Home • MLB • NFL • NBA • Other Sports College Basketball • College Football

Armadillo's Den:
Friday's List of 13:
Random thoughts with the weekend here......
NBA playoffs are underway-- every game discussed here
NHL playoff knowledge every night.........baseball, too......

Friday's six-pack -- San Antonio Spurs haven't lost a game since April 11. Any game. You think they're going to lose a best-of-7 series? -- Why isn't Gregg Popovich the Olympic coach? Well, Jerry Colangelo runs USA Basketball, and apparently he and Pop aren't great buddies. -- Dwyane Wade is 18-58 (31.0%) from the floor in the Indiana series. -- Pacers were 100-1 to win the championship back in the fall. -- All five teams in the NL East are over .500. -- If Patriots don't want Wes Welker, could they send him to St Louis?

to e-mail the Armadillo, click here.....

Follow Armadillo's Twitter page!!!! Updates every day......

Friday's List of 13: Random thoughts with the weekend here......
13) Read an interesting book on the plane home from Las Vegas; Play Their Hearts Out, about AAU basketball in southern California. The writer followed this group of kids for eight years as they grew up from 4th graders to prospective college athletes. Quite an undertaking, but its really well-written, it is sad at times, uplifting at times, but all of it is true. Some of the kids in the book are still playing college ball. If you like college basketball, its worth your time.

12) In Celtics’ three playoff games with Philly so far, they’re +47 with Kevin Garnett on the court, -31 with him on the bench.

11) Remaining NHL teams' records in the playoffs:
Kings 11-1, Coyotes 8-6, Rangers 9-7, Devils 9-5.

10) ESPN.com insists on posting these articles on which teams should sell off players and which teams should buy. Its May 18 today, too damn early for teams to be giving up on the baseball season.

The season is still young. Come up with other stuff to right about. Use your imagination. Write about prospects, anything, but the constant drivel about small market teams trading players is getting old.

9) Old Dominion is leaving the CAA for Conference USA; CAA has now lost Georgia State, ODU and VCU- they’re rumored to be going after Charleston/Davidson to restock their shelves.

8) Why did the A-14 move its conference tournament from Atlantic City to Brooklyn? Are people from Saint Louis, Duquesne, Dayton or Xavier more likely to trek to Brooklyn for the tournament, or to the casinos/boardwalk of Atlantic City? Or would Philly be the place to hold it? Brooklyn is a weird place to hold the tournament; Fordham is the only NYC team in the league, and they’re in the Bronx, not Brooklyn.

7) Apparently, NY Rangers’ coach John Tortorella despises the media, but isn’t part of his job to promote his team, his sport? If making himself the focus of the media makes things easier for his team, so be it, but the NHL needs as much exposure as it can get, and having him mumble his way thru cameo appearances at press conferences isn’t helping the league any.

Weird thing is, it is obvious from watching HBO’s 24/7 special on Rangers/Flyers last winter that Tortorella is a character, someone the media should love, not loathe. Its too bad. He should watch Bull Durham, learn a few cliches, and sleepwalk thru the media sessions. Its part of his job.

6) This weekend’s Spur-Clipper games at Staples Center aren’t sold out yet. Spurs' easy win Thursday isn't going to help that situation any.

5) Just dawned on me that when Ozzie Guillen jumped from the White Sox to Miami, the two pitching coaches stayed where they were. That’s very unusual, no?

4) MLB Network televises the early part of the amateur draft now; since the A’s have five of the first 74 picks, guess I’ll be watching those days.

3) Speaking of the A’s, just when it looked like Brandon Inge was going to be the 3B they’ve been dying for, he has a leg injury and and is on the DL. Terrific. He had 16 RBI in five games, then got hurt, so we’re back to Josh Donaldson at 3B, which wouldn’t be so bad except the guy is hitting .083 and he’s more of a hitter than a fielder. Seriously, he is.

2) Somehow, with Cespedes, Braden and Anderson all hurt, with their two best pitchers traded away, with no Manny Ramirez until Game 51, the A's are 20-19. With every passing day, Bob Melvin looks like a combination of Dick Williams, Miller Huggins and Tony Larussa. Outstanding manager.

1) This is an actual billboard in Las Vegas:

“Everyone screws up now & then. Especially around here. Call us when you do.”

Billboard is for a bail bondsman service. You wonder why I like it there?

Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.........
13) Oklahoma City trailed the Lakers 75-68 with 2:08 left, but LA never scored again, as they coughed up a 77-75 decision to the Thunder that gives Oklahoma City a 2-0 series lead. OC had an 18-5 edge in fast break points, but a couple key turnovers in last 2:00 were fatal for the Lakers.

12) Lookalikes: The little lawyer on TNT's Franklin & Bash and Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks.

11) Did you ever see the commercial Robert Wagner does for those reverse mortgages on TV, designed for older people? All well and good, but Wagner became famous for playing con men in two TV series, It Takes a Thief and Switch. Not exactly the kind of guy who inspires trust by investors.

10) Greedy bastard update: Gas was $4.09 a gallon on May 6; noticed that it dropped to $4.05 as I went to the airport on May 7, and now it is $3.99, so the bastards have gotten a little less greedy. Just wait until Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. It'll be back over $4.00.

Gas is roughly $3.82 or $3.83 a gallon out in Las Vegas.

9) Yu Darvish is 6-1, 2.60 for the Rangers; looks like he could be the best of the Asian pitchers to come overseas and play ball.

8) Tampa Bay Rays are 16-2 in their last 18 games against the AL East.

7) Too bad this game with division rival Boston drew only 20,843 fans. It won't be long before the Rays will be elsewhere, unless attendance picks up. A third major league team is going to wind up in New Jersey, sitting next to the new Giants' Stadium in the Meadowlands complex.

6) Baseball is messed up sometimes; Clay Buchholz lost Wednesday, giving up two runs in five IP; it was one of his best starts all season. He had an 8.67 RA before this game, but had a 4-1 record. Go figure.

5) Until the first inning Wednesday night, their 37th game, no Met batter had swung at a 3-0 pitch all season. Hard to believe, but Lucas Duda got a hit on their first 3-0 swing of the season.

4) How entrenched are the hideous Wilpons, owners of the Mets? They've been given next summer's All-Star Game. Wonder if they had to move the fences in to get the game? Would've been a lousy Home Run Derby if the fences were still where they were last year. Lot of people think the Home Run Derby has become more popular than the All-Star Game itself.

3) Baltimore Orioles won their last six road games, with Adam Jones first player in 14 years (Mark McGwire) to hit game-winning homers after the 15th inning in two games in the same season.

2) Did you see Toronto 3B Brett Lawrie fire his helmet down Tuesday, after he was called out on strikes? He's very lucky he didn't get a 15-20 game suspension; the helmet landed close to umpire Bill Miller, then hit him in the leg after it bounced. He threw it down really close to the umpire, and deserves a hell of a lot more than a 4-game suspension.

No way is the umpires' union happy with that slap on the wrist.

1) On May 16, four of the top 11 stories on ESPN's home page were about football, either college or pro. An awful lot for the offseason.

Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week thoughts as I settle back in....
13) Miami Heat is now 4-6 without Chris Bosh this season, losing 78-75 at home to Indiana, going 1-16 behind the arc. Series heads to Indiana 1-1.

12) You look at the relatively-obscure Pacer roster and realize that other than Leandro Barbosa, most of the Pacers played a lot of college ball. Not sure if it makes them more mature, more fundamentally sound or both.

11) There's a scapegoat in Anaheim, as Halos fired 13-year batting coach Mickey Hatcher, silently but loudly blaming him for the club's dismal start. Guess he didn't mesh well with Albert Pujols. Thats not good.

10) Phillies are a combined 4-9 in Halladay/Lee starts. Surprising.

9) Even worse, Giants are 2-6 when Tim Lincecum starts.

8) Then there is Derek Lowe, who is 6-1, 2.05 for Cleveland; he blanked the horrendous Twins Tuesday with a 127-pitch complete game, striking out no one, and getting only one miss on 48 Cleveland swings. Tribe put 29 balls in play, only got six hits, with 22 ground ball outs.

7) We quoted our new friend Tony the Cabbie up above; he must have been happy Tuesday, with Konerko/Pierzynski going 8-9 for the White Sox. He has both those guys on his fantasy league team. I'd tell you more about him, but Tony is a Cuban immigrant and I only understood about 40% of what he was saying to me. Terrific guy, though. Knows his baseball.

6) There is a golf course in Summerlin called Angel Park, and you can golf there at night- they've got lights. Arnold Palmer designed the course.

5) Some publicity-seeking jackass wrote an article this week saying that Tony Romo is a top 5 QB in the NFL. Let me see, that means, out of the group of QBs below, he has to be better than two of them, plus everyone else in the league:

Brady/both Mannings/Roethlisberger/Rodgers/Brees/Rivers. No way.

4) The casino at the M Resort is almost too nice; its pretty far from the Strip, and it is gorgeous. I felt guilty sitting at the bar, like I wasn't dressed well enough (I live in cargo pants/Adidas hightops). You can bet on any game in the NFL season (except Week 17) right now. We'll be talking about that more as the spring moves on and training camp approaches.

