Armadillo Sports
Tuesday’s 6-pack
Odds to win Big X football this fall:
7-4— Oklahoma
2-1— Texas
5-1— Oklahoma State
15-2— Baylor
12-1— Iowa State
14-1— TCU
40-1— Texas Tech, West Virginia
50-1— Kansas State
300-1— Kansas
Quote of the Day
“Are you truly going to implement your culture and not get derailed? Are you gonna bring guys in that are going to fit what you want to do in all three phases? Are you truly going to have competition year-in and year-out? I mean, we can go in a million different directions, but when guys know when they come in the building that no matter how they got there, they have a chance, that’s how you sustain success. You rip that entitlement out.”
Falcons’ coach Arthur Smith
Tuesday’s quiz
Who was Lebron James’ first coach in the NBA?
Monday’s quiz
In the movie Runaway Jury, Dustin Hoffman plays the winning lawyer in the big case.
Sunday’s quiz
In the movie Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler’s character plays golf against Price Is Right host Bob Barker.
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Tuesday’s Den: Nobody asked me, but…….
13) Someday, NFL Films should do a special with a behind-the-scenes look at how they make the NFL schedule; would be fascinating TV.
Who gets what primetime games, the Thanksgiving/Christmas games. Apparently when Tom Brady un-retired, the schedule makers had to scramble and put the Buccaneers back in the mix for prominent time slots. Russell Wilson getting traded, Aaron Rodgers staying in Green Bay all play into what games get the most national TV exposure.
12) Speaking of which, NFL announced their Week 2 Monday night schedule:
7:00— Tennessee @ Buffalo
8:30— Minnesota @ Philadelphia
League didn’t get very good TV ratings when the nightcap of their twin bills were 10:30 starts out west, so they’ve been scratched. The NFL definitely cares about its TV ratings. League has to figure that after the Buffalo game ends, viewers will switch over for the second half of the game in Philadelphia.
11) Boston 116, Milwaukee 108:
— Tatum/Horford both scored 30 points for the Celtics.
— Giannis was 14-32 from floor; other four Milwaukee starters were combined 17-45
— Series is tied 2-2; the NBA’s accountants are happy- they like longer series.
10) Golden State assistant coach Mike Brown was named new head coach of the Sacramento Kings Monday, then he announced he is staying with the Warriors thru the end of the playoffs.
Then Golden State coach Steve Kerr tested positive for COVID and Brown was named interim coach of the Warriors until Kerr returns.
So, the Warriors are being coached by Sacramento’s coach; that’s a new one.
9) Warriors 101, Grizzlies 98:
— Warriors outscored Memphis 39-29 in 4th quarter.
— Ja Morant (knee) didn’t play for Memphis.
— Memphis was +13 in 27:00 Adams played, minus-16 in 21:00 he sat out.
8) Cubs 6, Padres 0:
— Cubs played Sunday night at home, then had this game in San Diego; tough scheduling spot.
— Kyle Hendricks threw 116 pitches, pitched 8.2 IP of shutout ball for Chicago.
— San Diego had only three hits.
7) I’m in a 14-team fantasy baseball league, with 29 guys on each team, so that is 406 players in our league. Pretty deep league.
Last week, the two Players of the Week were Tampa Bay’s Manuel Margot, Milwaukee’s Rowdy Tellez, neither of whom was on a roster in our league when last week started.
Tellez got picked up during the week; Margot is still out there. Lot of skeptics.
6) NHL’s New York Islanders fired coach Barry Trotz; team was 37-35-10 this season, missing playoffs for first time in four years under Trotz.
My cousin and his son, who are avid Islander fans, are shocked/dismayed by this move. In four years as the team’s coach, Trotz was 152-102-34 in regular season, 28-21 in the playoffs. In his 23-year career as a head coach, he is 914-670-60-168.
Trotz won the Stanley Cup in Washington four years ago, then got canned by the Caps, which was also weird. Must be an interesting story why all this happened.
5) Detroit Mercy G Antoine Davis entered the transfer portal this spring, which was odd, since his dad is Detroit’s coach, but now he’s announced that he is staying with the Titans.
This past season, Davis was 3rd in the nation in scoring at 23.9 ppg, and he was co-Horizon League Player of the Year- he’s scored 2,734 points in his career, 22nd all-time in NCAA history. Shooting is marketable, for sure.
Davis made four official visits in the last month, to Maryland, BYU, Georgetown and Kansas State, but he decided to stay home and help his dad keep his job.
4) Guardians 12, White Sox 9 (11)
— Cleveland tied game with six runs in ninth inning
— Josh Naylor hit a grand slam in 9th inning, 3-run homer in 11th.
— Naylor became the first player since RBI’s became official in 1920 to have eight RBI’s from the eighth inning on in a game.
3) Atlanta Falcons have $62M in dead money on their salary cap for this coming season; that is 30% of their payroll, but once 2022 is over, they can get back to regular business.
2) Duke poached a couple of transfers this week, from Harvard and Northwestern, both coached by Duke alums. That should make alumni gatherings a little more fun.
1) From 1986-2002, Dell Curry played in the NBA, scoring 12,670 points for five teams, mostly the Charlotte Hornets; he is now a TV analyst for the Hornets.
Dell Curry went to college at Virginia Tech; he scored 19 ppg in four years with the Hokies. Curry has two sons who were very good high school players, but Virginia Tech didn’t recruit either one of them. This was a mistake. Really big mistake.
Seth Curry is in his 9th NBA season; he started his college career at Liberty, was also poached by Duke, where he played for three years, scoring 17.5 ppg as a senior.
Steph Curry is one of the greatest shooters ever, if not the best. He played three years in college at Davidson, scoring 28.6 ppg in his last year there. His exploits in the NBA are well known.
Seth Greenberg was Virginia Tech’s coach back then; this helps explain why he is a TV analyst now.
