MLB 2026 BEST BETS- NEWS THRU THE WORLD SERIES !

[CNOTES]

Monday’s 6-pack
Last six Super Bowl champs (QB):
2025— Seahawks (Darnold)
2024— Eagles (Hurts)
2023— Chiefs (Mahomes)
2022— Chiefs (Mahomes)
2021— Rams (Stafford)
2020— Buccaneers (Brady)

Quote of the Day
“The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
Benito Ocasio

Monday’s quiz
JJ McCarthy was the Vikings’ QB this year; Sam Darnold was their QB last year. Who was Minnesota’s QB in 2023?

Sunday’s quiz
Matt Hasselbeck was QB for the Seahawks, the first time they played in a Super Bowl.

Saturday’s quiz
Sam Cunningham is the New England Patriots’ all-time leader in rushing yards.

*****************************************

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up Super Bowl Sunday……​

— Seahawks 29, Patriots 13
Seattle wins their second Lombardi Trophy.
Kenneth Walker carried ball 27 times for 135 yards.
Jason Myers kicked five FG’s, outscored New England by himself.
Seahawks were +3 in turnovers, scored a defensive TD.

Patriots’ first nine drives: 38 plays, 79 yards, zero points.
Seattle’s first six drives: 42 plays, 183 yards, three FG’s.
Seahawks sacked Drake Maye six times, for 43 yards.
NE was first team since 1974 not to score in first 3 quarters of a Super Bowl

— Weird stat: last ten times New England was in the Super Bowl, they were outscored 27-3 in the first quarter of those games.

— Prop bet update: national anthem was done in 1:57, the under hits.

— I’m oblivious about certain things, and I had never watched the halftime show of any Super Bowl before. Before this week, I’d never heard of Bad Bunny, so I looked him up.
Real name: Benito Ocasio; he is 32 years old
For a while couple years ago, he was a pro wrestler.
He has helped make rap music more popular, world-wide.
During the halftime show, they had a couple on stage getting married, looked like it was part of the act, but apparently, that was an actual marriage ceremony that happened during halftime.

— Thursday night in Week 1 this coming September, Seahawks will be the home team.

— Jim Schwartz was defensive coordinator for the Browns this year; he interviewed for the head coach’s job in Cleveland when it opened, and when he didn’t get it, he bolted, even though he has two years left on his contract.

— Former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski was quickly hired by the Atlanta Falcons, who were 5-3 with Kirk Cousins starting this year, 3-6 when he didn’t start, but rumor has it that the Falcons are going to cut him this spring. If he gets cut, he won’t be on the market very long.

— Famous birthdays, February 9th:
Joe Pesci, 83
Jim Nash, 81
Vince Papale, 80
Judith Light, 77
Danny White, 74
Mookie Wilson, 70
John Kruk, 65
Todd Lyght, 57
Vladimir Guerrero Sr, 51
Michael B Jordan, 39
Saquon Barkley, 29
Cobie Durant, 28

— Joe Pompliano posted the following info:
The average TV ad for the Super Bowl was $8M
5-10 ads sold for as much as $10M
For 40% of advertisers, this was their first Super Bowl ads.
NBC requires brands to match the $$$ they spend on Super Bowl on other events too
All in all, NBC was expected to rake in $800M in advertising revenue.

— USC 77, Penn State 75
Freshman G Arenas scored the game-winning hoop with 0:00.7 left.
Penn State shot 60% inside arc, led by 12 early in second half.
Trojans have won three in row, prove to 18-6, 7-6 in conference.
USC. Penn State. Why the bleep are these teams in the same league?!?!?!

— Coastal Carolina 94, UMass 91, 3OT’s
UMass led by 14 with 14:39 left in regulation.
Chanticleers shot 16-34 on the arc, only 8-16 on foul line.
K’Jei Parker scored 31 points in 34:00 for UMass; he didn’t start.

— Texas Tech 70, West Virginia 63
Red Raiders never trailed, shot 13-24 on the arc.
Tech only used two subs, who played 12-3 minutes.
West Virginia shot 66.7% inside arc, 2-22 outside arc.
Tech improves to 17-6, 7-3 in Big X

— South Florida basketball coach Bryan Hodgson used to be an assistant coach at Fredonia State in western New York. I was the student manager of our basketball team in college; we played at Fredonia once, it is a long freakin’ way from Albany, about an hour west of Buffalo.
Very cold there; the young lady who sang the national anthem was very good, that’s all I can remember from that night, 45 or so years ago. Other than thinking, why would anyone want to live here for four years? It was like ten miles past the middle of nowhere.
But coach Hodgson became an assistant to Nate Oats at Buffalo, and moved up the ladder from there. He was 45-28 in two years at Arkansas State and this year his USF Bulls are 16-8, 8-3 in the AAC, so Hodgson is apparently a very good coach.

— North Dakota State is moving up to I-A football and will play in the Mountain West, starting this fall; the move is going to cost the school $17M. Bison have been D-I in basketball for couple decades, but this is a big jump for them.

— NBC is going back to broadcasting baseball this year; Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto, Anthony Rizzo are going to be their studio analysts.

— Pitchers and catchers report on Tuesday; let’s play ball!!!!

 

[CNOTES]

Wednesday’s 6-pack
Teams with best eFG% defense in country:
42.7%— Saint Louis (23-1)
43.1%— Michigan (22-1)
44.3%— Marist (16-8)
44.4%— Hawai’i (17-5)
44.4%— UConn (22-2)
44.6%— Arizona (23-1)

Quote of the Day
“Be curious, not judgmental.”
Walt Whitman

Wednesday’s quiz
Before he became coach at Kansas, where did Bill Self coach?

Tuesday’s quiz
Derek Carr is the Raiders’ all-time leader in passing yards.

Monday’s quiz
JJ McCarthy was the Vikings’ QB this year; Sam Darnold was their QB last year. Kirk Cousins was Minnesota’s QB in 2023.

**************************************************

Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings…….​

— Nevada sports books made a profit of $9.89M on the Super Bowl; last year, they made a $22.1M profit, when the Eagles beat Kansas City.

— It takes a little bit of luck to win a championship; you have to be really good, but you need a few things to go your way, too.

Last year, Minnesota Vikings went 14-3, their best record since 1998; they lost in the playoffs and they moved on from Sam Darnold as QB, deciding to play JJ McCarthy instead.
Darnold went to Seattle and made history last week; the Vikings fired their GM last month. If Minnesota had held onto Darnold, this season would’ve had a different ending.
Kind of like two years ago, when the Giants let RB Saquon Barkley walk, and he moved on to help their divisional rival Eagles win the Super Bowl. If the Giants had paid their star player, who knows what would’ve happened?

— Pitchers/catchers reported to spring training this week; thinking about baseball makes it seem warmer, in what has been a dismal winter here in upstate New York.

— Milwaukee Brewers traded IF Caleb Durbin to the Red Sox in a six-player deal; Milwaukee gets P Kyle Harrison, and some minor leaguers also changed hands.

— Kind of a busy baseball day Tuesday, seeing how it was February 10th:
Detroit Tigers signed Justin Verlander for one year, $13M
Mets’ SS Francisco Lindor has a left wrist injury, may need surgery; if he has hamate surgery, he is expected to be out for six weeks.
Mets’ OF Juan Soto is moving from right field to left field.
Braves signed C Jonah Heim.
Pirates signed DH/OF Marcell Ozuna
A’s signed P’s Aaron Civale, Scott Barlow.
Rockies signed P Tomoyuki Sugano
Braves put P Spencer Schwellenbach on the 60-day DL (elbow)

— Right now, Minnesota Twins’ payroll is $60M less than it was three years ago, when the Twins went 87-75 and made the playoffs.

— Arizona P Brandon Pfaadt had some interesting home/road splits last year:
Home: 9-3, 3.24 in 17 home starts, with a 1.17 WHIP
Road: 4-6, 7.71 in 16 road starts, with a 1.53 WHIP

— Famous birthdays, February 11th
Tina Louise, 92
James Silas, 77
Carey Lowell, 65
Todd Benzinger, 63
Jennifer Aniston, 57
Damian Lewis, 55
Jacque Vaughn, 51
Dansby Swanson, 32
Graham Ashcroft, 28
The great actor Leslie Nielsen was born 100 years ago today.

— In the NBA, Chicago Bulls are 6-17 ATS as a favorite this season.

— If you have Prime Video, there is a series starting this week on the history of the old ABA, a basketball league that existed from 1967-76. The ABA used a red-white-blue basketball; it is where the 3-point shot became popular. Teams generally played at a much faster tempo.
In 1976, the league folded, but the NBA took in four of their teams: Nuggets, Pacers, Nets and the Spurs. Lot of great players played in the ABA: Rick Barry, Julius Erving, Artis Gilmore, Dan Issel, George Gervin. The show should be fun to watch.

— Purdue 80, Nebraska 77, OT
Purdue led by 22 early in the second half.
Boilermakers out-rebounded Nebraska, 54-37
Nebraska lost three of last four games, after a 20-0 start.

— Wisconsin 92, Illinois 90, OT
Illinois led by 12 with 8:10 left in the game.
Badgers shot 16-36 on arc, were +9 (13-4) in turnovers.
Illinois played six guys 30+ minutes, a 7th guy played 1:00.
20-5 Illinois lost their 2nd game in row, both in overtime.

— TCU 62, Iowa State 55
Cyclones led 28-19 with 3:23 left in first half.
Horned Frogs were 15-23 on foul line, Iowa State 2-8.
Loss snapped Iowa State’s five-game win streak.

— Miami 75, North Carolina 66
Tar Heels follow up their win over Duke by laying an egg on the road.
Miami won four of last five games, improves to 19-5, 8-3 in ACC.
Hurricanes never trailed, shot 53.1% inside the arc.

— Villanova 77, Marquette 74
Marquette led by nine with 6:13 left in the game.
Villanova has won four in a row, improved to 10-3 in Big East.
Marquette is 0-9 in true road games this season.

— Virginia 61, Florida State 58
Seminoles led by 9 with 8:22 left in the game.
Florida State was 16-22 on foul line, Virginia 5-8
Virginia is 21-3; none of their starters scored in double figures.

— My phone says the high temperature in Albany Wednesday will be 35 degrees; if so, it’ll be the first time in 19 days the temperature has been above freezing in my hometown. Spring cannot get here soon enough.

 

[CNOTES]

Jackson Holliday injury: Orioles second baseman to miss Opening Day after breaking hamate bone​

Mets star Francisco Lindor and Diamondbacks' Corbin Carroll have also suffered hamate injuries this spring​

[IMG alt=" R.J. Anderson
"]https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2017/07/07/7ccc5316-db89-4357-8b13-1ed9506251d1/thumbnail/80x80/9a48915f2351dbd22e7205e11d767a88/rj-anderson-700.png[/IMG]

By R.J. Anderson

11 hrs ago•1 min read
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Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday will miss the start of the regular season after suffering a broken hamate bone in his right hand, president of baseball operations Mike Elias announced Wednesday. Holliday, who suffered the injury during batting practice last week, will undergo surgery on Thursday. The Orioles have not stated an official timeline for Holliday's recovery, but Elias said it'll be "measured in weeks" after Opening Day.

Holliday is one of several notable players to suffer hamate injuries recently. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is expected to miss about six weeks following his own hamate surgery. Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll will miss at least the World Baseball Classic after also undergoing surgery on Wednesday. His Opening Day status is unclear.

For whatever it's worth, Baseball Prospectus' database estimates players who have undergone hamate surgery in the past have missed about seven weeks on average. Every injury and recovery are unique in their own ways, but Opening Day 2026 is roughly six weeks off. If Holliday's recovery follows that precedent and proceeds without setback, he should be able to return relatively early in the year.
Holliday, 22, is a former top prospect and the No. 1 pick in the 2022 Draft. Last season, his first full campaign in the majors, he hit .242/.314/.375 (95 OPS+) with 17 home runs and 17 stolen bases (albeit on 28 attempts). His contributions were worth an estimated 1 Win Above Replacement, per the calculations housed at Baseball Reference.