3) Butler and VCU are off to the Atlantic 14, replacing Temple/Charlotte. Temple will be a big loss for that league. A-14 is a weird league, far-flung and without a great TV contract. Interesting to see how Butler/VCU do in noving up in class from their previous leagues.

2) Only three weeks until the Phil Steele College Football magazine hits the newsstands. Can't wait; its the bible of college football.

1) It is 6:45am as I finish this up; time to hit the hay after flying home late Tuesday night. Vacations are excellent/necessary; coming home is good, but nothing screws up my sleep patterns more than eight days in the desert.

Tuesday's List of 13: Random thoughts as I head home.........
13) I've got the solution for the NBA on how to decrease flopping by eager defenders (you can never totally eliminate it); just call less charging fouls. Every time you call a charge, you encourage flopping, so more charges will get drawn. Stop calling so many, guys will defend instead of flop.

12) I've watched this Alonso kid play 1B for the Padres; if I was the Reds, I would've found a place for him to play, especially in that tiny ballpark of theirs. Very good hitter. I know they got Mat Latos for him, but they need to go for groundball pitchers to avoid cheap flyball home runs.

11) You can bet on baseball games for the full nine innings, or just the first five, or if any runs will score in the first inning. This is why you sometimes hear random yelling int he sportsbook, even when you think not much is going on. Believe me, something is always going on........

10) Sparse crowds on a Monday night in Toronto, Washington, Queens; at some point, frontrunning NYC folk might realize the Mets are a contender right now. They play good ball, and deserve better fan support. Same for the Nationals, who jumped back into first place last night.

9) Mets have now gone 8,003 games without a no-hitter; Padres have gone 6,878. Marlins have had four in 17 years.

8) Texas hasn't put a guy on the DL yet; Nationals have put 11, and backup catcher Leon might be #12 after getting hurt in a home plate collision.

7) Let the record show that Bryce Harper's first MLB homer went over the centerfield fence against Tim Stauffer. He also dropped a fly ball that cost Washington a run. Things are always interesting around him.

6) Emilio Bonifacio is 18-18 stealing bases; he's not a better hitter, but he might be a better basestealer than teammate Jose Reyes.

5) I wish all outfield fences were nine feet high; its pretty cool when an OF robs the batter of a home run. Not real big on 12-15 foot fences, they just rob the hitters of home runs.

4) Pirates are 11-1 when they score 4+ runs, 6-17 when they don't.

3) Carlos Beltran has 21 RBI in May, most in the major leagues. Guess he didn't like New York City.

2) The commercial with the "other Michael Jordan" is a classic. The looks on people's faces when they realize they're not going to meet the famous Jordan are excellent.

1) If you've never been to Las Vegas, I highly recommend it; its unique, in both good and bad ways, mostly good. Be prepared to have fun.........

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........
13) Between NHL/NBA, there are 12 teams left playing; three of the 12 are in Los Angeles, playing home games at Staples Center. Arena workers are going to go nuts racking up overtime later this week, with two events on both Saturday/Sunday. Two basketball games Saturday, the Kings play on Sunday afternoon, then the Clippers Sunday night. Busy place.

12) Home teams are now 87-22 in NBA Game 7's.

11) This was just the Clippers' 3rd-ever winning season, and only second playoff series win since 1985. Good for them.

10) Quin Snyder is an assistant coach for the Lakers; he was head coach at Missouri from 1999-2006, where he coached a player named Josh Kroenke, who is now..........President and Governor of the Nuggets. Not that long ago he was in college; now he's President of an NBA team.

Kroenke's dad is Stan Kroenke, who owns the Nuggets/Avalanche and the St Louis Rams, which helps explains Josh's rapid rise to the top. This is an excellent organization though, one with a bright future.

9) If you want to bet the Super Bowl 8-9 months early, the NFC has been posted as a 3-point favorite over the AFC.

8) 23-11 Dodgers have the big leagues' best record, but Texas Rangers are the best team. Sunday night, Orel Hershiser said it wasn't even close, with Texas having the major leagues' best team, right now.

7) Pretty good Sunday for Joey Votto, who hit three homers, last of which was a walk-off grandslam in the Reds' 9-6 win over Washington. He is first player ever with three HRs in a game, with last one a walk-off grand slam.

6) Reds' win put the suprising Braves into first place in the NL East.

5) By the way, that game started 3:36 late because of rain; what did the Reds' TV station show during the delay? Womens' skeet shooting!!!!

4) Miami Marlins are 18-16, 8-6 at home; five of their eight home wins are walk-off wins. They need to bat Stanton cleanup.

3) When in Las Vegas, Joe's New York Pizza on Paradise Road is as good a pizza as I've had in years. I highly recommend it.

2) Despite the NBA's insistence on marketing stars, role players are what puts teams over the top; where would the Lakers be without Steve Blake? They'd be explaining why they lost to Denver. Blake saved their butts with tremendous shooting and solid ballhandling in Game 7.

1) Curious decision by ESPN for Sunday night baseball next week; its the first weekend of interleague play, but the Sunday night game will be Cards-Dodgers, the only two teams not participating in interleague next weekend.

Sunday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday.........
13) To me, best-of-7 series aren't conducive to basketball; you just don't need seven games, best-of-3 would be excellent. March Madness is thrilling because its single elimination and the best team doesn't always win. In the NBA, except for injury-riddled teams, the best team most always wins.

12) Eric Karros had a great tidbit on the FOX baseball game Saturday; when Josh Hamilton had 18 total bases in his 4-HR game earlier this week, Adrian Beltre was hitting behind him in the lineup.

Shawn Green holds the big league record with 19 total bases; that night, in 2002, the batter hitting in front of Green? Adrian Beltre.

11) Group of guys in sportsbook were fired up tonight, rooting for Andre Iguodala to score more than 17.5 points (he scored 19) and for both teams to combine for 10 made 3-pointers (they made 7). Lot of interesting prop bets they come up with, to keep the action lively throughout the game.

10) This trade happened in the NBA this season..........

Washington Wizards:
Traded: Javale McGee, Ronny Turiaf, Nick Young
Received: Nene Hilario, Brian Cook and a 2nd-round pick.

Denver Nuggets:
Traded: Nene Hilario
Received: Javale McGee, Ronny Turiaf

Los Angeles Clippers:
Traded: Brian Cook and a 2nd-round pick
Received: Nick Young

Anyone wonder why the Wizards always lose? Who gets rid of a freakish athlete like McGee?, and Young is helping the Clippers too. Cook played 9.7 mpg for the Wizards; he is 31. Hilario is pretty good, but he is 29. Look at the way McGee runs and jumps-- he's a unique talent!!!!! Yikes.

9) Texas Rangers haven't had a player on the DL yet this season.

8) Interesting decision by the Angels, starting CJ Wilson two days in a row, after he threw 22 pitches in a rain-delayed game Friday night. Angels won the Saturday game, will be interesting to chart Wilson moving forward.

7) Last week, one of our trivia answers identified Kyle Drabek as the only pitcher in the big leagues with a single digit uniform number. Since then, the Rockies called up Alex White, who wears number 6, so now there are two.

6) Very quietly, Carlos Zambrano has been excellent for the Marlins; in his last two starts, he's thrown 16 scoreless innings.

5) Two of the big news stories on the Las Vegas local TV tonight were the graduation at UNLV, and the Runnin' Rebels signing Anthony Bennett, who one station touted as UNLV's best recruit since Larry Johnson. Wow.

4) No Stanley Cup champion has gone seven games in its first two playoff series, the way the Rangers have this spring. New York advances with a 8-6 playoff record. Washington goes home at 7-7.

3) Some influential Florida State people are pushing the school to look at a move to the Big X, which is called the Big XII but only has ten teams right now, with TCU/West Virginia joining this year, and A&M/Mizzou going. Being in the ACC does very little for the Seminoles' football program.

2) Roy Halladay has no wins in his last five starts. Very unusual.

1) Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there, if any of you readers are actually moms. I'll think of you while I'm sitting by the pool today.

Saturday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but..........
13) The Twins have a $100M payroll this season? Damn, they're awful. You don't have to be Columbo to figure out that Ron Gardenhire will get fired soon-- its a lot easier to fire the manger than the $100M roster.

12) Red Sox payroll on Opening Day was $175,249,119 and they're #5-6 hitters Friday wore numbers 64-66, meaning they're minor leaguers.

11) Miami Marlins increased their payroll this year from $57M to $101M and they're finally starting to play like it, coming from behind to beat the Mets Friday night. Miami won nine of its last ten games.

10) In four games this week, Mets have outscored opponents 20-5 from the 7th inning on-- they're a mentally tough team. Just not that talented.

9) Mark McGwire is apparently a very good hitting coach; Cardinals are killing the ball, and all without Albert Pujols around to carry the squad.

8) Phillies' owners paid $30M to buy the team in 1981; they're now worth a cool $723M.

