Tuesday’s 6-pack
NBA leaders in assists:
10.8— James Harden, Phil
10.4— Tyrese Haliburton, Ind
9.9— Trae Young, Atl/Nikola Jokic, Den
9.1— Chris Paul, Phx
8.1— Luka Doncic, Dal/Ja Morant, Mem
7.8— Darius Garland, Clev
Tweet of the Day
“I got to live out my dream because of college basketball. Sure, I was a golfer and I went to Houston to be on the golf team. But, really, went to Houston to study communications and try to figure out a way to get trained to hopefully one day be noticed by CBS. That was what the goal was: to work for CBS.”
Jim Nantz
Tuesday’s quiz
Other than Wrigley Field/Fenway Park, what is the oldest stadium in the major leagues?
Monday’s quiz
Last 40 years, #8-seed Villanova is 1985 is the lowest seed to win the NCAA championship.
Sunday’s quiz
Jamie Foxx’s character Willie Beamon played QB for the Miami Sharks in
Any Given Sunday; Beamon wore number 13 for the Sharks.
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Tuesday’s Den: Nobody asked me, but……. (plus, XFL trends)
— UConn 76, San Diego State 59
Huskies were dominant, winning their tournament games by 24-15-23-28-13-17 points.
UConn has won five national titles, under three different coaches, all since 1999; they were a #1-seed only one of those five years, and that year, Huskies were a 9.5-point underdog in the final, in ’99 against Duke.
San Diego State had a great year, but they shot 32.2% from the floor in this game.
— Padres 5, Arizona 4— Dahl/Kim hit back/back homers in the bottom of the ninth, after Arizona took the lead in the top of the ninth. San Diego has now won three in a row.
— Guardians 12, A’s 11 (10)— Seth Brown hit a two-out, two-run homer in bottom of 9th to tie the game; Cleveland scored twice in the 10th to win it.
Oakland led this game 6-2 in 2nd inning, 8-5 after five innings. Oy.
— Tigers 7, Astros 5 (11)— Vierling went 4-5; his 11th inning home run was the game-winner. Abreu’s homer in the bottom of ninth sent the game to extra innings.
Astros are 2-3; in four of the five games, the winning run scored from the 7th inning on.
— Angels 7, Mariners 3— Angels’ bullpen got 13 outs, allowing only two baserunners. Ohtani hit another home run. Seattle has lost four in a row after winning their opener.
— Brewers 10, Mets 0
Anderson/Turang homered for Milwaukee, which didn’t homer in its first three games, which hadn’t happened since 1976.
Freddy Peralta tossed six shutout IP, allowing five baserunners.
— Giants 12, White Sox 3
San Francisco hit seven home runs in this game, four of them in one inning.
Giants’ first nine games this year are against American League teams; their first NL game is against the Dodgers next Monday.
— There are 1,200 names in the college basketball transfer portal; the season ended last night. There are 363 Division I basketball teams, which means an average of 3.31 players from every team in the country are bolting to another school. It is crazy, and it makes handicapping games really difficult, at least the non-conference games before Christmas.
— NBA’s Atlanta Hawks are 39-39; they’ve scored 9,209 points and given up 9,210. They are 24-24 against teams from the East and 15-15 against teams from the West. They have been within one game of .500 for 73 consecutive days, during which time they changed head coaches.
— Angels’ 3B Anthony Rendon loses $817,240 for his 4-game suspension after he got into an altercation with a fan in Oakland last week. Rendon makes $38M a year, more than Mike Trout makes; he should never get mad at anything.
— Here are trends for all eight XFL teams, seven weeks into a 10-game regular season.
Arlington Renegades (3-4)
Renegades lost three of their last four games.
Five of their last six games stayed under the total.
Last six games, scored 11.8 ppg.
All three wins were by 6 or less points.
1-6 ATS this season, 0-3 ATS as a favorite.
DC Defenders (6-1)
Won/covered first six games, then lost to 0-6 Orlando.
Six of their seven games went over the total.
Last five games, Defenders scored 33.4 ppg.
Last two weeks, they allowed 26-37 points.
Houston Renegades (4-3)
Lost last three games, after a 4-0 start.
Scored 30.5 ppg in first four games, 18.7 ppg in last three.
3-1 SU/ATS at home, 1-2 on the road.
Favorite covered five of their seven games.
Last three home games stayed under the total.
Las Vegas Vipers (2-5)
Won two of last three games, after an 0-4 start.
Vipers are 1-5 ATS in their last six games.
Last five games, Las Vegas allowed 27 ppg.
Their last three games are all on the road.
Vipers are 0-4 when they score less than 26 points.
Orlando Guardians (1-6)
Orlando beat spread in four of last five games.
They were 0-6, then upset 6-0 Defenders last week.
Six of their seven games went over total.
Guardians are giving up 30.6 ppg.
St Louis Battlehawks (5-2)
Both their losses are to 6-1 Defenders (34-28/28-20)
St Louis allowed 18 or less points in its wins.
Battlehawks covered both times they were favored.
St Louis is 3-2 ATS as an underdog.
Three of their last four games stayed under the total.
San Antonio Brahmas (2-5)
San Antonio scored 12 points LW; they had a 97-yard kick return TD.
Brahmas were held to 15 or less points in six of seven games.
Six of their seven games stayed under the total.
Average total in their last four games: 25.8.
Their last three games are all at home.
Seattle Sea Dragons (5-2)
Seattle won its last five games, after an 0-2 start.
Sea Dragons covered four of their last five games.
Five of their seven games went over the total.
Their four road games all went over the total.
Last four games, they allowed only 13.5 ppg.
