NCAA play-in games:
— Grambling 88, Montana State 81 OT
Montana State led 55-39 with 14:04 left to play.
Grambling had 13 offensive boards, out-rebounded the Bobcats 41-27.
Grambling advances to play Purdue Friday.
— Colorado 60, Boise State 53
Teams combined to shoot 6-33 on the arc.
Buffs have won nine of their last ten games.
Colorado advances to play Florida Friday.
NIT games:
— UNLV 84, Princeton 77
Rebels shot 67.6% inside the arc.
UNLV was 14-19 on foul line, Princeton 3-6.
Rebels have won 11 of their last 14 games.
— Wake Forest 87, Appalachian State 76
Deacons were 25-31 on foul line, App State 7-8.
App State shot 60% inside arc, 7-27 on the arc.
— Indiana State 101, SMU 92
SMU led 57-42 early in second half.
Sycamores scored 1.36 points/possession- they were 30-35 on foul line.
— Bradley 74, Loyola, Chi 62
Bradley jumped out to 22-6 lead, never trailed.
Braves shot 58.3% inside the arc.
— Fort Wayne 77, Bowling Green 75
Mastodons blew 49-35 second half lead, but they survive/advance.
Bowling Green shot 60.5% inside arc, 5-20 on the arc.
— Seton Hall 75, St Joe’s 72 OT
St Joe’s led by 3 with 0:41 left in regulation.
Seven players in this game played 40:00+.
— Tarleton State 86, Abilene Christian 59
These teams won their first round games Tuesday, played again Wednesday.
Tarleton State shot 61% inside the arc.
Cowboys have won 13 of their last 15 games.
— VCU 70, Villanova 61
Senior G Basimile came off bench, scored 17 points.
Villanova was 6-23 on arc; they lost four of last five games.
— Cincinnati 73, San Francisco 72 OT
Simas Lukosius made 8-10 shots on the arc.
Bearcats won four of their last five games.
— The last two SEC teams that made the Final Four were #5-seed Auburn in 2019, #7-seed South Carolina in 2017. Last three NCAA tournaments, nine SEC teams were seeded #1-4; none of them made the Final Four.
— Arizona has been a #1 or #2-seed 15 times; they made the Final Four in only three of those 15 tournaments.
— Famous birthdays for March 21:
Tom Flores, 87
Manny Sanguillen, 80
Mike Dunleavy, 70
Matthew Broderick, 62
Rosie O’Donnell, 62
Adrian Peterson, 39
— Dodgers 5, Padres 2
Season opener started at 6am here in the East Wednesday, 3am in LA/San Diego.
Dodgers scored four runs in 8th inning for the come-from-behind win.
Ohtani went 2-5 with an RBI in his Dodger debut.
— Speaking of Ohtani, his interpreter got fired by the Dodgers; there are questions about $4.5M in wire transfers sent from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookmaking operation in California, where sports gambling isn’t legal.
— When the Dodgers/Padres played exhibition games against KBO teams in Seoul earlier this week, different baseballs were used, depending on which team was hitting.
Major League baseballs are bigger than KBO baseballs
— Minnesota Twins have a giveaway on April 4, their home opener; first 10,000 fans there will get a wool ski cap with the Twins logo on it. If they put a damn dome on their new stadium a few years back, their fans wouldn’t need a freakin’ ski cap to go watch a baseball game.
— Buck Showalter is going to be on MLB Network, a wise move; he’s very good on TV. Always good to learn from smart people.
— Term of the Day: March Madness- Last week and this week are two of my favorite weeks of the year. Lot of stuff going on. Enjoy the games this weekend.
— New Jersey Jets signed WR Mike Williams, giving Aaron Rodgers a good receiver to throw to. Williams played seven years for the Chargers, catching 309 passes for 15.6 yards/catch, with 31 touchdowns.
— Rams moved from St Louis to Los Angeles in eight years ago; there are still five active players who played for the St Louis Rams:
QB Case Keenum, Hst
T Rob Havenstein, Rams
S Rodney McLeod, Blev
K Greg Zuerlein, NJJ
P Johnny Hecker, Colo
— Bucky Badger is the U of Wisconsin mascot, a pretty popular mascot.
Back in the late 80’s, some enterprising Wisconsin students marketed a line of condoms, with Bucky’s picture on them. Their pitch was: “Get lucky with Bucky!!!”