7) Carlos Gonzalez leads the major leagues, knocking in 29.9% of runners who were on base in his ABs; Josh Hamilton (27.4%) is next, with Wilson Betemit (27.1%) a surprising third. This only includes guys with 80+ ABs.

6) Bringing up the rear in that category are Nyjer Morgan (0-28), Danny Espinosa (1-63, but he homered Friday) and Marco Scutaro (1-56).

5) Speaking of which, Vernon Wells is making $24,642,857 this year, and has knocked in only four of 70 baserunners. What a debacle.

4) Who pays Yu Darvish's interpreter? Darvish or the Rangers? How much does he make? Where is he from? He's kind of an important guy, no?

3) Houston Astros have four players who earn more than $2.35M a year.

2) Since 1983, Fred Couples ('99) is the only pro golfer who parred the 17th at TPC Sawgrass by hitting his tee shot in the water, then chipping in from the drop area. Thats out of 1,412 balls in the water (before this week).

1) Bronx Bomber fans celebrated when Raul Ibanez hit a cheap homer into the first row of the right-centerfield bleachers last night, but the look on the face of Felix Hernandez said, "I ain't never coming here as a free agent."

Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind.........
13) Every kid who wants to be a good basketball should study how this kid on Denver, Kenneth Faried plays; great enthusiasm, greater effort, he gets a lot of rebounds because he goes after more of them than anyone else. Just a pleasure to watch him play. How did he wind up at Morehead State?

12) Game 7 of Denver-LA series is apparently Saturday night at 10:30; I'm told Saturday is George Karl's 61st birthday. 10:30 in the east is awful late to be showing a Game 7, no?

11) 76ers are only fith #8 seed to beat a #1 seed, but third one in last five years. Injuries doomed Chicago; the compressed schedule was ridiculous.

10) Doug Collins shattered a record by going 23 years in between winning a playoff series. Not to say it was a long time ago, but in 1989, I had most of my hair, I hadn't even gotten married yet, much less divorced, and Rams/A's were both good. Like I said, a long time ago.

9) Someone remind me why the Knicks traded Danilo Gallinari. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Even the Moscov kid contributes to Denver's cause.

8) Josh Beckett has a 5.44 ERA in his last 14 starts, but looking on bright side, his short game is getting better.

7) Sad news from Boston is their PA announcer dying this week at age 59 after he suffered a heart attack while driving. His family loved the Red Sox so much that the guy sprinkled his dad's ashes on the warning track out in front of the Green Monster.

6) Looks like baseball may soon ban that fake-to-third base, throw-to-first pickoff move that fools more people than you think. It has to be a balk.

5) Josh Hamilton had 6 HRs, 13 RBI in four games at Camden Yards this week; if Texas lets him walk in free agency, Baltimore has to make a play for him, no? Understood his history makes him risky, but still.........

4) Orioles became the 4th team in MLB history to lead off the first inning with three straight homers; then Colby Lewis retired the next 18 batters, becoming the first pitcher since 1918 to allow 5+ HRs with 10+ K's.

3) A's showed their complete desperation to find a competent 3B when the club signed light-hitting Brandon Inge; was hanging out in the sports book with couple of guys from Michigan last night-- they love Inge, but he just didn't hit enough in Detroit. He has two grand slams the last three days, so maybe he'll go on an extended tear now. A guy can hope.

2) Vikings are going to stay in Minnesota; the governor said he'll sign a bill to build a $945M stadium. The Vikings in LA would've been weird.

1) All the games, practices, the money spent on scouting, and at the end of a long playoff series, it comes down to whether one of your stars can stand at the foul line and knock down two free throws. Little things=big difference. Don't believe me? Ask someone who roots for the Atlanta Hawks.

Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud........
13) Had a terrific dinner the other night with Big Dawg and Mrs Big Dawg at Battista's, a great restaurant on Flamingo here in Las Vegas. If you come to America's Favorite City, make sure you have dinner there at least once.

12) You can smoke in casinos; in New York, you can't smoke indoors. The smoking doesn't bother me, but at the Las Vegas Hilton, there is a separate smoke-free room where all the games are shown.

11) I am 52 years old and had never had a corn dog until tonight; they sell mini-corn dogs at the Sportsbook Deli-- if they don't start selling these fine food items in New York soon, I'm not going to be happy. They're good!!!

10) Rode the monorail here for the first time; they're having some problems with it right now, but it seems like a good idea. Cheaper than riding a cab.

9) At every TV timeout of the two NBA games last night, the sportsbook put out a new line on the game. For instance, if you liked the Knicks +11 in Game 5, when they were down 17 in 4th quarter, you could've gotten them at +17.5 or +18 at different times. They lost by 12. Interesting concept.

8) ESPN/ACC renewed their TV agreement until 2027; I had to stop when I read that and try to remember what year this is. 2027 seems like a movie, but its only fifteen years away.

7) Read some criticism of Mike Woodson because he let Carmelo Anthony dominate the ball; the last coach didn't let Anthony dominate the ball, and his butt got fired, because Anthony wouldn't try hard while he was coach of the team. What would you do?

6) When Jose Canseco first came up with the A's, I dropped whatever I was doing to watch his ABs; he was that much fun to watch hit. Have a similar feeling when Giancarlo Stanton comes to bat; he's worth price of admission.

5) Terry Collins is doing a terrific job managing the no-name Mets.

4) Tampa Bay's Matt Joyce actually hurt his leg while he hit the GW HR in the 9th inning; he limped around the bases but did stay in the game. Fact the ball went out of the park (landed in first row) shows you how cheap HRs are in rightcenter field in the Bronx. Bad place for pitchers.

3) Major league teams are 37-7 this season when they have 15+ hits; three of the seven losses belong to the Red Sox.

2) Clippers weren't exactly the picture of poise Wednesday, getting five technical fouls in their loss at Memphis, but they did cut a 24-point deficit down to four. Curious to see if they can finish the Grizzlies off at home.

1) You read all this recruiting stuff on the Internet, then you realize Aaron Rodgers didn't get a D-I scholarship offer, and it hits you that lot of these nitwits are just that, imbeciles. Interesting to read, but uninformed. Lot of times, all a guy needs to succeed is a chance. Look at Rodgers.

Wednesday's List of 13: Random midweek stuff..........
13) We mentioned last week how Sean Green holds the record with 19 total bases in one game, and how hard it would be to break that record. Then we sat and watched Josh Hamilton hit four homers and a double, missing that great record by one base. Tremendous exhibition of hitting.

12) Someone has to make a movie out of Hamilton's life; part tragedy, part triumph, the ending yet to be written. He's playing for his next contract in 2012, and right now (.406, 14 HR, 36 RBI), he's a dominant hitter. Going to be fascinating to see where he winds up next season.

11) Interesting prop wager here at the Las Vegas Hilton: You can bet on if the teams (either one) will score in the first inning. Lot of knowledge to use as fodder; pitchers' records, umps' record. Something for me to chart on the plane ride home Tuesday.

10) When Travis Hafner hit a triple Monday, it was his first triple in 1,711 ABs, dating back to 2007. He gets paid to hit, not run.

9) Should Nationals pare an inning or two off of Stephen Strasburg's starts now, so that he hits his innings limit later in the season? How will they go about shutting Strasburg down in August if they're a contending team?

8) Cardinals scored 8+ runs in four of six games vs lefthanded starters.

7) Nationals lost their last five road games by a combined total of six runs.

6) You wonder if this Middlebrooks kid keeps hitting for Boston, if they will consider dumping Kevin Youkilis for pitching help this summer. They are in last place, 3.5 games out of 4th place. The bullpen has been awful. They need help and they need it fairly soon.

5) Why does ESPN have Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless on the air? Is it a rule that you have to be a jerk to be on those shows? Horrible television.

4) As close as Jack Nicholson sits to the visiting bench at Laker games, isn't it overdue for him to play a basketball coach in a movie? Someone with a lot of demons but who wins, so those demons are tolerated. This would work.

3) 16 times a major leaguer homered four times in same game; there have been 21 perfect games, only five 20-strikeout pitching performances.

2) Compare that to 296 cycles, 252 no-hitters, and you realize how rare a performance Josh Hamilton put on Tuesday night.

1) I was 8 years old on May 8, 1968; remember getting up to go to school on May 9, and seeing a note next to my lunch: "Catfish pitched a perfect game. Won 4-0, knocked in three of the four runs". How lucky was I to pick such a great pitcher as my favorite player when I was five years old.

Tuesday's List of 13: Random stuff from America's favorite city
13) I'm on vacation in Las Vegas, so I'll apologize in advance for the erratic timing of my postings for the next few days. Fun comes first this week.

12) On my flight from Albany to Chicago, guy sitting next to me broke out of those sleeping masks you see in the movies, the silk kind that look like they might match Hugh Hefner's bathrobe. Interesting.

11) Memphis has scored 386 points, Clippers 385 in their playoff series, but LA has won three of the four games, and thats what counts.

10) Congrats to the Phoenix Coyotes and their fans; either Phoenix or the LA Kings are going to be in the NHL Finals, which is pretty cool.