During Holliday's absence, the Orioles could slot recent acquisition Blaze Alexander in at the keystone. It should be noted that Alexander was added before Holliday suffered his injury, making that move look more prescient. Alexander, 26, hit .230/.323/.383 (95 OPS+) with seven home runs and four stolen bases in 74 games. His contributions were worth an estimated 1.7 Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference.

 

[CNOTES]

Anthony Santander to miss 5-6 months after shoulder surgery in brutal Blue Jays injury news​

The Jays will need several other players to step up, notably since Bo Bichette departed in free agency​

[IMG alt=" Matt Snyder
"]https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2016/05/04/69487861-f5f8-469b-b55a-c617fbddaec1/thumbnail/80x80/1b1ddc73b97be54af942b3b04212a975/mattsnyder.png[/IMG]

By Matt Snyder

Feb 10, 2026 at 5:28 pm ET•1 min read
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The Toronto Blue Jays enter the 2026 season as the defending AL East and American League champions. The goal this time around would be to erase the sting of losing Games 6 and 7 of the World Series at home, especially after going to the ninth inning with a lead in Game 7. They lost Bo Bichette in free agency, but otherwise return a strong team for this season

And then bad news struck right at the start of spring training. Oufielder/designated hitter Anthony Santander needs left labral (shoulder) surgery and will miss five to six months, Blue Jays manager John Schneider announced Tuesday.

Santander, 31, signed a five-year, $92.5 million deal with the Jays last offseason and didn't provide much in his first year. He hit .175/.271/.294 (57 OPS+) with -1.0 WAR in 54 games. He missed significant time, requiring two different stints on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation.
Just because the Jays didn't get anything from Santander last season doesn't mean they weren't counting on him this time around, though. The offense lost one of its top contributors in Bichette to free agency. In looking to pick up that slack, Santander was one of the most obvious places. Now that is off the table until past the halfway point of the season.

Third baseman Kazuma Okamoto was signed out of Japan and that's one place where the Blue Jays will look to alleviate some of the Bichette loss. Nathan Lukas and Davis Schneider are also options to see increased playing time. Santander is a switch-hitting outfielder while Lukas (left) and Schneider (right) could platoon in that now-open lineup spot. Also remember that injuries held center fielder Daulton Varsho to just 71 regular-season games last year.

This is to say that while Santander was being counted on to beef up the offense, the Blue Jays have options to replace him and areas where they can still pick up the lost production from Bichette's signing with the Mets and Santander's surgery.

The Blue Jays won the AL East over the Yankees last season via tiebreaker, as both finished 94-68, tied for the best American League record. Baseball Prospectus released its PECOTA projections on Tuesday and essentially have the two teams in a dead heat atop the AL East again.

 

[CNOTES]

Kris Bryant to open MLB season on 60-day injured list as degenerative back disease continues to derail career​

Bryant once looked like a possible Hall of Famer and now he can barely get on the field​

[IMG alt=" Matt Snyder
"]https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2016/05/04/69487861-f5f8-469b-b55a-c617fbddaec1/thumbnail/80x80/1b1ddc73b97be54af942b3b04212a975/mattsnyder.png[/IMG]

By Matt Snyder

Feb 10, 2026 at 4:46 pm ET•2 min read
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Spring training opens across baseball this week as pitchers and catchers begin reporting to camp. For the Colorado Rockies, they're due on Thursday. Still, there was a transaction on Tuesday that served as a reminder of where things, sadly, stand with a certain big-name player.
Kris Bryant was placed on the 60-day injured list, due to a degenerative lumbar disc disease (lower back).
Bryant signed a seven-year, $182 million deal with the Rockies before the 2022 season. He played in 42 games in 2022, 80 in 2023, 37 in 2024 and just 11 last season. For those counting at home, that's 170 games out of a possible 648. He hit well when he played in 2022, but he's basically been a non-presence since then.
Still only 34, Bryant has said he's in pain basically every day. From last November, via the Denver Post:

"I wish I had better things to tell you," Bryant said from his home in Las Vegas. "It's not in the best shape, and that's pretty disheartening for me. It's exhausting for me waking up and hoping to feel (better). I can't tell you the last time I woke up feeling I'm in a good spot."
---
"If you asked me two or three months ago, I would say (my back pain) was not affecting my everyday life," he said. "But now it is, which is really annoying to me because usually when you kind of just rest, it's supposed to get better. So maybe I'm at a point where I should just do a bunch of stuff to see if that helps me."

Three years and $81 million remain on Bryant's contract with the Rockies, who were an MLB-worst 43-119 last season. In his four years with the Rockies thus far, Bryant has hit .244/.324/.370 (84 OPS+) with -1.6 WAR.

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Bryant is a four-time All-Star who won the 2016 National League MVP, when he was the best player on the World Series champion Cubs. He posted 5.4, 7.3 and 5.7 WAR, respectively, through his first three MLB seasons. Just as a point of comparison, the most statistically similar player to Bryant through age 25 in MLB history was Jim Thome, according to Baseball Reference. Chipper Jones was also in the top five most comparable. The most similar players now are Kevin Youkilis, Preston Wilson and Corey Hart.
The short way to say this is that a litany of injuries -- most specifically his back issues -- derailed what once looked like the start of a Hall of Fame career for Bryant.
At age 34 with a chronic back problem, it doesn't seem like there's much likelihood for Bryant to ever be a productive major leaguer again, though that obviously remains the goal.

For now, Bryant sits on the 60-day IL for the worst team in baseball. It's been quite the relatively depressing turn for the man who once ruled Wrigleyville.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...s-pirates-marcell-ozuna-astros-isaac-paredes/

 

[CNOTES]

2026 World Baseball Classic rosters: Javy Báez suspended, USA and D.R. load up, more takeaways​

The full rosters are set for the 2026 WBC, which kicks off next month​

[IMG alt=" Mike Axisa
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By Mike Axisa

Feb 6, 2026 at 2:52 pm ET•6 min read
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The 2026 edition of the World Baseball Classic is a month away and, Thursday night, rosters for all 20 teams were announced. Team USA is loaded and the early favorite to win the tournament, though they are hardly a lock. Japan is the defending WBC champion, and the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Venezuela are also sporting stacked rosters.
All 20 rosters can be viewed here. The Mets lead the way with 17 players participating in the WBC, though 11 of the 30 MLB teams are sending at least 12 players to the tournament, and 18 MLB teams are sending at least 10. The Astros and Nationals are the laggers with three WBC players apiece. Every other team is sending at least five players to the WBC.
Here now are six takeaways from the WBC roster announcements.

1. This is the best USA roster ever​

Both on paper and according to the gory math. Baseball America ran the numbers and found that, based on the previous year's WAR, this is the best roster USA has ever sent to the WBC. Here are the totals via Baseball America:

• 2006: 109.5 WAR in 2005
• 2009: 101.6 WAR in 2008
• 2013: 78.2 WAR in 2012
• 2017: 86.9 WAR in 2016
• 2023: 100.0 WAR in 2022
• 2026: 118.1 WAR in 2025

A reminder how little this matters: USA went 3-3 and was eliminated in the second round in 2006, and the 2017 team went 6-2 and won the WBC. Ultimately, the WBC is small sample sizes on top of small sample sizes, and anything can happen once you get out of pool play and into a single-elimination format. It's baseball. Randomness reigns supreme.

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On paper, this is the best roster USA has ever taken into the WBC, especially pitching-wise. The Americans will start their rotation with reigning Cy Young winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal, and have Joe Ryan and Logan Webb backing them up. It's the best USA rotation and roster in WBC history. Now it just has to work.

2. The Dominican Republic has the pitching to match its lineup​

The Dominican Republic's lineup reads like an All-Star Game lineup: Junior Caminero, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Ketel Marte, Jeremy Peña, Geraldo Perdomo, Julio Rodríguez, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., and more. It is a deeper and more powerful offense than even what USA will run out there, plus the defense could be excellent depending who plays where.

Of course, that is more or less the same lineup the Dominican Republic had in the 2023 WBC, when they went 2-2 and rather embarrassingly failed to advance out of the first round. The 2026 team will have much better support on the mound though, with Brayan Bello, Cristopher Sánchez, and Luis Severino joining erstwhile ace Sandy Alcantara. The 2023 rotation included Roansy Contreras and late career Johnny Cueto, and just wasn't very imposing behind Alcantara and Cristian Javier.

Similar to USA, this is the most talented roster the Dominican Republic has ever taken in the WBC, at least on paper. I suspect this group has a pretty big chip on its collective shoulder too after that disappointingly quick exit in 2023. The Dominican Republic won the 2013 WBC and, regardless of what happened in 2023, is on the short list of top contenders in 2026.

3. Insurance issues really hurt Puerto Rico​

No team lost more important players to insurance trouble than Puerto Rico. They'll be without stalwarts José Berríos, Victor Caratini, Carlos Correa, and Francisco Lindor because they were denied insurance, and also Javier Báez because he tested positive for marijuana during the 2023 WBC. Báez is serving a two-year period of ineligibility (April 26, 2024, to April 26, 2026) from World Baseball Softball Confederation events. (MLB has permitted marijuana use since 2020, though it is still banned by the WBSC.)

With no Báez, Correa, and Lindor, Puerto Rico's infield will feature eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado and several players not yet proven at the MLB level: Edwin Arroyo (Reds), Darell Hernaiz (Athletics), and Luis Vázquez (Orioles). The rotation without Berríos will lean on Yankees' top pitching prospect Elmer Rodríguez. Martín Maldonado, who announced his MLB retirement in October, and Christian Vázquez, and unsigned free agent, will handle catching duties in Caratini's absence.

Losing important players is bad enough. To make it worse, Puerto Rico will host Pool A in San Juan, so the team will be without so many of its biggest stars while playing games on home soil. To be sure, Puerto Rico has legitimate MLB players on its roster (Arenado, Seth Lugo, Heliot Ramos, etc.), but the team is not nearly as strong as it could be, largely because their key players were not cleared by the insurance company used by MLB and the MLBPA. What a shame.

4. Italy is a sleeper​

A common theme this WBC is teams having their best ever roster. That is true for Italy, who will start their rotation with Aaron Nola and Michael Lorenzen. They're the two best starters Italy has ever had in the WBC (sorry, 2023 Matt Harvey). They'll build a more than respectable lineup around Jac Caglianone, Dominic Canzone, Jakob Marsee, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Kyle Teel. Brewers' 2025 first-round pick Andrew Fischer is on the roster as well. He'll provided even more lefty might.

Italy advanced to the second round in 2023 and the separator for the team this year could be a bullpen that includes several legit MLB-caliber arms: Gordon Graceffo, Matt Festa, Alek Jacob, Ron Marinaccio, Kyle Nicolas, Adam Ottavino, and Greg Weissert. Pitchers are on hard pitch limits in the WBC and they're especially restrictive in the early rounds. A good bullpen can make all the difference and Italy will have its best WBC bullpen ever. The paisans are firmly on sleeper watch going into the WBC.

5. Several free agents are playing​

The WBC is a chance for players to represent their countries, first and foremost. For some players, it's a chance to show big league teams that hey, I can still do this, and you should sign me. Several unsigned free agents will play in the WBC, most notably former MVP Paul Goldschmidt. He is on USA's roster and will back up Bryce Harper at first base, and possibly pinch-hit against tough lefties in the late innings. Goldschmidt was part of
USA's WBC-winning team in 2017.

Other unsigned free agents on WBC rosters include Jon Berti (Italy), Tommy Kahnle (Israel), Germán Márquez (Venezuela), Jose Quintana (Colombia), Tomoyuki Sugano (Japan), Ramón Urías (Mexico), and Christian Vázquez (Puerto Rico). Some will sign in the weeks leading up to the WBC and some could very well sign after the WBC. For these unsigned free agents, the WBC is a chance to prepare for the season and showcase themselves as much as it is a chance to represent their countries.

