Month: April 2025

— Florida 65, Houston 63
Houston led by 12 with 15:34 left in the game.
Florida was 17-21 on the foul line, Cougars 9-14
Houston’s last four possessions ended in turnovers.
Florida trailed by 9+ points in each of its last three games.

— This was only the second time since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams that the Final Four was four #1-seeds; the other time was 2008, when the Final Four was also in San Antonio.

— 14 of 16 SEC teams made the tournament this year; this is the first time an SEC team won a national title since Kentucky did it, in 2012.

— Rick Pitino’s St John’s team was 31-5 this year, winning an NCAA Tourney game and the Big East tournament, both for the first time for St John’s since 2000.

St John’s went 18-2 in the Big East despite shooting only 26.8% on the arc in those games; they had the #6 eFG% defense in the country.

— Duke has now gone ten years since last tine they won a national title; in three years under Jon Scheyer, Duke has ranked 298-253-269 in tempo. Before that, last time Blue Devils were below #200 in tempo was 2010.

Last five years, ACC has been ranked the #5 or lower league every year; from 1997-2020, they were a top 4 league in 21 of 24 seasons.

— Louisville was 27-8/18-2 this year, in their first season under Pat Kelsey; the last three years, Cardinals were 25-71 overall, 11-49 in ACC games.

— West Coast Conference was the #7 league this season, their best rating this century; it helped that Washington State/Oregon State added to the league’s depth after the Pac-12 went away for a couple years.

Saint Mary’s won the WCC regular season by three games, but Gonzaga won the tournament; last time a team other than the Gaels or Zags won the WCC Tournament: San Diego, in 2003.

— Famous birthdays, April 8th:
Mark Clayton, 64
Terry Porter, 62
Robin Wright, 59
Kirk Dressendorfer, 56
Carlos Santana, 39

Jeff McNeil, 33
Dario Saric, 31
Zach Eflin, 31
CeeDee Lamb, 26
Jo Adell, 26

Tuesday would’ve been the 79th birthday for Jim (Catfish) Hunter, my all-time favorite baseball player. Hall of Famer helped the A’s win three consecutive World Series.

— In three years since Jay Wright retired, Villanova was 56-48, 31-29 in Big East games, which is why they fired their coach and brought in Kevin Willard from Villanova. Willard 65-39/32-28 in his three years at Maryland- his Terps made it to the Sweet 16 this year.

Last time a team from the Big 18 won a national title? Michigan State, in 2000.

— Last two years, Kansas was only 21-17 in Big X Conference games; this year was the first time since 2006 that they lost in first round of the NCAA Tournament. Since 2018, Jayhawks have been in only one Sweet 16, when they won the national title in 2022.

— Mountain West teams went 2-4 in the NCAA Tournament, an improvement over recent years, but the two coaches who won games both bolted to new jobs.

Richard Pitino left New Mexico for Xavier after a 27-8 season; Niko Medved bolted Colorado State for Minnesota after a 26-10 year.

Medved is a Minnesota alum, but that is a really hard job. Tough being a small fish in a very deep pond.

— #6-seed Wofford won the Southern Conference tournament, the sixth different team to win that event the last six years. SoCon teams made 45.2% of their 3’s in league games, the best %age of any league in the country. 

Chattanooga won the SoCon regular season, they also won the NIT.

— For first time in the league’s 12-year history, the AAC had only one team in the NCAA’s, Memphis. League was ranked #11 nationally, its lowest ranking ever.

Memphis made NCAA’s for third time in last four years under Penny Hardaway, but were only 1-3 in those games. Tigers haven’t made the Sweet 16 since 2009, under John Calipari.

— Cal-Irvine went 68-20 in Big West conference games the last five years, but went 4-5 in the Big West tournament, missing the NCAA’s all five years. Last four years, four different teams represented the Big West in the NCAA’s.

— Next season, Phil Martelli Jr will be VCU’s 8th basketball coach since 2002; weird thing about that is that during those 24 seasons, VCU hasn’t had one losing year.

Two of last three years, Atlantic 15 has been a one-bid league; before that, last time they were a one-bid league was 2005. 

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they do not):
NL- Phillies, Cubs, Padres Wild Cards- Dodgers, Giants, Mets
AL-  New York, Tigers, Rangers Wild Cards- Angels, Red Sox, Blue Jays

— Late Sunday night, Toronto Blue Jays/1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr inked a 14-deal worth around $500M, $36M a season. There are no deferrals in the contract. 

— Before a game, TV crews give a brief synopsis of the home plate umpire for that game; does he favor hitters/pitchers? lefties/righties? inside/outside?

CB Bucknor had the plate for the A’s-Rockies game Sunday; he is not viewed as one of the game’s better umpires. The Colorado TV people put this analysis up:

“Consistently inconsistent” a pretty stern criticism of an umpire, especially before a game.

