for 365 yards; they ran 14 times for only 39 yards.
Loss snaps Miami’s four-game-winning streak. 

Green Bay in first half: 34 plays, 203 yards, 24 points.
Packers won seven of last eight games (2-4 ATS in last six).
Green Bay is 8-0 when they allow less than 24 points.
Packers are 21-15-1 ATS in last 37 games coming off a win.

Chiefs 19, Raiders 17
Chiefs scored only one TD, were outgained 434-329.
Chiefs were 7-16 on third down, Las Vegas 3-12.
Raiders are now 0-8 SU/3-5 ATS in last eight games.
Rookie TE Bowers caught 10 passes for 140 yards and a TD.

Chiefs are 11-1; they’re also 0-6 ATS last six games.
Raiders have 23 turnovers in 12 games (minus-18).
Chiefs are 16-21 ATS in last 37 games as a home favorite.
Kansas City’s new kicker Wright made four field goals. 

— LA Dodgers signed utility guy Tommy Edman to a 5-year, $74M deal; Edman hit .328 in the postseason for LA this past year, scoring 12 runs with 13 RBI in 16 games.

His career hitting stats are very ordinary, but he’s versatile defensively and that is important in modern baseball.

— Tomorrow’s den will be all about college football, but this game was notable:
Georgia 44, Georgia Tech 42 OT
17-point underdog Tech led this game 17-0 at halftime.
Georgia scored two TD’s in last 3:39 to force overtime.

Dawgs are now 20-3 in their last 23 games against Tech; Yellow Jackets covered last three.

— Famous birthdays, November 29:
Jim Chones, 75
Bo Jackson, 62
Ben Stiller, 59

Marcellus Wiley, 50
Andrés Nocioni, 45
Shane Victorino, 44

Rich Harden, 43
Elisha Cuthbert, 42
Kaley Cuoco, 39

— Oklahoma 69, Louisville 64
Oklahoma wins Battle for Atlantis, winning by 2-5-5 points.
Sooners start four seniors; experience matters.
Cardinals shot 7-32 on the arc, 9-16 on foul line.

— West Virginia 83, Arizona 76 OT
Mountaineers win 3rd place game at Atlantis; all three games they played there this week went to overtime.

Mountaineers are #73 in experience, #356 in continuity- lot of transfers. One of their best players is the coach’s son, who came with his dad from Drake, which was 59-17 in the MVC the last four years.

— Pitt 91, Ohio State 90 OT
Panthers hit a 3-pointer in transition at the buzzer for the walk-off win.
Ohio State led by 12 early in second half.
Buckeyes shot 11-20 on the arc; Pitt was 8-24.

— Purdue 80, Ole Miss 78
Purdue led by 17 with 6:00 left in first half.
Ole Miss led by 7 with 4:18 left in game.
Rebels were 15-36 on the arc, Purdue 10-22. Lot of offense.

— Butler 87, Mississippi State 77
Bulldogs made 12-22 shots on the arc, Miss State 7-27
Butler was +11 on the boards.

— Arizona State 68, Saint Mary’s 64
Sanon scored 19 points for ASU; he didn’t start.
Sun Devils are off to a 7-1 start.

— Modern college basketball: Arizona State was 14-18 last year, missing NCAAs for third time in four years. Something had to change; coach Bobby Hurley went to some boosters and asked them to open their wallets. As a result, the Sun Devils added………

Alston Mason, who scored 17.5 ppg at Missouri State
BJ Freeman, who scored 21.1 ppg at Milwaukee
Basheer Jihad, who scored 18.6 ppg at Ball State

ASU also added two five-star freshmen, who don’t come cheap.

This sounds like the script from the movie Blue Chips, where Nick Nolte pays off three recruits to play for his Western U Dolphins, except that now, it is all within the rules. 

NBA trends (thru Thursday, November 28)

Hawks (8-11):
— 1-3 SU in their last four games.
— 4-2 ATS as a road underdog.
— Over 7-2 at home

Celtics (15-3):
— won last six games SU. 
— 0-7 ATS last seven home games.
— over 5-2 last seven games.

Nets (9-10):
— won four of their last five games SU.
— 11-4 ATS as an underdog.
— over 6-3 last nine games

Hornets (6-12):
— lost seven of last nine games SU.
— 7-2 ATS as a home underdog.
— )-3 ATS if they played the night before
— under 5-2 last seven home games.

