Friday’s 6-pack:
College hoop teams forcing highest %age of turnovers (strength of schedule):
26.5%— McNeese State (122)
26.4%— Iowa State (76)
24.5%— Dayton (126)
24.4%— Florida State (154)
24%— Bradley (305)
23.9%— Seton Hall (316)
Quote of the Day
“The Mets do have young talent that deserves some runway, and you don’t want to block too many opportunities. But losing Alonso means there is a need for certainty in the middle-of-the-order/run production department. So an aggressive push for Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger would be well-timed.”
Bradford Doolittle
Friday’s quiz
Where did Kirk Cousins play his college football?
Thursday’s quiz
Seth Smith played 11 years in the major leagues, was Eli Manning’s backup QB at Mississippi; he played in 18 baseball playoff games and was in one World Series, with the Rockies.
Wednesday’s quiz
Edwin Diaz break into the major leagues with the Seattle Mariners.
********************************************
Atlanta drove 45 yards, kicked 43-yard field goal on the last play.
Falcons got a first down on that drive after they had a 3rd-and-28
Tampa Bay led 28-14 with 10:00 left in the game.
Loss drops Buccaneers to 7-7, half-game behind Carolina in NFC South.
Falcons’ last three drives: 26 plays, 178 yards, 15 points.
Kyle Pitts caught 11 passes for 166 yards, three TD’s for Atlanta.
Atlanta was penalized 19 times for 125 yards. Lot of penalties.
Kirk Cousins threw ball for 373 yards, three TD’s.
— Iowa State 66, Iowa 62
Hawkeyes led 33-25 at halftime.
Iowa State was 17-23 on foul line, Iowa 3-5.
Cyclones are 10-0, with six top 100 wins.
— Syracuse 71, St Joe’s 63
Tough for road team to shoot in a dome; St Joe’s was 5 for 26 on the arc.
Hawks out-rebounded Syracuse, 44-34.
Syracuse is 6-3, despite shooting 56.8% on foul line, worst in country.
— Cincinnati Bearcats have a basketball player, Kerr Kriisa, who has had an interesting journey thru college basketball.
2020-23- Arizona
2023-24- West Virginia
2024-25- Kentucky
2025-26- Cincinnati
Four teams in four years; he must be good at packing.
— Fresno State’s basketball team has seven foreign players who come from five countries.
— Over is 11-0 in LA Lakers’ home games this season.
Famous birthdays, December 12th:
Allan Lewis, 84
Ralph Garr, 80
Gorman Thomas, 75
Darleen Carr, 75
Rafael Septien, 72
Jennifer Connelly, 55
John Salmons, 47
Andrew Whitworth, 44
Ervin Santana, 43
Luis Castillo, 33
Cristopher Sanchez, 29
Cole Ragans, 28
Today was my uncle Roy’s birthday; he was a construction worker who was a good guy. He passed away while having one of the first-ever heart bypass operations.
Frank Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915
— LSU is sending four assistant coaches back to Ole Miss to help the Rebels prepare for the college football playoff game against Tulane December 20- Rebels pounded Tulane 45-20 in September, will be interesting to see how they play after all the chaos they’ve had recently.
— Apparently the LA Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl are going under after this season; the way college/minor league football has gone off the rails, it figures there will be lot fewer bowl games in the coming years.
— Guy named Dave Logan played WR in the NFL for nine years from 1976-84; these days, he is a radio analyst on Denver Broncos’ games, but he also coached high school football for 24 years, during which time he won 13 state championships at four different schools.
— Denver Broncos/New England Patriots are both 11-2, but they’re both home underdogs this week, kind of unusual for this late in the season.
— Olympics are in Los Angeles in 2028; sounds like USC is going to play home football games that year in SoFi Stadium, because the LA Coliseum won’t be available.
— Pittsburgh Steelers’ star pass rusher TJ Watt is in the hospital for lung evaluation after he experienced discomfort at the team’s practice facility Wednesday.
— Carolina Panthers are only NFL team that has never won a game they trailed in by more than 17 points.
— Atlanta Braves signed reliever Robert Suarez for three years, $45M; last two years, Suarez saved 76 games for the Padres.
