Armadillo Sports
Wednesday’s 6-pack
— Texas Tech 77, Texas 64— Coach Beard loses in his return to Lubbock.
— Michigan State 65, Maryland 63— Spartans blew 15-point lead, won it with 0:01.5 left.
— North Carolina 90, Louisville 83, OT— Bacot had 19 points, 22 rebounds.
— Auburn 100, Alabama 81— Auburn was 31-39 on foul line; lot of foul shots.
— Northwestern 79, Rutgers 78, OT— Wildcats blew a 52-28 lead, still got a win.
— Davidson 81, St Bonaventure 76— Wildcats made 12-28 on the arc.
Quote of the Day
“We don’t have the same funding resources as some of these schools do for these NIL deals. It’s basically dealing with different salary caps. Now we have a sport that has completely different salary caps and some of these schools have, whatever, five to 10 times more than everybody else in what they can pay the players. I know nobody uses those phrases, but that is what it is.”
Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin
Wednesday’s quiz
Where did Charles Barkley play his college basketball?
Tuesday’s quiz
Rams have played in four Super Bowls, with four different head coaches; Ray Malavasi, Dick Vermeil, Mike Martz, Sean McVay.
Monday’s quiz
Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason started for the Bengals in their other two Super Bowls.
****************************
Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings………
13) Football is the only sport where the pro game is shorter than the college game; clocks stop after first downs in college. College teams run more average plays in a game than NFL teams do, which is big reason why turnovers are so critical. There aren’t that many drives in an NFL game.
Rams had eight drives Sunday, 49ers had nine (not counting kneel-downs at end of half). Rams threw an INT in red zone on one drive, dropped a TD pass on another, two wasted chances that created their problems entering the 4th quarter.
Turnovers can be random/luck-related, which is part of reason why handicapping football is so difficult.
12) Minnesota Vikings are interviewing Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh Wednesday; rumor is they want him to be their next coach. 49ers assistant DeMeco Ryans turned down a chance for a second interview, signaling that he thinks Harbaugh-to-Minnesota is a done deal.
NFL teams have to interview a certain amount of minority candidates (Rooney Rule) for head coach openings, but if a guy thinks he has no shot at getting the job, he can turn down the interview. Younger guys take the interview, just to get experience in the interview process.
First three coach openings this month have all been filled by coaches with offense background.
11) Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores is suing the NFL and three times for racial discrimination; apparently he has given up on ever being a head coach again, if he is suing the whole damn league.
Flores went 24-25 in three years with Miami, never made the playoffs, even though his last two teams went 10-6/9-8.
Here’s the problem Flores has:
— Week 17, 2020, Dolphins lost 56-26 in Buffalo
— Week 17, 2021, Dolphins lost 34-3 at Tennessee.
When your team goes in the tank at big moments in critical games, it doesn’t look good for the coach. NFL teams are worth an average of $3B each; they’re entitled to hire who they damn well please to be their head coach.
Getting along well with others is part of being a good coach; there were lot of rumors that Flores/Miami’s front office were often at odds about their jobs.
10) Tom Brady officially retired Tuesday, meaning that Canton, OH will be a good place to avoid in August 2027, when Roethlisberger/Brady get inducted into the Hall of Fame.
I was in Canton for the 2001 Hall of Fame events, to see Jack Youngblood/Jackie Slater get inducted. Marv Levy also got in that year, so lot of Buffalo fans were there and Lynn Swann got in, so lot of Pittsburgh fans showed up.
Steeler fans were insufferable that day, ragging on the Buffalo fans because they’ve never won a Super Bowl- they were really annoying, so could be lot of trash talk between Steeler/Patriot fans in 2027. The “annoying meter” will be off the charts, both ways.
9) Buccaneers will have $32M of dead money next year, which is a salary cap charge for a player no longer on a team’s roster, with Brady retiring before June 2.Tampa Bay can get some salary cap relief by keeping him on the roster until June- that’s what the Saints did when Drew Brees retired.
8) Understood that the transfer portal is a way of life in college sports now, but when I see a kid playing for his third school in four years, it makes me squeamish about the player.
James Akinjo played two years at Georgetown, then bolted to Arizona, then bolted to Baylor.
Georgetown lost its last seven games before Akinjo bolted; Arizona went 5-6 in its last 11 games LY, then Akinjo bolted and the Wildcats changed coaches. Arizona is 17-2 this season with a new coach and almost entirely-new roster.
Now the highly-skilled Akinjo is at Baylor, which won the national title last year. Bears are 19-3 this season, 7-2 in conference; will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
7) Penn State 90, Iowa 86, 2OT:
— Penn State shot 57% inside arc, Iowa 35%
— Hawkeyes tipped in an airball at buzzer to force OT.
— Iowa lost three of its last four games.
6) Wyoming 84, Colorado State 78, OT:
— This was really good game; Mountain West is better this year.
— Maldonado scored 35 points, had 7 assists for Wyoming
— Wyoming played only one sub more than 7:00, at high altitude.
5) NC-Wilmington is on an incredible run; Seahawks started the season #277 on KenPom’s rankings; they were picked to finish last in the CAA by Blue Ribbon Yearbook, after going 38-76 the previous four years, 18-43 in conference games.
After starting this season 3-5, UNCW has gone on a 12-0 run- they were underdogs in eight of the 12 games, going 11-0 against the spread (one game was against an NAIA team). Now the Seahawks are up to #222, are have a 2-game lead in the CAA- they’ll still have to win the CAA tournament to get into March Madness, but they’re having a great season.
4) If you’ve got an extra $3B hanging around, the Denver Broncos are for sale. Last NFL team that was sold were the Carolina Panthers, who went for $2.2B- Broncos are said to be worth more than the Panthers, so the deal should be around $3B.
3) Pitt-West Virginia will open their college football season against each other next September , the regional rivals’ first meeting since 2011.
2) QB Caleb Williams finally decided to bolt to USC, after leaving Oklahoma when Lincoln Riley skipped town to coach the Trojans. Wisconsin tried very hard to lure Williams to Madison, but what 20-year old passer chooses Madison over Tinseltown?
1) MLB Network showed Game 7 of the 1965 World Series Tuesday, Twins-Dodgers, Sandy Koufax against Jim Kaat. Lot of great players in the game, which was played in the daytime (the night World Series game was in 1971).
Ray Scott broadcast the first 4.5 innings, Vin Scully the last 4.5; two great announcers. Lot of great players: Koufax-Drysdale-Oliva-Killebrew-Kaat.
Earl Battey caught for the Twins that day; his grandson plays basketball for Colorado now.
TV coverage of baseball is so much better now; weren’t many graphics back then. No one was talking about pitch counts or defensive positioning. Was fun to watch it; I was five years old back then— game was in bacl/white, that’s how old I am. LOL