6. Remembering some guys​

The WBC has a knack for bringing players out of retirement. The best example is Eric Gagne suiting up for Canada in 2017, nearly a decade following his last MLB appearance. This year's WBC will feature former White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez. Now 44, Ramirez is on Cuba's roster despite not playing in the big leagues since 2016, and not playing anywhere since 2018. Ramirez will be the oldest player ever to play in the WBC.

Other players returning to the field in the WBC after being out of baseball for some time include Erisbel Arruebarrena (Cuba), Phillippe Aumont (Canada), Lucius Fox (Great Britain), James Paxton (Canada), and Vance Worley (Great Britain). Aumont and Worley have not pitched professionally since playing in the last WBC.
The WBC is really great, really entertaining baseball featuring players passionately representing their countries. It's also a great time to remember some guys, and the 2026 WBC certainly delivers on that front.

 

[CNOTES]

Thursday’s 6-pack
Teams with best eFG% offense in country:
61.1%— Saint Louis (23-1)
60.8%— Belmont (22-4)
60.1%— Miami OH (24-0)
60.0%— Liberty (21-3)
58.8%— St Thomas (20-6)
58.6%— Cornell (11-10)

Quote of the Day
“There is no formula for success; you just begin and then you continue. Do the work. Over and over again, just do the work. After you build the courage to do something for the first time, it’s all about repetition.”
Cameron Esposito

Thursday’s quiz
Over the last five years, which major league team has the best batting average?

Wednesday’s quiz
Before he became coach at Kansas, Bill Self was the coach at Illinois.

Tuesday’s quiz
Derek Carr is the Raiders’ all-time leader in passing yards.

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Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….​

— Michigan 87, Northwestern 75
Northwestern led by 16 with 14:22 left in the game.
Wolverines shot 55% inside the arc, had 47-30 edge on boards.
Michigan has won nine games in a row, is now 23-1.
Brickfest; teams combined to shoot 14-54 on the arc.

— Alabama 93, Mississippi 74
Alabama led 32-30 at halftime.
Alabama outscored Rebels 61-44 in second half.
Crimson Tide shot 17-45 on arc, scored 1.27 ppp.
Alabama won six of its last eight games.

— Missouri 86, Texas A&M 85
Texas A&M led 46-41 at halftime.
Mizzou had 39-26 advantage on the boards.
Aggies scored 1.30 ppp and lost; that doesn’t happen much.

— DePaul 72, Creighton 71
Creighton led by 6 with 5:55 left in the game.
DePaul shot 65.7% inside the arc.
Blue Demons are 5-9 in Big East; last time they were over .500 in league games, 2007.

— Maryland 77, Iowa 70
Terps win second game in row, after a 1-8 skid.
Maryland shot 70.8% inside the arc.
Bennett Stirtz had 32 points, six assists for Iowa.

— Upsets of the Night:
Penn State (+12.5) 63, Washington 60
UAB (+10.5) 68, Tulsa 63
Maryland (+10.5) 77, Iowa 70
Virginia Tech (+8.5) 76, Clemson 66
Missouri (+7.5) 86, Texas A&M 85
UTEP (+6.5) 69, Jacksonville State 64
Texas State (+4.5) 74, Troy 62

— Body Part of the Day: Hamate Bone- The hamate bone is a small (typically less than an inch), wedge-shaped bone located in the wrist, on the pinky side.
“Your hand is basically immobilized for 3-4 weeks, then you lose strength in your wrist, so it takes a little bit of time to get that [power] back.” is how it was described Wednesday.

— Three prominent major leaguers have injured their hamate bones and will be out 6+ weeks, putting their Opening Days in jeopardy:
Francisco Lindor, Corbin Carroll, Jackson Holliday.

— P Chris Bassitt got a one-year, $18.5M deal from the Orioles; he was 11-9, 3.96 in 31 starts for the Blue Jays last season.

— Toronto OF Anthony Santander (shoulder) is expected to miss 5-6 months.

— New Jersey Giants signed former Titans coach Brian Callahan as their QB coach; he will work with the new offensive coordinator, Matt Nagy, and Jaxson Dart, the Giants’ young QB.

— 319 players were invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in two weeks.

— Famous birthdays, February 12th
Dieter Brock, 75
Don Stanhouse, 75
Dave Revering, 73
Larry Nance, 67
Todd Frazier, 40
Robert Griffin III, 36
Victor Scott, 25
Dereck Lively, 22
Abraham Lincoln was born on this day in 1809.

— New Mexico 70, Grand Canyon 64
Lobos blew 20-point lead, outscored GCU 12-8 over final 5:21.
New Mexico won last three road games, lost last two at home.
Grand Canyon is shooting only 30.2% on arc in MW games (#12 of 12)

— Syracuse 107, California 100, 2OT
Syracuse was 25-42 on foul line, Golden Bears 19-25.
Orangemen shot 69.6% inside the arc.
These schools are 2,785 miles apart; why the BLEEP are they in the same league?

— UAB 68, Tulsa 63
Blazers shot only 36.4% inside arc; they were +8 (14-6) in turnovers.
Tulsa lost second game in row, after a 20-3 start.
Dayjuan Anderson scored 20 points, shot 4-9 on the arc.

— South Florida 66, Wichita State 58
Shockers led 33-26 at halftime.
South Florida has won six of its last seven games.
Brickfest: teams combined to shoot 11-47 on the arc.

— Virginia Tech 76, Clemson 66
Hokies shot 11-21 on the arc, evened their ACC record at 6-6.
Jailen Bedford scored 23 points for Tech.
Just second loss in last 15 games for Clemson.

 

[CNOTES]

Friday’s 6-pack
Hitters who swung/missed the most times last year:
462— Cal Raleigh
456— Rafael Devers
440— Riley Greene
438— Eugenio Suarez
431— Shohei Ohtani
423— Kyle Schwarber

Quote of the Day
“After being taken out of a close ball game in front of my friends and family, I brought a Presidente into the dugout. I then sat right next to Rob (Thomson) and let him know that too much slack in some areas and too tight of restrictions in others was not conducive to us winning.”
Nick Castellanos, who was cut by the Phillies Thursday

Friday’s quiz
Where did Patrick Mahomes play his college football?
Thursday’s quiz
Over the last five years, Toronto Blue Jays have the best batting average.

Wednesday’s quiz
Before he became coach at Kansas, Bill Self was the coach at Illinois.

**************************************************

Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here…….​

— Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss was granted a temporary injunction that will allow him to play for the Rebels in 2026; he missed the 2022 season because of complications from tonsillitis and chronic fatigue, but had already red-shirted in 2021.
Chambliss played D2 ball at Ferris State, then transferred to Ole Miss and won the starting QB job last fall, leading the Rebels to the national semifinals.

— Caleb Wilson, North Carolina’s best basketball player, is out with a broken left hand; it is not known how long he’ll be out for. He is scoring 19.8 ppg, grabbing 9.4 rebounds/game for the 19-5 Tar Heels.

— Los Angeles Dodgers gave 3B Max Muncy a $7M contract extension for 2027 that includes a $10 team option for 2028. Muncy played in only 173 games the last two years; he hit 19 HR’s last year, with an .846 OPS.
Dodgers also signed utility guy Kike Hernandez for $4.5M this season.

— Philadelphia Phillies released OF Nick Castellanos, then said he was benched last year after bringing beer into the dugout during a game. Phillies still have to pay Castellanos for 2026; he hit .250 with 17 homers and 72 RBI last year- he’ll be 34 next month.

— Cal Poly 79, Cal-Irvine 73
Anteaters led by 15 late in the first half.
Cal Poly outscored Irvine 50-31 in second half.
Irvine’s loss lets Hawaii slip into first place in the Big West

— Louisiana Tech 79, Missouri State 78, 2OT
Missouri State led by 12 midway thru first half.
Teams combined to shoot 13-51 on the arc.
Tech won six of their last nine games.

— Cal-Fullerton 86, Long Beach State 82
Fullerton won five of last six games, after a 5-1 start.
Titans outscored Long Beach 45-34 in second half.
Long Beach has lost six in a row, four of them by 7 or less points.

— Famous birthdays, February 13th
Bo Svenson, 85
Stockard Channing, 82
Mike Krzyzewski, 79
Peter Gabriel, 76
Mats Sundin, 55
Randy Moss, 49
Aqib Talib, 40
Nathan Eovaldi, 36

— Nebraska-Omaha 98, St Thomas 94
St Thomas led by 5 with 5:10 left in the game.
Omaha shot 25-28 on foul line, St Thomas 6-14
St Thomas shot 74.2% inside arc, scored 1.27 ppp and still lost.

— North Texas 76, Memphis 69
North Texas outscored Tigers 14-2 over the last 4:57 of this game.
Mean Green was 31-41 on foul line, Memphis 13-15
Memphis is turning ball over 20% of time in AAC games.

— Cal-San Diego 68, Cal-Davis 51
Hard to describe how badly Cal-Davis played in this game.
Aggies were 6-20 on arc, 1-7 on foul line, forced 21 turnovers, still lost by 17
Tritons shot 60.6% inside the arc.

— Utah Tech 81, Utah Valley 77
Tech led 42-25 at halftime, hung on for dear life.
Utah Valley shot 70.3% inside arc, 5-22 outside arc.
Teams are tied for second place in the WAC, behind Cal Baptist.

— NC-Wilmington 65, Elon 54
Seahawks shot 11-25 on the arc, led 33-24 at halftime.
UNCW is 10-2 in CAA, leads Charleston by two games.
LY, UNCW won CAA tourney as #2-seed, was 14-seed in NCAAs.

— Belmont 91, Northern Iowa 86
Belmont has won 10 of its last 11 games, leads MVC by tw0 games.
Bruins shot 14-30 on arc, scored 1.28 ppp.
Belmont’s Tyler Lundblade is 92-231 on arc, 32-55 inside arc. Lot of 3’s.

— Ohio Valley Conference will have a great conference tournament; these are the first six teams in their standings:
11-4 Tenn-Martin
11-4 Tennessee State
10-5 SIU-Edwardsville
10-5 Lindenwood
10-5 SE Missouri State
10-5 Morehead State

 

[CNOTES]

Saturday’s Den: Baseball thoughts, with spring training starting

— Los Angeles Dodgers are looking to win the World Series for the third year in a row; six of their top seven hitters in their lineup are over 30 years old, but if they stay healthy, would be hard to bet against them again this year.

— Bronx Bombers haven’t won the World Series since 2009; was funny listening to their fans whining when they Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker; welcome to my world fellas, I root for the A’s, almost everyone spends more than the A’s.

Someone posted a list of who they thought the best GM’s are, and they listed Brian Cashman #3, which is a tremendous load of crap. If you play checkers, and you start 95% of your games with more checkers than the other guy, then you shouldn’t go 16 years without winning.

— Boston Red Sox have made the playoffs in only two of last seven seasons; they run their team like they’re a small market team like the A’s. Hello??!?!? Boston is a big city, freakin’ act like it and pay your players. It was stunning when they let Alex Bregman get away this winter.

— Remember the Jonah Hill character in Moneyball? In real life, that person is Paul DePodesta, and he now runs the Colorado Rockies’ front office. He had been working for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL; he’s the genius who recommended giving QB Deshaun Watson the huge contract with all the guaranteed money in it. Whoops.

I’ve been trying to figure out who will/won’t play for the Rockies this year; I’ve decided that they will probably platoon a lot, which makes their players less attractive for fantasy teams. They will be interesting to follow this season.

— Tampa Bay Rays are back at Tropicana Field this season; popular wisdom is that this will help their pitchers, hurt their hitters. The spring training stadium they played in last year was a very good hitter’s park.

— Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t finished over .500 since 2018, haven’t made the playoffs since 2015, but they’ve added Marcell Ozuna, Ryan O’Hearn to their lineup this year, they’ve got pretty good starting pitching, and the NL Central ain’t that great. Can the Pirates contend this year?

— Arizona has missed playoffs seven of last eight years; they re-signed P Zac Gallen Friday night for one year, $22M, which helps them. Arizona finished over .500 five of the last nine years, lost the World Series three years ago. They need OF Corbin Carroll to recover from his hand injury.

— Last three years, White Sox lost 101-121-102 games, pretty dismal; they traded for Mets’ prospect Luisangel Acuna, signed Japanese 1B Munetaka Murakami, OF Austin Hays, can they make a big leap and contend this year?

I’d be more confident in the White Sox if their general manager actually knew that Acuna isn’t a switch-hitter. In four different interviews last week, their GM was saying how Acuna bats from both sides of the plate, which would be great, except that he only hits right-handed.

Oy.

— Minnesota Twins finished 70-92 last year; their payroll is $30M less than it was three years ago, and the new person in charge of the franchise doesn’t seem eager to increase the payroll.

Derek Shelton is the Twins’ new manager; he was the Pirates’ manager for six losing seasons, he is used to working for cheapskates. No bueno.

— Last year, Houston Astros missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years; this year, they have five infielders, but only four spots in the lineup for those guys, since Yordan Alvarez will probably DH most of the time.

Interesting problem; I have Isaac Paredes on my fantasy team, so it would be great if he was in their lineup every day. He needs to play somewhere where the left field foul pole is kind of closer than normal to home plate- he pulls a lot of fly balls. We’ll see what happens; sounds like there were no takers for 1B Christian Walker.

— Milwaukee Brewers have been in the playoffs seven of last eight years; they were 97-75 last year, but they let P Freddy Peralta go to the Mets, which figures to hurt them.

— Kansas City Royals moved some of the fences closer to home plate, lowered some of them too, how much does that help their hitters/hurt their pitchers? Kansas City finished over .500 the last two years; they’ve only made the playoffs once since winning the 2015 World Series.

— Most interesting part of the early season will be the new ball/strike challenge system, which is a real thing this year; everyone liked it in spring training last year. Will be fascinating to see how different teams handle their challenges; who they let challenge pitches, and when.

 

[CNOTES]

Sunday’s 6-pack
Teams who won the last six Southern Conference tournaments:
2025— Wofford
2024— Samford
2023— Furman
2022— Chattanooga
2021— NC-Greensboro
2020— No tournament, because of COVID
2019— Wofford

Quote of the Day
“You’re not supposed to come off the bench, but you can’t let your players get beat up. You can’t fight. Back when I was the Kentucky coach we fought almost every SEC game, and it was not a big deal. But you can’t fight any more, so toughness has to come between the lines.”
Rick Pitino

Sunday’s quiz
New York Nets won two of the last three ABA titles; who was their coach?
(Hint: He became better known coaching another team 8-9 years later)

Saturday’s quiz
Pat Boone is the singer/actor who was part owner of the ABA’s Oakland Oaks.

Friday’s quiz
Patrick Mahomes played his college football at Texas Tech.

*******************************************

Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a college basketball Saturday…….​

— Texas Tech 78, Arizona 75 OT
Arizona loses second game in row, after a 23-0 start.
Arizona led by 7 with 3:29 left in regulation.
JT Toppin had 31 points, 13 rebounds for Tech.

— Gonzaga 94, Santa Clara 86
Misleading score; this was a highly competitive game.
Santa Clara led by 5 with 12:10 left in the game.
Gonzaga shot 71.7% inside the arc.
Loss snaps Santa Clara’s nine-game winning streak.

— Miami 77, NC State 76
Miami outscored Wolfpack 7-0 in last 1:07 of the game.
Hurricanes won despite shooting 10-20 on the foul line.
Miami has won 5 of last 6 games, is a surprising 20-5, 9-3 in ACC.

— Iowa State 74, Kansas 56
Kansas shot 37.3% from floor; Darryn Peterson scored 10 points in 23:00.
Iowa State won six of last seven games, is 22-3, 9-3 in Big X.
Cyclones are #8 team in country at forcing turnovers.

— St John’s 79, Providence 69
Seven players got tossed after a fight caused by a cheap shot foul by Providence.
Red Storm wins their 11th game in a row.
PG Darling had 23 points, 8 rebounds off the bench.

— Upsets of the Day:
Texas Tech (+9) 78, Arizona 75
Southern Utah (+8.5) 78, Tex-Arlington 73
South Alabama (+7.5) 92, Arkansas State 88 OT
Western Michigan (+7.5) 76, Eastern Michigan 62
Delaware (+7.5) 76, Missouri State 67
Elon (+7.5) 81, Wm & Mary 78
Florida State (+6.5) 92, Virginia Tech 69
Samford (+6.5) 82, East Tennessee 72, OT

— Cal-Northridge 84, Hawaii 60
Loss drops Rainbows into a first place tie with Cal-Irvine.
Matadors have won five in a row, after an 11-10 start.
Larry Hughes Jr scored 27 points for Northridge.

— Liberty 73, UTEP 64
UTEP led by 10 late in first half.
Liberty has won 16 games in row, leads C-USA by five games.
Flames have #4 eFG% in country; they’ll need to win C-USA tourney to make NCAA’s.

— VCU 78, Richmond 67
VCU has won nine games in a row, is 11-2 in A-14.
Rams led 47-27 at halftime.
Richmond has lost seven of its last eight games.

— Michigan 86, UCLA 56
This was Michigan’s 10th win this year by 30+ points.
Wolverines led by 2 at the half, outscored UCLA 46-18 in second half.
Michigan shot 77.4% inside the arc.

— Famous birthdays, February 15th:
Steve Preece, 79
Ron Cey, 78
Ken Anderson, 77
Jane Seymour, 75
Christopher McDonald, 71
Marc Wilson, 69
Irv Pankey, 68
Darrell Green, 66
Russell Martin, 43
Johnny Cueto, 40
Mark Canha, 37
Kyle Teel, 24
Cesar Romero, the Joker on the Batman TV series, was born on this day in 1907.

— South Alabama 92, Arkansas State 88 OT
Jaguars were down 18 with 6:37 left in regulation.
South Alabama shot 16-36 on arc, only 33.3% inside arc.
Jaguars won six of last seven games, are 9-4 in Sun Belt.

— Virginia 70, Ohio State 66
Virginia was 22-32 on foul line, Buckeyes 6-9.
Cavaliers had a 40-26 edge on the boards.
Virginia won 11 of its last 12 games.

— Yale 76, Harvard 75 OT
Harvard led by 11 late in the first half.
Jordan Brathwaite was 5-9 on arc, scored 17 points in 26:00 off bench.
With the win, Yale now leads the Ivy League by a game.

— Northern Colorado 77, Portland State 65
Just second loss in last 13 games for Portland State.
Vikings still lead Big Sky by two games over Montana State.
6-3 senior Denker had 23 points, 7 assists for Northern Colorado

— Samford 82, East Tennessee State 72, OT
Samford was 31-40 on foul line, ETSU 17-22.
Loss snaps ETSU’s 4-game win streak; they lead SoCon by two games.
Last six years, six different teams have won the SoCon Conference Tournament.

 

[CNOTES]

Monday’s 6-pack
Teams who get the highest %age of their points on foul shots:
— Dayton (16-9)
— Tulane (15-10)
— Sacramento State (9-16)
— Nevada (17-8)
— Oregon State (14-14)
— Cal-Bakersfield (8-18)

Quote of the Day
“These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform. There will be very few of them in it next year. I’m embarrassed for the university, I’m embarrassed for our fans, our student section. It is ridiculous … I have no answer. No words.”
Jerome Tang; this rant helped get him fired this weekend

Monday’s quiz
Who led the major leagues in hits last season?

Sunday’s quiz
New York Nets won two of the last three ABA titles; Kevin Loughery was their coach.

Saturday’s quiz
Pat Boone is the singer/actor who was part owner of the ABA’s Oakland Oaks.

*****************************************************

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend…….​

— This will be the 22nd year of the fantasy baseball league I’m in; it is a keeper league, you have mostly the same roster every year.
Woke up Sunday morning to a text saying that the CBS website that hosts our league eliminated all the rosters; 30 players on 14 teams went bye-bye. For the next six or seven hours, I managed to get 378 of those 420 players back on the correct team, but there is still work to do.
Not the best way to start the day.

— NBA star Cade Cunningham will make $52M a year for the next four years; that $1M a week, if you’re scoring at home, and he’s only 24 years old.

Cade Cunningham is from Arlington, TX; couple weeks ago, he bought a minority ownership stake in the Texas Rangers. He threw out a first pitch before a Rangers home game last summer.

Cunningham is among the athlete investors in Sportsology Capital Partners, which recently completed the minority investment in the Rangers. Must be pretty cool to be 24 years old and be a part-owner of a major league team.

— Friend of mine’s son plays baseball for Mississippi State; was watching their game on TV Friday- they had a crowd of 12,824 for Opening Night in Starkville.

— This winter, players went 8-4 against the owners in arbitration cases; since abritration started in 1974, owners have a 362-278 advantage in arbitration.

— P Zac Gallen agreed to a one-year, $22M contract to stay with the Arizona Diamondbacks; $14M of that money is deferred; Gallen had a rough season last year, going 13-15, 4.83, but he was 6-3, 3.00 in 11 August/September starts.

— San Diego Padres signed OF/DH Nick Castellanos and P Griffin Canning. Castellanos might platoon at first base with Gavin Sheets; he hit .250 with a .694 OPS for the Phillies last year. Canning was 1-3, 3.77 in 16 starts for the Mets last year.

— Blue Jays/Astros traded outfielders; Toronto acquired Jesús Sánchez, dealt Joey Loperfido back to Houston.
Sanchez hit .237 with 14 homers for the Marlins/Astros last year; his career OPS is .727.
Astros traded Loperfido to Toronto during the ’24 season; he hit .333 in 41 games for the Blue Jays last year.

— Famous birthdays, February 16th:
Tim Cullen, 84
Glenn Abbott, 75
Tracy Marrow, 68 (Ice-T)
Kelly Tripucka, 67
Craig Neal, 62
Jerome Bettis, 54
Tommy Milone, 39

— Prime Video has an interesting four-hour program on the history of the ABA; the basketball parts of it are tremendous, lot of excellent history. The ABA lasted nine years, changed the way a lot of us watched basketball.

— Kevin Loughery played 11 years in the NBA, for three different teams; he scored 15.3 in his career, pretty good player. Then he became a coach. He won two ABA titles with the Nets, with Julius Erving as their star, but things went south after the Nets traded Erving to the 76ers with the Nets having $$$ problems.

Loughery then coached the Atlanta Hawks for two years, including Dominique Wilkins’ rookie season. From there he coached the Chicago Bulls, where he coached Michael Jordan when he was a rookie.
Pretty interesting career; he coached Dr J, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan, and got fired in all three places. He was replaced in Chicago by Stan Albeck, who was fired after one year, replaced by Doug Collins. Phil Jackson didn’t become Chicago’s coach until Jordan’s sixth season in the NBA.

— Nevada Wolf Pack lost to San Diego State Saturday night; they are now 0-14 at Viejas Arena.

— BYU retired Jimmer Fredette’s number 32 over the weekend; he was Player of the Year during the 2010-11 college season, was the 10th pick in the first round of the 2011 Draft. Fredette grew up in Glens Falls, NY, an hour north of where I live. He was a hell of a scorer.

— Kansas State fired basketball coach Jerome Tang; Wildcats are 10-15 this year, 1-11 in the Big X, after going 18-32 in conference games the last three years. Tang led K-State to the Elite 8 in his first season coaching the Wildcats.
K-State will try to fire Tang for cause. Tang has a buyout of more than $18M, per the terms of his contract, but Taylor believes Tang’s recent public criticisms of the players and the response a press conference spurred in the national media violated the terms of his contract.

