Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings……..

WCC
Saint Mary’s 69, Gonzaga 60
Gaels win WCC tournament for first time since 2019.

How did Saint Mary’s do in NCAA’s, after winning WCC title?
2010- #10-seed, made Sweet 16, lost 72-49 to Baylor in Sweet 16.
2012- #7-seed, lost 72-69 (-2) to Purdue in first round.
2019- #11-seed, lost 61-57 (+4) in first round, to Villanova

Horizon
Oakland 83, Milwaukee 76
Grizzlies win Horizon title for first time.
Last time Oakland made NCAA’s was 2011; they were in Summit League then. 

Oakland is 17-3 in its last 20 games, after a 6-8 start.

Summit
South Dakota State 76, Denver 68
Jackrabbits are in NCAA’s for 7th time in last 13 years.
South Dakota State has won eight games in a row.
Opponents get 40.8% of their points on 3’s, the most against anyone in country.

CAA
Charleston 82, Stony Brook 79 OT
Charleston has won 12 games in a row, 2 CAA titles in a row.
Cougars won, after blowing a 10-point second half lead.
Good shooting: Charleston was 13-30 on arc, Stony Brook 15-35.

NEC
Wagner 54, Merrimack 47
Seahawks win NEC title, after losing 4 of last 5 regular season games.
Wagner is in the NCAA’s for first time since 2003, when Dereck Whittenberg was coach.

Atlantic 15
Saint Louis 74, Rhode Island 71
URI led 64-59 with 5:47 left in the game.
Billikens advance to play Duquesne tomorrow.

Big X
Cincinnati 90, West Virginia 85
Bearcats trailed 64-48 with 11:45 left in game.
Cincinnati advances to play banged-up Kansas tomorrow.

Famous birthdays for March 13:
William H Macy, 74
Dana Delany, 68
Will Clark, 60
Johan Santana, 45
Trent Dilfer, 52
Caron Butler, 44
Coco Gauff, 20

— College basketball coaching carousel:
Coastal Carolina hired Western Carolina coach Justin Gray.
Hampton fired Edward Joyner; they went 17-48/8-28 in two years in the CAA
Louisville is going to fire Kenny Payne, after going 12-52 the last two years.
Missouri State fired Dana Ford; Bears were over .500 the last four years.

— One of Colgate’s subs is the son of former NBA coach PJ Carlesimo.

— Stetson coach Donnie Jones is in the NCAA’s for first time in his 14 years as a head coach, but Jones was an assistant at Florida when they won back-to-back national titles in 2006/2007.

Word of the Day: Enthusiasm- a feeling of excitement, passion for something.

NFL knowledge…….
— New England signed QB Jacoby Brissett to a 1-year deal, with base salary of $8M. This suggests that the Patriots will draft a QB, and Brissett will start the rookie is ready to roll. 

— Minnesota signed QB Sam Darnold to a one-year deal; he’s already played for three teams in his first six NFL seasons. Vikings will be his 4th team. Darnold is 21-35 as an NFL starter.

Vikings also signed RB Aaron Jones for one year, $7M.

— Baltimore Ravens signed RB Derrick Henry to a 2-year, $16M deal.

— Bengals traded RB Joe Mixon to Houston, saving $6.1M on the salary cap.

— Cleveland Browns signed QB James Winston.

— Washington Commanders signed QB Marcus Mariota.

— Underdogs were 11-6 ATS in Tuesday’s college basketball tournament games; they have a 72-62 lead ATS in conference tournaments this month. 

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.