Thursday’s 6-pack
Best teams in country at shooting foul shots:
81%— Saint Mary’s
80.8%— Harvard
79.4%— Georgia State
79.3%— Manhattan
79.2%— Marist
79.2%— Illinois
Quote of the Day
“There’s going to be two, two-and-a-half weeks to pick guys’ brains. Talking to them is great but seeing how they operate is another thing. So, aside from winning a gold medal, it would be a pretty good reward for doing that.”
Paul Skenes, talking about pitching for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic
Thursday’s quiz
Matthew Stafford was the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft, by the Lions. Jets were the next team to select a QB; who did they take with the fifth pick of the first round?
Wednesday’s quiz
Last season, Milwaukee Brewers won the most regular season games in the major leagues.
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.
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St John’s shot 19.6% from the floor in an epic beatdown.
St John’s had won 13 in a row; their last loss was January 3rd.
UConn avenged an 81-72 loss at St John’s three weeks ago.
These teams are now tied in the loss column atop Big East standings.
— Florida 84, Texas 71
Longhorns led 39-36 at halftime, by 2 with 7:14 left.
Florida shot 66.7% inside the arc.
Gators have won eight in row, 17 of last 19 games.
— Vanderbilt 88, Georgia 80
Vandy never trailed, shot 65.7% inside the arc.
Commodores are 9-6 in SEC, 2nd time in last 9 years they’ll at .500 in SEC.
Georgia has lost six of its last nine games.
— LSU 106, Ole Miss 99 2OT
LSU didn’t lead at all in the 2nd half or first overtime.
LSU snaps a five-game losing streak.
Ole Miss lost for the 10th game in a row.
LSU is only 15-13, but they’re 3-0 in overtime games.
— DePaul 72, Creighton 71
Creighton led 38-30 at halftime.
DePaul shot 10-20 on arc, are now 7-10 in Big East.
Last time Blue Demons won 8+ league games in a season? 2007.
Creighton has lost seven of its last nine games.
— Arkansas 99, Texas A&M 84
Arkansas shot 60.4% inside arc, scored 1.29 ppp.
Razorbacks have won seven of their last nine games.
Aggies lost five of their last seven games.
— Famous birthdays, February 26th:
Mac Percival, 86
Phil Villapiano, 77
Kelly Gruber, 64
JT Snow, 58
Marshall Faulk, 53
Jose Reyes, 43
PJ Walker, 31
Trevor Larnach, 29
Dylan Crews, 24
— Jacksonville Jaguars are going to play two “home” games in England this fall, with the games on consecutive Sundays. Washington Commanders will also host a game in England; NFL will play nine games in seven different countries in 2026.
— Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton isn’t going to call plays this coming season; assistant coach Davis Webb will call plays for the first time.
Denver fired their offensive coordinator after a 10-7 home loss to New England in the AFC title game, when the Broncos had only one first down after halftime and didn’t have a possession in the third or fourth quarter longer than 17 yards.
— NFL’s highest-paid kicker last year was the Chiefs’ Harrison Butker, who made $6.4M; Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey wants to become the NFL’s highest paid kicker and he wants $10M a year, 56% higher than Butker’s contract.
Aubrey is a restricted free agent right now, the Cowboys will have to place a tender on him if a long-term deal doesn’t get done by the start of free agency on March 11. If the Cowboys place a 2nd-round tender on him, that means that other teams will be able to make him an offer, and if he leaves, his new team will have to send a 2nd-round pick to Dallas.
— Atlanta Braves P Chris Sale signed a one-year contract extension worth $27M; Sale turns 37 at the end of March; he was 7-5, 2.58 in 20 starts for Atlanta last year. In his 15-year career, he is 145-88, 3.01 in 312 starts.
— St Louis Cardinals are re-building; they were 78-84 last year, missing the playoffs for the third year in a row. Cardinals haven’t had two years in a row under .500 since 1994-95, and 1994 was a strike-shortened season.
Last time the Cardinals has consecutive losing years in full seasons, was 1958-59.
— Several fantasy baseball analysts have convinced themselves that Alex Bregman’s numbers are going to suffer with Bregman now playing for the Cubs.
Bregman played nine years in Houston, played for the Red Sox last year, two home ballparks that are friendly for righty hitters who like to pull the ball. Bregman has 209 career home runs, 293 doubles; his career OPS is 846.
Bregman figures to bat 2nd in the Cubs’ lineup this year, ahead of Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki. Will be interesting to see how he fares with his new team.
— Atlanta Braves announced this week that BravesVision is their local TV home, beginning with this season. Braves chose to control the BravesVision plan instead of having the telecasts produced by Major League Baseball. MLB will produce broadcasts for 14 teams this season.