— Caden Pierce, the 2024 Ivy League Player of the Year, will transfer to Purdue and play for the Boilermakers next season. Pierce is sitting out this season to finish his degree at Princeton; he is a 6-7 forward whose brother is a receiver for the Indianapolis Colts.
Pierce was hobbled by an ankle injury last year, but still scored 11 ppg, grabbed seven rebounds a game. He scored 16.6 ppg, grabbed 9.2 rebounds/game two years ago.

— Bracketology gives us the top 16 seeds, as of Sunday:
#1 seeds- Michigan, UConn, Duke, Arizona
#2 seeds- Iowa State, Houston, Illinois, Purdue
#3 seeds- Florida, Nebraska, Kansas, Gonzaga
#4 seeds- Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Michigan State

 

[CNOTES]

Tuesday’s 6-pack
How much $$$ Nevada sports books banked on last six Super Bowls:
2026— $9,892,055
2025— $22,134,104
2024— $11,182,973
2023— $4,361,646
2022— $11,063,412
2021— $12,574,125

Quote of the Day
“We haven’t won. I really want to win. Each year that goes by, I get a little more annoyed.”
Mets’ owner Steve Cohen

Tuesday’s quiz
Which major league team used to be owned by the same guy who owned the McDonald’s fast food franchise?

Monday’s quiz
Bobby Witt Jr led the major leagues in hits last season.

Sunday’s quiz
New York Nets won two of the last three ABA titles; Kevin Loughery was their coach.

*******************************************

Tuesday’s Den: Nobody asked me, but…….​

— We lost one of our greatest actors Monday; Robert Duvall, who has 388 acting credits on IMDB, passed away at age 95. What an epic career he had, from the sportswriter in The Natural, to Frank Burns in M*A*S*H (the movie), the race car pit boss in Days of Thunder, a musician in Tender Mercies, and the father of a great poker player in Lucky You.
Just a great career. RIP, sir.

— Memo to ESPN: Your Monday night college basketball schedules suck; Syracuse isn’t good anymore, stop putting them in stand alone games.
Back in the day, ESPN had Big Mondays, which were good
7:30- Big East game
9:30- Big 10 game
midnight- Big West game

The smaller leagues out west would be good with a national TV game on Mondays.

— Big West conference tournament will be fun to watch; they are the 11th-ranked league right now, their highest rank in the last 30 years.
Here are the last few tourney champs:
2025- Cal-San Diego
2024- Long Beach State
2023- Cal-Santa Barbara
2022- Cal State-Fullerton
2021- Cal-Santa Barbara
2019- Cal-Irvine
2018- Cal State-Fullerton
2017- Cal-Davis
2016- Hawaii
Last nine tournaments, seven different champs. Competitive league.

— Michigan Wolverines’ basketball team has six student managers, guys who help out the team by doing lot of the little things that make life easier for coaches/players.

Back in the day, I was a student manager in college, but I was our team’s only manager, being a Division III team. Big-time coaches who were student managers:

Will Wade, NC State
Mark Daigneault, Thunder
Frank Vogel, head coach of four NBA teams
Buzz Williams, Maryland

— World Series of Poker will be in Las Vegas, from May 26-July 15; I went to this once, watched people play cards for about a half hour, then realized it isn’t that much fun to watch if you can’t see their hole cards, and watch the decisions they’re making.
Picture a big gym jammed with card tables; the only sound is chips clicking together, unless one of the players goes all-in on a hand, then they called a hand-held camera over to film the hand.

— Dodgers’ utility guy Tommy Edman (ankle) will start the season on the IL; he’s played for the Dodgers for two years, and they won the World Series both years.

— San Diego Padres signed GM AJ Preller to a multi-year contract extension; Padres made the playoffs four of the last six years. Preller has run the San Diego organization since late 2014; this year Craig Stammen will the Padres’ 6th full-time manager in 12 years, which seems like a lot for a team that has been winning.

— Famous birthdays, February 17th:
Dick Bosman, 82
Jamie Easterly, 73
Rene Russo, 72
Neil Lomax, 67
Lou Diamond Phillips, 64
Michael Jordan, 63
Jerry O’Connell, 52
Kelly Carlson, 50
Case Keenum, 38
Sony Michel, 31

— NBA All-Star Game was good to watch; the players actually tried. Not sure if the new format helped, or the fact that President Obama was sitting in the front row, but when players who are that good are competitive, it is fun to watch.

— Baseball needs to market itself better; MLB Network should host a 12-team fantasy league, with celebrities/former players the team managers, and the league could have a weekly show, featuring a different celebrity every week.
The show where they draft the team would be great TV.

 

[CNOTES]

Wednesday’s 6-pack
Teams getting highest %age of their points on 2-point shots;
62%— Southern Illinois (12-15)
61.1%— Gonzaga (25-2)
60.7%— Texas State (17-11)
58.9%— Rider (3-22)
58.4%— Miami FL (21-5)
58.4%— Arizona (23-2)

Quote of the Day
“I did not come to Kansas State to be the head coach. Coach Tang and I are thicker than thieves. He is an amazing human being. He did amazing things at Kansas State.”
Kansas State interim coach Matthew Driscoll, who won his first game Tuesday

Wednesday’s quiz
In the movie The Natural, what uniform number did Robert Redford’s character wear for the New York Knights?

Tuesday’s quiz
San Diego Padres used to be owned by Ray Kroc, the same guy who owned the McDonald’s fast food franchise.

Monday’s quiz
Bobby Witt Jr led the major leagues in hits last season.

****************************************

Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings…….​

— Michigan 91, Purdue 80
Michigan shot 13-23 on the arc, scored 1.31 ppp
Wolverines led 48-28 late in the first half.
Michigan has won eleven games in a row.

— NC State 82, North Carolina 58
Tar Heels played without their top two scorers.
Wolfpack shot 9-20 on the arc, Carolina 5-33.
This was State’s biggest win over UNC since 1962.

— Michigan State 82, UCLA 59
UCLA has lost consecutive games by 20+ points for first time since 1945.
Spartans shot 14-27 on arc, led 43-23 at halftime.
Bruins are 1-5 SU outside of the Pacific time zone this season

— Villanova 92, Xavier 89 OT
Villanova was +10 (6-16) in turnovers.
Wildcats have won six in a row, are 12-3 in Big East.
Xavier lost 6 of last 8 games; their last two losses were in OT.

— Iowa 57, Nebraska 52
Nebraska is 2-4 in last six games, after a 20-0 start.
Cornhuskers only played seven guys the whole game.
Hawkeyes had 37-24 edge on the boards.

— Miami OH 86, UMass 77
Redhawks improve to 26-0, country’s only unbeaten team.
Miami was 24-33 on foul line, Minutemen 9-16
In its MAC games, Miami is shooting 63.9% inside the arc.

— Upsets of the Night:
Rhode Island (+11.5) 81, Saint Louis 76
San Jose State (+10.5) 87, Nevada 71
Northern Illinois (+8.5) 72, Buffalo 70
Grand Canyon (+7.5) 73, San Diego State 63
Georgia (+7.5) 86, Kentucky 78
Arizona State (+7.5) 72, Texas Tech 67
Kansas State (+4.5) 90, Baylor 74

This has been a rough week, with Robert Duvall dying and now this……

— Dwight (Bo) Lamar, who scored 3,493 points at Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) before the 3-point shot was a thing, passed away this week at age 74. Lamar was a first team All-American in 1972 and 1973.
Only Pete Maravich (3,667) and Antone Davis (3,664) scored more points in Division I.
Lamar then played three years in the ABA, scoring 19.7 ppg and one year with the Lakers; too bad he played before ESPN existed. Would have been fun to watch him play. RIP.

— Doug Moe, who played at North Carolina and in the ABA, then later had a very good coaching career, passed away at age 87.
Moe went 628-529 over 15 seasons as a head coach; he was the NBA Coach of the Year in 1988, three years after his best Nuggets team lost in the Western Conference finals to the Lakers. His Nuggets led the NBA in scoring over five straight years in the early ’80s, and he rarely ran a set play, instead stressing movement and a lot of passing.

Moe was from Brooklyn; he was irreverent, kind of a character in a good-natured way. When he was playing in the early 60’s, afraid of flying, Moe would read books to distract himself from the ongoing flight.

On one flight, with North Carolina’s team, there was a famous passenger on the flight (Richard Nixon) who went to the back of the plane to talk to the players. Nixon saw Moe reading the book and said to him “You must be the student in the group”

Moe didn’t know it was Richard Nixon talking to him; he looked up at hm and replied “What are you, a wise guy?”
Doug Moe was a really good coach and a unique personality. RIP, coach.

— Famous birthdays, February 18th:
Cybill Shepherd, 76
John Travolta, 72
Gary Reasons, 64
Chuck Long, 63
Molly Ringwald, 58
Le’Veon Bell, 34
Isaac Paredes, 27
Jordan Westburg, 27

— P Walker Buehler signed a free agent deal with San Diego; he pitched for the Phillies/Red Sox last year, after pitching eight years for the Dodgers. In his career, Buehler is 57-29, 3.52 in 146 career starts, 4-4, 3.04 in 18 playoff starts.

— Twins P Pablo López has a “significant tear” in the UCL in his pitching arm, and is expected to need Tommy John surgery. He was 5-4, 2.74 in 14 starts LY, is 59-53, 3.81 in 172 career starts.

— A reminder about the NBA Draft: Stephen Curry was the 7th player taken in the 2009 NBA Draft, being luminaries like Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn.
Shea Gilgeous-Alexander was the 11th pick in the 2018, taken behind Mo Bamba, Kevin Knox and Marvin Bagley.
Much like the NFL Draft, smarter NBA teams gain an advantage thru the draft.

— Hannah Storm has been on TV for 40+ years now; these days, she works on ESPN.
Back in the day, her father was Mike Storen, who once ran the Atlanta Hawks, two ABA teams and was also commissioner of the ABA for a while. He was the first general manager of the Indiana Pacers, who were originally an ABA team.

— Miami Dolphins are cutting their payroll; they’re now $13M under the salary cap after letting WR Tyreek Hill go, and releasing DE Bradley Chubb, WR Nick Westbrook-Ihkine and OL James Daniels.
Last week the Dolphins admitted that QB Tua Tagovailoa’s future in Miami is undecided, and Miami has publicly let it be known that Tagovailoa, who is due $54M in 2026, is available via trade. If they can’t trade him, his contract will greatly hamper their salary cap situation.

 

[CNOTES]

Thursday’s 6-pack
Teams with best eFG% defense in the country:
43.0%— Saint Louis (24-2)
43.2%— Michigan (25-1)
44.8%— Kansas (20-6)
44.8%— Virginia (23-3)
44.9%— Arizona (24-2)
44.9%— Cal-Irvine (17-9)

Quote of the Day
“That locker room is still healing, and they needed a shot in the arm. We have been through a lot as a group; we’ve shed a lot of tears, and they needed something like this. It’s a great win for us. I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder of a group.”
Creighton coach Greg McDermott; the mom of one of Creighton’s players recently passed away

Tuesday’s quiz
Who is the all-time leading scorer (points/game) for the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder franchise?

Wednesday’s quiz
In the movie The Natural, Robert Redford’s character (Roy Hobbs) wore number 9 for the New York Knights.

Tuesday’s quiz
San Diego Padres used to be owned by Ray Kroc, the same guy who owned the McDonald’s fast food franchise.

*********************************

Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud……​

— Alabama 117, Arkansas 115, 2OT
Arkansas led by 13 with 12:44 left in the game.
Alabama was 27-34 on foul line, Arkansas 16-19
Razorbacks had four guys foul out; they used two subs who almost never play.
Darius Acuff scored 49 points for Arkansas.

— Creighton 91, UConn 84
Creighton was 27-32 on foul line, UConn 11-18.
Just second win in last seven games for the Bluejays.
UConn split its last four games, after a 22-1 start.

