Thursday’s 6-pack
Odds to win the golf tournament in Mexico this week:
+725— Justin Thomas
+1900— Brooks Koepka, Harris English
+1950— Russell Henley
+2000— Abraham Ancer, Daniel Berger, Viktor Hovland
+2900— Tony Finau, Corey Conners
+3200— Brendan Todd
Americans who have died from COVID-19: 271,247
PLEASE wear a mask when you go out.
Quote of the Day
“We came in on that Tuesday and got some extra work in when no one was here, and we got too lackadaisical with [the protocols]. It ended up hurting us and it hurt this program and I apologize for letting that happen. We could have been better. That’s the point of the matter here. We needed to be perfect and we weren’t perfect. That’s something that we’ve got to be better at.”
Broncos’ QB Drew Lock
Thursday’s quiz
Where did John Wall play his college basketball?
Wednesday’s quiz
Virginia is technically the defending national champ in college basketball, since they won the tournament two years ago; they beat Texas Tech in the 2019 championship game.
Tuesday’s quiz
John Turturro played both Joey Knish in Rounders and coach Billy Sunday in He Got Game.
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Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….
13) Pittsburgh 19, Ravens 14
— Ravens had ball on 1-yard line at end of first half, but didn’t score.
— RGIII threw a pick-6 for first score of the game in first quarter.
— Baltimore lost four of last five games, after a 5-1 start.
— Ravens are 9-3-1 ATS in last 13 games as a road underdog.
— Steelers won first 11 games (8-3 ATS), scoring 27.9 ppg.
— Pittsburgh scored only 13 points on four red zone drives.
— Only 2nd time in 12 years Steelers swept season series from Baltimore.
— Under is 4-1-1 in their last six games.
12) Last NFL team to start a season 11-0? The 2015 Carolina Panthers.
11) NFL teams with worst records in games decided by 6 or fewer points:
0-5-1: Cincinnati
0-3: Atlanta, Washington
0-2: Jets
1-5: Baltimore
10) NFL teams with best records in games decided by 6 or fewer points:
5-0: Cleveland, Pittsburgh
4-0: Kansas City, New Orleans
5-1: Tennessee
3-1: Buffalo, Seattle
Browns-Titans play Sunday; two team that have won lot of close games.
9) Texas 69, North Carolina 67:
— Longhorns win the Maui Classic
— UNC took 32 foul shots, Texas 14; Bill Walton wasn’t happy about that.
— Texas was 9-22 on the arc, Carolina 1-9.
8) Speaking of Walton, I say every year how I learn things from listening to him, but the things I learn usually aren’t basketball-related.
— Maui Classic was held in Asheville, NC; veteran umpire Joe West was born in Asheville.
— Davidson had the first college of forestry in this country.
7) Robert Griffin III was the 2nd pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, taken with a pick acquired from the Rams, who parlayed the draft picks they got from Washington into other picks, until they had essentially added eight players from trading that pick.
Griffin went 14-21 in three years as a starter for Washington- they made the playoffs his rookie year, but it was all downhill from there. When you trade four draft picks to take a QB, he damn well better be really good.
As for the Rams and the eight players they added, well, there’s a reason they sucked from 2013-16; except for Michael Brockers, those picks didn’t pan out. Janoris Jankins, Alec Ogletree were contributors, but the others didn’t do so well.
6) People on MLB Network were debating Hall of Fame possibilities this week, and Todd Helton’s name came up. Helton played his whole career for the Rockies, so the question of how playing at Coors Field helped him. Here are some facts:
Career at home: 4,841 PA, 874 runs scored, 859 RBI, 1.048 OPS
Career on road: 4,612 PA, 527 runs scored, 547 RBI, .855 OPS
His .386 career on-base %age on the road is still impressive, but he may have a hard time getting those lesser power numbers on the road into Cooperstown.
5) Kyle Schwarber (Cubs), Hansel Alberto (Orioles) were two of the more prominent players who were non-tendered Wednesday, which makes them free agents.
4) Gonzaga 87, West Virginia 82:
— Mountaineers led 39-34 at halftime
— Gonzaga shot 56.6% inside arc.
— Teams combined to make 9-33 on the arc; a brickfest.
High-level game, two NCAA-level teams.
3) Houston Rockets traded Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards for John Wall and a lottery-protected 1st-round pick. Westbrook is reunited with coach Scott Brooks, who was also one of his coaches in Oklahoma City.
2) NBA season will start December 22, with two games:
Warriors-Nets and Clippers-Lakers.
The next night, Bucks-Celtics, Mavericks-Suns will have the spotlight.
1) Baylor 82, Illinois 69— Flagler scored 18 off the bench for a Baylor team whose head coach is back in Waco, with COVID. This game easily could’ve passed for a Final Four game; Baylor plays Gonzaga next, which should be a very good matchup.