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**Udog** · 03-03-2021, 08:21 AM

Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.

**Udog** · 03-03-2021, 08:21 AM

Armadillo: Wednesday's six-pack

More over/under major league win totals (from DraftKings):
81.5— Cleveland
80.5— Boston, Philadelphia
79.5— Cubs
75.5— San Francisco
74.5— Arizona
72.5— Kansas City, Seattle

Americans who have died from COVID-19: 515,640
PLEASE wear a mask (over your nose/mouth) when you go out.

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Armadillo: Wednesday's Den: Mid-week musings…….

13) Baylor 94, West Virginia 89, OT— If any of the games in the NCAA Tournament are as good as this one was, it’ll be surprising. This was a tremendous game between two really good teams, as Baylor clinches the Big X regular season title, their first league title since 1950.

Baylor was 13-31 on the arc; they were outscored 28-9 on the foul line.

12) Georgia Tech 81, Duke 77, OT— Tech choked away a 64-56 lead with 3:23 left; seriously, been a while since I’ve seen a team that won an overtime game play worse than they did, but they did win, snapping an 0-14 skid against Duke.

Tech started three seniors, two juniors; Duke started three frosh, two sophs.

Duke is now 11-10; will they even be one of the first four teams outside the field of 68?

11) Underrated fact: since 1976, Michigan State has had only two basketball coaches. Two!!!

10) Football is a game, but it is also a business, and businesses can be cold:
— Washington is going to release QB Alex Smith, who made a great comeback this year.
— Dolphins cut LB Kyle Van Noy, who was a team captain, one of their defense’s leaders.
— Vikings cut TE Kyle Rudolph, after he played 10 years in Minnesota.

These are salary cap-related moves, for the most part. I’m very curious to see who the QB will be in Washington next fall. I’m told quarterback is an important position.

9) JJ Watt gets $23M guaranteed from the Arizona Cardinals, where he re-unites with former Houston teammate DeAndre Hopkins. NFC West just got a little more difficult.

8) AAA baseball is going to start a month later than expected; now it will start the first week in May, when all the other minor league teams start. Spring training is weird this year, with very few 9-inning games so far— the rosters are so much thinner, with no minor leaguers to plug holes in the lineup late in games.

7) NIT is going to be a 16-team tournament this year, held totally in Dallas/Fort Worth area. Guess their first big question is whether or not Duke will trek to Texas and play there, since they do not figure to make the NCAA’s.

6) Good news for major league hitters; in-game video will be allowed in dugouts again this season. They said last summer that some hitters suffered because they were so used to seeing their at-bats right after they happened, so they could make adjustments the next time up.

Once the videos were banned, there were guys who were lost without it, so seems like a good common sense move to reverse that decision.

5) My quick plan to improve the NBA All-Star Game this year:
They’re going to have the dunk contest at HALFTIME of the game, which should make halftime very, very long (90 minutes?) You think older players are going to want to sit out for 90 minutes, then gear up to play again? I think not.

Here is my plan: have four All-Star teams, 8 or 9 guys on a team. Play two shorter All-Star Games, one before the dunk contest, one after, then no one has to play after a 90-minute break.

4) Happy 90th birthday to Gavin MacLeod, who played Murray on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and was Captain Stubing on The Love Boat. He was also in Kelly’s Heroes, a 1970 war movie with Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland and many other stars.

3) It is March 3rd and there are already 14 head coaching jobs open in Division I

2) March is the month when we obsess over the NCAA Tournament, but on the other side of the street, the teams who don’t win a lot often change coaches- those coaches have friends, families- losing your job can be a traumatic thing. Sometimes we forget coaches are people too.

Was reminded of that when my alma mater, the Albany Great Danes, fired their coach this week, a guy who had been the Albany coach for 20 years.

Will Brown made the NCAA’s five times in his 20 seasons, not too shabby, especially since he inherited a dumpster fire 20 years ago, a program that had just joined Division I, a program that was going nowhere, and fast.

Last few years, Albany got caught up in the transfer epidemic; they were supposed to have two senior guards three years ago, but both of them bolted to big $$$ programs for their senior year, and Albany never recovered- they went 33-47 the last three years, 20-24 in America East.

The AD seems intent on pushing the “mutual parting of ways” angle, but when the coach’s son is on the team, there is no freakin’ way the coach wanted to leave. He is a good coach, a better person; he made me proud to be an Albany alum. Will Brown will be missed.

