Announcement

**Udog** · 06-27-2019, 08:28 AM

Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack

Week 1 NFL spreads

— Bengals @ Seahawks (-8.5, 43.5)

— Colts @ Chargers (-3, 48)

— Giants @ Cowboys (-7.5, 46.5)

— Steelers @ Patriots (-6, 52.5)

— Texans @ Saints (-7, 53.5)

— Broncos @ Raiders (-2, 43.5)

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Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud……

13) When you’re a college basketball coach trying to win, you do all kinds of stuff to get players:

Oklahoma State hired the older brother of top prospect Cade Cunningham as its new assistant coach; this is perfectly legit, has been done many times, usually with a father- that is how Kansas got Danny Manning back in the 80’s, they hired his father as an assistant. Ed Manning played in the NBA, but was a truck driver when Kansas hired him.

Cannen Cunningham played at SMU from 2011-15 and spent last season at Tulane as the associate director of video operations under Mike Dunleavy Sr.

12) What happens if the Cunningham kid goes somewhere other than Oklahoma State? Does Oklahoma State tell the brother to take a hike? Chances are strong the kid is going to OSU.

11) The last few weeks, I’ve heard five different Bronx baseball fans refer to DJ LeMahieu as “this kid LeMahieu” as if they had never heard of him before this year. Oy.

LeMahieu will be 31 on July 13; this is his ninth year in the major leagues, he has 1,125 hits and a career on-base %age of .353. Two All-Star games, three Golden Gloves; he’s been a really good player for several years, but since a lot of the Bronx fanbase just follows their own team and not the whole sport, they just don’t know.

10) Blake Snell’s last three starts for Tampa Bay:

7 IP, 18 hits, 17 runs (16 earned), 9 walks, 7 strikeouts.

When you’re using an opener 60% of the time, you need your two aces to give the bullpen lot of rest and that isn’t happening for the Rays right now.

9) Kerry Blackshear transfers from Virginia Tech to Florida, big pickup for the Gators- some pundits have now put Florida in the preseason top 10 for college hoop.

8) Middle of the night a few nights ago, Moneyball appeared on TV, which was fine with me; hadn’t seen it in a while. I won’t embarrass myself by telling you how many times I’ve seen it, but couple of thoughts popped up in my head while watching it this time:

— Bill James should be in the Hall of Fame, as a contributor; he certainly changed the game.
— There must be some great discussions/arguments behind the scenes now, with the old school baseball guys taking on the numbers guys, as far as strategy goes.

7) Baseball stuff:
— Bronx put Giancarlo Stanton (knee) back on the IL.
— Detroit recalled 3B Jeimer Candelario from AAA.
— Angels recalled P’s Jaime Barria, Trevor Cahill
— Twins’ OF Eddie Rosario (hamstring) left Wednesday’s game early

6) Kevin Durant declined his $31.5M player option and will be an unrestricted free agent; will be interesting to see what kind of contract a 31-year old guy (he turns 31 in September) with a torn achilles gets. History tells us achilles injuries aren’t kind to basketball players.

5) New York City is made up of five boroughs; Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island and Queens- the borough of Queens, by itself, has more people than 16 states.

4) I’ll say this once and only once: I don’t give a rat’s ass who wins the MVP in any league, ever, in any sport. Some days, it is all ESPN talks about. Individual awards? They. do. not. matter.

3) White Sox 8, Red Sox 7— Jose Abreu homered in the ninth inning for the win.

2) San Diego 10, Baltimore 5— Orioles have allowed 165 home runs n 80 games; not good.

1) Bob Ley is retiring after 40 years at ESPN; he joined ESPN as a SportsCenter anchor in 1979, on the third day ESPN was on the air. In 1980, he hosted the first NCAA selection show and live broadcast of the NFL draft and continued in that role for the next nine years.

In a modern age when every TV studio person has to have their own shtick, Ley had no shtick, he was just really good at his job, and he will be missed.