— Texas A&M 80, Ole Miss 77
Ole Miss led by 13 with 11:47 left in the game.
Rebels have now lost eight games in a row.
Win snaps Aggies’ four-game losing skid.

— DePaul 69, Seton Hall 57
Big East underdogs were 3-1 SU/4-0 ATS Wednesday
Blue Demons had 35-22 edge on the boards.
Seton Hall has 45.9 eFG% in Big East games, worst in league.

— St John’s 76, Marquette 70
Marquette led by 6 with 11:53 left in the game.
6-7 senior Hopkins scored 23 points, had 10 rebounds.
Red Storm have now won 12 games in a row.

— Wake Forest 85, Clemson 77
Wake Forest led by 20 late in the first half.
Deacons shot 62.1% inside arc, scored 1.28 ppp.
Third straight loss for Clemson, after a 20-4 start.

— Arizona 75, BYU 68
6-6 senior Dell’Orso scored 22 points in 26:00 off bench.
Arizona snaps a two-game skid, which followed its 23-0 start.
Wildcats have the 5th-best eFG% defense in the country.

— Upsets of the Night:
Creighton (+16.5) 91, UConn 84
Utah (+10.5) 61, West Virginia 56
DePaul (+8.5) 69, Seton Hall 57
Butler (+6.5) 93, Georgetown 89
Mississippi State (+4.5) 91, Auburn 85
St Joe’s (+4.5) 71, St Bonaventure 65

— Famous birthdays, February 19th:
Paul Krause, 84
June Jones, 73
Jeff Daniels, 71
Rudy Macklin, 68
Mike Miller, 46
Dwight Freeney, 46
Josh Reddick, 39
JP Sears, 30

— Injuries are starting to take their toll:
Texas Tech lost their best player (JT Toppin) for the year with a torn ACL. Toppin scored 21.8 ppg this season for the 19-7 Red Raiders.
BYU lost Richie Saunders for the year with a torn ACL; he scored 18 ppg for the 19-7 Cougars, who are 3-6 in the last nine games.
Random trivia: Saunders’ grandfather is the guy who invented Tater Tots.

— San Diego Toreros fired basketball coach Steve Lavin after four years on the job. San Diego is 11-17 this year, 5-10 in the WCC. They’re 18-47 in WCC games under Lavin.
San Diego hasn’t been in the NCAA’s since 2008; Lavin is a good guy who was a very good TV analyst. Hope he goes back on TV next season.

— Iowa State only had 3 turnovers in their win over Houston Monday; in a slow-paced, 58 possession game, Cyclones took good care of the ball, and improved to 10-3 in the Big X

— Saint Mary’s 72, Seattle 70
Gaels narrowly avoid what would’ve been a damaging loss.
Teams combined to shoot 8-32 on the arc.
Saint Mary’s has won five in a row, is 13-2 in the WCC.

— Mississippi State 91, Auburn 85
MSU’s Josh Hubbard scored 46 points, 35 in first half.
Miss State led by 18 early in second half.
Auburn rallied to lead 80-73 with 3:56 left in the game.
Bulldogs shot 16-30 on arc, scored 1.35 ppp.

— Western Kentucky 88, Delaware 87 OT
Blue Hens led by 16 late in the first half.
Delaware lost despite shooting 64.3% inside the arc.
Hilltoppers won four of their last five games.

— Missouri 81, Vanderbilt 80
Mizzou led by 21 with 8:33 left, hung on for dear life.
Tigers were 25-32 on foul line, Vandy 14-18
Both teams are 8-5 in SEC games.

 

[CNOTES]

Friday’s 6-pack
Teams with worst eFG% defenses in the country:
58.1%— Penn State (11-16)
57.9%— IU Indy (7-22)
57.0%— VMI (6-22)
56.8%— Northeastern (6-19)
56.7%— San Jose State (7-19)
56.6%— North Dakota (16-14)

Quote of the Day
“I feel great about the progress. You heard Tyler’s comments in terms of where they are on the schedule, and we’ve pretty much hit every deadline. The county has been great to work with. I feel great about that.”
A’s President Marc Badain, on the progress of the team’s new ballpark in Las Vegas

Friday’s quiz
Who is the New York Mets’ all-time leader in stolen bases?

Thursday’s quiz
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the all-time leading scorer (points/game) for the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder franchise.

Wednesday’s quiz
In the movie The Natural, Robert Redford’s character (Roy Hobbs) wore number 9 for the New York Knights.

*****************************************

Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here…….​

Basketball has gotten soft; they call a lot of flagrant fouls now. Kid takes a jumper and falls down, chances are they’re calling a foul. God forbid someone takes a random elbow, even if it isn’t intentional, it will be a flagrant foul. Soft.
Understood, I sound like an old guy whining, but it is true……

— Marshall 94, Appalachian State 93
Marshall is #84 tempo team, App State #358; game only had 66 possessions.
App State led by 13 with 16:47 left in the game.
Marshall shot 67.6% inside arc, scored 1.41 ppp.
App State was 28-40 on foul line, Marshall 15-21.

Back in the day, when ESPN first started, Sun Belt was the first league they showed on a regular basis. ESPN should give the Sun Belt a regular Thursday night slot on their schedule.

— Cal-Northridge 85, Cal-Santa Barbara 83 OT
UCSB led by five with 0:30 left in regulation.
Matadors were 28-63 inside arc, 3-17 outside arc.
UCSB was 13-40 on arc, only 9-25 inside arc.
CSUN has won six in a row, is now 10-5 in Big West games.
Northridge was +10 in turnovers (6-16)

— Texas State 90, South Alabama 82 OT
Bobcats were 24-33 on foul line, South Alabama 13-19.
Texas State’s bench outscored Jaguars’ subs, 45-6.
South Alabama split its last four games, all decided by 6 or fewer points.

— Campbell 84, Wm & Mary 83
Camels got over the hump, hit runner at the buzzer for the win.
Wm & Mary led by 10 late in first half.
Jeremiah Johnson played all 40:00, scored 32 points, had 7 assists.
Campbell has won four of its last five games.

— Tulane 77, North Texas 71
North Texas led by 15 with 11:33 left to play.
Tulane won four of its last five games.
Green Wave covered six of their last eight games.

— Weber State 82, Montana State 79
Weber State’s bench outscored Montana State’s subs, 34-17
Bobcats lost 4 of last 6 games; they trail Portland State by 3 games.
Montana State lost despite shooting 64.7% inside arc.

— Little Rock 67, Tenn-Martin 65
Skyhawks led by 6 with 2:52 left in the game.
Tenn-Martin lost four of last five games, after starting 10-2 in OVC.
Just second win in last nine games for Little Rock.

— Famous birthdays, February 20th:
Bill Gullickson, 67
Charles Barkley, 63
Stephon Marbury, 49
Jay Hernandez, 48
Justin Verlander, 43
Robyn Fenty, 37 (Rihanna)
Jurickson Profar, 33
Luis Severino, 32

— Kansas City Chiefs re-structured Patrick Mahomes’ contract this week, creating $43.56M in salary cap space. Chiefs converted $54.45M of Mahomes’ 2026 salary into a signing bonus. Mahomes is under contract to the Chiefs through 2031; his salary cap number next year will be around $85M.
Chiefs, by the way, were 1-9 this past season in games decided by 8 or less points. In 2024, they were 11-0 in one-score games.

— Penn State’s football team has 16 returning starters next fall, but 13 of those 16 players started at Iowa State last year, for new coach Matt Campbell. Only three guys who started for Penn State last year will be on the team next fall.

— Iowa State’s basketball team beat Kansas/Houston Saturday/Monday, a pretty good three-day span; Cyclones had only three turnovers in a slow-paced (58 possessions) game.

— Northern Illinois football coach Thomas Hammock quit this week, to become running backs coach for the Seattle Seahawks. Hammopck was 35-47 at Northern Illinois, 3-9 last year; they’re leaving the MAC for the Mountain West next fall.

— David Blough is the new offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders; back in 2024, Blough was a backup QB for Detroit when the team was featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks.
One of the better scenes that year was when Blough’s wife, Melissa Gonzalez, ran in the 400-meter hurdles in the Olympics in France. Several of Blough’s teammates/coaches gathered in a meeting room to watch the race on a big screen TV.

— Which reminds me baseball needs a Hard Knocks-type program, to show younger people how cool baseball is.
Here’s the thing: the NFL is expert at promoting itself, so baseball needs to do the same stuff the NFL does to promote their sport. This seems kind of simple.

—Interesting team to follow in spring training would be the Cincinnati Reds, who made the playoffs last year for the first time in five years, the first year for manager Terry Francona.
Reds haven’t won a playoff series since 1995, but they appear to be on an upward trajectory.

 

[CNOTES]

Saturday’s 6-pack
— Saint Louis 88, VCU 75- Billikens outscored VCU 55-33 in second half
— Purdue 93, Indiana 64- Boilermakers scored 1.46 points/possession.
— Miami OH 91, Bowling Green 77- Redhawks improve to 27-0.
— Green Bay 73, Oakland 68- Green Bay was 4-28 LY; they’re 16-13 this year.
— Fairfield 78, Sacred Heart 68- Stags shot 11-24 on the arc.
— Iona 72, Saint Peter’s 64 OT- Teams combined to shoot 14-54 on the arc.

Quote of the Day
“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”
Rumi

Saturday’s quiz
Who was the last NBA MVP who was 30+ years old when he won the award?

Friday’s quiz
Jose Reyes is the New York Mets’ all-time leader in stolen bases.

Thursday’s quiz
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the all-time leading scorer (points/game) for the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder franchise.

******************************************

Saturday’s Den: College basketball trends…….​

All trends are for conference games:

— ACC
Boston College 8-3 ATS last 11 games
Cal 5-2 ATS road underdog
Duke/NC State are both 1-4 ATS last five games
Florida State 7-2 ATS last nine games
Georgia Tech 1-5 ATS last six games
Miami 1-6 ATS home favorite.
Syracuse 5-1 ATS last six games
Virginia Tech 6-1 ATS road underdog

— American
UAB 4-0 ATS road underdog, 0-6 ATS home favorite
East Carolina/Tex-San Antonio both 5-2 ATS last seven games
Florida Atlantic 2-6 ATS last eight games.
Rice 9-3 ATS last 12 games
Temple 2-5 ATS last seven games
Tulsa 0-5 ATS last five games

— Atlantic 14
Duquesne 7-2 ATS last nine games
Fordham 6-2 ATS last eight games
George Mason 1-4 SU/0-5 ATS last five games
George Washington 1-5 ATS last six games
Home team is 10-3 ATS in LaSalle games
Loyola Chi 3-9 ATS last 12 games
St Bonaventure 1-6 ATS at home
St Joe’s 10-1 ATS last 11 games.

— Big 18
Illinois 10-3 ATS last 13 games
Maryland 4-10 ATS as an underdog
Michigan 5-1 ATS last six games
Michigan State 6-1 ATS home favorite
Nebraska 1-4 ATS last five games
Oregon 3-9 ATS last 12 games.
Purdue 1-5 ATS home favorite
Rutgers 10-3 ATS last 13 games
USC 4-0 ATS last four games as road underdog
UCLA 0-4 ATS as road underdog
Washington 6-2 ATS last eight games
Wisconsin 4-1 ATS last five games

— Big X
Arizona 1-4 ATS last five games
Arizona State 6-1 ATS last seven games.
Baylor 0-4 ATS home underdog.
BYU 2-9 ATS last 11 games
Iowa State 7-2 ATS last nine games.
Kansas 8-2 ATS last ten games.
Oklahoma State 0-4 SU/ATS last four games.
Utah 6-2 ATS last eight games.
West Virginia 2-5 ATS last seven games.