9) Rangers tied their game with a power play goal with 0:06 left, then won in OT on another power play goal that came off the same major penalty. I wonder if the NHL offices are scared of a Phoenix-Washington Cup final? You know New York-LA would be their dream matchup.

8) Minnesota Twins have 20 hits in their last six games; in last 85 years, only one team has ever had less over any six-game span, and they played before World War II. Minnesota has some decent hitters, too.

7) Madison Square Garden is actually on fifth floor of a 10-floor building, which seems odd for a major sports arena, but Mike Emrick said so during Monday night's hockey game, so it must be true.

6) Big East canned their ineffective Commissioner John Marinatto; actually, he technically "resigned", which is comical. League has San Diego State in it for football; whoever's idea that was should get fired, too.

5) Its about time ESPN put Allen Iverson's "Practice?!?!?!" and Jim Mora's "Playoffs?!?!?!?!" sound bytes to bed. Enough already. I don't care if it was the 10-year anniversary of Iverson's rant. Use your freakin' imagination and come up with something else to put on the air.

4) Cole Hamels got suspended for five games for drilling the Harper kid on Sunday night, but all it really means is that his next start gets pushed back one day. Charlie Manuel actually advised Hamels to be less honest when he talks to the media. Will Manuel get fined for that?

3) Southwest Airlines consistently does an excellent job handling luggage on my flights. Hope I didn't just jinx the trip home.

2) So I'm sitting in a sportsbook by myself late Monday night, watching SportsCenter on big screen with a cold drink and contemplating life while looking thru the Week 1 NFL lines. There has to be value there, right?

1) Just a question of where does that value lie? How the hell are the Saints double digit faves over anyone? No head coach, no GM and Drew Brees is still unsigned. If I bet an NFL game tomorrow, it would be Redskins, +10.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.........
13) There have been two big league games this season with no walks-- take away those four teams, and teams that haven't walked anyone this season are 42-16. It pays to throw strikes.

12) Clay Buchholz has started six games this season, allowing 34 runs in 32.2 IP. Major red flag for the Red Sox.

11) Best records this season in one-run games:
Indians 6-1, Braves 5-1, Rays 7-2, Mets 7-3, Dodgers 9-5

10) Worst records in one-run games:
Cardinals 1-5, Phillies 1-4, Angels 3-6, Mariners 3-7, Arizona 4-10

9) Colorado led the Braves 5-0 after first inning Friday; led 6-0 after second inning Saturday, but lost both games. Not good.

8) In 1962, a pitcher named Bob Buhl went 0-70 batting for a whole season; for a whole season, he was 0-for-freakin'-70, with 36 strikeouts, six walks. Odd part is that two years earlier, he was 14-89 (.157) at the plate.

7) Senior guard Mark Lyons transferred from Xavier to Arizona; he wants to play point guard, but Coach Mack obviously didn't think he has what it takes to do so. Odd thing is that Arizona's coach is Sean Miller, whose last job was as head coach at Xavier.

6) Orioles just beat Boston 9-6 in 17 innings; both winning/losing pitchers started the game as the DHs. Chris Davis struck out five times, grounded into a double play, and was the winning pitcher. Wow.

5) Adrian Gonzalez was 0-8, the first AL cleanup hitter to go 0-8 in a game since Cleveland's Andre Thornton in 1984.

4) Orioles are 19-9 and in first place; if the AL playoffs started Monday, three AL East teams would make it: Orioles-Rays-Blue Jays.

3) Bad news for the Nationals; just as Ryan Zimmerman comes back from a shoulder injury, Jayson Werth hurts his left wrist. Its always something.

2) Congrats to the LA Kings on sweeping the Blues, LA's first-ever sweep of a best-of-7 series, and they've been around since 1967. Kings are on a roll after coming into the playoffs as the #8 seed in the west.

1) Disappointed that Kentucky-Indiana won't be playing anymore; Calipari wanted to switch the games to neutral sites, Indiana wanted to keep games on campus. At the end of the day, the fans lose out. Too bad.

Sunday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday..........
13) Oklahoma City was impressive sweeping out the defending champion Mavericks from the playoffs; James Harden gave them 29 points off the bench. Thunder was +16 with him on the floor, -10 if he was on bench.

12) Rough day for the home teams in NBA, with three of four losing, with only the Clippers winning by a point, despite going 13-30 from foul line.

11) Gritty Caron Butler played 22 minutes for LA with a broken left hand; hard to underestimate what that means to a team. Tough guy.

10) Astros have quietly won five games in row and are now 13-14, a much improved team; a lot like the Dodgers, having ownership issues over with has allowed them to focus on field. They've got some good young players.

9) Red Sox are now 8-19 in their last 27 home games; they're 11-15 overall and in last place in AL East. Its still early, but its not that early.

8) Hard to believe, but Angels are combined 1-11 when Ervin Santana or Dan Haren starts; Halos were shut out in each of Santana's last five starts, the first time in baseball history thats happened. Yikes.

7) Mets' 1B Ike Davis hitting .283 (13-46) on the road, but 3-47 (.064) at Citi Field. Not good when you're 3-47 anywhere, much less at home.

6) Mets' pitcher RA Dickey wrote a book this winter; its currently #31 on the New York Times' Best-Seller list. Good for him.

5) Marlins are 5-0 on their west coast swing, with four one-run wins. They still aren't hitting well with men on base, but the pitching has been better. Giancarlo Stanton has five homers in his last eight games.

4) Marquette picked up a very helpful transfer with news Trent Lockett is coming to Milwaukee this fall; the Arizona State transfer will be eligible for this coming season. He'll help Buzz Williams' team.

3) Rory McIlroy had a 380-yard drive yesterday; CBS guys said it was the longest drive they've ever seen at Quail Hollow. Kid is 23.

2) Heard this weekend that Jimmer Fredette is writing a book with Yahoo! Sports' Pat Forde; why? The kid isn't even 25; why write a book? Seems like they could wait until his NBA career was over to have enough material for a decent book. The whole story hasn't played out yet.

1) As if their offseason hasn't been bad enough, keep in mind that the Saints haven't signed Drew Brees yet; could you imagine the carnage if they didn't sign him? No coach, no GM, no QB???? That would be dismal.

Saturday's Den: DD Lohaus handicaps the Kentucky Derby...........
Great Day! Great Day! Here's hoping the weather cooperates.

Today's race features nine horses from last years Breeders Cup Juvenile all who have had done rather nicely since. That fact alone makes this years Derby a very interesting race.

I know I've said it before but there is a case to be made for a lot of the horses in this race. Clearly weather will be a concern, pace is a concern and of course the trip will a major factor.

After a thorough review of the entrants I have narrowed it down to a few logical choices that I think can actually win. My betting strategy is to offer the best combination of value and chance of winning. With 20 horses and so many variables, it is hard to accept very short odds.

Bodemeister really announced his credentials with an eye-popping performance in last. His 108 Beyer is by far the best in the field. My knock would be that maybe, just maybe, he peaked one race too early. Lightly raced and maybe just getting good, this guy must be respected and off past performances is the horse to beat.

Gemologist is coming into this race quietly and with a pretty solid resume. His time are on the slower side, but he knows how to win AND he has won twice on the Churchill oval; a fact not to be lightly dismissed. Pletcher hasn't said much but I get the sense he likes his chances.

Dullahan is coming into the race looking good but could be overlooked because he may get labeled as a synthetic only horse. I think he may be getting good at the right time and has a shot at a really nice price.

Union Rags moves way up if the track comes up muddy or sloppy. His off track win at Saratoga tells me that he likes the off going and would be the selection on an off track.

Creative Cause, out of Giant's Causeway, made a nice account of himself in last years Breeders Cup and he was DEAD GAME in his last, a sign to me that he may be sitting on a big one and offer some value.

Daddy Nose Best has the look of another Derby winner coming off a nice win at Sunland in last. He will be running late and figures to catch a lively pace. Don't discount!

The rest of the field has minor appeal in certain spots but I just don't see enough to invest any hard earned cash. Any one can be around to pick up a minor award but a win would be a major upset.

The picks: See above

The Bets:
Value Plays:
$20 WPS Dullahan
$10 WPS Creative Cause
$2 WPS Daddy Nose Best

If Muddy/Sloppy:
$10 WPS Union Rags
$5 WPS El Padrino

Good Luck

Friday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but.........
13) Not sure what to say about the Junior Seau situation, other than you hurt for his family, and you never know what demons lurk inside someone. This is just unspeakably sad.

12) That said, its to the point now that every bad thing that happens to every retired football player is being blamed on concussions, as mainstream media and opportunistic lawyers jump on an anti-football bandwagon.

Just because A happened and B happened doesn’t mean A caused B. No one knows what the reasons are, but you can bet lawyers will spin it in their favor to help win their multi-million dollar cases.

11) I’m a big believer that a lot of athletes get depressed after their playing days, simply because its difficult to replicate the thrill of what its like to be a famous performer, once you’ve stopped performing. You never feel quite as alive again. I believe that more people go thru this than care to admit it, whether they had ever been hit in the head or not.

