Armadillo: Wednesday's six-pack
— Kentucky 73, Vanderbilt 67— Vandy led 25-6 early in the game.
— Iowa State 86, Oklahoma State 83— High-level game between Final 4 contenders.
— Western Michigan 70, Northern Illinois 56— 7th straight win for the Broncos.
— The Professor chimes in with a solid lookalike: Purdue hoop coach Matt Painter and WWE honcho Shane McMahon.
— Duke 75, Florida State 70— Seminoles have been cruddy on road; very disappointing.
— Colorado State 78, Wyoming 76– Rivals traded 3-pointers in last 0:15 of a wild ending. Colorado State has won seven games in a row.
**********
Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings……..
13) Back in 2010, I’m at the MGM Grand for the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Had a great time; place is too big, but thats another story.
Early on in one of the games, three young guys next to me are going nuts; kid scores a basket to make the score 15-12 and they’re hugging each other. I have no idea why, so had to ask: “Is that guy who scored your brother or something?”
Turns out there was a proposition bet on every game: first team to get to 15 points, and these guys had the winner. I’d get dizzy trying to handicap “first team to 15” bets.
12) Bad beat of last weekend: San Diego (-5.5) 85, Portland 82— Kid on Portland drained a 3 right at the buzzer to cover the spread; losing Pilots were 10-14 on the arc, 20-20 on line and still lost a game they trailed by 18 in with 17:29 left.
The thing is this: if you bet San Diego in this game, you laid 5.5 points with a team that 48 hours earlier, had LOST BY 58 POINTS on their home court, 96-38 to Gonzaga.
Takes a lot of onions to lay 5.5 with a team coming off a 58-point loss.
11) Random NBA stats: Cleveland Cavaliers are 0-7 vs spread on the road if they played the night before. Golden State is 3-7 in that situation.
10) This year, when college hoop referees don’t feel like calling a foul, or feel one isn’t justified, they simply give the “touchdown” signal, as if to say, the defender stayed straight up.
9) I’m thinking that UCLA’s Bryce Alford reminds me a lot of Jimmer Fredette; terrific with the ball in his hands, couldn’t guard a lamp post.
If Steve Alford hadn’t have gotten the UCLA coaching job, Bryce would be playing ball at New Mexico (and Cullen Neal would’ve gone to St Mary’s). Bryce Alford would be torching what is a down Mountain West Conference.
8) Petco Park in San Diego flooded over the weekend, after heavy rains combined with a clogged drain or two; the ballfield looks like a pond, but because they recently had a motorcycle race there, the field didn’t have any grass on it anyway and was scheduled to be re-sodded soon.
7) Duke QB Thomas Sirk got a 6th year of eligibility from the NCAA after he tore his achilles, but he will transfer from Duke and play his last year of college ball elsewhere.
6) Houston Astros will have 12-foot high screens at Minute Maid Park this year, which will come up when the game starts and will run the length of each dugout, to protect fans from flying bats and foul balls.
5) Three years ago, Buzz Williams left Marquette for Virginia Tech, an odd move for a basketball coach; Williams went 139-69 in six years at Marquette, 69-37 in Big East games, so he was doing well, but he moved on to Blacksburg anyway.
In three years since, this being the third year, Marquette is 50-43 under Steve Wojciechowski, 20-32 in Big East games, with no NCAA tournament appearances- they’re a bubble team right now, .
Virginia Tech is 52-45 under Williams (41-23 the last two years), 22-31 in ACC games (20-15 the last two years). Hokies are probably going to the NCAA’s for the first time in ten years.
Sometimes it is tough to coach a college team in a pro town, which Milwaukee is, but Williams is a program builder who has done a terrific job at Virginia Tech.
4) Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles both got the gate from their NFL teams Tuesday; tough to be a 30-ish NFL running back with a big contract.
Football players must look at baseball/NBA guys and their guaranteed contracts and it has to tick them off mightily.
3) Rangers OF Josh Hamilton had his 11th knee operation Monday; not sure of how many he has had on each knee, but seeing as he only has two knees, there are no good ratios.
2) I would not want front row seats to a college or NBA game; basketball players are large humans and if they go hard after a loose ball, you wouldn’t want one of them crashing into you.
Couple years ago, Lebron James crashed into golfer Jason Day’s wife and knocked her flying at a game in Cleveland; she took it like a trooper but it had to hurt like hell.
1— Warren Buffett announced Monday that if any Berkshire Hathaway employee exactly nails the Sweet 16 in their NCAA tournament bracket, that person will receive $1M a year for life, as long as only one person does it.
Buffett also offers $100,000 to the Berkshire employee who predicts the most consecutive winners during the tournament. Last year, two guys split the $100,000.
