Sunday’s 6-pack
NBA knowledge for the first day of March:
— 76ers are 1-12-1 ATS in last 14 road games.
— Dallas covered six of last seven games with Minnesota.
— Six of last nine Charlotte-Milwaukee games went over.
— Nuggets covered their last eight games with Toronto.
— Lakers are 3-1-1 ATS in last five games with New Orleans.
— Golden State is 6-7 ATS in game following a win.
Quote of the Day:
“The one (baseball) we’re using right now is pretty similar to what we used in 2017. But I’ll remark here that, it’s just how I feel.”
Masahiro Tanaka, talking about how baseballs have changed this year
Sunday’s quiz
Which current NBA team used to be known as the Buffalo Braves?
Saturday’s quiz
When Lions’ QB Matthew Stafford played high school football in Texas, Clayton Kershaw was the center on Stafford’s team.
Friday’s quiz
Duke last won the ACC’s regular season basketball title in 2010, when they tied Maryland; their last outright regular season title was in 2006.
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Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a basketball Saturday…….
13) UCLA 69, Arizona 64— Bruins won their last seven games, have half-game lead over Oregon atop the Pac-12, which is amazing, seeing how back on Jan 15, UCLA was 7-9, with home losses to Hofstra, Cal State-Fullerton.
In this game, UCLA was 29-38 on foul line, Arizona 10-16; Arizona coach Miller got tossed from the game for expressing his displeasure with the officiating.
12) TCU 75, Baylor 72— Horned Frogs scored 54 second half points, knocked Baylor out of a tie for first with Kansas atop Big X standings. Bears lost two of last three games, after they had won 23 in a row.
11) Seton Hall 88, Marquette 79— Powell/Mamukelashvili combined for 54 points as Pirates sweep a Marquette team thats lost four of its last five games.
This is Steve Wojciechowski’s sixth year as Marquette’s coach; he is 51-55 in regular season conference games, 0-2 in NCAA tourney games, losing to Murray State, South Carolina.
10) BYU 81, Pepperdine 64— BYU star Yoeli Childs had 38 points, 14 rebounds; he’s missed 13 games this year- BYU is 8-5 in those games, 16-2 when he plays, including a win vs Gonzaga.
BYU is experience team #9 and has some older players to begin with, because some of them go on Mormon missions; they’ll be a scary team to play in two weeks.
9) Kentucky 73, Auburn 66— Wildcats made 27-33 on four line, Auburn 13-22; in their first meeting, Tigers were 33-44 on foul line, Kentucky 20-24. Go figure.
During a TV timeout in first half, a Kentucky student hit a half court shot for $10,000. Cool.
8) Virginia 52, Duke 50— Cavaliers won their 6th straight game, five by 3 or fewer points.
Duke lost its third straight road game; they’re game behind Florida St/Louisville in ACC. Blue Devils haven’t won an ACC regular season title since 2010.
7) Upsets:
— Texas (+11) 68, Texas Tech 58
— Lipscomb (+9) 77, Liberty 71
— Oklahoma (+8) 73, West Virginia 62
— TCU (+7.5) 75, Baylor 72
— New Mexico (+7.5) 66, Utah State 64
— Providence (+7) 58, Villanova 54
— Eastern Washington (+7) 68, Northern Colorado 64
— North Carolina (+6) 92, Syracuse 79
6) There are 15 basketball teams in the ACC; only four of them are over .500 in conference play. ACC is 5th-ranked league this year, their lowest since they were #6 in 2013.
5) Hofstra 94, James Madison 81— Hofstra has never won the CAA tournament, but they’re the #1 seed this year; last time they made the NCAA’s, Hofstra came out of America East.
#2 seed Wm & Mary has never been in the NCAA tournament, period, so the CAA tourney will be an event where the two favorites are maidens playing against teams that have won.
4) Eastern Washington 68, Northern Colorado 64— Eagles are tied for first with Montana in Big Sky, with two games left in regular season, a game ahead of Northern Colorado. This league is improved this season; their conference tournament in Boise should be fun.
3) Northern Iowa 70, Drake 43— This was Drake’s first home sellout in 11 years, but they got waxed by the Panthers here.
Northern Iowa is 25-5, but if they don’t win Arch Madness next week, they’re going to be a very nervous group on Selection Sunday.
2) Yale 66, Princeton 63— Bulldogs win their two games this weekend by total of six points, still lead Ivy League by a game with two left to play. Ivy League is ranked #16, its highest ranking in five years; that year, their champ got a 13-seed in NCAA’s. 13-seeds can win a game.
1) Illinois State 71, Evansville 60— On November 12, Purple Aces upset #1 Kentucky 67-64 in Rupp Arena; a few weeks after that, their coach got suspended/fired for off-court stuff, and the Purple Aces’ season went in the ashcan, like, totally in the ashcan.
They went 0-16 in the MVC.
Evansville is the first D-1 team EVER to beat the #1 team in the country and also go winless in conference play that same season.