— Big East
Butler 2-5 ATS last seven games.
UConn 2-10 ATS last 12 games (2-6 as HF)
Creighton 1-10 ATS last eleven games.
DePaul 10-3 ATS last 13 games.
Georgetown 5-2 ATS as road underdog.
Marquette 5-1 ATS last six games.
St John’s 5-2 ATS road favorite.
Villanova 6-2 ATS last eight games.

— Famous birthdays, February 21st:
Tyne Daly, 80
William Peterson, 73
Rob Hertel, 71
Alan Trammell, 68
Steve Francis, 49
Jennifer Love Hewitt, 47
Sam Hilliard, 32
Dalton Rushing, 25

— Missouri Valley
Bradley 2-5 ATS as home favorite
Drake 1-7 SU/0-8 ATS last eight games
Ill-Chicago 10-3 ATS last 13 games.
Illinois State 0-5 ATS road favorite.
Indiana State covered last seven road games.
Murray State 2-9 ATS last 11 games.
Northern Iowa 8-1 ATS last nine games.
Southern Illinois 2-6 ATS home favorite.

— Mountain West
Air Force 1-7 ATS last eight games.
Boise State 1-4 ATS last five games.
Colorado State 4-0 SU/3-1 ATS last four games.
Fresno State 11-3 ATS last 14 games.
Grand Canyon 1-4 ATS home favorite

Underdogs 7-1 ATS in Nevada road games
UNLV 2-6 ATS last eight games
San Diego State 5-1 ATS road favorite.
Utah State 3-7 ATS last ten games.
Wyoming 4-1 ATS last five games.

— SEC
Alabama 2-5 ATS home favorite.
Arkansas 6-2 ATS last eight games
Auburn 0-4 SU/ATS last four games.
Florida 5-1 ATS on the road.
Georgia 2-5 ATS last seven games
Kentucky 4-1 ATS last five games
LSU 6-1 ATS road underdog
Ole Miss 1-4 SU/ATS last five games.
South Carolina 1-5 ATS home underdog.
Vanderbilt 1-4 ATS last five games.

— Southern
Citadel 8-4 ATS last 12 games.
Furman 1-7 ATS home favorite
Mercer 5-2 ATS home favorite.
NC-Greensboro 4-1 SU/ATS last five games.
Samford 7-1 SU/ATS last eight games.
VMI 2-10 ATS last 12 games

— Sun Belt
Appalachian State 6-2 ATS on the road.
Arkansas State 5-2 ATS road favorite.
Georgia Southern 1-10 ATS last 11 games
Georgia State 10-4 ATS last 14 games.
James Madison 1-5 ATS home favorite.
UL-Monroe 6-1 ATS last seven games.
Marshall 4-1 SU/1-4 ATS last five games.
Old Dominion 9-2 ATS last 11 games.
South Alabama 1-4 ATS home favorite.
Texas State 7-2 ATS last nine games

— WCC
Gonzaga won/covered last four games.
LMU 2-8 ATS last ten games.
Pacific 1-4 ATS road underdog.
Pepperdine 2-5 ATS home underdog.
Portland 1-4 ATS road underdog, 5-1 ATS home underdog
Saint Mary’s won/covered five of last six games.
San Diego 1-4 SU/ATS last five games.
San Francisco 1-7 ATS at home
Seattle 5-2 ATS at home
Washington State 5-2 ATS last seven games.

 

[CNOTES]

Sunday’s 6-pack
Since 1998, most games won when trailing after 7th inning:
220— San Francisco
198— Bronx
197— Atlanta
197— Minnesota
162— Detroit
162— Pittsburgh

Quote of the Day
“I think everyone should go to college and get a degree, then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cab driver. Then they would really be educated.”
Al McGuire

Sunday’s quiz
Where did Steve Nash play his college basketball?

Saturday’s quiz
Last NBA MVP who was 30+ years old when he won the award was Steve Nash, in 2006.

Friday’s quiz
Jose Reyes is the New York Mets’ all-time leader in stolen bases.

*********************************************

Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a Saturday full of basketball…….​

— Today would’ve been my dad’s 100th birthday; he was my best friend, a good soul, an honest person who loved the Mets, the Knicks, playing golf and he loved his family.
We lost him 11 years ago; he is missed every day. Happy birthday, dad.
This was also my Aunt Jo’s birthday, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Never went in her house without getting offered a piece of pie, good pie too.

— Duke 68, Michigan 63
Weird time of year to play a non-league game like this one.
11th straight Duke game with fewer than 70 possessions; they’re #296 in pace.
Loss ends Michigan’s 11-game winning streak
Duke had a 41-28 edge on the boards.

— Arizona 73, Houston 66
This was Arizona’s 4th straight game against a top 25 team.
Houston shot only 35.7% from the floor.
6-6 senior Dell’Orso scored 22 points in 34:00 off the bench.
Second straight loss for Houston, after a 23-2 start.

— UCLA 95, Illinois 94 OT
Illinois led this game 33-10 midway thru first half.
Illini is 2-3 in last five games; all three losses were in overtime.
UCLA had only five turnovers in a 73-possession game.
Illinois had a 43-27 edge on the boards.

— Cincinnati 84, Kansas 68
Bearcats’ 4th straight win, after starting 3-7 in Big X.
Cincinnati shot 12-31 on arc, scored 1.24 points/possession.
Kansas shot only 4-18 behind the arc.
Bearcats had a 40-29 edge on the boards.

— Upsets of the Day:
Cincinnati (+10.5) 84, Kansas 68
Wyoming (+9.5) 70, Grand Canyon 65
Florida State (+8.5) 70, Clemson 65
Western Kentucky (+7.5) 94, Liberty 73
Valparaiso (+7.5) 71, Ill-Chicago 67
Buffalo (+7.5) 86, UMass 82 OT
North Carolina A&T (+7.5) 102, Elon 82
Dartmouth (+6.5) 64, Columbia 63
Oregon (+6.5) 71, USC 70
UCLA (+6.5) 95, Illinois 94 OT
Eastern Washington (+6.5) 67, Portland State 55
Southern Illinois (+6.5) 59, Northern Iowa 57

— Auburn 75, Kentucky 74
Auburn put in a rebound with 0:01.4 left for the win.
Kentucky led by nine early in second half.
KeShawn Murphy had 25 points, 10 rebounds for Auburn.
Win ends Auburn’s five-game losing streak.

— Western Kentucky 94, Liberty 73
Liberty slips to 15-1 in Conference USA; their last loss was December 10th.
Hilltoppers shot 10-21 on arc, scored 1.36 ppp.
Fourth straight win for Western Kentucky (9-7 in C-USA)
Liberty lost despite shooting 79.2% inside the arc.

— New Mexico 80, Fresno State 78
Bulldogs led 40-18 with 5:20 left before halftime.
New Mexico has won seven of its last nine games.
Fresno was only 5-9 on the foul line; Lobos were 11-13.

— Virginia 86, Miami 83
Miami led by 11 midway thru first half.
Both teams made half their 3-point shots.
Virginia is 24-3, 12-2 in ACC; Miami is 21-6, 10-4 in ACC.

— Famous birthdays, February 22nd:
Paul Dooley, 98
Julius Erving, 76
Mike Hohensee, 65
Jeri Ryan, 58
Mark Chmura, 57
Drew Barrymore, 51
Khalil Mack, 35
Chris Bassitt, 37
Ben Rice, 27
Caleb Durbin, 26

— Colorado State 83, San Diego State 74
San Diego State shot only 39.5% inside the arc.
Fifth straight win for the Rams (8-8 in Mountain West)
Aztecs made last five NCAA tourneys; they’re on bubble this year.

— Arkansas 94, Missouri 86
Hogs shot 55.8% inside arc, scored 1.37 ppp.
Arkansas has won seven of its last nine games.
Arkansas is shooting 58.8% inside arc in SEC games.

— Tennessee 69, Vanderbilt 65
Commodores led 35-31 at halftime.
Tennessee has won four in row, eight of its last nine games.
Vandy is 5-6 in its last 11 games, after starting season 16-0.

— Gonzaga 71, Pacific 62
Game was tied 29-29 at halftime.
Zags were +11 in turnovers (4-15) in a 61-possession game.
Pacific lost five of last seven games, after starting 6-4 in WCC.

— Southern Miss 86, Old Dominion 81
Old Dominion led by 18 with 3:35 left in first half.
USM shot 55.8% inside arc, survived turning ball over 26 times.
Southern Miss had a 39-25 edge on the boards.

 

[CNOTES]

Monday’s 6-pack
Since 1998, most games lost when leading after 7th inning:
209— Arizona
204— White Sox
201— Royals
200— Mets
165— Dodgers
157— Twins

Quote of the Day
“I don’t worry about the trips, we’re spoiled, we charter. We have great food, we stay in nice places. It’s really not that hard. We just gotta show up and play.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood

Monday’s quiz
Who was basketball coach at UConn before Danny Hurley?

Sunday’s quiz
Steve Nash played his college basketball at Santa Clara.

Saturday’s quiz
Last NBA MVP who was 30+ years old when he won the award was Steve Nash, in 2006.

************************************************

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a snowy Sunday…….​

— It is snowing here in upstate New York as I type this; it was 85 degrees in Florida for the Mets’ first spring training game Friday. This winter can’t end soon enough.

— Spring training games are popular; Cubs drew a total of 27,000 fans for their first two games in Arizona this week. This is one thing I’ve never done, spring training games, partially because it is during the busy time for college basketball, but it seems like it would be fun.

— Colorado Rockies have 12 of their player headed to the World Baseball Classic, representing 10 different countries. Baseball’s regular season starts 12-14 days after the WBC winds down, I’m wondering if it is disruptive to teams getting ready for the major league season.

— Baltimore Orioles 3B Jordan Westburg is out until at least May with an elbow injury; he has a partial ligament tear in his throwing arm. Westburg hit .265 with 17 HR’s, 41 RBI in 85 games last year; he missed two months last year with a broken hand.

— I have a pretty good hat collection, was looking at the spring training hats online, but good grief, they’re $55 apiece on Fanatics. No thank you!!! Hats for teams in the World Baseball Classic are anywhere from $45-52, but they all have flags of the country on the right side of the hat, and the flags are kind of big, so once again, no thanks.

— Am watching a few fantasy baseball drafts on YouTube; it is interesting to hear what other people think about players. Some of these guys are obsessed with younger players, trying to tout players who break through and become a star, so they can pat themselves on the back.
Some of these guys are also in a lot of leagues, like 12-14 leagues. Not sure how you keep track of all of that, without having a nervous breakdown. I’m in one league, a 14-team keeper league, and I’m pretty sure I spend too much time running that team.

— RIP to Hall of Fame 2B Bill Mazeroski, who passed away this week at age 89. Mazeroski was an excellent fielder (8 Gold Gloves) who became famous for hitting a walk-off home run that ended the 1960 World Series. He played 17 years in the major leagues, all for the Pirates.
RIP, sir.

— Famous birthdays, February 23rd:
Jackie Smith, 86
Fred Biletnikoff, 83
Jim Youngblood, 76
Ed (Too Tall) Jones, 75
Paul McDonald, 68
Bobby Bonilla, 63
Jerod Mayo, 40
Jamal Murray, 29

— Virginia Commonwealth/Utah State are two college basketball programs that win a lot, but also change coaches a decent amount.
VCU:
2025-26- Phil Martelli Jr, 21-7
2023-25- Ryan Odom, 52-21 (left for Virginia)
2017-23- Mike Rhoades, 129-61 (left for Penn State)
2015-17- Will Wade, 51-20 (left for LSU)
2009-2015- Shaka Smart, 163-56 (left for Texas)
2006-09- Anthony Grant, 76-25 (left for Alabama)
2002-2006- Jeff Capel, 79-41 (left for Oklahoma)

Utah State
2024-26- Jerrod Calhoun, 49-12
2023-24- Danny Sprinkle, 28-7 (left for Washington)
2021-23- Ryan Odom, 44-25 (left for VCU)
2018-21- Craig Smith, 64-24 (left for Utah)

— Aidan Mahaney is a senior guard for Cal-Santa Barbara who has had an interesting journey:
2022-24- Two years at Saint Mary’s, where the Gaels went 53-16, 29-3 in WCC games, but only 1-2 in NCAA games. He played roughly 32:00/game there, was a big star

2024-25- Transferred to UConn, which had just won back/back national titles. He only started five games, played roughly 12 mpg for a 24-11 UConn team that lost in the second round of the NCAA’s, as a #8-seed.

