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**Udog** · 03-26-2021, 09:58 AM

Let the beauty that we love be what we do.

**Udog** · 03-26-2021, 09:58 AM

Armadillo: Friday's six-pack

Top NHL teams at going over the total:
— Philadelphia Flyers 22-9 over
— Winnipeg Jets 17-13
— Minnesota Wild 16-13
— Phoenix Coyotes 18-14
— St Louis Blues 17-14
— Las Vegas Golden Knights 16-13
— Washington Capitals 16-13

Americans who have died from COVID-19: 545,357
PLEASE wear a mask (over your nose/mouth) when you go out.

**********

Armadillo: Friday's Den: Random stuff with weekend here…….

13) We know that spring training stats don’t mean anything, but when you’re 1-33 this spring at the plate, when do you get upset/concerned, even if you’re a 10-year major league veteran?

St Louis IF Matt Carpenter is struggling mightily in exhibition games; the season starts in less than a week. Are the Cardinals worried? Should they be? Should he be?

Watched the Cardinals’ game Wednesday; Carpenter had a fly ball caught at the fence in CF, so he might not be far off. If he goes 2-4 on Opening Day, all will be forgotten.

12) Bad news for the White Sox; LF Eloy Jimenez tore a pectoral muscle Wednesday, when he tried to reach over the fence to rob an opponent of a home run. He is expected to be out for 5-6 months, meaning he will miss just about all of this season.

11) 68-year old Lon Kruger retired from coaching, ending a really good 44-year career; his son Kevin just became head coach at UNLV— there are rumblings that Lon Kruger is moving back to his old Las Vegas home— he coached the Rebels as recently as 2011, still has a house there.

Kruger is one of only three coaches to lead five schools to the NCAA Tournament; he also coached the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA for a while.

10) Apparently Washington owner Dan Snyder is going to spend $840M to buy out the other owners in the Washington NFL team. What a character this guy must be.

At some point, someone has to write a book/make a movie about Snyder and how he runs his team; he’s had some interesting head coaches- Mike Shanahan, Steve Spurrier, Joe Gibbs, Marty Schottenheimer, Ron Rivera. You’d think they’d win more.

Snyder bought the team in 1999; since then, Washington is 2-4 in playoff games.

9) Back when I was a kid, in the mid-70’s before ESPN, before the Interweb, before lot of stuff, we had this channel on our cable system, channel 3 on the box. It was tremendous.

All it was was this: a light blue background with messages typed on it.

On weekdays, it was a stock market ticker, but at 7pm, that shut down and it became a sports ticker, with scores updated as they happened. On NFL Sundays, they’d post scores as they happened, as in:

TD LAR
Ferragamo 23 TD pass to Waddy
LAR 24-17, 10:43 left in 3rd

The amount of time I spent with that channel on was probably excessive, but after the 4:00 NFL TV game ended, with no Sunday night games back then, the quickest way you’d find out the other late scores was to have channel 3 on. We always had channel 3 on.

8) When MTV started in 1981, channel 3 used MTV as its background music, back when Rosie O’Donnell was actually funny. So you got entertained while you followed the day’s action.

Of course, it wasn’t always good news; New Year’s Eve 1974, I went bowling with friends, came home, put channel 3 on and found out that my hero, Catfish Hunter, had left the A’s as a free agent to sign for more money with another team. 15-year old me wasn’t happy.

No bueno.

7) NIT games Thursday:
— Mississippi State 68, Richmond 67— Bulldogs hit a 3-pointer with 0:01.3 left.
— Colorado State 65, NC State 61— Teams combined to make 8-45 on arc. Yikes.
— Memphis 59, Boise State 56— Tigers won 12 of their last 15 games.
— Louisiana Tech 72, Western Kentucky 65— Tech made 11-19 on arc, WKU 9-30.

6) This has to be a strange year for baseball front offices; not only are they playing a 162-game season, after last year’s shortened 60-game season, but the minor leagues are re-booting, after not doing anything last year. Thats over 100 teams, spread out all over the country. Lot of work to do getting everything re-organized.

5) They were talking on TV about sending players to the minor leagues and do players get upset when they sent down?

