Saturday’s six-pack
— Baylor 66, Louisville 63— Bears came back from down 18 to win Battle of Atlantis- they’re very athletic and very underrated.
— Temple 81, West Virginia 77— Owls have depleted roster but just beat Florida State/West Virginia on consecutive days. Fran Dunphy is a very good coach.
— Iona/Nevada already played once this month, will meet again in the finals of the Alaskan Shootout. Nevada won first meeting 91-76 in Reno Sunday night.
— Butler came from behind and beat Arizona 69-65 in the finals of the Continental Tire tourney at Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas.
— Iowa State/Gonzaga will meet in the finals of Advocate tourney in Orlando Sunday.
— Texas A&M/UCLA will meet in the finals of the Wooden Legacy tournament Sunday at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
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Saturday’s List of 13: Midnight musings……..
13) Memphis 48, Houston 44— This coaching carousel stuff in college football is terribly unfair to the players playing now. Houston Cougars beat Oklahoma/Louisville this year, but every time they win a game, speculation starts about coach Herman’s next job.
Houston has now lost to Navy-Memphis-SMU; what should have been a great year will now be a very good one- they’re going to have a new coach next year. Such are the realities of major college football. Life changes quickly.; have to win as much as you can while you can
12) So the latest Herman update is that LSU will probably keep Ed Orgeron if Herman goes to Texas and Charlie Strong will keep his job if Herman goes to LSU. We forget that coaches have assistant coaches and everyone has families and a lot of people are affected by this stuff.
11) Miami Ohio’s football team started this season 0-6, obviously a disaster, but the Red Hawks recovered and finished the regular season at 6-6 and bowl eligible. Good for the kids and the coaches who didn’t quit on the season- you don’t see that very often.
10) Pirates signed utility guy Sean Rodriguez for two years, $11.5M. Versatile guy; seems like every team has a guy like him now.
9) I mentioned last week how Long Beach State hoop coach Dan Molson makes $600K a year; well the 49ers are now 1-6 this year and lost to Binghamton/Florida Gulf Coast the last two days. Not exactly $600K worth of coaching.
8) ESPN is televising the Wooden tournament from Cal State-Fullerton this weekend; during UCLA’s game Thursday night, they did something that bugged me. During the game, reporter Jeff Goodman interviews Lonzo Ball’s dad in the stands. Why?
Since when do kid’s parents get interviewed during the game? Why is this a good idea?
7) I’m convinced that NFL teams should throw more towards their sideline, especially on longer passes; you see lot of flags thrown when guys on the sideline scream for a call— you yell loud enough, long enough, you’re going to get one (or two) calls.
6) Long time ago, Ole Miss hoop coach Andy Kennedy was a good player; he took recruiting trips across the south, one of which was to Georgia Tech, where his player/host was Craig Neal, now the coach at New Mexico. Kennedy wound up playing for NC State and later UAB.
Apparently the two guys remained friends thru the years, so when Neal’s son Cullen transferred away from his dad’s team to a place where the home fans were less hostile (seriously) he went to play for his dad’s friend Kennedy at Ole Miss. Very good get for the Rebels.
5) James Madison fired coach Matt Brady LY, despite the Dukes going 40-25 the last two years; they made the NCAAs in 2013. No sure why he was fired but this year JMU is 0-5 and they’re looking stupid for firing Brady, a mostly successful coach. None of JMU’s losses are to a top 100 team, so it doesn’t bode well for their conference games, either.
4) Steve Levy/Brian Greise have been a very good announce combo on college football games this year and Justin Kutcher does well on FS1, mostly with Bill Raftery. Some people just have great chemistry together and the broadcast becomes us listening to two guys talking about ball, which is ideal and what we want. No shtick, just conversation.
3) Virginia Tech has a very good point guard (Justin Robinson) which is why the Hokies are 24-16 the last year-plus, a marked improvement. Robinson played 76 of a possible 80:00 in Tech’s first two games out at Fullerton. They’ll need to get him a little more rest in ACC play.
2) Texas Tech 54, Baylor 35— Wow the wheels really fell off for Baylor; they’re 6-5 and headed straight south, losing five in a row after a 6-0 start. Bears allowed 47.6 pts/game during the skid. You wonder if they’ll even bother going to a bowl game.
1— I was lucky enough to put myself thru college as a student manager of a small college hoop team; it was mostly great fun. One night we’re playing a local rival; one of their players dives for a loose ball and crashes into the scorer’s table, about ten feet from me on the bench. Great effort by the kid, but he didn’t save the ball. Looked like he could even be hurt.
His coach was a pretty intense guy; he comes over, I figure the coach is going to help the kid up, see if he is OK. He looks down at the kid, who is slowly getting up and screams “Next time, get it!!!!” and storms away.
Not a great moment, but it was part of why we almost always beat them. How about patting the kid on the back for a great try? No bueno.