10) When was last time Roy Halladay started a game that ended up 15-13?

9) If Bryce Harper is successful right away for Washington, what does it say about minor league baseball? Both he and Josh Hamilton spent very little time in the minors, for very different reasons.

8) San Francisco Giants are paying Aaron Rowand $12M this year, even though he’s no longer playing. Must be nice to sell out the ballpark every night.

7) There’s nothing quite as dramatic as overtime hockey in NHL playoffs; Wednesday’s Ranger-Washington game was the 18th OT game this spring, and the Flyer-Devil game the 19th.

6) Baseball needs more exposure to the casual fan; they’re not helping themselves not letting their highlights go on YouTube, and blacking out 3am replays on ESPN of their games in home markets. Who knows how many new fans they might make if those replays are shown? Every business needs new customers; baseball is no exception.

5) When was last time the Orioles went to the Bronx and allowed three runs in three games?

4) Diamondbacks have used a different lineup in every game this season. Brewers used only 12 lineups in their first 25 games.

3) Saw worst call I’ve ever seen or will see in a big league game Wednesday afternoon. Went against the Dodgers; Todd Helton came off first base to field an errant throw; his back leg was 2-3 feet off the base, yet Tim Welke called him safe. Couldn’t have been more wrong. If a 14-year kid did that in a Little League game there would be issues, much less in a big league game. MLB will have instant replay very soon, on everything but balls/strikes.

2) Ever hear of Phil Taylor? He made $938,497 LY, just playing in darts tournaments. No wonder my ex-wife had a dartboard. Just wish it didn’t have my face over the bulls-eye.

1) Sometimes all people need is opportunity: Kurt Warner once stocked shelves at a Hy-Vee supermarket in Iowa. Bill James was a night watchman at a Stokely baked bean factory in Kansas. Both achieved greatness. It can happen, if you’re ready when your chance arrives.

Thursday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a spring day........
13) A very smart man named Bill James pioneered much of the statistical analysis we see in baseball now; his rise from a security guard in Kansas to a revered numbers guru really is the stuff of movies, but one area where I strongly disagree with him is in the area of closers; James doesn’t think you should pay serious money for a closer, which may explain why Jonathan Papelbon was allowed to walk by the Red Sox, the team that James now works for.

12) Opinions are split on the closer issue; over the last eight years, the Rays have had eight different guys lead their team in saves, and this year Fernando Rodney will make it nine, but look at the Bronx, where Mariano Rivera has owned the 9th inning for over a decade. Don’t tell a Bronx Bomber fan that Rivera hasn’t earned every penny he makes.

11) I’m thinking if you have a quality closer, the guy is worth his weight in gold, since it shortens the game by an inning. But there are people a lot smarter than me who disagree; that’s part of what makes sports so much fun, its OK to disagree and debate the issues, and in the end, maybe there isn’t only one correct answer.

10) Red Sox’ disabled list right now has players who are earning a total of over $73M this season, and when Josh Beckett goes on later this week, it'll be $90M. Oakland’s total payroll this season is $52M.

9) Cardinals are retiring Tony Larussa’s #10 jersey Friday night. Ironic that his longtime pitching coach, Dave Duncan, also wore number 10 when he played. Duncan was Larussa’s coach in Chicago, Oakland, St Louis.

8) As a lifelong (since 1965) A’s fan, was torn whether to go see Moneyball in the theater, but I did; now that’s its on Starz late at night every couple of weeks, I find myself watching it all the time. The theory of Moneyball is totally misinterpreted by mainstream media, but that’s another whole column for another day. Its simply staying ahead of common wisdom.

7) In 1988, Angels had a manager named Cookie Rojas who had been a pretty good 2B for the Phillies; not sure why I remember this, but Rojas had a punching bag installed in the tunnel behind the Angels’ dugout. When got players got frustrated (see Stoudemire, Amare), they had to hit the punching bag, or hit nothing at all. Healthier way to take your frustrations out, and it was away from the public eye. No stitches, either.

6) Good news for orthopedic surgeons: in his first 56 innings after Tommy John surgery, Stephen Strasburg has 8 walks, 58 strikeouts. There will be kids who go get the operation without being injured, because some people believe it makes your arm stronger than it was before being injured.

5) Red Sox scored 45 runs in Clay Buchholz’ first five starts.

4) Conference USA is losing four of its 12 schools, so they went out and added six schools, so they’ll have 14 for the Fall of 2013. Old Dominion/ Charlotte are the only two of the six new schools that will help C-USA on the hoops side. Losing Memphis’ basketball program will be damaging for the league.

3) CAA takes a hit, with Georgia State (Sun Belt)/ODU leaving, especially if the rumor is true that George Mason/VCU will take off for the A-14, which would make it the A-16.

2) Butler has moved to the A-14; hope they thought about LaSalle, which was a Butler-like program 20-22 years ago, dominating the MAAC, but the move upward spiraled the Explorers into obscurity from which they’ve yet to emerge. Sometimes its better to be a big fish in a smaller pond, especially in March.

1) Knicks are exactly 50-50 since they traded for Carmelo Anthony. Now subtract the games Jeremy Lin played in this year, and then make your own judgments.

Wednesday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.........
13) Now that the steroids era is over in baseball, home runs are down; there are very few real fast players anymore, so not lot of running, teams are defending better, thanks to spray charts and improved scouting, so the best way to keep scoring up in baseball is to move fences in at stadiums where teams are having trouble hitting. I’m looking at you, Miami/San Diego.

12) The casual fan perceives baseball as slow/boring/too low scoring, mostly because casual fans are part of today’s attention deficit culture that requires constant stimulation. Fences have already been moved in at Comerica in Detroit and CitiField in Flushing. I’d expect the Marlins to move fences in next year—how do you have a young star like Giancarlo Stanton and build a park where a home run is an oddity?

11) Ryan Braun had three homers and a triple Monday night in San Diego, 15 total bases, a tremendous night, which reminds us that one of baseball’s more underrated records is Shawn Green’s 19 total bases in one game. Going to be hard to break that one.

10) Restaurant chain PF Chang’s got sold for $1.1B, meaning Mongolian Beef will be more expensive pretty soon. Not good.

9) Tennessee Volunteers have seven new assistant football coaches, which could be a good thing, but also signals that the ones who left weren’t overly confident of Tennessee’s chances moving ahead. None of the seven who left were fired, by the way.

8) St John’s hooper Amir Garrett is heading to Arizona as soon as his school year is over, going to the Cincinnati Reds’ player development camp. Garrett is a 6-6 lefty pitcher. Reds gave him a million bucks, hoping he cam become a big league hurler. He doesn't have much experience.

7) I wonder what an owner like Arte Moreno in Anaheim thinks when he’s paying Vernon Wells $25M a year and Wells just isn't very good?

6) Orioles are off to good start, but they might be worried about Jake Arrieta; in his first three starts, he induced 27 misses on 140 opponents’ swings. In his last two starts, only six misses on 67 swings.
Note: Arrieta didn't allow a run Wednesday, so maybe not.......

5) Northern Illinois QB Chandler Harnish had a free agent deal all set with the Chargers but was drafted by the Colts with the last pick of the draft, so he goes to Indy instead of the Chargers. Think he was happy about that?

4) Do major league teams practice sliding? I'm serious. Evan Longoria tore his hamstring sliding Monday night; does he practice sliding the right way?

3) Astros had seven pitchers face seven consecutive batters Monday night, after they left starter Norris in too long, costing him a win. No one had ever used seven pitchers on seven consecutive batters before. Ever.

2) SMU's athletic department lost $113M over the last seven years; thats not a misprint. Wonder how the academic side at SMU feels about that.

1) Anaheim Angels have been shut out in Ervin Santana's last four starts-- they've been outscored 20-0 in those games. Ouch.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........
13) Kentucky Derby is this week; log on here Saturday for analysis on the Derby from my friends who know horse racing. I don’t write about horses, for the same reason that I don’t write about women—I don’t understand them.

12) Redskins don’t have their first round draft pick in 2013 or 2014, why did they use a 4th-round pick on another QB, when they had Grossman/ Beck, two perfectly good backups? They drafted Kirk Cousins and cut Beck, when they could’ve kept Beck and drafted a young player for another position that would increase their depth. This could help explain why the Redskins haven’t won their division since 1999.

11) What does NFL Draft Expert Mel Kiper Jr do this week, or until college football starts?

10) I had forgotten that Larry Brown coached the 2004 Olympic basketball team to a bronze medal. Still think Gregg Popovich should be the Olympic coach.

9) Why is Jamie Moyer starting games for the Rockies? Because he’s lefty? He’s 49 and gives no evidence of being good. Four of the nine guys in the Mets’ lineup Sunday weren’t born when Moyer broke into the big leagues. Why not let a younger guy pitch and get some experience?

8) Before Sunday night’s improbable comeback win in Memphis, Clippers hadn’t won a playoff game since May 10, 2006. Hopefully they won’t have to wait six years for their next win.