— You can bet on whether or not a team will score in the first inning of a game; with the season 11 days old, here are each teams’ results for first inning scoring:

NL
Braves 2-9
Marlins 4-9
Mets 2-9
Phillies 2-9
Nationals 2-9

Cubs 4-12
Reds 3-10
Brewers 1-10
Pirates 1-10
St Louis 4-9

Arizona 4-10
Colorado 2-9
Dodgers 3-11
Padres 4-10
Giants 2-9

AL
Orioles 5-10
Red Sox 3-10
New York 5-9
Rays 2-9
Toronto 3-10

White Sox 5-9
Cleveland 4-9
Detroit 5-9
Royals 3-9
Twins 4-9

A’s 3-10
Astros 2-9
Angels 4-9
Seattle 2-9
Texas 3-10

— In the history of the major leagues, pitchers have thrown 326 no-hitters, batters have hit for the cycle 349 times.

— Dodgers put P Blake Snell (shoulder) on the IL; he allowed seven runs in 9 IP in his first two starts this season.

— Duke’s last 11 basketball seasons:
2015- 35-4, won national title
2016- 25-11, lost in Sweet 16
2017- 28-9, lost in 2nd round
2018- 29-8, lost in Elite 8

2019- 32-6, lost in Elite 8
2020- 25-6, NCAA Tournament cancelled
2021- 13-11, missed NCAA’s
2022- 32-7, lost in national semi-finals, then
Mike Krzyzewski retired

2023- 27-9, lost in second round
2024- 27-9, lost in Elite 8
2025- 35-4, lost in national semi-finals

— Famous birthdays, April 7th:
Bo Lamar, 74
Jackie Chan, 71
Thurl Bailey, 64
Russell Crowe, 61
Ricky Watters, 56

Ronde Barber, 50
Tiki Barber, 50
Adrian Beltre, 46
Eduardo Rodriguez, 32
Josh Hader, 31

— Lot of runs scored Sunday; over was 10-5 in Sunday’s baseball.

— Padres 8, Cubs 7
Cubs led this game 7-2 after the second inning.
Luis Arraez went 4-5 with a walk.
San Diego is off to an 8-2 start.

— Astros 9, Twins 7 (10)
Minnesota led 7-1 after the fourth inning.
Yordan Alvarez tied game with a 2-run homer in 9th inning.
Top three guys in Houston’s order went 8-16, with 7 RBI

— Red Sox 5-18, Cardinals 4-7
Boston scored 36 runs in its three-game series sweep.
Wilyer Abreu had a walk-off single in the opener.

— Tigers 4, White Sox 3
Spencer Torkelson’s 2-run double was a walk-off for Detroit.
Martin Perez got 19 outs for Chicago, giving up only one run.

— Phillies 8, Dodgers 7
Phillies blew a 6-2 lead, scored twice in 7th inning for the win.
Nick Castellanos hit a grand slam in the 3rd inning.

— Rangers 4, Rays 3
Jonah Heim had a walk-off homer for Texas.
Rangers have won five games in a row. 

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they do not):
NL- Phillies, Cubs, Giants Wild Cards- Dodgers, Padres, Mets
AL-  New York, Tigers, Rangers Wild Cards- Angels, Red Sox, Blue Jays

— Florida 79, Auburn 73
Auburn led 46-38 at halftime.
Florida has now won 11 games in a row.
Walter Clayton scored 34 points, the first 30+ point game in a Final Four since Carmelo Anthony, 22 years ago.
Gators are in the national title game for the first time since 2011.

Average age of Auburn’s starting 5 is a year younger than the starting 5 for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.

— Houston 70, Duke 67
Houston ended the game on an 11-1 run.
Cougars shot 10-22 on arc, out-rebounded Duke, 42-31.
LJ Cryer scored 26 points for Houston.

Florida-Houston play for the national title Monday night.

— I think there is opportunity in betting baseball totals, over/under for runs in a game, so I chart umpires. In couple weeks, when we gather some more numbers, I’ll be posting stuff about umpires several times a week. 

Friday night in Anaheim, Clint Vondrak had the plate for Guardians-Angels; if this was 2026 and the challenge system existed, there would have been a lot of challenges. Just about every marginal pitch went the hitters’ way.

Last year, over was 19-11 when Vondrak worked the plate; so far this season; his two games behind the dish ended 10-6/8-6. This will be interesting to follow.

— I won’t embarrass myself by telling you how many times I’ve watched Moneyball, but I had it on the other night, and decided to look up Art Howe’s record as a manager.

He managed the A’s for seven years, went 296-189 the last three years, but lost 3-2 in playoff series all three years. Winning 91-102-103 games three years in a row is really good. 

He obviously had the falling out with Billy Beane and bolted the A’s for the Mets, where he went 66-95/71-91 in two years, before they told him to take a hike.

In Moneyball, they made Howe look overweight, his character looked like Whitey Herzog, not Art Howe; he was a big league infielder for 11 years, hit .260. Pretty good athlete.

— Arizona Diamondbacks put 2B Ketel Marte on the IL (strained hamstring); sounded like the injury was fairly significant.

