— P Jack Flaherty signed a 2-year deal with Detroit Sunday night, for $35M. Flaherty helped the Dodgers win the World Series last fall— he was 13-7, 3.18 in 28 starts for the Tigers/Dodgers last year.
— Seattle signed IF Jorge Polanco for one year, $7.75M; after playing for Minnesota for 10 years, Polanco hit .213 for Seattle LY, with a .651 OPS. His career OPS is .765.
— Illinois 87, Ohio State 79
Buckeyes led 42-36 at halftime.
Illini shot 68.4% inside arc, was 23-31 on foul line.
Ohio State shot only 32% inside the arc.
— Nebraska 77, Oregon 71
Nebraska shot 78.6% inside the arc.
Teams combined to shoot 9-43 on the arc.
Ducks lost four of their last five games, after a 15-2 start.
— Fort Wayne 81, Milwaukee 79
Fort Wayne has won six of its last eight games.
Mastodons shot 13-31 on the arc- they’re shooting 38.8% on arc TY (#9)
These two teams are tied for second in Horizon, 3 games behind Cleveland State.
— East Tennessee State 72, Furman 69
ETSU outscored the Paladins 12-2 over the final 3:21.
Furman led 27-13 midway thru first half.
Furman was only 7-13 on foul line; one player scored in double figures.
— Memphis 86, Rice 83
Memphis shot 56.4% inside arc, 11-21 on arc.
Memphis is shooting 40.1% on the arc, #1 in country.
Tigers have won five in a row, nine of last ten games.
— Famous birthdays, February 3rd:
Fran Tarkenton, 85
Blythe Danner, 82
Bob Griese, 80
Bake McBride, 76
Morgan Fairchild, 75
Fred Lynn, 73
Nathan Lane, 69
Maura Tierney, 60
Vlade Divac, 57
Skip Schumaker, 45
Lucas Duda, 39
Tyler Huntley, 27
— When I was in college, we played Utica College, which was trying to go Division I under coach Larry Costello, who was the original coach of the Milwaukee Bucks (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s first NBA coach).
One of Utica’s players was DJ Carstensen, who these days is a big-time college ref. I remember he came to Utica from Iowa, which seemed unusual. Anyway, 40+ years later, DJ Carstensen is a busy man. Here is his refereeing schedule from this past week:
Monday- Penn State @ Michigan
Tuesday- Oregon State @ Gonzaga
Wednesday- Saint Mary’s @ Santa Clara
Thursday- Oregon @ UCLA
Saturday- Arizona @ Arizona State
Sunday- Ohio State @ Illinois
So a guy in his early 60’s officiates six basketball games in seven nights, but NBA players in their 20’s often take the second night of a back/back off, for load management. Go figure.
— Las Vegas Raiders/Pete Carroll hired former Eagles/Oregon HC Chip Kelly as their new OC; Kelly just won a national title as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.
Raiders will pay Kelly $6M next year; it has been eight years since the 49ers fired him as head coach after the 2016 season.
— Nebraska drew 60,000+ fans for their spring football game last year, but the week after the game, six of their players entered the transfer portal. Other schools scout these spring games and try to poach players; as a result of that, sounds like Nebraska isn’t going to have a spring game this year.
— Wanted to watch the Caribbean Series on TV this week, but MLB Network and YouTube TV don’t get along well, so no go there. Disappointing; it was snowing out tonight, would’ve been fun to watch some live baseball played in warm weather.
Baseball needs to market itself better; MLB Network needs to be on YouTube TV, plus I buy the MLB package every year- the Caribbean Series should at least be a part of that.
I’ve been watching regular YouTube on my TV; lot of fantasy baseball podcasts on there, as we all get ready for the upcoming season.
— January 31 is a strong day for baseball birthdays:
Nolan Ryan, Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks. Three Hall of Famers.
— USC signed up recruit Alijah Arenas, son of former NBA G Gilbert Arenas, to play for the Trojans next season. Alijah Arenas is a 5-star recruit; good get for coach Eric Musselman.
— When the Lakers made the big Anthony Davis/Luka Doncic trade Saturday night, you think they consulted Lebron James first? Kind of a big deal, changing the roster that much; I’m just curious if he any input on the deal before it was made.