20-25-26- Transferred to Cal-Santa Barbara, which 17-11, 10-7 in the Big West; they’ve got the #41 eFG% in the country, but they’re not good on defense. Mahaney is playing 33 mpg, I’ll be curious to see him at the NBA Summer League in July.

— Sunday is March 1st, so it is getting to be that time of year; here is some Bracketology stuff:
Four of the top eight seeds in the country lost Saturday.
Last four teams in Field of 68: Missouri, Ohio State, TCU, Santa Clara
First four teams out of Field of 68: USC, New Mexico, California, Virginia Tech

NCAA Tournament teams by conference:
11- SEC
10- Big 18
8- Big X, ACC
3- Big East, West Coast

— Merrimack 88, Iona 86, 2OT
Merrimack is 16-2 in MAAC, has won eight in a row, the last two in OT.
Unusual for a 20-9 team to be the worst team in country on defensive boards.
Merrimack played two guys all 50:00 in this game, two others 46:00 each.
Am I wrong to think that it might be tough to win a conference tournament if you play your bench a total of 18:00 in a double OT game?

— Robert Morris 81, Wright State 68
Robert Morris has won five in row, improves to 11-7 in Horizon.
Wright State split its last six games, after a 10-1 streak.
Wright State is going be the #1 seed in Horizon tourney, but they lost twice to Robert Morris this season.

— Wisconsin 84, Iowa 71
Hawkeyes led 41-40 at halftime.
Senior G Boyd had 27 points, 10 assists, 9 rebounds for the Badgers.
Iowa has lost three of its last four games.

— Michigan State 66, Ohio State 60
Buckeyes led by 6, early in second half.
Spartans had a 43-26 edge on the boards.
Ohio State is 17-10, but 0-9 vs Quad 1 teams (the best teams)

 

[CNOTES]

Tuesday’s 6-pack
Top 6 college baseball teams, right now:
1- LSU
2- UCLA
3- Texas
4- Arkansas
5- Georgia Tech
6- North Carolina

Quote of the Day
“Adversity can be a wonderful teacher.”
Elizabeth Hardwick

Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Molly’s Game, a true story about a woman who ran high stakes poker games, what famous actor played her father?

Monday’s quiz
Kevin Ollie was basketball coach at UConn before Danny Hurley.

Sunday’s quiz
Steve Nash played his college basketball at Santa Clara.

********************************

Tuesday’s Den: Conference tournament trends for college hoop​

Conference tournament trends:

— ACC
Last year was first time in six years ACC Tourney champ was seeded higher than #3.
Last 12 tournaments, nine teams have won an ACC title.
Duke is 13-2 in last fifteen ACC Tournament games.

— American
Last nine years, six teams have won an AAC tournament
Last four years, UAB is 10-2 in conference tournaments
Last four years, North Texas went WL in their conference tournament.

— Atlantic 14
Last 15 years, #1-seed has won this tournament only four times.
Last 10 tournaments, eight teams have won an A-14 tournament

— Big 18
#1-seed has won this tournament twice in last nine years.
Last six tournaments, five teams have won an Big 18 tournament
Last four years, Purdue is 7-3 in this tournament

— Big X
Last four years, four different teams won an Big X tournament
Iowa State has won this tournament five of last 11 years.
Last three years, Kansas is 3-3 in Big X tournament games.

— Big East
#1-seed won three in row, six of last ten Big East tournaments.
Last five years, five different teams won a Big East tournament
Last year, St John’s won this tournament for first time since 2000.

— Big Sky
#1-seed won this tournament 11 of last 14 years.
Montana State won this tournament three of last four years.
Last 3 years, Eastern Washington is 37-16 in regular season, 0-3 in tournament.

— Big West
#1-seed won this tournament four of last six years.
Last five years, Cal-Irvine is 68-25 in regular season, 4-5 in tournament.
Since 2015, Cal-Northridge is 1-8 in this tournament

— CAA
#1-seed has won this tournament 7 of last 11 years.
Last three years, Charleston is 7-1 in this tournament
Last four years, NC-Wilmington is 7-3 in this tournament

— Conference USA
C-USA has re-aligned a lot, lot of different teams have won the tournament
Last four years, C-USA tourney winner was combined 53-19 in regular season
Last eight years, Liberty is 16-5 in its conference tournament.

— Horizon
#1-seed has won Horizon tourney four of last six years.
Last five years, five different teams have won the tournament
Last five years, Cleveland State is 9-4 in the tournament

— Ivy
Only top four teams make this tournament
Yale is 10-3 in tournament, winning four of the seven years.
Harvard is going to make tournament for first time since 2019.

— Famous birthdays, February 24th:
Edward James Olmos, 79
Tom Burleson, 74
Eddie Murray, 70
Phil McConkey, 69
Nick Esasky, 66
Billy Zane, 60
Mike Lowell, 52
Bronson Arroyo, 49
MacKenzie Gore, 27

— MAAC
#1-seed has won this tournament twice in last 14 years.
Since 2016, Iona is 23-4 in this tournament
Last five years, Siena is 47-49 in regular season, 0-5 in tournament

— Mid-American
Last five years, #1-seed has won tournament once.
Akron won this tournament the last two years.
Since 2019, Miami OH is 3-6 in this tournament

— Missouri Valley
Last five years, either #1 or #2-seed has won this tournament
Drake won this tournament last three years.
Last five years, Belmont is 3-5 in Arch Madness.

— Mountain West
Last four years, four different teams won this tournament.
Last three years, Grand Canyon won the WAC tournament.
UNLV hasn’t won this tournament since 2008.
Since 2014, San Diego State is 26-9 in this tournament

— Ohio Valley
Another league that has changed teams a lot.
Last four years, four different teams won this tournament.
Last four years, SE Missouri State is 6-2 in this tournament

— SEC
Last four years, four different teams won this tournament.
Last five years, Arkansas has gone WL in this tournament
Last two years, Florida is 6-1 in this tournament
Last five years, Kentucky is 2-5 in this tournament

— Southern
Last year was first time in last 10 years #1-seed didn’t win this tournament
Last five years, Furman is 8-4 in this tournament, 3-2 in OT games.
Last four years, Mercer went WL in this tournament

— Summit
#1-seed won this tournament the last four years.
Last five years, South Dakota State is 8-4 in this tournament
Last seven years, North Dakota State is 12-5 in this tourney (0-2 last 2 years)

— Sun Belt
Last five years, five different teams won this tournament.
Last four years, Georgia Southern went WL in this tournament
Last four years, Appalachian State is 2-4 in this tournament

— WAC
Grand Canyon won this tourney last three years; they’re gone now.
Last four years, Cal Baptist went WL in this tournament
Since 2014, Utah Valley is 7-4 in first tourney game, 1-6 in second game.

— WCC
This is Gonzaga’s last year in the WCC.
Since 2004, Gonzaga is 44-5 in WCC tourney; yes, 44-5.
Since 2016, Saint Mary’s in 15-8 in WCC tourney
Since 2018, Santa Clara is 4-8 in WCC tourney

 

[CNOTES]

Wednesday’s 6-pack
Teams with best eFG% in country:
60.9%— Belmont (25-4)
60.2%— Liberty (23-4)
60.1%— Saint Louis (25-3)
59.8%— St Thomas (21-8)
59.4%— Miami OH (28-0)
58.7%— Michigan (26-2)

Teams that make more shots win more games.

Quote of the Day
“Write down your success of the day. What you focus on shows up more in your life. Create a success journal.”
Jon Gordon

Wednesday’s quiz
Last season, which major league team won the most regular season games?

Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Molly’s Game, a true story about a woman who ran high stakes poker games, Kevin Costner played her father.

Monday’s quiz
Kevin Ollie was basketball coach at UConn before Danny Hurley.

******************************************

Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings…….​

— Central Florida 97, BYU 84
Late-night stunner; Knights led 52-28 at halftime.
Central Florida shot 14-24 on the arc.
BYU is now 4-7 in its last 11 games, after a 16-1 start.

— Arizona 87, Baylor 80
Baylor led 41-34 at halftime, was outscored 53-41 in second half.
Baylor played really well, still lost for 5th time in last six games.
Freshman G Burries had 24 points, four assists for Arizona.

— Dayton 77, Saint Louis 62
Dayton led 44-28 at halftime.
Billikens lost 2 of last 3 games, after a 24-1 start.
Dayton has won four in a row; they only used seven guys.

— Northwestern 72, Indiana 68
Bubble teams shouldn’t lose at home to Northwestern.
Indiana led by 13 late in first half.
Hoosiers lost their last three games, this is a bad time to do that.

— Texas Tech 80, Cincinnati 68
Red Raiders shot 63% inside arc, scored 1.31 ppp.
Christian Anderson scored 31 points, had 11 rebounds, 7 assists.
Loss snaps Cincinnati’s four-game winning streak.

— Missouri 73, Tennessee 69
Mizzou shot 57.9% inside arc; they’re 5-2 in last seven games.
Brickfest; teams combined to shoot 11-41 on the arc.
Only second loss in last ten games for Tennessee.

— Ball State 74, UMass 73 OT
UMass led by 18 with 12:12 left in the game.
Fifth straight loss for UMass, three of them in overtime.
Davion Hill scored 26 points for Ball State.

— Colorado State 74, Fresno State 70
Fresno led by 10 with 10:20 left in the game.
Colorado State shot 58.6% inside the arc.
Rams have won six in a row, after starting 3-8 in Mountain West.

— Famous birthdays, February 25th:
Cesar Cedeno, 75
Bob Brenly, 72
Ed Lynch, 70
Kurt Rambis, 68
Todd Blackledge, 65
Don Majkowski, 62
Tea Leoni, 60
Jeff Fisher, 57
Rashida Jones, 50
Joakim Noah, 41
Jimmer Fredette, 37
Jorge Soler, 34
Erick Fedde, 33
Bo Nix, 26

— NFL Combine starts Thursday; NFL Draft is April 23-25, in Pittsburgh.
Quarterback prospects don’t always throw at the Combine, I don’t get that. What could it hurt? Some guys just throw at the “pro days” at their college, throwing to their college teammates, but teams have to have a pretty good idea by now of who a player is.
NFL Network will be busy the rest of the week; lot of 40-yard dashes.

— Detroit Lions are going to play a game in Munich, Germany this fall; NFL leaks these games out every so often. Amon-Ra St. Brown is the Lions’ star WR; his mother is from Germany, so he is fired up about this game.

— Gunner Rivers, son of future Hall of Fame QB Philip Rivers, is going to follow in his father’s footsteps and go to college at NC State in the fall of 2027. These days, Philip Rivers coaches his son’s high school team in Alabama. Gunner is the team’s quarterback.

— UFL, the spring football league, starts its games in about a month; they’re being used to test some new rules experiments. This year, here are some of their new rules:
a) Field goals of 60+ yards will be worth 4 points
b) You only need one foot inbounds for a completed pass; this would be a big change.
c) You can’t punt if you have the ball in the other team’s territory, except in the last 2:00 of each half.

— World Baseball Classic starts next week, at various places around the world; 4am games from Asia could be interesting. Mets have 17 players representing different countries.

— So far in spring training, when you look at the ABS pitch-challenge system, it seems to favor the pitchers. More catchers’ challenges have been won than hitters’ challenges.

— Pirates 16, Red Sox 7- SS Konnor Griffin, the #1 prospect in baseball, homered twice for the Pirates, drove in four runs. Griffin hasn’t played in AAA yet; no word on where he’ll start the season.