1) Also saw that Northern Illinois fired their coach; several years ago out in Las Vegas, I’m sitting outside a gym, waiting for the doors to open to an AAU tournament, and I talked to Mark Montgomery for maybe 15-20 minutes. I picked his brain and he couldn’t have been nicer; he is smart, had worked for Tom Izzo at Michigan State. Learned a lot in our conversation.

For him to be as nice as he was to a total stranger, some older guy just hanging out and watching games, it made me sad when I saw he got fired. Hopefully he’ll bounce back and get another chance. When one door closes, another one often opens.

**Udog** · 03-03-2021, 08:22 AM

NCAAB
Long Sheet

Wednesday, March 3

**Udog** · 03-03-2021, 08:22 AM

NCAAB

Wednesday, March 3

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Trend Report
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**Udog** · 03-03-2021, 08:23 AM

NCAAB
Armadillo's Write-Up

Wednesday, March 3

Clemson @ Syracuse
Clemson (15-5, 9-5)
— ranked #38 by KenPom
— Tempo: #327
— Experience: #168
— Continuity: #97
— Clemson won its last five games, giving up 56 ppg.
— Tigers lost three of their last four road games.
— Clemson forces turnovers 22.1% of time (#40)

Syracuse (14-8, 8-7)
— ranked #57 by KenPom
— Tempo: #119
— Experience: #233
— Continuity: #71
— Syracuse won its last seven home games.
— In its last six losses, Orangemen allowed 78+ points.
— You’re reading ***************.com
— Syracuse forces turnovers 21.3% of time (#56).

— Syracuse lost 78-61 at Clemson February 6.
— Clemson won last three series games, by 9-1-17 points.
— Tigers lost three of last four games in the Carrier Dome.

UConn @ Seton Hall
UConn (12-6, 9-6)
— ranked #28 by KenPom
— Tempo: #310
— Experience: #147
— Continuity: #162
— UConn won four of their last five games overall.
— Huskies are grabbing 36.6% of their missed shots (#8)
— UConn has #34 eFG% defense in country.

Seton Hall (13-10, 10-7)
— ranked #42 by KenPom
— Tempo: #247
— Experience: #20
— Continuity: #133
— Pirates lost last two games, to Georgetown/Butler.
— Seton Hall is 2-6 vs top 50 teams.
— Opponents are shooting 46.9% inside arc (#82).

— Pirates won 80-73 at UConn February 6.

Providence @ St John’s
Providence (12-11, 8-9)
— ranked #69 by KenPom
— Tempo: #278
— Experience: #140
— Continuity: #222
— Providence won three of its last four games overall.
— Friars lost five of their last seven road games.
— This is Friars’ first game in a week.

St John’s (14-10, 8-9)
— ranked #72 by KenPom
— Tempo: #12
— Experience: #257
— Continuity: #157
— St John’s lost three of its last four games
— This is Red Storm’s first game in eight days.
— St John’s forces turnovers 22.4% of time (#32); if they don’t force a TO, they’re a bad defensive team (#299 eFG%)

— Red Storm won 92-81 at Providence February 6.
— Friars won nine of last 12 series games.
— Providence won three of last four road series games.

Wichita State @ Tulane
Wichita State (13-4, 9-2)
— ranked #75 by KenPom
— Tempo: #217
— Experience: #135
— Continuity: #234
— Wichita won five in row, 10 of last 12 games.
— Shockers have #48 eFG% defense in country.
— Wichita has #302 eFG% in country (#325 inside arc).

Tulane (9-11, 4-11)
— ranked #141 by KenPom
— Tempo: #224
— Experience: #327
— Continuity: #308
— Tulane lost last three games, giving up 78.7 ppg.
— Green Wave has #338 eFG% (43.3% inside arc, #334)
— Tulane is forcing turnovers 23.1% of time (#17)

— Green Wave lost 75-67 at Wichita February 5.
— Wichita won all five AAC meetings, three by 8 or fewer points.
— Shockers (-9.5) won 82-79 in their one AAC visit here.

Oregon State @ Utah
Oregon State (13-11, 9-9)
— ranked #100 by KenPom
— Tempo: #312
— Experience: #78
— Continuity: #156
— Beavers won three of their last four games.
— In those four games, Oregon State allowed 58.7 ppg.
— Beavers are shooting only 45.5% inside arc (#310)

Utah (10-11, 7-10)
— ranked #82 by KenPom
— Tempo: #232
— Experience: #285
— Continuity: #21
— Utah lost four of its last five games.
— In their last four losses, Utes averaged 61.8 ppg.
— Utah is a poor rebounding team (#256 on offensive boards, #258 defensive)

— Utes lost 74-56 in Corvallis on February 18
— Beavers won four of last five series games.
— OSU lost three of last four visits to Utah.