— Famous birthdays, April 6th:
John Ratzenberger, 78
Bert Blyleven, 74
Marilu Henner, 73
Sterling Sharpe, 60

Bret Boone, 56
Paul Rudd, 56
Tim Hasselbeck, 47
Spencer Dinwiddie, 32

— Mets 3, Blue Jays 2
Toronto led 2-0 in the 8th inning.
Jesse Winker tied the game with a 2-run triple.
Francisco Lindor’s sac fly was the 7th walk-off RBI of his career.

— Marlins 4, Braves 0
Cal Quantrill threw five shutout innings.
Matt Mervis homered twice for the Marlins.
Atlanta is off to a 1-8 start.

— Reds 11, Brewers 7
Cincinnati scored 14 runs Monday, 11 runs in this game.
In the four games in between, they scored a total of 2 runs, in four games.
TJ Friedl went 4-5, scored twice, had two RBI

— A’s 7, Rockies 4
Colorado led 3-1 after the fifth inning.
Jacob Wilson hit a 2-run double; earlier in the day, he hit into a triple play.
A’s are 4-2 on the road, 0-3 at home.

— In his 11 NBA seasons, Sacramento Kings’ G Zach LaVine has played in only four playoff games, the fewest of any player in the last 25 years amongst players who’ve averaged 20+ points/game.

— Word of the Day: kakistocracy- Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.

— Stock market went down a combined 3,910 points Thursday/Friday; maybe we shouldn’t have elected a convicted felon president of the country, since he doesn’t seem to care much if the country succeeds or fails, he just wants to play golf.

One question before I go; how come Russia doesn’t have any tariffs?

(If you’re annoyed that I mentioned this, too bleepin’ bad. It would be nice if this country remained a democracy, I’d like to think you at least agree with that)

— Celtics 123, Suns 103
Boston set the all-time record for most 3-pointers made in a season when they sank their 1,364th 3-pointer in this game, passing the previous record, set by Golden State couple of years ago.

— Golden State is 20-2 when Steph Curry/Jimmy Butler both play; they’re 26-28 in all their other games. 

Lakers are 12-7 when Lebron James/Luka Doncic have both played, 35-23 when they didn’t.

— Detroit Pistons clinched a playoff spot Friday night, after they went 14-68 last year, one of the best turnarounds in NBA history.

Credit to coach JB Bickerstaff, in his first year coaching the Pistons.

— Saw a note that said since Christmas is on a Thursday this year, we’ll have three NFL games to watch while we drink egg nog and open presents.

— Los Angeles Chargers signed QB Trey Lance for one year, $6.2M; he was the 3rd overall pick in the 2021 draft, by the 49ers, but has started only five games (2-3) in four seasons for the 49ers and last year, with Dallas.

— Arizona Cardinals signed TE Trey McBride to a 4-year, $76M contract extension; he caught 111 passes for 1,146 yards last year, scoring two TD’s. $43M of that $$$ is guaranteed.

— Central Michigan fired basketball coach Tony Barbee, after the Chippewas went 14-17, 7-11 this season, Barbee’s fourth season there (they were 18-14/12-6 last year).

Central Michigan hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2003, has had only two winning seasons in MAC play the last nine years.

— Texas A&M is expected to name Samford coach Bucky McMillan their new coach, replacing Buzz Williams, who bolted to Maryland.

McMillan won five state high school state titles coaching in Alabama, then coached at Samford for five years, going 93-43/52-20 the last four years, getting to the NCAA Tournament last year. The last two years, his Bulldogs played the #8/#24 tempos in the country- very fast.

— Famous birthdays, April 5th:
Michael Moriarity, 84
Oliver Luck, 65
Dale Hatcher, 62
Steven Bardo, 57

Tony Banks, 52
Marc Bulger, 48
Stephen Jackson, 47
Justin Holiday, 36

— Red Sox 13, Cardinals 9
Rafael Devers got on base four times, the top six hitters in Boston’s order all had 2+ hits as they won their home opener.

— Braves 10, Marlins 0
Spencer Schwellenbach allowed only two hits, struck out 10 in 8 IP, as Atlanta took out some frustrations from their 0-7 road trip. Ozuna/Olson hit back/back homers for the Braves.

— Giants 10, Mariners 9 (11)
Willie Adames had a walk-off single in 11th inning as San Francisco won its home opener.
Giants have won five games in a row.

— A’s 6, Rockies 3 (11)
Jacob Wilson homered, had a 2-run single in the 11th inning.
Colorado was 1-15 with runners in scoring position.
Under 3-0-1 in A’s road games; over is 3-0 in their home games.

— Brewers 3, Reds 2
Reds ended a 36-inning scoreless streak, but lost their fourth game in a row, all by one run.
Tyler Alexander didn’t allow a hit in 5.2 IP as Milwaukee’s starter.

— Mets 5, Blue Jays 0
Tylor Megill allowed five baserunners, no runs in 5.1 IP.
Pete Alonso hit a 2-run homer in the first inning.

— Phillies 3, Dodgers 2
Jesus Luzardo tossed 7 shutout IP, giving up two hits.
First loss of the season for the Dodgers, after an 8-0 start.