Saturday’s Den: College basketball is heating up……..

— Duke 69, Arizona 55
Duke led 34-27 at halftime. won fairly easily.
Blue Devils avenged LY’s 78-73 home loss to Arizona.
Wildcats lost their last two games, after beating a couple of stiffs.

— Pittsburgh 74, LSU 63
Bayou Bengals led 28-27 at halftime.
Pitt is 6-0, is shooting 60.8% inside the arc.
Pitt-Wisconsin is another interesting game Sunday.

— Vanderbilt 76, Seton Hall 60
Commodores shot 66.7% inside arc, 10-27 on arc (1.15 points/possession)
Vandy’s new coach Byington was 56-15 the last two years, at James Madison.
Vanderbilt-Drake is an interesting game on Sunday’s card.

— Tennessee 77, Baylor 62
Vols improve to 6-0; they led 31-9 early on, 47-24 at halftime.
This is closest game Tennessee has had so far.
Vols have rebounded 40.4% of their missed shots (#9 in country)

— Nebraska 74, Creighton 63
Cornhuskers were a 10-point underdog; they thrashed Creighton.
Nebraska was +10 in turnovers; 2nd time in three years they upset the Bluejays.

— Utah State 77, Iowa 69
Aggies out-rebounded Iowa, 47-31; they had 15 offensive boards.
Utah State is 5-0; they’re on their 4th coach in five years, their 6th coach in 11 years, and they only had one losing season the last ten years. Unusual program.

— Nevada 64, VCU 61
VCU led by 15 early in second half.
Nevada survived shooting 15-26 on the foul line.
VCU lost its first two games in Charleston this weekend, both by 3 points.

Famous birthdays, November 21:
Dale Sveum, 61
Steve Alford, 60
Vin Baker, 53

Malik Rose, 50
Jonathan Papelbon, 44
Justin Turner, 40

Ross Stripling, 35
Tyler Wade, 30
Gavin Lux, 27

— Drake 75, Florida Atlantic 63
Drake is 5-0; four of their starters played for a D2 team last year.
Bulldogs were 10-25 on arc; they play Vanderbilt in Charleston title game Sunday.

— Elon 84, Notre Dame 77
ACC teams aren’t supposed to lose to CAA teams.
Elon shot 61% inside the arc.
Elon outscored Notre Dame 43-31 in second half.

— Mississippi State 84, SMU 79
SMU led by 13 early in game.
Mustangs lost despite shooting 66.7% inside arc, 23-34 on foul line.
Miss State is 5-0, with solid wins over Utah, SMU. 

— Bradley 77, Wright State 74
Bradley outscored Raiders 11-5 over the final 4:04.
Braves start four seniors; they’re #33 in continuity.
Bradley-Middle Tennessee is title game in this tournament Sunday.

NFL/baseball notes………
— Giants benched QB Daniel Jones this week; he asked the team to release him, and they did, even though their salary cap would’ve been better off had they kept him until next June- they would’ve saved $30.5M on the 2025 salary cap had they done that.

Jones was 25-45-1 as the Giants’ QB, 1-1 in playoff games, 3-13 the last two years. 

— 49ers’ QB Brock Purdy is out for this week’s game in Green Bay. Brandon Allen gets the start at QB; he is 2-7 as an NFL starter (Broncos/Bengals) with his last start in 2021.

— NFL flexed the Week 16 Broncos-Chargers game from Sunday to Thursday night, replacing the Browns-Bengals game, good news for fans in Cincinnati. A December 19 night game in Ohio doesn’t sound like that much fun.

— Cincinnati Reds acquired P Brady Singer from Kansas City for 2B Jonathan India, OF Joey Wiemer

Singer was 9-13, 3.71 in 28 starts for the Royals LY; he started 127 games in five years with Kansas City.

India hit .248 with 15 homers LY; he was Rookie of the Year in 2021.

— P Dustin May, who missed most of the last two years with injuries, signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers for $2,135,000. May is eligible for free agency after next season. 

Author: Armadillo Sports

I've been involved in sports my whole life, now just write about them. I like to travel, mostly to Las Vegas- they have gambling there.