7) Utah State and San Jose State are joining the Mountain West; Louisiana Tech and UT-San Antonio are off to C-USA, as the WAC’s football side crumbles.

6) Turns out that Robert Griffin III was born in Japan; his parents were in the military and stationed there.

5) Tampa Bay Rays signed Hideki Matsui, who did OK with the A’s LY, playing the field in second half of the season. Not sure he’ll do that on the carpet at Tropicana Field, but he can still help a team with his bat.

4) SI.com had a note today about how Theo Epstein wanted to add Jose Bautista off waivers from Toronto in September ’09; he hit .235 with 13 homers that year. Ownership vetoed the move; in 2010-11, Bautista hit a combined 97 homers with 227 RBI. No wonder Epstein jumped ship, but then again, he gave Carl Crawford $140M and also signed John Lackey.

3) Three weeks ago, Virginia Tech assistant basketball coach James Johnson quit to go to Clemson, at which point the AD apparently thought to himself that he’s tired of losing good assistants/recruiters who didn’t want to work for Seth Greenberg, so he fired Greenburg and made Johnson head coach.

Coaching an ACC team shouldn’t be an entry level head coaching job, so the Hokies might move women’s coach Dennis Wolff (former men’s coach at Boston U) over to be Johnson’s assistant. Big difference between being a recruiter and running an entire program. Further proof that Tech is a football school.

2) Binghamton made the NCAA tournament a few years back because Kevin Broadus, their coach at the time, was about as ethical as a used car salesman with a law degree. Things fell apart, the Bearcats’ program was gutted, but Broadus landed on his feet, welcomed back at Georgetown as an assistant coach.

Meanwhile, Mark Macon, the former Temple guard who was cleaning up Broadus’ mess, went 23-70 and got fired this week. The guy who made the mess got his old job back. Where does Macon go for his next job?

1) Next week I’m off to the desert for spring vacation, so I’ll be watching playoff games and baseball in the sports books. Good stuff.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........
13) Clippers were down 27 at one point, but ended game on a 28-3 run to totally stun the Grizzlies 99-98 in the last and weirdest Game 1 played this weekend. LA lost Caron Butler with a broken hand, though.

12) There was report on Twitter Sunday that boxer Floyd Mayweather bet $1.8M on the Clippers in Game 1. Wow.

11) Kellen Moore went 50-3 at Boise Sate, couldn't get drafted; the kid at Houston started four years in the same offense as Robert Griffin III, but in C-USA, so Case Keenum had to sign with the Texans as a free agent. How does Brock Osweiler get drafted but not Moore/Keenum? Anyone?

10) ESPN's Sunday night crew is good; you actually learn stuff now, they talk about baseball like friends sitting around, which is what makes for good TV. Anyway, they said last night the Tampa Bay pitchers have the right to call off the defensive shifts, if they see fit. Rays put a lot of shifts on, they are well thought out, but the pitcher still has veto power over them.

9) Max Scherzer had no chance in the Bronx Sunday; umpire Rob Drake, whose history leans slightly toward the pitcher, refused to call strikes on the corners Sunday. Scherzer threw 119 pitches in 4.2 tedious innings- 57 of the 69 pitches Bronx hitters took were called balls.

By way of contrast, 36 of 54 pitches Tiger hitters took were called strikes.

8) Mets' SS Ruben Tejada went 10-17 in Denver this weekend, raising his batting average from .239 to .310.

7) After throwing his perfect game last week in Seattle, Philip Humber took the time to write a letter to his college coach at Rice, Wayne Graham-- this is the letter, which was posted at riceowls.com. Cool to see a guy who isn't too big to thank those who helped him along the way.

6) Angels are 7-15, nine games out of first and Albert Pujols has gone 88 ABs without a homer. Ervin Santana has lost eight straight decisions. Not a time for panic, but they'll be glad when the calendar turns to May.

5) Orioles are six games over .500 for the first time since 2005; they'll get a stern test this week when they visit the expensive ballpark in the Bronx.

4) Week-to-week fantasy leagues are lot of fun, but when guys leave games with injuries on Sundays, it makes for difficult decisions, as far as setting your lineup for the next week. Josh Hamilton/Nick Swisher both left their games on Sunday. Hamilton's situation (back) is especially puzzling.

3) Ron Washington got tossed from Sunday night's game for arguing balls and strikes after Ian Kinsler was called out in the 7th inning. Washington turned 60 years old Sunday, the 7th current manager who is 60+.

2) Jon Lester threw 122 pitches Saturday, then Josh Beckett threw 126 on Sunday; its one thing not to trust your bullpen, but you need those starting pitchers all year long. Will be interesting to track how long this goes on.

1) If the baseball playoffs started Monday morning, these would be those teams that made it (two Wild Cards in each league now).......
AL-- Orioles-Indians-Rangers-Rays-Bronx
NL-- Nationals-Cardinals-Dodgers-Braves-Mets

Sunday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday.........
13) Mel Kiper Jr gave Eagles/Bucs the best grades in this weekend's draft, and gave Saints/Raiders/Seahawks the worst grades. Seattle's picks seemed to go against the grain of almost every expert, which doesn't mean they're wrong, just that they had some different information.

12) Jacksonville drafted a punter in the 3rd round Friday, highest a punter has been drafted since 1995. Rams drafted a kicker in the 6th round; kid made nine 50-yarders in a row LY at Missouri Western.

11) Disaster for the Bulls, who lost star Derrick Rose to a torn ACL on an injury that happened in the last 90 seconds Saturday. Miami's road to the Finals got a lot less complicated yesterday.

10) Who decided that the Knicks/Rangers should play at same time, 3:30 Saturday? NHL probably chose their game times after the NBA- I mean my dad is 86 and wanted to watch both games, but do demographics say that there aren't that many people who want to watch both? Putting the Ranger game at night and the LA-St Louis game at 3:30 seemed like the better idea.

9) Larry Brown started his tenure at SMU by firing three players, one of whom was the starting point guard. Cutting a starter is always a great way to grab everyone's attention, especially if you know you have a player in the wings to replace him, a player who is better.

Three kids who got cut can stay at SMU on scholarship, or Brown's staff will use their connections to get them a scholarship somewhere else. Thats how that stuff works; its bad business to just revoke scholarships, but it can be done.

8) Texas-San Antonio jumped from Southland Conference to WAC, but in the time before they played a game in the WAC, they've now jumped again, this time to Conference USA. They're not the Roadrunners for nothing. Its a sign that the WAC is a dying football conference.

7) Southern Mississippi hired Morehead State coach Donnie Tyndall to be replacement for Larry Eustachy, who took the Colorado State job. Tyndall benefitted from coaching Kenneth Faried, who is now in the NBA.

6) Why isn't Jack McKeon managing the Marlins anymore? Who decided Ozzie Guillen was such a great manager? Miami has been bad this month.

5) Roy Halladay has a 191-94 career record, but is 1-5 against the Cubs.

4) Nationals had two pitchers get an RBI Wednesday; according to ESPN's researchers, they're first team in four years to do that.

3) Since the start of 2010, home underdogs are 3-22 when Dimuro calls balls and strikes. 3-22 is really, really bad.

2) Why did the Red Sox let Jonathan Papelbon walk? Anyone know?

1) 8 of the 30 major league managers have managed 3+ teams. Teams don't take chances on new blood much, which is why the White Sox hiring Robin Ventura was interesting. He had almost no managing experience.

Saturday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind.........
13) If you’re a Cub fan, how terrified are you that the guy who just got paid a fortune to run your ballclub the next few years is the same guy who gave Carl Crawford $140M for seven years? I know I would be.

12) Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka blocked 241 shots in (3.65/game) this season; the entire Cleveland team blocked 262.

11) Knicks' Tyson Chandler has the flu, night miss Saturday's playoff game in Miami.

10) SMU is paying Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich $700,000 a year to be an assistant coach until Larry Brown bolts for another job, which usually isn’t very long. Jankovich has a good team coming back at ISU; that becomes a very attractive opening. Illinois State is much better than SMU, right now.

Where are the Mustangs getting all this money? They averaged 2,013 fans per home game LY.

9) Five underclassman basketball players have transferred out of UConn since last season ended, as in, a month ago. If Calhoun retires, UConn is headed to the bottom of the Big East standings, though the league is going to get softer, with some of the C-USA teams (SMU/Houston/UCF) coming in next year.

8) Mets-Colorado were 2-2 after four innings; Rockies scored 16 runs over the next three innings, as Coors Field turned into a softball complex for the Rockies' 18-9 win over New York, wasting 4-hit games by Tejada/Hairston.

7) A's are 11-10; Angels 6-12; to paraphrase Vince Lombardi on those old NFL Films clips: "What the hell's going on out there????"

6) I've never had cotton candy; it looks disgusting. Also have never had coffee; my parents drank it when I was growing up, but coffee grounds looked like mud to me, so I never wanted it. Still don't.

5) Nick Johnson is off to a woeful 0-26 start (with one walk) for Orioles; how long does he get before Baltimore gives him his walking papers?

