Armadillo Sports
Friday’s 6-pack:
— Iowa 83, Indiana 74— Hoosiers are 0-4 in true road games.
— Wisconsin 78, Ohio State 68— Badgers won 12 of last 13 games.
— Texas Tech 78, Oklahoma State 57— Tech is pleasant surprise at 13-3.
— Belmont 92, Tennessee Tech 77— Bruins won their last eight D-I games.
— Oakland 70, Cleveland State 65— Two best teams in Horizon faced off.
— As I’m typing this at 12:38am, Gonzaga leads BYU 93-67 with 9:07 left in game.
Quote of the Day
“We got on a roll there, and were playing really good ball until the final two weeks of the season. We have processes in place. I’m not going to overreact. But I’m pissed. We embarrassed ourselves.”
Colts’ GM Chris Ballard
Friday’s quiz
Who was the Houston Texans’ QB, first time they played a playoff game?
Thursday’s quiz
First time Chiefs won the Super Bowl, Hank Stram was their coach; he later coached in New Orleans, after he left the Chiefs.
Wednesday’s quiz
Seth Curry of the 76ers played three years of college basketball at Duke, after transferring from Liberty.
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Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here……..
13) NFL Playoffs start this weekend; Rams play Monday night, with QB Matthew Stafford looking for his first playoff win in his 13 NFL seasons.
Stafford played his first 12 seasons for Detroit, which hasn’t won a playoff game in 30 years. All three of Stafford’s playoff games were on the road.
Monday night, the NFC West champ Rams are at home and there is a lot of pressure on Stafford to get a win. He’s had a good season: 4,886 yards, 41 TD passes, a division title- his first.
Here is the narrative that the talk show morons will go with Tuesday morning:
— Rams win: They’ll blame Kliff Kingsbury and speculate on his job security.
— Rams lose: Stafford is a fraud and LA screwed up trading for him.
Thats what talk show morons do; really wish ESPN would go back to showing poker during the day, instead of their annoying talk shows. No one learns anything listening to them; they just yell at each other, kind of like pro wrestling interviews.
12) Rams’ safety Jordan Fuller hurt his ankle, is done for this season; Rams brought Eric Weddle out of retirement to play in Fuller’s place.
Weddle played 13 years in NFL, played in six Pro Bowls, but he hasn’t played in two years.
11) Oregon 84, UCLA 81:
— Dana Altman gets his 700th career win.
— Ducks blew a 6-point lead in last 0:36 of regulation.
— Game was played in a mostly-empty arena (family only) with UCLA shutting down their campus to the public until at least January 21, because of COVID.
Non-basketball thing I learned from listening to Bill Walton: Snoop Dawg and Billie Jean King went to the same high school.
10) Florida Gators are 0-3 in the SEC, first time since 1981 they’re 0-3 in conference play.
9) Las Vegas Raiders have won six games this season on the final play of the game, the most by any team in NFL history.
8) Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman had shoulder surgery Thursday and is expected to miss at least two games; he hurt his shoulder during practice few weeks ago, when he collided with a player during a drill.
Assistant coach Keith Smart is the interim coach.
7) Today is January 14, and there are several college basketball teams who haven’t even played a conference game yet.
George Mason, Portland, Wyoming, Tennessee Tech, among others. There weren’t too many games cancelled last night; hopefully things are getting closer to normal now.
6) Houston Texans fired coach David Culley after only one season; Texans went 4-13, playing without Deshaun Watson. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess.
Culley is 66 years old; he had only been a coordinator once in his career, and that was in 1990, at Texas-El Paso. Not really sure why they hired him, but the Texans played hard all year but with a rookie QB— those teams rarely win— not sure why they fired him, either.
Texans will have an interesting offseason:
— what will they get for Watson?
— who will their next coach be?
— who will they draft with all the picks they get for trading Watson?
5) Major League was on TV the other night; one of my favorite movies. Still think Bob Uecker should’ve been nominated for best supporting actor for his role as Harry Doyle, the Indians’ radio announcer.
4) I don’t know anyone who bets a lot of NBA games; this season, performances have been so erratic, not sure how you would handicap them.
Bulls won by 46 the other night, then lost by 26 the next night. Golden State was down 77-38 at halftime against the Bucks Thursday. Bulls/Warriors are good teams and they’re erratic as hell.
3) One team that is much-improved is Cleveland; so far this season, the Cavaliers:
— won in Miami for first time since 2010.
— won in Portland for first time since 2013.
— won in Utah for first time since 2014.
2) Jon Lester retired Thursday, after pitching in the big leagues for 16 years; he won 200 games, had a postseason record of 9-7, 2.51 in 26 games (22 starts).
1) Batman the TV series started 56 years ago this week; still remember the animated opening sequence, when they showed the credits. Whap!!! Pow!!! Biff!!!
When you’re six years old and your name is Biff, seeing that name on TV every week was a big deal. Batman was weird but it was a fun; lot of famous actors played villains on the show, and Adam West wound up with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Obscure trivia:
Six actors/actresses who appeared in both Batman and Magnum PI:
— Cesar Romero (Joker on Batman)
— Jill St John
— Alan Hale (Skipper on Gilligan’s Island)
— Barbara Rush
— Howard Duff (he played Magnum’s grandfather)
— Elisha Cook (Icepick in Magnum PI)