Creighton @ Villanova
Creighton (17-6, 13-5)
— ranked #15 by KenPom
— Tempo: #145
— Experience: #40
— Continuity: #19
— Bluejays split two games since an 11-day pause; they’re 7-2 in last nine games.
— Creighton is shooting 57.8% inside the arc (#7)
— Tumultuous couple days for Creighton off the court; the coach said something he shouldn’t have said, and apologized. How will the players react?

Villanova (15-4, 10-3)
— ranked #9 by KenPom
— Tempo: #319
— Experience: #122
— Continuity: #6
— Villanova is 4-3 in its last seven games, after an 11-1 start.
— Wildcats are 7-0 SU at home in Big East (six wins by 8+ points)
— Villanova has #48 eFG% (53% inside arc, #57)

— Villanova got waxed 86-70 at Creighton February 13.
— Teams split last six meetings.
— Bluejays lost five of last visits to Philly.

UCLA @ Oregon
UCLA (17-6, 13-4)
— ranked #41 by KenPom
— Tempo: #335
— Experience: #270
— Continuity: #22
— UCLA won four of its last five games.
— Bruins lost four of their last six road games.
— UCLA is shooting 37% on the arc (#43).

Oregon (17-5, 12-4)
— ranked #38 by KenPom
— Tempo: #245
— Experience: #37
— Continuity: #273
— Oregon won three in row, eight of its last nine games.
— Ducks played four starters 31:00+ in Monday’s home win over Arizona.
— Oregon has #60 eFG%, shooting 36.4% on the arc (#59)

— UCLA won three of last four series games.
— Bruins lost five of last six games in Eugene.

San Diego State @ UNLV
San Diego State (19-4, 13-3)
— ranked #20 by KenPom
— Tempo: #287
— Experience: #15
— Continuity: #146
— Aztecs won their last ten games overall.
— San Diego State forces turnovers 22.8% of time (#20)
— Aztecs are shooting 38% on the arc (#21)

UNLV (11-12, 8-8)
— ranked #165 by KenPom
— Tempo: #301
— Experience: #265
— Continuity: #292
— UNLV is 1-10 vs top 100 teams this season.
— You’re reading ***************.com
— Opponents are shooting 38.6% on arc (#331)
— Rebels are 6-2 in Mountain West home games.

— San Diego State won 16 of last 18 series games.
— Aztecs won last three visits here, by 1-8-4 points.

Stanford @ USC
Stanford (14-11, 10-9)
— ranked #70 by KenPom
— Tempo: #123
— Experience: #284
— Continuity: #71
— Stanford lost its last three games, by 9-3-11 points.
— Star big guy DeSilva missed last two games, which obviously hurts.
— Cardinal is shooting 32.6% on the arc (#232).

USC (19-6, 13-5)
— ranked #22 by KenPom
— Tempo: #220
— Experience: #198
— Continuity: #320
— USC lost three of last four games, after an 18-3 start.
— Opponents are shooting 42.3% inside arc (#3)
— USC is grabbing 36.9% of its own missed shots (#6)

— USC won 72-66 at Maples Pavilion February 2.
— Trojans won four of last five series games.
— Cardinal lost last four games in Galen Center, by 16-5-11-4 points.

Atlantic 14 tournament (@ Richmond)
St Joe’s vs LaSalle
St Joe’s (4-14, 3-9)
— ranked #277 by KenPom
— Tempo: #98
— Experience: #72
— Continuity: #167
— St Joe’s won last three games, scoring 88 ppg, with Daly back.
— Hawks are 1-3 in overtime games this season.
— St Joe’s has #294 eFG% defense in country.
— Last four years, Hawks went 2-4 in A-14 tourney.

LaSalle (9-15, 6-11)
— ranked #190 by KenPom
— Tempo: #149
— Experience: #291
— Continuity: #150
— LaSalle lost five of its last six games.
— Opponents are shooting 54.3% inside arc (#305)
— Explorers are turning ball over 20.8% of time (#261).
— Last four years, LaSalle is 0-3 in A-14 tourney, losing by 9-2-19 points.

— Crosstown rivals split pair of games this season.
— LaSalle won six of last nine series games.