Best teams in country at shooting foul shots:
81%— Saint Mary’s
80.8%— Harvard
79.4%— Georgia State
79.3%— Manhattan
79.2%— Marist
79.2%— Illinois
Quote of the Day
“There’s going to be two, two-and-a-half weeks to pick guys’ brains. Talking to them is great but seeing how they operate is another thing. So, aside from winning a gold medal, it would be a pretty good reward for doing that.”
Paul Skenes, talking about pitching for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic
Thursday’s quiz
Matthew Stafford was the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft, by the Lions. Jets were the next team to select a QB; who did they take with the fifth pick of the first round?
Wednesday’s quiz
Last season, Milwaukee Brewers won the most regular season games in the major leagues.
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.
****************************************
Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….
— UConn 72, St John’s 40St John’s shot 19.6% from the floor in an epic beatdown.
St John’s had won 13 in a row; their last loss was January 3rd.
UConn avenged an 81-72 loss at St John’s three weeks ago.
These teams are now tied in the loss column atop Big East standings.
— Florida 84, Texas 71
Longhorns led 39-36 at halftime, by 2 with 7:14 left.
Florida shot 66.7% inside the arc.
Gators have won eight in row, 17 of last 19 games.
— Vanderbilt 88, Georgia 80
Vandy never trailed, shot 65.7% inside the arc.
Commodores are 9-6 in SEC, 2nd time in last 9 years they’ll at .500 in SEC.
Georgia has lost six of its last nine games.
— LSU 106, Ole Miss 99 2OT
LSU didn’t lead at all in the 2nd half or first overtime.
LSU snaps a five-game losing streak.
Ole Miss lost for the 10th game in a row.
LSU is only 15-13, but they’re 3-0 in overtime games.
— DePaul 72, Creighton 71
Creighton led 38-30 at halftime.
DePaul shot 10-20 on arc, are now 7-10 in Big East.
Last time Blue Demons won 8+ league games in a season? 2007.
Creighton has lost seven of its last nine games.
— Arkansas 99, Texas A&M 84
Arkansas shot 60.4% inside arc, scored 1.29 ppp.
Razorbacks have won seven of their last nine games.
Aggies lost five of their last seven games.
— Famous birthdays, February 26th:
Mac Percival, 86
Phil Villapiano, 77
Kelly Gruber, 64
JT Snow, 58
Marshall Faulk, 53
Jose Reyes, 43
PJ Walker, 31
Trevor Larnach, 29
Dylan Crews, 24
— Jacksonville Jaguars are going to play two “home” games in England this fall, with the games on consecutive Sundays. Washington Commanders will also host a game in England; NFL will play nine games in seven different countries in 2026.
— Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton isn’t going to call plays this coming season; assistant coach Davis Webb will call plays for the first time.
Denver fired their offensive coordinator after a 10-7 home loss to New England in the AFC title game, when the Broncos had only one first down after halftime and didn’t have a possession in the third or fourth quarter longer than 17 yards.
— NFL’s highest-paid kicker last year was the Chiefs’ Harrison Butker, who made $6.4M; Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey wants to become the NFL’s highest paid kicker and he wants $10M a year, 56% higher than Butker’s contract.
Aubrey is a restricted free agent right now, the Cowboys will have to place a tender on him if a long-term deal doesn’t get done by the start of free agency on March 11. If the Cowboys place a 2nd-round tender on him, that means that other teams will be able to make him an offer, and if he leaves, his new team will have to send a 2nd-round pick to Dallas.
— Atlanta Braves P Chris Sale signed a one-year contract extension worth $27M; Sale turns 37 at the end of March; he was 7-5, 2.58 in 20 starts for Atlanta last year. In his 15-year career, he is 145-88, 3.01 in 312 starts.
— St Louis Cardinals are re-building; they were 78-84 last year, missing the playoffs for the third year in a row. Cardinals haven’t had two years in a row under .500 since 1994-95, and 1994 was a strike-shortened season.
Last time the Cardinals has consecutive losing years in full seasons, was 1958-59.
— Several fantasy baseball analysts have convinced themselves that Alex Bregman’s numbers are going to suffer with Bregman now playing for the Cubs.
Bregman played nine years in Houston, played for the Red Sox last year, two home ballparks that are friendly for righty hitters who like to pull the ball. Bregman has 209 career home runs, 293 doubles; his career OPS is 846.
Bregman figures to bat 2nd in the Cubs’ lineup this year, ahead of Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki. Will be interesting to see how he fares with his new team.
— Atlanta Braves announced this week that BravesVision is their local TV home, beginning with this season. Braves chose to control the BravesVision plan instead of having the telecasts produced by Major League Baseball. MLB will produce broadcasts for 14 teams this season.