Can’t be as bad as when NFL players get cut; in the NFL, you’re cutting the guy loose, out on the street, where he has to find a new job. In baseball, they’re getting sent to the minors, but they could be back to the major leagues very quickly- they’re not losing their job, just getting sent down to the next level.

4) Joe Flacco signed on to be the Philadelphia Eagles’ backup QB this season.

3) As I type this, Charlotte Hornets are #4 seed in Eastern Conference, even though they’ve given up more points than they scored this season. If the playoffs started right now, Hornets would host a first round playoff series.

Last time a team scored fewer points than they gave up, and still hosted a first round playoff series that year was 2008, when Cleveland did it.

2) As of 2pm Thursday there were 840 kids in the college basketball transfer portal; there are 357 Division I basketball teams, so you do the math. Lot of players jumping ship.

1) Congrats to the great sportscaster Dick Stockton, who retired this week after a 55-year broadcasting career. 55 years!!!

He was doing Red Sox games on channel 38 in Boston when I was in high school, back in 1975. He called the game well, but it was never about him. Enjoy your retirement!!!

**Udog** · 03-26-2021, 09:58 AM

No college hoops scheduled for today. I'll put Sweet 16 info in here as it comes out....

**Udog** · 03-26-2021, 10:01 AM

621VILLANOVA -622 BAYLOR
BAYLOR is 8-0 ATS (8 Units) in road games versus very good teams - outscoring their opponents by 8+ points/game over the last 2 seasons.

623ORAL ROBERTS -624 ARKANSAS
ARKANSAS are 7-0 ATS (7 Units) after having won 2 of their last 3 games in the current season.

623ORAL ROBERTS -624 ARKANSAS
ORAL ROBERTS are 7-0 ATS (7 Units) after scoring 75 points or more 5 straight games in the current season.

623ORAL ROBERTS -624 ARKANSAS
ORAL ROBERTS are 7-0 ATS (7 Units) in road games versus good shooting teams - making >=45% of their shots in the current season.

625OREGON ST -626 LOYOLA-IL
OREGON ST is 13-0 ATS (13 Units) after playing 3 consecutive games as an underdog in the current season.

627FLORIDA ST -628 MICHIGAN
MICHIGAN is 8-1 ATS (6.9 Units) after 2 straight games where they had 5 or less steals in the current season.

641CREIGHTON -642 GONZAGA
CREIGHTON is 8-0 ATS (8 Units) vs. teams who are called for 3+ less fouls/game than their opponents over the last 2 seasons.

643OREGON -644 USC
USC is 12-3 ATS (8.7 Units) in road games versus teams who attempt 21 or more 3 point shots/game on the season over the last 2 seasons.

643OREGON -644 USC
USC is 12-3 ATS (8.7 Units) in road games after a win by 10 points or more over the last 2 seasons.

647SYRACUSE -648 HOUSTON
HOUSTON is 9-0 ATS (9 Units) after a game where they failed to cover the spread in the current season.

**Udog** · 03-26-2021, 10:04 AM

**Udog** · 03-26-2021, 10:07 AM

Saturday’s games

Villanova (5) vs Baylor (1)
Villanova (18-6)
— ranked #11 by KenPom
— Tempo: #332
— Experience: #146
— Continuity: #7
— Villanova PG Gillespie is out for year; they beat Winthrop/North Texas to get here.
— Villanova is 7-5 in last dozen games, after an 11-1 start.
— Wildcats get 37.3% of their points on arc (#39)
— Wildcats’ bench plays #300 minutes; injuries are costly.
— Since 2005, Villanova is 4-2 in Sweet 16 games.

Baylor (24-2)
— ranked #2 by KenPom
— Tempo: #157
— Experience: #85
— Continuity: #32
— Baylor is 7-2 since its 21-day COVID pause.
— Bears are shooting 41.5% on the arc (#1)
— Baylor forces turnovers 24.7% of time (#3)
— Bears are grabbing 36.7% of their missed shots (#6)
— Under Drew, Baylor is 2-2 in Sweet 16 games.

— Last five tournaments, #1-seeds are 11-3 ATS vs 4/5-seeds in Sweet 16.

