Announcement

**Udog** · 03-29-2021, 09:02 AM

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

**Udog** · 03-29-2021, 09:02 AM

Armadillo: Monday's six-pack

Active career leaders in OPS:
.9996— Mike Trout
.937— Joey Votto
.931— Miguel Cabrera
.924— Albert Pujols
.914— Paul Goldschmidt
.905— Giancarlo Stanton

Americans who have died from COVID-19: 548,130
PLEASE wear a mask (over your nose/mouth) when you go out.

**********

Armadillo: Monday's Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend…….

13) This is the state of college basketball these days:

In February, North Carolina needed couple of games to update their resume; they added mid-week non-conference home games with Northeastern, Marquette, Won one, lost one. Didn’t seem like a big deal at the time.

When Carolina beat Northeastern 82-62 February 17, Huskies’ sophomore PG Tyson Walker scored 27 points, and showed up on the radar of the big $$$ schools who like to poach players from low and mid-major schools. Happens all the time now.

Makes college basketball a lot more like baseball, but I’m an Oakland A’s fan, and it drives me batty when players bolt for greener pa$ture$. Loyalty is in scarce supply these days.

Walker averaged 18.8 ppg and 4.8 assists/game as a sophomore at Northeastern, was named the CAA’s Defensive Player of the Year; he committed to Michigan State this weekend.

Not sure what Northeastern is going to do for a point guard next year, none of the national media seemed too interested in that.

12) UCLA 88, Alabama 78 OT:
— Crimson Tide went 11-25 on foul line, in an overtime loss.
— UCLA scored 23 points in the 5:00 overtime.
— This is Mick Cronin’s 12th NCAA tourney, his first regional final.

11) Baylor 62, Villanova 51:
— Villanova led 30-23 at halftime.
— Baylor was +10 in turnover margin (16-6)
— Teams combined to make 6-36 on the arc.

10) Arkansas 72, Oral Roberts 70:
— ORU led 46-34 with 15:24 left in the game.
— Eric Musselman is 5-3 in NCAA tourney games; his team trailed by 10+ points in all five of the wins.
— Oral Roberts were almost first-ever #15-seed to make a regional final.

9) Gonzaga 83, Creighton 65:
— Gonzaga is 29-0, has one win by fewer than 10 points.
— Zags took 33 shots inside arc, made 25 of them (75.8%)
— Gonzaga had 23 assists on 32 made field goals.

8) Oregon State 65, Loyola Chi 58:
— Beavers are 2nd-ever #12-seed (Missouri ’02) to make a regional final.
— OSU held Ramblers to 33.3% from the floor.
— On February 20, Oregon State was 11-11; they’ve gone 9-1 since then.

7) Michigan 76, Florida State 58:
— Surprisingly easy win for the Wolverines.
— FSU shot only 40%, looked lost on offense.
— Michigan scored 81.3 ppg in first three tourney wins.

6) USC 82, Oregon 68:
— Trojans made 10-17 shots on arc, scored 1.22 ppp.
— In two games vs Oregon this year, Trojans led by 19-21 at the half.
— Pac-12 is 12-2 in NCAA Tournament, including this game.

5) Houston 62, Syracuse 46:
— Cougars won their last ten games.
— Syracuse shot 28% from floor, 5-23 on arc.
— Average total in the four Saturday games: 126.5.

4) Memphis 77, Mississippi State 64:
— Tigers win the NIT; in their last two games, they made 24-49 3-pointers.
— This game was 33-33 at halftime.
— Memphis didn’t play any seniors; they should be good next year.

3) If Houston beats Oregon State tonight, they’ll have made the Final Four by winning four games in their region, against the #15-10-11-12 seeds. That doesn’t happen often.

2) Indiana Hoosiers hired alum Mike Woodson as their basketball coach; Woodson coached the Atlanta Hawks for six years, the Knicks for three more; he scored 14 ppg in his 11-year NBA career. His last head coaching gig was 2014; he’s been an assistant coach since.

Utah poached coach Craig Smith from in-state rival Utah State to be its next head man. Few days ago, Smith told his Utah State players not to have any concerns about him leaving- he was staying right where he was, sure as sure could be.

Money does strange things to people.

1) I like the idea they enacted this year; the 2nd weekend of the tournament being Saturday-Tuesday instead of Thursday-Sunday. Not sure what next year’s schedule will be like, maybe no one does; when you change the schedule once every 35 years, people get used to the way it was.

**Udog** · 03-29-2021, 09:09 AM

653ARKANSAS -654 BAYLOR
BAYLOR is 9-0 ATS (9 Units) in road games versus very good teams - outscoring their opponents by 8+ points/game over the last 2 seasons.

655OREGON ST -656 HOUSTON
OREGON ST is 14-0 ATS (14 Units) after playing 3 consecutive games as an underdog in the current season.

NCAAB
Dunkel

Monday, March 29

NCAAB
Armadillo's Write-Up

Monday, March 29

Arkansas (3) vs Baylor (1)
Arkansas (25-6)
— ranked #18 by KenPom
— Tempo: #17
— Experience: #239
— Continuity: #339
— Arkansas won 12 of its last 13 games.
— Arkansas is 11-0 outside the SEC (non-conf schedule #273)
— Razorbacks gave up 78+ points in all six of their losses.
— Razorbacks won last two games by a hoop each.
— Opponents are shooting 46.3% inside arc (#47)
— Musselman is 5-3 in NCAA Tournament games; his team trailed by 10+ points in all five of the wins.

Baylor (25-2)
— ranked #2 by KenPom
— Tempo: #179
— Experience: #85
— Continuity: #32
— Baylor is 8-2 since its 21-day COVID pause.
— Bears are shooting 40.8% on the arc (#2)
— Baylor forces turnovers 24.8% of time (#3)
— Baylor gave up 56.3 ppg in its first three tourney wins.
— Bears are grabbing 36.8% of their missed shots (#6)
— Under Drew, Baylor lost Elite 8 games in 2010, 2012.

— Since 2007, in regional finals between #1-#3 seeds: favorites are 8-4 ATS.

Oregon State (12) vs Houston (2)
Oregon State (20-12)
— ranked #43 by KenPom
— Tempo: #305
— Experience: #65
— Continuity: #154
— Oregon State won six in row, nine of its last ten games.
— Oregon State is getting 21.5% of its points on foul line (#40)
— Beavers are shooting 46.8% inside arc (#278)
— 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
— OSU gave up 61.3 ppg in its first three NCAA games.

Houston (27-3)
— ranked #3 by KenPom
— Tempo: #326
— Experience: #142
— Continuity: #107
— Houston has the best eFG% defense in country.
— Opponents are shooting 29.0% on arc (#8)
— Cougars won their last ten games, six of them by 24+ points.
— So far in this tournament, Houston has played seeds #15-10-11.
— Cougars allowed 54 ppg in first three NCAA games.
— Sampson made 2002 Final Four with Oklahoma, then lost in the Elite 8 the next year.

— Oregon State is 2nd #12-seed ever to play in regional final; Missouri (+6.5) lost 81-75 to Oklahoma in 2002.
— Since 2004, #2-seeds are 3-8 ATS as a favorite in regional finals.

Announcement

Monday's NCAAB Trends and Indexes - 3/29

Monday's NCAAB Trends and Indexes - 3/29

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