College hoop teams forcing highest %age of turnovers (strength of schedule):
26.5%— McNeese State (122)
26.4%— Iowa State (76)
24.5%— Dayton (126)
24.4%— Florida State (154)
24%— Bradley (305)
23.9%— Seton Hall (316)
Quote of the Day
“The Mets do have young talent that deserves some runway, and you don’t want to block too many opportunities. But losing Alonso means there is a need for certainty in the middle-of-the-order/run production department. So an aggressive push for Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger would be well-timed.”
Bradford Doolittle
Friday’s quiz
Where did Kirk Cousins play his college football?
Thursday’s quiz
Seth Smith played 11 years in the major leagues, was Eli Manning’s backup QB at Mississippi; he played in 18 baseball playoff games and was in one World Series, with the Rockies.
Wednesday’s quiz
Edwin Diaz break into the major leagues with the Seattle Mariners.
********************************************
Friday’s Den: Random stuff on another cold freakin’ day…….
— Falcons 29, Buccaneers 28Atlanta drove 45 yards, kicked 43-yard field goal on the last play.
Falcons got a first down on that drive after they had a 3rd-and-28
Tampa Bay led 28-14 with 10:00 left in the game.
Loss drops Buccaneers to 7-7, half-game behind Carolina in NFC South.
Falcons’ last three drives: 26 plays, 178 yards, 15 points.
Kyle Pitts caught 11 passes for 166 yards, three TD’s for Atlanta.
Atlanta was penalized 19 times for 125 yards. Lot of penalties.
Kirk Cousins threw ball for 373 yards, three TD’s.
— Iowa State 66, Iowa 62
Hawkeyes led 33-25 at halftime.
Iowa State was 17-23 on foul line, Iowa 3-5.
Cyclones are 10-0, with six top 100 wins.
— Syracuse 71, St Joe’s 63
Tough for road team to shoot in a dome; St Joe’s was 5 for 26 on the arc.
Hawks out-rebounded Syracuse, 44-34.
Syracuse is 6-3, despite shooting 56.8% on foul line, worst in country.
— Cincinnati Bearcats have a basketball player, Kerr Kriisa, who has had an interesting journey thru college basketball.
2020-23- Arizona
2023-24- West Virginia
2024-25- Kentucky
2025-26- Cincinnati
Four teams in four years; he must be good at packing.
— Fresno State’s basketball team has seven foreign players who come from five countries.
— Over is 11-0 in LA Lakers’ home games this season.
Famous birthdays, December 12th:
Allan Lewis, 84
Ralph Garr, 80
Gorman Thomas, 75
Darleen Carr, 75
Rafael Septien, 72
Jennifer Connelly, 55
John Salmons, 47
Andrew Whitworth, 44
Ervin Santana, 43
Luis Castillo, 33
Cristopher Sanchez, 29
Cole Ragans, 28
Today was my uncle Roy’s birthday; he was a construction worker who was a good guy. He passed away while having one of the first-ever heart bypass operations.
Frank Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915
— LSU is sending four assistant coaches back to Ole Miss to help the Rebels prepare for the college football playoff game against Tulane December 20- Rebels pounded Tulane 45-20 in September, will be interesting to see how they play after all the chaos they’ve had recently.
— Apparently the LA Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl are going under after this season; the way college/minor league football has gone off the rails, it figures there will be lot fewer bowl games in the coming years.
— Guy named Dave Logan played WR in the NFL for nine years from 1976-84; these days, he is a radio analyst on Denver Broncos’ games, but he also coached high school football for 24 years, during which time he won 13 state championships at four different schools.
— Denver Broncos/New England Patriots are both 11-2, but they’re both home underdogs this week, kind of unusual for this late in the season.
— Olympics are in Los Angeles in 2028; sounds like USC is going to play home football games that year in SoFi Stadium, because the LA Coliseum won’t be available.
— Pittsburgh Steelers’ star pass rusher TJ Watt is in the hospital for lung evaluation after he experienced discomfort at the team’s practice facility Wednesday.
— Carolina Panthers are only NFL team that has never won a game they trailed in by more than 17 points.
— Atlanta Braves signed reliever Robert Suarez for three years, $45M; last two years, Suarez saved 76 games for the Padres.