— Baylor 66, Louisville 63— Bears came back from down 18 to win Battle of Atlantis- they’re very athletic and very underrated.
— Temple 81, West Virginia 77— Owls have depleted roster but just beat Florida State/West Virginia on consecutive days. Fran Dunphy is a very good coach.
— Iona/Nevada already played once this month, will meet again in the finals of the Alaskan Shootout. Nevada won first meeting 91-76 in Reno Sunday night.
— Butler came from behind and beat Arizona 69-65 in the finals of the Continental Tire tourney at Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas.
— Iowa State/Gonzaga will meet in the finals of Advocate tourney in Orlando Sunday.
— Texas A&M/UCLA will meet in the finals of the Wooden Legacy tournament Sunday at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
---------------------------
Saturday’s List of 13: Midnight musings……..
13) Memphis 48, Houston 44— This coaching carousel stuff in college football is terribly unfair to the players playing now. Houston Cougars beat Oklahoma/Louisville this year, but every time they win a game, speculation starts about coach Herman’s next job.
Houston has now lost to Navy-Memphis-SMU; what should have been a great year will now be a very good one- they’re going to have a new coach next year. Such are the realities of major college football. Life changes quickly.; have to win as much as you can while you can
12) So the latest Herman update is that LSU will probably keep Ed Orgeron if Herman goes to Texas and Charlie Strong will keep his job if Herman goes to LSU. We forget that coaches have assistant coaches and everyone has families and a lot of people are affected by this stuff.
11) Miami Ohio’s football team started this season 0-6, obviously a disaster, but the Red Hawks recovered and finished the regular season at 6-6 and bowl eligible. Good for the kids and the coaches who didn’t quit on the season- you don’t see that very often.
10) Pirates signed utility guy Sean Rodriguez for two years, $11.5M. Versatile guy; seems like every team has a guy like him now.
9) I mentioned last week how Long Beach State hoop coach Dan Molson makes $600K a year; well the 49ers are now 1-6 this year and lost to Binghamton/Florida Gulf Coast the last two days. Not exactly $600K worth of coaching.
8) ESPN is televising the Wooden tournament from Cal State-Fullerton this weekend; during UCLA’s game Thursday night, they did something that bugged me. During the game, reporter Jeff Goodman interviews Lonzo Ball’s dad in the stands. Why?
Since when do kid’s parents get interviewed during the game? Why is this a good idea?
7) I’m convinced that NFL teams should throw more towards their sideline, especially on longer passes; you see lot of flags thrown when guys on the sideline scream for a call— you yell loud enough, long enough, you’re going to get one (or two) calls.
6) Long time ago, Ole Miss hoop coach Andy Kennedy was a good player; he took recruiting trips across the south, one of which was to Georgia Tech, where his player/host was Craig Neal, now the coach at New Mexico. Kennedy wound up playing for NC State and later UAB.
Apparently the two guys remained friends thru the years, so when Neal’s son Cullen transferred away from his dad’s team to a place where the home fans were less hostile (seriously) he went to play for his dad’s friend Kennedy at Ole Miss. Very good get for the Rebels.
5) James Madison fired coach Matt Brady LY, despite the Dukes going 40-25 the last two years; they made the NCAAs in 2013. No sure why he was fired but this year JMU is 0-5 and they’re looking stupid for firing Brady, a mostly successful coach. None of JMU’s losses are to a top 100 team, so it doesn’t bode well for their conference games, either.
4) Steve Levy/Brian Greise have been a very good announce combo on college football games this year and Justin Kutcher does well on FS1, mostly with Bill Raftery. Some people just have great chemistry together and the broadcast becomes us listening to two guys talking about ball, which is ideal and what we want. No shtick, just conversation.
3) Virginia Tech has a very good point guard (Justin Robinson) which is why the Hokies are 24-16 the last year-plus, a marked improvement. Robinson played 76 of a possible 80:00 in Tech’s first two games out at Fullerton. They’ll need to get him a little more rest in ACC play.
2) Texas Tech 54, Baylor 35— Wow the wheels really fell off for Baylor; they’re 6-5 and headed straight south, losing five in a row after a 6-0 start. Bears allowed 47.6 pts/game during the skid. You wonder if they’ll even bother going to a bowl game.
1— I was lucky enough to put myself thru college as a student manager of a small college hoop team; it was mostly great fun. One night we’re playing a local rival; one of their players dives for a loose ball and crashes into the scorer’s table, about ten feet from me on the bench. Great effort by the kid, but he didn’t save the ball. Looked like he could even be hurt.
His coach was a pretty intense guy; he comes over, I figure the coach is going to help the kid up, see if he is OK. He looks down at the kid, who is slowly getting up and screams “Next time, get it!!!!” and storms away.
Not a great moment, but it was part of why we almost always beat them. How about patting the kid on the back for a great try? No bueno.
