— Horizon League
Three of the four higher seeds got upset Thursday:
Oakland 75, Fort Wayne 65- Grizzlies were only top seed to advance.
Northern Kentucky 99, Wright State 97 OT
Wright State led by 17 in first half.
Wright State led by 3 with 0:04.4 left, fouled intentionally, but NKU got the rebound and scored at the buzzer to force overtime.
Over was 23-7 in Wright State games this season.
Cleveland State 82, Youngstown State 70
Penguins were only 5-31 on the arc.
Youngstown was favored by 10.5 points.
Milwaukee 95, Green Bay 84
Panthers shot 59.6% inside arc, were 27-35 on foul line.
Green Bay lost five of last six games, after a 17-9 start.
Green Bay is 18-14, after going 16-71 the last three years, but this one hurts.
Semi-finals in Horizon aren’t until Monday, so the survivors get to rest up.
— Missouri Valley
Ill-Chicago 84, Southern Illinois 82, 2OTs
#11-seed UIC blew a 41-27 halftime lead, but pulls a big upset here.
Three Flames played 46:00+; they play #3-seed Bradley Friday.
— West Coast
Pepperdine 102, Pacific 43
Waves led this game 56-9 at halftime, 56. to. 9.
Both coaches in this game have been fired, although Pepperdine coach Romar is finishing the season.
— Pac-12
Arizona 88, UCLA 65
Last time these teams will play as conference rivals.
Arizona led 44-27 at the half; they’ve won 10 of their last 11 games.
UCLA lost its last five games; they’ve got the #333 eFG% in country.
Very difficult for me to process that the Pac-12 won’t exist after this season. The greedy, over-educated morons who run college sports are killing the Golden Goose.
Colorado 79, Oregon 75
Ducks ran out to an early 18-6 lead.
Colorado has won five in a row; they start four seniors. Hmmm..……
Big West
Cal-Irvine 82, Cal Poly 68- Anteaters clinch the regular season title.
UCSB 76, Long Beach State 74- Long Beach shot 5-19 on the arc, 13-22 on the line and lost by a basket, at home; they’ve lost four games in a row.
— Movie of the Day: The Great Santini (1979)- A Marine pilot who is aggressively competitive moves his family to South Carolina, where his teenage son struggles to win his approval.
Robert Duvall plays the father, Michael O’Keefe the son, Blythe Danner the mother; Duvall’s character is cringeworthy.; this movie is disturbing in more ways than one, but it is a good movie.
This movie was made in 1979; Michael O’Keefe’s next acting job was the next year, playing Danny Noonan in the classic movie Caddyshack. Two very different movies.
— Last three years, a #15-seed has upset a #2-seed in the first round- #2-seeds are 9-3 the last three years; in the 41 years before that, #2-seeds were 157-7 in the first round
— Under is 15-2 in Milwaukee games since Doc Rivers became the Bucks’ coach.
— Two NFL teams that have never picked first in an NFL Draft:
Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks……Baltimore Ravens haven’t either, but they did back when they were in Cleveland, the original Cleveland Browns.
— Famous birthdays on March 8th:
Dick Allen, 72
Jim Rice, 71
Kenny Smith, 59
Hines Ward, 48
James Van Der Beek, 47
— Detroit Mercy fired basketball coach Mike Davis Thursday, after a 1-31 disaster of a season; 22 years ago, Davis’ Indiana team lost the national title game to Maryland.
Davis has been a head coach for 24 years; coached the Hoosiers for six years, UAB for six years, Texas Southern for six more (he made the NCAA’s four times there), and then the last six for the Titans.
— New Mexico has a 6-5 guard, Jemarl Baker, who has had an interesting career:
2018-19- Kentucky
2019-21- Arizona
2021-23- Fresno State
2023-24- New Mexico
He already has two college degrees, including a Masters Degree. Some day he will write a very interesting book.
— In 2018, Virginia became the first #1-seed to lose a first round NCAA Tourney game; the next year, they won the national title.
Last year, Purdue became the 2nd #1-seed to lose a first round NCAA Tourney game; think they can match Virginia and win a national title the next year?
Big 14 hasn’t won a national title since Michigan State in 2000, so there’s that, too.
— How favorites/underdogs are faring in conference tournaments:
A-SUN underdogs 6-2 ATS
Big South favorites 1-0 ATS
Horizon underdogs 4-3 ATS
MVC underdogs 3-1 ATS
NEC underdogs 3-1 ATS
OVC favorites 3-1 ATS
Patriot favorites 4-2 ATS
Sun Belt underdogs 4-2 ATS
WCC favorites 1-0 ATS
So far this month, underdogs are 23-18 ATS in conference tournaments.