**Udog** · 06-27-2019, 08:33 AM

WNBA
Dunkel

Thursday, June 27

Las Vegas @ Los Angeles

Game 609-610
June 27, 2019 @ 10:30 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Las Vegas
114.938
Los Angeles
118.304
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Los Angeles
by 3 1/2
164
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Los Angeles
No Line
N/A
Dunkel Pick:
Los Angeles
N/A

WNBA

Thursday, June 27

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Trend Report
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Las Vegas Aces
Las Vegas is 2-4 ATS in its last 6 games
Las Vegas is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Las Vegas's last 8 games
Las Vegas is 2-5 ATS in its last 7 games on the road
Las Vegas is 2-5 SU in its last 7 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 10 of Las Vegas's last 14 games on the road
Las Vegas is 13-6 ATS in its last 19 games when playing Los Angeles
Las Vegas is 2-4 ATS in its last 6 games when playing Los Angeles
Las Vegas is 2-12 SU in its last 14 games when playing Los Angeles
The total has gone UNDER in 9 of Las Vegas's last 12 games when playing Los Angeles
Las Vegas is 6-2 ATS in its last 8 games when playing on the road against Los Angeles
Las Vegas is 0-5 SU in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Los Angeles
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Las Vegas's last 5 games when playing on the road against Los Angeles
Los Angeles Sparks
Los Angeles is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games
Los Angeles is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
Los Angeles is 3-9 ATS in its last 12 games at home
Los Angeles is 5-2 SU in its last 7 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Los Angeles's last 8 games at home
Los Angeles is 4-2 ATS in its last 6 games when playing Las Vegas
Los Angeles is 6-13 ATS in its last 19 games when playing Las Vegas
Los Angeles is 12-2 SU in its last 14 games when playing Las Vegas
The total has gone UNDER in 9 of Los Angeles's last 12 games when playing Las Vegas
Los Angeles is 2-6 ATS in its last 8 games when playing at home against Las Vegas
Los Angeles is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Las Vegas
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Los Angeles's last 5 games when playing at home against Las Vegas

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**Udog** · 06-27-2019, 11:51 AM

Las Vegas Aces at Los Angeles Sparks (+1.5, 157.5)

The return of WNBA superstar Candace Parker was supposed to “spark” Los Angeles – not plunge the team to the bottom half of the Western Conference.

The Sparks are 0-3 since the former MVP joined the lineup (and on a four-game losing skid entering Thursday) after missing the start of the schedule with a hamstring injury, but Parker finally showed shades of her veteran talent with a 12-point effort through 28 and a half minutes (3-for-10 shooting) in Sunday’s loss at Phoenix. That came on the heels of a collective five points on a combined 2-for-18 shooting in her first two games back.

Parker gets a big challenge in the talent-rich Las Vegas Aces Thursday. However, the Aces are another WNBA team not meeting its lofty expectations. Las Vegas has been terribly inconsistent, most notably on the road where it owns a 1-3 mark against the spread despite playing some of the league’s weakest defenses. The Aces have allowed an extra 7.2 points against when in the role of visitors, which makes a big difference to those laying the points with Vegas as a road favorite in each of those four away games.

The Sparks have had some time to rest (played three games - two on the road - in six days) and reflect on their poor start to the year since losing at Phoenix last weekend and entered this week’s practices with the largest number of healthy bodies they’ve had all season. That time should help with the chemistry that’s been lacking in Derek Fisher’s new offense, which has stumbled during this losing skid – averaging 69.5 points during those four losses.

Those quality practice reps and a sense of desperation on their home floor will evoke a spirited effort from L.A. – at least in the opening 20 minutes. Things may fall apart after the break, so keep this one to the first half.

PREDICTION: Los Angeles first-half +1

Wednesday’s picks: 2-0
Season to date: 26-16

**Udog** · 06-27-2019, 02:07 PM

WNBA
Long Sheet

Thursday, June 27

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LAS VEGAS (6 - 4) at LOS ANGELES (4 - 6) - 6/27/2019, 10:30 PM
Top Trends for this game.
LOS ANGELES is 15-6 ATS (+8.4 Units) when playing with 3 or more days rest over the last 3 seasons.
LAS VEGAS is 86-60 ATS (+20.0 Units) in a road game where where the total is greater than or equal to 150 since 1997.
LOS ANGELES is 1-8 ATS (-7.8 Units) on Thursday over the last 2 seasons.

Head-to-Head Series History
LOS ANGELES is 4-3 against the spread versus LAS VEGAS over the last 3 seasons
LOS ANGELES is 5-2 straight up against LAS VEGAS over the last 3 seasons
3 of 6 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons

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Announcement

Thursday's WNBA Trends and Indexes - 6/27

Thursday's WNBA Trends and Indexes - 6/27

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