— Youngstown State 71, Detroit 66— Top-seeded Penguins trailed 33-29 at halftime, but they held Detroit star Antoine Davis to 22 points and advance to play Northern Kentucky in the semi-finals of the Horizon tournament.
Davis is three points short of tying Pete Maravich for the all-time leading scorer in D-I college basketball; he shot 7-26 in this game, 4-16 on the arc. Titans are 14-18; they’re ineligible for the NIT, but could still be invited to the CBI or Basketball Classic.
I’m wondering if LSU will lobby against Detroit being invited to those tournaments.
— It is funny how times change over the years; the gym at LSU is the Maravich Assembly Center; that is where Pistol Pete played for his dad for three seasons, scoring 3,667 points, averaging 44.2 points/game, in an era where there were no 3-point shots.
But when Pete Maravich was in high school, his dad Press Maravich was the head coach at NC State, a way better basketball school than LSU (back then); in the 60’s, the ACC had more stringent academic rules for kids getting admitted into their schools. Pete Maravich couldn’t get accepted into NC State, so Press Maravich quit and took the LSU coaching job.
Could you imagine that happening today?!?!?!? Didn’t think so.
By the way, NC State hired Norm Sloan to replace Press Maravich as coach; he recruited David Thompson a few years later, and the Wolfpack went 57-1 from 1972-74 and won the national title in 1974.
— Atlantic Sun tournament
Liberty 79, Eastern Kentucky 73
Kennesaw State 80, Lipscomb 71
Two two seeds in the league play in the A-Sun finals Sunday afternoon.
— Purdue 63, Wisconsin 61— Boilermakers snap 3-game road losing streak; they’re 3-4 in their last seven games- they need better production from guys other than C Zack Edey. In this game, Edey was 7-9 from floor, rest of the team went 17-49 (43.6%).
— Minnesota 75, Rutgers 74— Horrendous, hideous loss for Rutgers, to a Minnesota team that had lost 12 games in a row. Bracketology had them as a 9-seed Tuesday; we’ll see if this bad loss puts them on the bubble.
— Illinois F Matthew Mayer missed multiple days of practice this week because of “caffeine poisoning” which is what he called it. Mayer said he felt sick after he drank six Monster energy drinks in one day, while playing video games.
Apparently, this was a bad idea. According to registered dietitian Angie Asche:
“Caffeine is one of the only ‘pre-workout’ stimulants I recommend to my athletes, but it requires education on proper dosage and timing. Athletes don’t realize the serious consequences it can have on their performance and recovery.”
Excessive caffeine consumption can cause headaches, nausea, and diarrhea, as well as anxiety and insomnia that can seriously mess up your sleep. It is also dehydrating, and in rare cases caffeine can be dangerous, with massive doses linked to irregular heart beat, low blood pressure, and death.
Apparently Mayer recovered pretty well; Thursday night, he scored 24 points in Illinois’ 91-87 double-overtime win over Michigan.
— As for myself, I’ve never had an energy drink and now, I never will.
— The WAC and Conference USA are talking about forming a basketball scheduling alliance “for the next few years” according to Jeff Goodman of Stadium.
The primary goal of these alliances is to increase quality in the leagues’ non-conference schedules, so they can fare better in NCAA Tournament seeding. It also allows these teams to play quality non-conference games, without having to go on the road all the time, which they would have to do against the Power 5 conference teams.
Sun Belt and Mid-American Conference are also going to be doing this, starting next season.
— Baltimore Ravens seem to have some off-field issues; the players are mad at the GM, who criticized the team’s receivers. QB Lamar Jackson is serving as his own agent, which makes his contract negotiations a lot more dicey.
Team executives can say stuff about a player to his agent during negotiations, but when there is no agent, the executive has to say it directly to the player, and there is a much better chance of feeling being hurt during negotiations when they’re done that way.
— Every day, I scan the boxscores for spring training results and news about the 28 guys on my fantasy baseball team. I hold my breath that no one is hurt; baseball players get hurt a lot.
Juan Yepez fouled a ball off his shin. Dom Smith got hit with a pitch and almost got into a fight. These are things I don’t need to see. This time of year, no news is good news.
— Jonathan Quick was the goalie for the Los Angeles Kings for the last 16 years, helping the Kings win their only two Stanley Cups; Wednesday, the Kings traded him to Columbus, then on Thursday, the Blue Jackets traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights. 16 years as a building block of the franchise, then you get traded twice, on consecutive days. Has to be a little weird.
— Happy 88th birthday to Porky Pig; the animated character made his debut this week in 1935.
As for today’s Den, well……..That’s all folks!!!!