Fordham vs George Washington
Fordham (2-11, 2-11)
— ranked #141 by KenPom
— Tempo: #215
— Experience: #18
— Continuity: #206
— Rams lost nine of their last ten games.
— Fordham already fired its coach; they last played February 13.
— Fordham has #347 eFG% in country (#344 on arc, #344 inside arc).
— Last five years, Fordham is 1-4 in A-14 tourney.

George Washington (4-11, 3-5)
— ranked #211 by KenPom
— Tempo: #178
— Experience: #296
— Continuity: #269
— Colonials lost four of their last five games.
— Last two games, GW scored 58-41 points.
— GW is turning ball over 20.5% of time (#250).
— GW went W-L in this tournament six of last seven years.

— GW won 71-47 at Fordham on December 30, Rams’ season opener.
— Rams won four of last five series games.

OVC tournament (@ Evansville)
SIU-Edwardsville vs Belmont
SIU-Edwardsville (9-11, 8-10)
— ranked #320 by KenPom
— Tempo: #167
— Experience: #202
— Continuity: #283
— Cougars lost six of their last seven games.
— Last three games, SIU-E scored 48-66-63 points.
— Cougars are turning ball over 23% of time (#330)
— SIU-E is 0-4 in OVC tourney, losing by 4-9-12-7 points; they’ve been in D-I for 12 years and have never won a game in this event.

Belmont (24-3, 18-2)
— ranked #88 by KenPom
— Tempo: #63
— Experience: #282
— Continuity: #207
— Belmont lost twice last week, after a 21-game winning streak.
— Bruins are shooting 60.3% inside arc (#3)
— Five of their last six wins were by 15+ points.
— Last four years, Belmont is only 2-4 in this event, after going 58-10 in regular season

— Belmont pounded SIU-E twice this year, 114-62/94-62
— Belmont is 10-1 vs SIU-E, but did lose to them last year.

SE Missouri State vs Morehead State
SE Missouri State (11-15, 9-11)
— ranked #271 by KenPom
— Tempo: #158
— Experience: #175
— Continuity: #291
— Redhawks won four of their last five games.
— SEMO is turning ball over 21.8% of time (#304)
— Redhawks are 1-10 vs teams in top 200.
— Last five years, SEMO is 1-2 in OVC tourney.

Morehead State (20-7, 17-3)
— ranked #136 by KenPom
— Tempo: #300
— Experience: #205
— Continuity: #265
— Morehead won four in row, 16 of last 17 games.
— Morehead has #46 eFG% defense in country.
— Eagles are turning ball over 23% of time (#332)
— Last four years, Morehead is 2-3 in OVC tourney.

— Morehead beat SEMO twice this year, 64-50/76-65
— Eagles won last four series games, by 4-16-14-11 points.

**Udog** · 03-03-2021, 08:25 AM

665CLEMSON -666 SYRACUSE
SYRACUSE is 0-7 ATS (-7.7 Units) in home games revenging a loss vs opponent of 10 points or more in the last 3 seasons.

667WICHITA ST -668 TULANE
WICHITA ST is 74-36 ATS (34.4 Units) in road games after a game where they made 78% of their free throws or better since 1997.

669CONNECTICUT -670 SETON HALL
SETON HALL is 13-3 ATS (9.7 Units) versus good rebounding teams - outrebounding opponents by 4+ per game over the last 2 seasons.

671MISSOURI -672 FLORIDA
FLORIDA is 208-167 ATS (24.3 Units) versus good shooting teams - making >=45% of their shots since 1997.

673MINNESOTA -674 PENN ST
PENN ST is 14-5 ATS (8.5 Units) versus excellent ball handling teams - committing <=12 turnovers/game over the last 2 seasons.

675PROVIDENCE -676 ST JOHNS
PROVIDENCE is 9-0 ATS (9 Units) revenging a same season loss vs opponent over the last 2 seasons.

677LOUISVILLE -678 VIRGINIA TECH
LOUISVILLE is 8-1 ATS (6.9 Units) versus excellent ball handling teams - committing <=12 turnovers/game over the last 2 seasons.

679NC STATE -680 NOTRE DAME
NOTRE DAME is 8-1 ATS (6.9 Units) when playing against a marginal winning team (Win Pct. 51% to 60%) in the last 3 seasons.

681OREGON ST -682 UTAH
OREGON ST is 11-1 ATS (9.9 Units) after playing a game as an underdog in the current season.

683NEW MEXICO -684 COLORADO ST
NEW MEXICO is 1-8 ATS (-7.8 Units) vs. winning teams in the current season.

Announcement

Wednesday's NCAAB Trends and Indexes - 3/3

Wednesday's NCAAB Trends and Indexes - 3/3

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