4) Illinois had four of the first 48 players drafted this week, but went 6-6 last year, all of which explains why former Illini coach Ron Zook was in the CBS Sports studio, in his new job as a TV analyst. He’s got good energy for TV, not the best voice, but he has potential on TV.

3) I'm not a Chris Berman fan, but totally agree with his rant about Kellen Moore late in Friday night's draft show; the kid went 50-3 as a starting QB at Boise, beat bigtime teams in process. But Brock Osweiler gets drafted ahead of him? Why? Because he's tall? Moore will be on a roster in the fall.

2) Overnight TV ratings for the first round of the NFL Draft were up 14% over LY. People love their football.

1) CB Bucknor is a terrible, horrendous, awful umpire; he missed a fairly easy call against the Marlins Thursday that helped cost them the game, and it wasn’t close, with Jose Reyes being called out on first for an inning-ending double play, which cost Miami a run when they led 2-1.

On the replay, Reyes’ foot is on the bag, and the ball isn’t even in picture yet, much less in first baseman’s glove. This stuff happens with Bucknor all the time; he already screwed up a home run call in Detroit this month. Supposedly he’s OK with balls/strikes, but out in the field, he’s a horror.

Friday's List of 13: Quick impressions of the NFL Draft.......
13) Four trades before 8:30; the rookie salary cap made trades easier, made the draft way more interesting. Best way to follow it was on Twitter- they had transactions before NFL Network or ESPN.

12) ESPN or NFL Network, which to watch? No one in America does his job better than Mel Kiper Jr; ESPN was smart, limited their crew to Kiper, Jon Gruden and host Chris Berman (I don't like Berman, but he's good on this, he deferred well), so they were my choice.

Not a big Mike Mayock fan; NFL Network should have a retired GM from an NFL team (Ron Wolf???) as their draft expert, or at least on board so we can learn tidbits about the draft. Too many ex-players on NFLN, and we're learning that ex-players don't teach us as much as ex-coaches.

11) Nine SEC players taken in the first round, eight of them defenders, so we know what drove the nation's best conference LY. Dee-fence.

10) USC has now had 76 first round picks, more than any other school.

9) Browns must really like Trent Richardson; they gave the Vikings three picks to move up from 4th to 3rd. Minnesota still got the guy they wanted.

8) Vikings took USC Matt Kalil with the 4th pick; they've had Trojans on the OL before, Ron Yary and Steve Riley, both of whom they drafted early, both of whom lasted 10+ years in Minnesota.

7) When Seattle drafted pass-rushing LB Bruce Irvin with the 15th pick, we heard "mind boggling" and "shocking" in the next 45 seconds. Even the kid himself had optimistically hoped to be taken in the second round, since he has a history of legal problems, and only three years ago was a safety at the junior college level. Hope the young man appreciates this opportunity.

6) Three QBs were taken in the first eight picks, first time that happened since 1999. Miami's Tannehill will be fascinating to follow; he was a WR at Texas A&M until two years ago. He won't be expected to play this season, could very well see action on special teams. His college coach is now the Dolphins' offensive coordinator (Mike Sherman).

5) Why does Roger Goodell hug every draft pick like they're a relative he hasn't seen since grade school? They added a nice touch, by the way, with names on the back of the jerseys of drafted players (for the first time).

4) Eagles led in the 4th quarter in five of their eight losses LY, thats how fine the line is between missing the playoffs and winning a Super Bowl, as Philly finished only a game behind the champion Giants.

3) Cleveland drafted Trent Richardson and 27-year old Brandon Weeden, a solid QB who some pundits wear will start from Day 1. Browns' offense is going to be much-improved this season. Colt McCoy is 25, by the way.

2) Rams have three of the first 15 picks Friday. Good night for watching the draft, a little baseball later on and some fried rice for good luck.

1) When I go to Las Vegas in July, I'm heading over to M Resort to get the betting lines on every NFL game, which will be posted in early June. We'll hopefully post them here and keep track of how much they change once the season starts. Should be an interesting study.

Thursday's List of 13: Catching up with the last six months........
If you’ve been out of the country the last few months, or in a coma, or just haven’t been paying any attention, a lot of strange things have happened in the last six months. Here’s a sample…….

13) At least six Secret Service agents have been fired after a scandal erupted over a fracas in a Colombian hotel over a dispute with a hooker. Over $47. These are the specially-trained agents who protect the President, the most powerful man in the world. Their careers were ruined over $47. Brilliant!!!!

12) San Diego State and SMU are now members of the Big East Conference, though the Aztecs are in just for football. Not sure how little kids will pass geography anymore. I learned Geography and Math via sports. SMU is in Dallas, by the way. That’s Texas, albeit the eastern part of Texas.

11) SMU also hired a new basketball coach, well, actually, an old coach, 71-year old Larry Brown. Last time he coached a college team was 1988, when none of his current players were alive. Brown can coach, but he never stays anywhere very long and last two college teams he coached wound up on probation. Other than that, this was a terrific hire.

10) The football coach at Arkansas was fired after he got into a motorcycle accident, with his girlfriend on the back of the bike. Not only is he married, but the coach had recently hired the girlfriend to work in the Arkansas athletic department. Lying about the whole thing didn’t help his cause any.

9) The unthinkable happened in central Pennsylvania; not only was Joe Paterno fired because one of his top assistants turned out to be a pedophile, but the 85-year old Paterno became ill and died a few sad weeks later. The family has reserved the right to sue the school in the future; this could still get even uglier. All in all, this was just unspeakably sad on many levels.

8) Back in December, the Giants were 7-7 and no one at Swamp Stadium was very happy; six weeks later, they somehow won the Super Bowl, but all the eastern media talks about is the Jets trading for Tim Tebow, taking the spotlight away from the defending champs, who couldn’t be happier.

7) Meanwhile out in Denver, John Fox made the playoffs with the passing-challenged Tebow at QB, but now the Broncos have Peyton Manning at QB, after the Colts let him walk rather than pay him a $28M bonus. Fox is probably the happiest man in America right now, other than the people who split the $218M Mega Millions jackpot a few weeks ago.

6) Mariners/A’s opened the baseball season with two games in Japan; the games started at 5am in the east (2am in their hometown markets) and they counted. This should never, ever happen again.

5) Red Sox fired the manager who won their only two world titles since 1917. If I owned the Sox, Terry Francona would have a lifetime contract and a statue on Causeway Street, but instead he got a new job at ESPN. He seems happy at least. Red Sox fans? Not so much.

4) NBA had a lockout, so they started the season seven weeks late, on Christmas Day, playing a condensed 66-game slate that crammed too many games into too short a time. Miami went from 76 practices LY to 24 this year. The quality of the product was dented, but league office pretended not to notice. As long as people buy season tickets, who cares?

3) New York Knicks plucked a point guard from the D-League who played in the Ivy League; they quickly started winning so many games that the point guard was on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice in the same month. Then team’s lackadaisical star came back from injury, the team’s chemistry was ruined, the Knicks started losing again and the coach got fired, which made the star happy, so he started trying hard again, but the point guard got hurt and now they’re back to where they were last fall, a mediocre team that won’t get by the first round of the playoffs.

2) Vancouver Canucks won the President’s Trophy for the second year in a row, but became the sixth Prez Cup winner to get ousted in the first round of the playoffs. Teams from LA/Nashville/Phoenix/St Louis have advanced in the playoffs. In the hockey world, pigs are flying.

1) New Orleans Saints were blamed for every disaster from the Lindbergh kidnapping to global warming to Digger Phelps still being on TV. Coaches were suspended, players will be soon. The team’s owner is mad at his granddaughter, who was supposed to take his place. In short, its been a wild six months. Where you been?

Wednesday's List of 13: Random mid-week thoughts........
13) A woman on Long Island donated her kidney to a donor pool, so a co-worker could go to the top of the recipients’ list; the woman got her new kidney, and her life was saved because of the extreme generosity of her co-worker. I mean, she donated a freakin' kidney. How did the woman thank her? She fired her. Seriously, she did. What kind of a country is this?

12) Not only that, but the woman who donated the kidney will have trouble getting health insurance on her own, because she only has one kidney. If I was really rich, I’d hook this woman up with whatever income she had been making and health insurance. She deserves it.

11) Tigers are 3-1 in Justin Verlander’s four starts, despite scoring total of only 11 runs in the four games.

10) Gas at the local Mobil Mart is roughly six cents a gallon more than the Hess station a mile up the road; if you fill up once a week, get 12 gallons per visit, you save 72 cents a visit, which over the course of a year, is $37.44. Over 20 years, you’ve saved $748.80.

9) A 20-ounce bottle of Coke is $1.65 at work; water is $1.00. Drink a water every day instead of soda, you save $3.25 a week, which is $169 a year, and over 20 years, $3,380. That’s $4,000 you’ve saved over 20 years without much effort.

8) I keep having doubts on Robert Griffin III; if you asked people last October 15, no one, and I mean no one thought he would go this high in the draft. Lot can change in 3-4 games. Seems like a good kid, so you root for him, but have doubts about QBs from that college system adapting to the pro game.