Oral Roberts (15) vs Arkansas (3)
Oral Roberts (18-10)
— ranked #128 by KenPom
— Tempo: #46
— Experience: #250
— Continuity: #272
— Oral Roberts won its last seven games, scoring 82.7 ppg.
— ORU lost by 5 at Oklahoma State, 14 at Oklahoma, 11 at Arkansas.
— Oral Roberts is shooting 38.2% on arc (#14), 82.4% on line (#1)
— ORU is 2nd #15-seed to get this far; their bench played total of only 53:00 in their two wins last week, which were both by 3 points.
— This is Oral Roberts’ first NCAA Tournament since 2008.

Arkansas (24-6)
— ranked #15 by KenPom
— Tempo: #17
— Experience: #239
— Continuity: #339
— Arkansas won 11 of its last 12 games.
— Arkansas is 10-0 outside the SEC (non-conf schedule #274)
— Razorbacks gave up 78+ points in all six of their losses.
— Razorbacks were down 14 in first half to Colgate in 1st round, still won by 17.
— Opponents are shooting 45.9% inside arc (#38)
— Musselman is 4-3 in NCAA Tournament games.

— Oral Roberts lost 87-76 at Arkansas December 20; ORU was up 41-31 at the half.
— ORU is 2nd #15-seed to get this far; Florida Gulf Coast (+13) lost 62-50 to Florida in this round, eight years ago.

Oregon State (12) vs Loyola Chi (8)
Oregon State (19-12)
— ranked #49 by KenPom
— Tempo: #303
— Experience: #67
— Continuity: #154
— Oregon State won five in row, eight of its last nine games.
— Oregon State is getting 21.3% of its points on foul line (#44)
— Beavers are shooting 47.0% inside arc (#275)
— OSU won Pac-12 tournament for first time, after they were 5th in regular season.
— Beavers’ wins last week were their first tournament wins since 1982.

Loyola Chi (26-4)
— ranked #9 by KenPom
— Tempo: #342
— Experience: #36
— Continuity: #11
— Loyola won eight in row, 19 of last 20 games.
— Loyola is shooting 57.7% inside arc (#4).
— Ramblers are 6-3 vs top 100 teams.
— Loyola lost by 14 to Wisconsin, by hoop to Richmond, beat Ga Tech/Illinois.
— Ramblers are #2 team in country on defensive boards.
— Loyola made Final Four in 2018, its only NCAA in last 24 years.

— This is only 2nd #8-12 seed game ever in Sweet 16; 12-seed Missouri (+1) beat UCLA in 2002.
— Rhode Island (-8.5) beat 13-seed Valparaiso 74-68 in only 8-13 game, in 1998.

Syracuse (11) vs Houston (2)
Syracuse (18-9)
— ranked #37 by KenPom
— Tempo: #150
— Experience: #234
— Continuity: #67
— Syracuse won eight of their last 11 games.
— Orangemen are 5-7 vs teams in the top 50.
— Syracuse is a bottom 20 team in country on defensive boards.
— Orangemen made 29-58 on arc in their two wins last week.
— Since 2003, Syracuse is 4-4 SU in Sweet 16 games.

Houston (25-3)
— ranked #4 by KenPom
— Tempo: #325
— Experience: #144
— Continuity: #107
— Houston has the best eFG% defense in country.
— Opponents are shooting 29.3% on arc (#12)
— Cougars won their last nine games, six of them by 24+ points.
— Houston finished last game on 13-2 run to nip Rutgers 63-60.
— Since 1997, Sampson is 2-2 in Sweet 16 games.

— Since 2012, #11-seeds are 6-2 ATS in Sweet 16 games.

Sunday’s games

Florida State (4) vs Michigan (1)
Florida State (18-6)
— ranked #13 by KenPom
— Tempo: #89
— Experience: #100
— Continuity: #103
— FSU is 4-3 in its last seven games, after a 14-3 start.
— Seminoles have #21 eFG% defense in country.
— Florida State is shooting 38.2% on the arc (#16)
— Deep team; they’re #25 in bench minutes.
— Florida State is the tallest team in the country.
— Since 1997, Hamilton is 1-3 in Sweet 16 games.

