— Happy Opening Day, everyone; they played couple of games in Korea last week, but today is the real Opening Day, except in NY/Philly, where those games have already been rained out.
I’ll be posting statistical knowledge on the baseball page every day starting next week sometime, after the teams have some games under their belt.
— They have a restaurant at my hotel, Du-Par’s, a 24-hour place that is very good, but tonight, they had this little robot/cart delivering the meals to the tables. I’m sitting there looking at my phone, and the cart pulls up next to me— its a little spooky.
— Seton Hall 91, UNLV 68
Pirates never trailed; they shot 11-25 on the arc.
Seton Hall shot 64.9% inside the arc, scored 1.30 points/possession.
Pirates play Georgia in the NIT semi-finals next week.
— Utah 74, VCU 54
Utes jumped out to a 16-2 lead; Rams were 5-26 on the arc.
Only one guy on VCU scored more than 8 points.
Utah plays Indiana State in the NIT semi-finals, at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse.
— Seattle 77, High Point 67
Seattle wins the CBI championship.
High Point led by 3 with 11:23 left in the game.
Redhawks finish season with the #12 eFG% defense in country.
— Norfolk State 75, Fort Wayne 67
Norfolk State wins the CIT championship.
Fort Wayne led 41-23 late in the first half.
Norfolk State put four guys in double figures; two of them were subs.
— If you’re in Las Vegas, check out the sportsbook at the MGM Grand; good place to bet on and watch games, with an excellent pizzeria around the corner to the left.
— Famous birthdays for March 28:
Rick Barry, 80
Len Elmore, 72
JK McKay, 71
Glenn Davis, 63
Jason Garrett, 58
Vince Vaughn, 54
Chris Long, 39
Stefani Germanotta, 38 (Lady Gaga)
Derek Carr, 33
Christian Walker, 33
Will Smith, 29 (Dodgers catcher)
— Purdue is 5-0 this season against the other teams in the Sweet 16.
— 7 of the teams in the Sweet 16 played in the Maui Classic, either this year or last year.
— College basketball coaching stuff:
Louisville hired Charleston coach Pat Kelsey (70-27 in three years there)
Florida Atlantic hired John Jakus as basketball coach; he was an assistant coach at Baylor, and has also worked at Gonzaga.
Long Beach State hired San Diego State assistant Sam Acker as its new head coach; had was with the Aztecs for five years, at Hawai’i/Boise State before that.
Belmont hired Tennessee-Martin coach Ryan Ridder (40-25 the last two years) as its new coach.
Tennessee-Martin hired Jeremy Shulman, who was 346-107 in 14 years coaching at Eastern Florida State, a junior college.
Siena hired Syracuse assistant Gerry McNamara as its new coach.
— NFL’s Detroit Lions re-signed QB Nate Sudfeld, who played in six games over four seasons with the Eagles/Lions. He’s never started an NFL game, completing 25-37 passes, for 188 yards.
— Of all the active baseball players, Mike Trout/Jose Ramirez are the only two with five 20-20 seasons; 20+ home runs, 20+ stolen bases.
— Red Sox OF Tyler O’Neill has hit a home run on each of the last four Opening Days.
— Chicago White Sox have only one pitcher on their roster this year, who was also on the White Sox’ roster last year.
— Only five major league franchises have been sold in the last 12 seasons, Orioles being the fifth; it would be nice if some really rich person bought the A’s this year, so they can go to Las Vegas and compete for playoff spots.
— I was wearing my A’s cap in the sportsbook tonight; a guy comes up to me and asks how I think they’ll do in Las Vegas. He told that he had a friend who was Al Davis’ chauffeur back in the day, when Davis owned the Oakland Raiders. The guy has been to 33 Super Bowls, including 20 in a row at one point.
He is retiring from his job now and is moving from San Diego to Las Vegas; good guy. I’ve had some excellent conversations with total strangers in sportsbooks here; this was one of those.