Bulls (8-12)
— 3-3 SU in last sis games.
— 8-10 ATS as an underdog.
— over 6-2-1 last nine games
— 1-4 ATS if they played the night before.

Cavaliers (17-2):
— 2-2 SU last four games.
— 8-3 ATS as a home favorite, 4-0 as a road underdog.
— over 6-1 last seven games.
— 3-0 ATS if they played the night before.

Mavericks (11-8):
— 6-1 last seven games SU.
— 5-2-1 ATS as an underdog.
— over 6-0 last six games
— 3-0 ATS if they played the night before.

Nuggets (10-7):
— 3-4 SU last seven games
— 3-8-1 ATS as a favorite.
— over 7-0 last seven home games.

Pistons (8-12):
— 1-4 last five games SU.
— 7-5 ATS as underdogs, 4-2 at home.
— over 3-1 last four games

Warriors (12-6):
— lost last three games SU, by 10-8-4 points.
— 5-1 ATS as an underdog
— 2-5 ATS last seven games.
— under 5-1 last six games

Rockets (14-6):
— won nine of last 11 games SU
— 7-3 ATS as a home favorite, 4-1 as an underdog.
— over 5-3 last eight games

Pacers (9-10):
— 3-0 SU in their last three games.
— 1-7-1 ATS in last nine games.
— over 6-2 last eight games.

Clippers (12-8):
— won six of last seven games SU
— 7-4 ATS at home.
— 5-2 ATS as a favorite
— under 5-2 last seven games.

Lakers (11-7):
— 1-3 SU last four games/1-5 ATS last six games
— 3-6 ATS on road.
— under 3-0 last three games.

Grizzlies (12-7):
— won last four games SU, scoring 128.3 ppg.
— 6-3 ATS as a home favorite.  
— over 6-2 last eight games

Heat (8-8):
— 3-1 SU last four games.
— 2-5 ATS at home
— under 3-1 last four games.

Famous birthdays, November 29th:
Howie Mandel, 69
Cathy Moriarty, 64
Andrew McCarthy, 62

Don Cheadle, 60
TJ Rubley, 56
Pedro Martinez, 56

Mariano Rivera, 55
Jamal Mashburn, 52
Russell Wilson, 36

Stefon Diggs, 31
Julius Randle, 30
MJ Melendez, 26

Bucks (9-9):
— won last five games SU.
— 4-2-1 ATS last seven games as home favorite.
— under 11-5 last 16 games.
— 0-3-1 ATS if they played the night before

Timberwolves (8-10)
— 0-4 SU last four games.
— 2-7 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 5-2-1 last eight home games.

Pelicans (4-15):
— lost six in row, 12 of last 13 games SU
— 1-8 SU/ATS on the road. 
— under 6-2 last eight games. 

Knicks (10-8):
— 5-2 SU last seven games.
— 5-2 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 6-2 last eight games. 

Thunder (14-4):
— won three in row, 6-2 in last 8 games SU
— 5-3 ATS on road.
— under 5-2 last seven games

Magic (13-7):
— won four in row, 10 of last 11 games SU.
— 8-1 ATS as home favorite, 2-5 as road underdog.  
— over 3-1 last four games. 

76ers (3-14):
— 1-7 SU/2-6 ATS last eight games 
— 1-5 ATS as favorite, 3-8 as underdogs.
— over 3-1 last four games

Suns (10-8):
— lost six of last seven games SU
— 1-5 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 6-3 last nine games

Trailblazers (7-12):
— 1-4 SU last five games.
— 5-3 ATS as a home underdog.
— under 6-1 last seven games

Kings (9-10):
— 1-4 SU last five games, 1-6 ATS last seven.
— 0-4 ATS as home underdogs. 
— under 3-1-1 last five games

Spurs (10-9):
— 4-1 SU in last five games
— 1-4 ATS as a road underdog, 5-3 as a home dog.
— under 4-2 last six games

Raptors (5-14):
— 3-2 SU in last five games.
— 6-2 ATS as home dog, 7-4 as road dog.
— under 9-2 last eleven games

Jazz (4-14):
— 1-6 SU/3-4 ATS last seven games.
— 3-5 ATS as home underdog, 4-5 as road dog.
— over 3-1 last four road games.

Wizards (2-15):
— 0-13 SU/2-10-1 ATS last 13 games
— 2-7 ATS as home dog, 2-5-1 as road dog
— under 3-1 last six games.