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Armadillo: Friday's six-pack
-- Indiana 85, Iowa 78-- Teams meet again before the Big 14 tournament.
-- California 83, Oregon 63-- Golden Bears got PG Wallace back.
-- UMass 69, VCU 63-- 11-point home dog Minutemen pulled an upset.
-- Temple 63, UConn 58-- Owls swept pair of games with UConn this season.
-- Hawai'i 74, UC-Irvine 52-- Rainbows made seven 3's in row at one point.
-- All nine NHL games went over the total Thursday; that doesn't happen a lot.
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Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) This season, Jimmy Butler, James Harden are only two NBA players who are playing 37+ minutes per game; as recently as ten years ago, there were 33 players averaging 37+ minutes a game. Have NBA players gotten softer?
12) People are writing articles now about how grueling the NBA travel schedule is- this'll make me sound old, but 20-30 years ago, teams didn't have their own airplanes-- travel was a hell of a lot less conventient than it is now Players are softer now; the money is so big, it has taken some of the toughness out of players.
Example: Karl Malone played 80+ games in 17 of his 18 season where there were 82 games. Derrick Rose has played in 385 of a possible 626 games in his career. This was started by Gregg Popovich, players routinely taking second nights of back/backs off. It cheats the fans-- kids in AAU play three games a day, but kids are hungry.
11) There was a scuffle on the Phoenix Suns' bench Wednesday; only surprising thing there is that it doesn't happen more often. Emotions run high and when a team's season goes down the drain, its not a lot of fun. Suns will be very glad for the All-Star break, just to get away from each other for a few days.
10) Underrated thing about these Presidential debates: the candidates stand up the whole time. Bernie Sanders is 74 years old-- I am 56, and if someone asked me to stand up for two hours straight, after I stopped laughing, I'd ask them for a 6-pack of Cherry Coke to keep me upright the whole time. I would want to debate sitting down.
9) California 83, Oregon 63-- This was an awful game, except that Bill Walton was the analyst and he was fired up-- he played a glockenspeil for part of the second half, while the game was going on, delighting the Cal band member he got on national TV.
8) Walton also educated us that crocodiles are revered in the Egypitan culture. Did not catch why crocodiles are revered by Egyptians, but apparently they are.
7) I was talking to a guy yesterday- he told me if you go to spring training in Florida, best camp to go to is the Phillies' camp in Clearwater-- very informal setting, can talk to lot of people. He talked to Charlie Manuel for a while there last year. My plan is to hit Arizona next March for my first-ever visit to A's spring training.
6) Tampa Bay Rays changed their hitting philosophy last year; they jumped frm 27th in swing % to 6th, a huge jump in one season. They acquired Corey Dickerson from the Rockies because they like his aggressive style at the plate.
5) Royals signed 3B Mike Moustakas for two years, $14.3M.
4) My man Les Miles signed 19 of ESPN's top 300 football recruits this winter, the #1 recruiting class in America; not sure if any of them are QBs and LSU needs a QB, but Les can recruit, which is why they always win a lot of games and why LSU has a ton of alumni playing in the NFL.
3) I did not know this because I never watched the TV show Entourage, but Jerry Jones once played himself on that show-- he was involved with bringing an NFL team back to Los Angeles, kind of what played out for real last month.
2) The average fan at the Super Bowl spent $87.57 on food/drink; I know stuff is real expensive, but $87.57 in 3-4 hours? Thats a lot of hot dogs. Apparently they sold over 8,000 glasses of wine, a sure sign we're getting soft-- who the hell drinks wine at a football game?
1) Rece Davis worked the Iowa-Indiana game with Dick Vitale last night; other than Mike Tirico, who is great at every sport he works, Davis is ESPN's best guy- no ego, just solid work at everything he does. Very easy to listen to.
-- Indiana 85, Iowa 78-- Teams meet again before the Big 14 tournament.
-- California 83, Oregon 63-- Golden Bears got PG Wallace back.
-- UMass 69, VCU 63-- 11-point home dog Minutemen pulled an upset.
-- Temple 63, UConn 58-- Owls swept pair of games with UConn this season.
-- Hawai'i 74, UC-Irvine 52-- Rainbows made seven 3's in row at one point.
-- All nine NHL games went over the total Thursday; that doesn't happen a lot.
**********
Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) This season, Jimmy Butler, James Harden are only two NBA players who are playing 37+ minutes per game; as recently as ten years ago, there were 33 players averaging 37+ minutes a game. Have NBA players gotten softer?
12) People are writing articles now about how grueling the NBA travel schedule is- this'll make me sound old, but 20-30 years ago, teams didn't have their own airplanes-- travel was a hell of a lot less conventient than it is now Players are softer now; the money is so big, it has taken some of the toughness out of players.
Example: Karl Malone played 80+ games in 17 of his 18 season where there were 82 games. Derrick Rose has played in 385 of a possible 626 games in his career. This was started by Gregg Popovich, players routinely taking second nights of back/backs off. It cheats the fans-- kids in AAU play three games a day, but kids are hungry.
11) There was a scuffle on the Phoenix Suns' bench Wednesday; only surprising thing there is that it doesn't happen more often. Emotions run high and when a team's season goes down the drain, its not a lot of fun. Suns will be very glad for the All-Star break, just to get away from each other for a few days.
10) Underrated thing about these Presidential debates: the candidates stand up the whole time. Bernie Sanders is 74 years old-- I am 56, and if someone asked me to stand up for two hours straight, after I stopped laughing, I'd ask them for a 6-pack of Cherry Coke to keep me upright the whole time. I would want to debate sitting down.
9) California 83, Oregon 63-- This was an awful game, except that Bill Walton was the analyst and he was fired up-- he played a glockenspeil for part of the second half, while the game was going on, delighting the Cal band member he got on national TV.
8) Walton also educated us that crocodiles are revered in the Egypitan culture. Did not catch why crocodiles are revered by Egyptians, but apparently they are.
7) I was talking to a guy yesterday- he told me if you go to spring training in Florida, best camp to go to is the Phillies' camp in Clearwater-- very informal setting, can talk to lot of people. He talked to Charlie Manuel for a while there last year. My plan is to hit Arizona next March for my first-ever visit to A's spring training.
6) Tampa Bay Rays changed their hitting philosophy last year; they jumped frm 27th in swing % to 6th, a huge jump in one season. They acquired Corey Dickerson from the Rockies because they like his aggressive style at the plate.
5) Royals signed 3B Mike Moustakas for two years, $14.3M.
4) My man Les Miles signed 19 of ESPN's top 300 football recruits this winter, the #1 recruiting class in America; not sure if any of them are QBs and LSU needs a QB, but Les can recruit, which is why they always win a lot of games and why LSU has a ton of alumni playing in the NFL.
3) I did not know this because I never watched the TV show Entourage, but Jerry Jones once played himself on that show-- he was involved with bringing an NFL team back to Los Angeles, kind of what played out for real last month.
2) The average fan at the Super Bowl spent $87.57 on food/drink; I know stuff is real expensive, but $87.57 in 3-4 hours? Thats a lot of hot dogs. Apparently they sold over 8,000 glasses of wine, a sure sign we're getting soft-- who the hell drinks wine at a football game?
1) Rece Davis worked the Iowa-Indiana game with Dick Vitale last night; other than Mike Tirico, who is great at every sport he works, Davis is ESPN's best guy- no ego, just solid work at everything he does. Very easy to listen to.
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