— Kentucky 73, Vanderbilt 67— Vandy led 25-6 early in the game.
— Iowa State 86, Oklahoma State 83— High-level game between Final 4 contenders.
— Western Michigan 70, Northern Illinois 56— 7th straight win for the Broncos.
— The Professor chimes in with a solid lookalike: Purdue hoop coach Matt Painter and WWE honcho Shane McMahon.
— Duke 75, Florida State 70— Seminoles have been cruddy on road; very disappointing.
— Colorado State 78, Wyoming 76– Rivals traded 3-pointers in last 0:15 of a wild ending. Colorado State has won seven games in a row.
**********
Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings……..
13) Back in 2010, I’m at the MGM Grand for the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Had a great time; place is too big, but thats another story.
Early on in one of the games, three young guys next to me are going nuts; kid scores a basket to make the score 15-12 and they’re hugging each other. I have no idea why, so had to ask: “Is that guy who scored your brother or something?”
Turns out there was a proposition bet on every game: first team to get to 15 points, and these guys had the winner. I’d get dizzy trying to handicap “first team to 15” bets.
12) Bad beat of last weekend: San Diego (-5.5) 85, Portland 82— Kid on Portland drained a 3 right at the buzzer to cover the spread; losing Pilots were 10-14 on the arc, 20-20 on line and still lost a game they trailed by 18 in with 17:29 left.
The thing is this: if you bet San Diego in this game, you laid 5.5 points with a team that 48 hours earlier, had LOST BY 58 POINTS on their home court, 96-38 to Gonzaga.
Takes a lot of onions to lay 5.5 with a team coming off a 58-point loss.
11) Random NBA stats: Cleveland Cavaliers are 0-7 vs spread on the road if they played the night before. Golden State is 3-7 in that situation.
10) This year, when college hoop referees don’t feel like calling a foul, or feel one isn’t justified, they simply give the “touchdown” signal, as if to say, the defender stayed straight up.
9) I’m thinking that UCLA’s Bryce Alford reminds me a lot of Jimmer Fredette; terrific with the ball in his hands, couldn’t guard a lamp post.
If Steve Alford hadn’t have gotten the UCLA coaching job, Bryce would be playing ball at New Mexico (and Cullen Neal would’ve gone to St Mary’s). Bryce Alford would be torching what is a down Mountain West Conference.
8) Petco Park in San Diego flooded over the weekend, after heavy rains combined with a clogged drain or two; the ballfield looks like a pond, but because they recently had a motorcycle race there, the field didn’t have any grass on it anyway and was scheduled to be re-sodded soon.
7) Duke QB Thomas Sirk got a 6th year of eligibility from the NCAA after he tore his achilles, but he will transfer from Duke and play his last year of college ball elsewhere.
6) Houston Astros will have 12-foot high screens at Minute Maid Park this year, which will come up when the game starts and will run the length of each dugout, to protect fans from flying bats and foul balls.
5) Three years ago, Buzz Williams left Marquette for Virginia Tech, an odd move for a basketball coach; Williams went 139-69 in six years at Marquette, 69-37 in Big East games, so he was doing well, but he moved on to Blacksburg anyway.
In three years since, this being the third year, Marquette is 50-43 under Steve Wojciechowski, 20-32 in Big East games, with no NCAA tournament appearances- they’re a bubble team right now, .
Virginia Tech is 52-45 under Williams (41-23 the last two years), 22-31 in ACC games (20-15 the last two years). Hokies are probably going to the NCAA’s for the first time in ten years.
Sometimes it is tough to coach a college team in a pro town, which Milwaukee is, but Williams is a program builder who has done a terrific job at Virginia Tech.
4) Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles both got the gate from their NFL teams Tuesday; tough to be a 30-ish NFL running back with a big contract.
Football players must look at baseball/NBA guys and their guaranteed contracts and it has to tick them off mightily.
3) Rangers OF Josh Hamilton had his 11th knee operation Monday; not sure of how many he has had on each knee, but seeing as he only has two knees, there are no good ratios.
2) I would not want front row seats to a college or NBA game; basketball players are large humans and if they go hard after a loose ball, you wouldn’t want one of them crashing into you.
Couple years ago, Lebron James crashed into golfer Jason Day’s wife and knocked her flying at a game in Cleveland; she took it like a trooper but it had to hurt like hell.
1— Warren Buffett announced Monday that if any Berkshire Hathaway employee exactly nails the Sweet 16 in their NCAA tournament bracket, that person will receive $1M a year for life, as long as only one person does it.
Buffett also offers $100,000 to the Berkshire employee who predicts the most consecutive winners during the tournament. Last year, two guys split the $100,000.
