— Purdue 63, NC State 50
Purdue never trailed, held NC State to 36.8% from the floor.
Purdue out-rebounded the Wolfpack, 41-28.
64 possessions; slow pace. Three Boilers played 38:00+.
— If I had a vote, I’d vote for Purdue coach Matt Painter as Coach of the Year in college basketball; his team lost in the first round as a #1-seed last year, only the second time that has ever happened, had to be a tough summer for him, but now they’re one win away from doing the same thing Virginia did, winning a national title the year after they got beat by a #16-seed.
— UConn 86, Alabama 72
Huskies outscored Alabama 42-32 in second half.
63-possession game, slowest-paced game Alabama played all season.
Last two years, UConn is 11-0 SU/ATS in NCAA Tourney games.
— Early line on Monday’s championship game:
UConn, -6.5 vs Purdue
— San Antonio 20, Memphis 19
Memphis led 16-0 after three quarters.
Brahmas scored two TD’s in the last 0:48 of game.
San Antonio QB Garbers threw for 287 yards, three TD’s.
— St Louis 27, Arlington 24
Battlehawks kicked a 22-yard FG at the gun for their first win.
St Louis led 14-11 at halftime.
Arlington was 6-11 on third down, St Louis 3-10.
— Famous birthdays for April 7th:
Janis Ian, 73
Tony Dorsett, 70
Jackie Chan, 70
Thurl Bailey, 63
Ronde/Tiki Barber, 49
Adrian Beltre, 45
Josh Hader, 30
— A’s 4, Detroit 0
Paul Blackburn is 2-0, 0.00 in 13 IP this season.
Rest of the A’s are 0-7, outscored 46-15.
— Dodgers 4, Cubs 1
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s last two starts:
10 IP, seven baserunners, no runs allowed, with 13 strikeouts.
— Cardinals 3, Marlins 1
Marlins are first MLB team since 2016 to start a season 0-9.
Steven Matz threw five shutout IP.
— Pirates 5, Orioles 4 (11)
Don’t look now, but Pittsburgh is off to a 7-2 start.
Joey Bart had a HR/double in his first two AB’s for the Pirates.
— Braves 9, Diamondbacks 8
Arizona led 6-0 after the top of the first.
Austin Riley had the game-winning single in the 8th inning,
— Rays 8, Rockies 6
Colorado led 6-1 after six innings.
Yandy Diaz had the game-winning single for Tampa Bay.
Sometimes here in Las Vegas, the unpleasant aspects of gambling pop up; while I was watching the Tampa Bay-Colorado game, there was a guy sitting in front of me who bet on the Rays, and for the 2:45 of this 3:03 game, he did nothing but bitch and moan about every aspect of his bet, which was Tampa Bay and over.
If you bet the over on f-bombs this guy used, it probably went over the total in the third inning; Colorado led this game 6-1 after six innings. Dressed like an undercover cop, with long hair, a ski cap and sunglasses, his response when the Rays rallied late to take the lead was “It’s about time” When the Rays won, he got to the cashier, got his money and quietly bolted.
— Baseball injuries:
Cleveland P Shane Bieber (elbow) is out for the year.
Atlanta P Spencer Strider (UCL) is going on the IL.
— One of the best parts of casinos here are the good conversations you have with total strangers; had a few this week with a guy who is an options trader, but also has done some acting work in movies. He showed me a picture Saturday of himself with the late James Caan in a movie they were both in— that had to be pretty cool.
— Was watching the A’s play Friday morning here; there were only two other people watching the game in the sportsbook, and one of those guys was on the phone with his brother somewhere in the eastern time zone. Apparently the brother is having some personal problems.
The guy was loud; he said, at least five times to his brother:”This is just between the two of us” forgetting that I was five feet behind him, and the people selling betting tickets 30 feet away could hear him, too.
The brothers are in business together; the eastern brother’s marriage is falling apart, and there are rumors his personal assistant could be a reason why. Hopefully everything will turn out OK, but I wouldn’t count on the Las Vegas brother to keep things quiet.
— Modern college basketball: 11 of the 20 players who started in the Final Four Saturday transferred to their current team.
