Saturday’s 6-pack:
— MTSU 44, UConn 13— UConn is 0-7 vs I-A teams.
— UCF 24, Memphis 7— UCF had 80 passing yards, 104 penalty yards.
— Nets 114, 76ers 109— Brooklyn closed game on a 16-1 run.
— Knicks 121, Magic 96— New York was up 30 at the half.
— Wizards 135, Pacers 134, OT— Indiana is 0-2, with two 1-point losses.
— Suns 115, Lakers 105— Phoenix was up 27 after third quarter.
Quote of the Day
“I don’t really get into rumors — Tua is our quarterback. We’re happy with the quarterback, our quarterback situation. I’ll leave it at that, which I’ve said multiple times.”
Dolphins coach Brian Flores
Saturday’s quiz
Peyton Manning was the #1 pick in the 1998 NFL Draft; what QB was the #2 pick?
Friday’s quiz
Steph Curry’s dad Dell is a TV analyst for the Charlotte Hornets.
Thursday’s quiz
Dusty Baker was on deck when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run.
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Saturday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind and our first set of NHL trends…….
13) Astros 5, Red Sox 0:
— Houston wins ALCS, 4-2
— Yordan Alvarez went 4-4, scored twice.
— Luis Garcia allowed one hit in 5.2 IP.
12) July 30 of this year, Braves traded Pablo Sandoval to Cleveland for Eddie Rosario, who was hurt at the time. Weird trade; Rosario was hurt (he didn’t play for Atlanta until August 28), and the Indians immediately cut Sandoval. At the time, it seemed like a nothing trade.
Except that Rosario is 18-38 for Atlanta in the playoffs this month, batting leadoff since they lost Jorge Soler to COVID. He is a huge reason why the Braves lead the NLCS, 3-2.
11) There have been only five games in NFL history with no punts:
1992— Bills 34, 49ers 31
2003— Colts 38, Chiefs 31 (playoffs)
2014— Saints 44, Packers 23
2014— Packers 38, Bears 17
2021— Chiefs 42, Eagles 30
10) In the 5+ years since Peyton Manning retired, Denver Broncos have started 10 different quarterbacks, and it doesn’t look like they’ve found their guy yet. Ironic that a team run by John Elway can’t find a franchise QB.
9) Braves’ OF Joc Pederson is in his 8th major league season; must be quite a thrill for his dad to watch him play. Stu Pederson played in eight games for the Dodgers in 1985, getting five AB’s in his month in the major leagues- he scored a run and had an RBI, but never got a hit.
8) Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens in 1996; in 1999, the new Browns came into being. Baker Mayfield is the 30th QB to start for the Browns in 22+ seasons. Obviously, Case Keenum became starting QB #31 Thursday night.
7) Want to win a bar bet? Only one player EVER has hit for the cycle in a postseason game:
Brock Holt, in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS, for Boston.
6) Las Vegas Raiders play home games on a grass field at Allegiant Stadium; the grass is wheeled outside the domed stadium afterwards, so it can get lot of sun.
When UNLV plays football at Allegiant Stadium, they play on an artificial turf field that is on the floor of the stadium- the grass field stays outside.
5) Wednesday night in New York, Jayson Tatum of the Celtics went 7-30 from the floor in a double OT loss to the Knicks. At some point, when you’re on your way to shooting 7 for 30, you have to stop taking off-balance jumpers and either drive the ball to the hoop or pass the damn thing.
Tatum only took five foul shots the whole game (he played 44:39) so he wasn’t doing a whole lot of driving. Just because you’re the best player doesn’t mean you always to take the key shots.
4) Speaking of the Knicks, they should wear the same uniforms they wore back when they won NBA titles in 1970 and ’73- the Walt Frazier/Willis Reed era. Uniforms they wore in the season opener looked like they were from the 50’s- not good.
3) AAC poached six teams away from Conference USA, giving the AAC team 14 teams when all the dust settles in couple of years. Not sure it makes the league better just makes it lot more attractive to TV networks that need programming.
School like Texas-El Paso is totally screwed right now; read on Twitter where they’re 800 miles away from their closest remaining C-USA rival. Miners need to hook up with the Mountain West or the Sun Belt, just so they have some affordable travel. Mountain West would be preferable.
I’m going to post NHL/NBA trends/stats every so often in this space; it is still way early in the season, but here’s what we’ve got so far. (stats are thru Thursday’s games)
— Teams on 2nd night of a back/back are 2-7 this season.
— Home teams are 5-5 in overtime, 2-2 in shootouts.
— Anaheim— Lost 3 of last 4 games.
— Arizona is 0-4, giving up 5+ goals three times.
— Chicago is 0-5; over is 2-0-1 in their road games; under is 2-0 at home.
— Colorado lost last three games, outscored 15-7.
— Columbus is 3-0 at home, with two of those wins in OT.
— Under is 4-0 in Dallas games (all on road).
— Last three Detroit games stayed under the total.
— Edmonton won its first four games, scoring 18 goals.
— Florida is 4-0, giving up three goals in last three games.
—Minnesota is 3-0, with all three wins by one goal.
— Montreal is 0-5, scoring total of 4 goals (under 4-1).
— Nashville lost 3 of first 4 games- their last three games stayed under.
— Islanders lost three of first four games, all on road.
— Rangers won last three games; their last four games stayed under.
— All four Ottawa games stayed under the total.
— All three Philly games went over the total.
— Over is 3-1 in Penguin games.
— St Louis won its first three games, all on road.
— San Jose won its first three games.
— Seattle lost four of first five games, all on road (over 3-1-1).
— Tampa Bay is 2-0 at home, 0-2 on road.
— All four Toronto games stayed under the total.
— Washington won three of first four games.
— Last three Winnipeg games went over the total.