Michigan (22-4)
— ranked #3 by KenPom
— Tempo: #246
— Experience: #58
— Continuity: #146
— Michigan is 4-3 in its last seven games, after an 18-1 start.
— Key player Livers missed last three games (check status)
— Michigan has #6 eFG% defense in country.
— Wolverines are shooting 38.5% on arc (#11)
— Since 1998, Michigan is 1-2 SU in Sweet 16 games.

— Last five tournaments, #1-seeds are 11-3 ATS vs 4/5-seeds in Sweet 16.
— Three years ago, Michigan beat Florida State 58-54 in a regional final.

Creighton (5) @ Gonzaga (1)
Creighton (22-8)
— ranked #20 by KenPom
— Tempo: #143
— Experience: #40
— Continuity: #18
— Creighton won five of its last six games.
— Bluejays are shooting 55.9% inside the arc (#10)
— Creighton has #28 eFG% defense in country.
— Bluejays beat Cal-Santa Barbara/Ohio to get here.
— This is as far as Creighton has ever gotten in this event.

Gonzaga (28-0)
— ranked #1 by KenPom
— Tempo: #4
— Experience: #248
— Continuity: #179
— Gonzaga has one win this season by less than 10 points.
— Gonzaga’s first two tournament wins were by 43-16 points.
— Zags are shooting 63.6% inside arc (#1)
— Gonzaga gets 57.2% of its points on 2-point shots (#30)
— Under Few, Gonzaga is 2-6 in Sweet 16 games, winning in 2015, 2019.

— Last five tournaments, #1-seeds are 11-3 ATS vs 4/5-seeds in Sweet 16.

Oregon (7) vs USC (6)
Oregon (21-6)
— ranked #17 by KenPom
— Tempo: #227
— Experience: #29
— Continuity: #266
— Oregon is 7-1 since their loss at USC February 22.
— Oregon won 12 of their last 14 games.
— Ducks are shooting 38.2% on arc (#15)
— Oregon is 5-2 this season vs top 50 teams.
— Under Altman, Ducks are 2-2 SU in Sweet 16 games.

USC (24-7)
— ranked #6 by KenPom
— Tempo: #236
— Experience: #201
— Continuity: #317
— USC won five of its last six games.
— USC has #7 eFG% defense in country.
— Opponents are shooting 41.4% inside arc (#1)
— Trojans are shooting only 64.3% on foul line (#328)
— USC gave up 56-51 points in its wins last week.
— USC last made the Elite 8 in 2001, when Henry Bibby was coach.

— Since 2002, when conference rivals meet in NCAA Tournament, from the Sweet 16 on, underdog was 7-4 ATS in those games.
— Oregon lost 72-58 at USC February 22; game was 43-22 at the half.
— Since 1987, favorites are 3-3 ATS when #6-7 seeds meet in this round.

UCLA (11) vs Alabama (2)
UCLA (20-9)
— ranked #22 by KenPom
— Tempo: #337
— Experience: #279
— Continuity: #29
— UCLA has lost four in row before winning three games last week.
— UCLA is shooting 37.4% on the arc (#28)
— Bruins are 7-7 vs teams ranked in top 50.
— Since 2009, UCLA is 11-7 in NCAAs.
— Cronin is 9-11 in NCAAs, 3-5 after the first round.

Alabama (26-6)
— ranked #8 by KenPom
— Tempo: #12
— Experience: #136
— Continuity: #152
— Alabama won eight in row, 11 of last 12 games.
— Crimson Tide has #17 eFG% defense in country.
— Alabama gets 40.1% of its points on 3-pointers (#15)
— Alabama is grabbing 32.1% of its missed shots (#53)
— Crimson Tide hasn’t been this far in the last 24 years.

— Since 2012, #11-seeds are 6-2 ATS in Sweet 16 games.

**Udog** · 03-26-2021, 10:09 AM

Oral Roberts @ Arkansas
Oral Roberts
No trends to report
Arkansas
Arkansas is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Oral Roberts

Announcement

Friday's NCAAB Trends and Indexes - 3/26

Friday's NCAAB Trends and Indexes - 3/26

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