7) Royals’ 0-10 start at home is worst home start by big league club since ’94 Cubs started 0-12.

6) Utah Jazz have trailed ten home games after three quarters this seasons; they’ve won seven of the ten games. Solid coaching job by Tyrone Corbin.

5) UCLA has the #1 recruiting class this spring and will play in a remodeled Pauley Pavilion, but unless they get some kids to stay more than one season, it won’t do much good. Not everyone can do what Calipari has done at Kentucky.

4) Sam Cassell Jr signed up to play hoop with Maryland; his father played at Florida State. If Junior’s as good as his dad, he’ll be very rich someday.

3) ESPN.com’s Buster Olney went to Vanderbilt, so he knows what its like to root for losers-- he should take it easy on my A’s. Tuesday’s column suggested that Kurt Suzuki might get traded to Tampa Bay; the other day, he had Bartolo Colon getting dealt. Its freakin’ April 25; lets enjoy a month or two of ball before you become a killjoy there, Buster.

2) Jair Jurrjens to the minors? Wow. He says he’s physically well; obviously, something is screwing up his performance. Curious to see how long he stays in AAA.

1) Not sure why, but some USC football players wore their helmets/ jerseys/shoulder pads to class one day last week. As long as the band didn’t follow them into class playing Fleetwood Mac songs, I guess that’s OK.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........
13) Bobby Petrino once replaced John L Smith as the football coach at Louisville; now Smith is replacing Petrino at Arkansas, a few months after Smith took the head coaching job at Weber State. Maybe they could do a switch again and Petrino could go to Ogden and coach at Weber. He does need a job.

12) Seth Greenberg got the boot at Virginia Tech; no idea where they turn for a coach. Not easy to recruit hoopers to Blacksburg, its off the beaten path. Greenberg will be very good on TV; apparently he was hard to work for, going through six assistant coaches the last four years.

11) I’m sitting here thinking and I still can’t believe that Urban Meyer left the Florida job to live in Ohio. He hasn’t stayed anywhere (Bowling Green/ Utah/Florida) very long, makes you wonder if he’s capable of maintaining a top program for the long haul.

10) If Dolphins pass on drafting Ryan Tannehill Thursday, what does that say about the kid? His old college coach (Mike Sherman) works for Miami now. If Sherman doesn’t want him, when he needs a QB, why should anyone else want him?

9) City of Buffalo had 58 less inches of snow than normal this winter. Someone’s going to pay for that down the road.

8) When Ron Artest came into the NBA, his hometown’s Knicks knew he was a wack job and passed on drafting him, which turned out to be a huge mistake because they drafted some French guy (Frederic Weis) who never played a game. Anyway, Artest’s suspension shouldn’t be severe because James Harden is/isn’t hurt, it should be severe just because it was so obviously an intentional attempt to injure.

7) Over the length of his career, Artest has been suspended 13 times for a total of 111 games, and the meter will be running again soon.

6) Fran Fraschilla is rumored to be the man for North Texas, since he wouldn’t have to move from where he already lives, and UNT is rumored to be moving up to Conference USA soon.

5) Red Sox once turned down a Miguel Montero/Michael Bowden trade. Whoops. As for the Diamondbacks, sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.

4) Pirates haven’t scored 6+ runs in a game yet, and haven’t allowed 6+ runs; according to Elias Sports Bureau, which knows stuff, it’s the 3rd-longest such streak to start a season of all time, behind the ’65 Pirates (16 games) and the ’43 Tigers (17).

3) Feel bad for the Canucks, who have never won the Stanley Cup and are now the 6th Presidents’ Cup winner to get ousted in the first round of the playoffs. They’ve had two great regular seasons in a row, but no Cup yet.

2) Since September 1, 2011, the Red Sox are 12-30 in games that count.

1) Getting back to Arkansas for a minute; John L Smith is walking into a good situation; they drew 45,200 for the spring football game this weekend, despite all the BS surrounding the program. There is support and there is talent. Most importantly, most of the players know him and respect him. Coach Smith has a chance to be very successful with the Razorbacks.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........
13) There's going to be expanded instant replay in baseball really soon; the Rangers won in Detroit Sunday because the four umps didn't see a squeeze bunt hit the batter on the back knee. Bunt scored the go-ahead run in 11th inning and Texas won. It was clearly a wrong call on replay.

12) You can be sure that in the near future, you'll be seeing managers throw replay flags on the field, just like in football. Instant replay will solve some problems but cause new ones; there is no perfect system.

11) If you had the Orlando Magic +9.5 Saturday night, you suffered a very bad beat; Magic lost by 10 in overtime. Ugh.

10) Weird Baseball Dept: Francisco Liriano walks the first two Tampa Bay batters in top of 3rd Sunday (scoreless game); next batters tries to sacrifice on the first pitch. Why? Why make out on purpose when the pitcher can't throw the ball near the plate?

Because Liriano is horrible, he winds up hitting the batter and gives up two runs without giving up a hit. He's headed to the bullpen soon.

9) Saints/Hornets owner Tom Benson is 85; he planned to give control of the teams to his 35-year old granddaughter, but apparently now is changing his mind, because the granddaughter doesn't get along well with others, and seems more interested in the trappings of the job than the job itself. Lot of drama in New Orleans this offseason, thats for sure.

8) Looking at the college basketball coaching changes, aren't too many high profile jobs left; Southern Miss/North Texas appear to be the best two.

7) Its pretty pathetic when I flip on my computer and have to read another article by ESPN's Buster Olney about how the A's are trading one of their better pitchers. This time it was Bartolo Colon, who has started four games for Oakland. Can't we get to Memorial Day before we speculate on which players the A's will sell off before the trading deadline?

6) How have the Knicks not named Mike Woodson the permanent coach?

5) Blake Griffin got his 12th technical foul Sunday night, meaning if he gets one more, he is automatically suspended for a game.

4) University of Florida cut its Computer Science department in order to save $1.7M; their athletic department's budget is $99M, up $2M from LY. So if they had kept the athletic budget at $97M, they could've kept the Computer Science, right? What kind of a decision is that?

3) Of the four teams have advanced to the NHL's Elite 8, three are new to this round in recent years: Nashville, which hadn't won any playoff series before LY; St Louis, which won its first playoff series in a decade Saturday and LA Kings, who won their first playoff series since 2001 Sunday night. Thats good for the league.

2) Question for my Canadian readers: Now that Ottawa is only Canadian team left in the playoffs and a Canadian team hasn't hoisted the Cup since 1993 (Montreal), does the whole country root for the Senators now? Or is that not how it works? Feel free to e-mail me with your answers.

1) Sunday night was going to be an interesting broadcast; Bronx-Boston on ESPN, with Terry Francona in the booth and Bobby Valentine in the Sox' dugout, trading places from LY. Plus, Sunday was Francona's birthday. The rainout cost us some solid entertainment.

Sunday's List of 13: Summing up a strange sports Saturday......
13) Congrats to Philip Humber, the #5 starter for the White Sox, who threw the 21st perfect game in MLB history in Seattle Saturday. He got 27 outs on 96 pitches: five grounders, 13 fly balls, nine strikeouts. Well done.

12) Not so well done was the relief pitching in Boston, where six different arsonists combined to allow 14 runs on 12 hits in three agonizingly long innings. How happy was Terry Francona watching this debacle?

11) Seriously, Bobby Valentine struts around like he's Abner Doubleday or something, but Boston has been outscored 46-17 in five games this week, since Valentine stupidly called out Kevin Youkilis for no apparent reason. New closer Aceves has faced 19 men; 10 reached base, 8 of them scored.

10) Which brings us to headlines on the front page, the news side, of New York Post Saturday: 100 YEARS OF KICKING ASS, referring to Fenway Park being 100 years old, while the Red Sox were worse than the Bronx Bombers most of that time. Not sure what they're thinking about, putting that on the front page, but it just seems childish to me, something an idiot would post on some Internet message board.

9) Speaking of Abner Doubleday, he had to be turning over in his grave near the end of the Giant-Met game Saturday, where both teams set the game back a ways, with misplay after misplay. Giants lost when their catcher threw a ball away down the rightfield line, after they tied the game when the Mets butchered the simplest of popups in short centerfield. Mets also had two guys thrown out on bases in bottom of 8th, when they had legit chance to blow the game open. Win for the Mets, but they were very sloppy.

8) Anyone know how much it cost the greedy bastards at Gulf Oil for that giant ad on the green monster at Fenway? No wonder gas is $4.09 a gallon.

7) Too bad there isn't a rule where a GM like Theo Epstein has to take the responsibility for the Carl Crawford contract, one of the worst in baseball history so far, and send Crawford to the Cubs with Epstein. Guy makes $20M a year and he doesn't play; when he played LY, he was awful.

6) Can someone explain to me why Games 5-6 of Boston-Washington series in the NHL playoffs are on consecutive days, especially when teams travel before Game 6? Congrats to St Louis Blues, who won their first playoff series since 2002. All five games in Chicago-Phoenix series went OT.

5) I'm told there have been athletes who had Tommy John surgery without being injured, because they believe it makes your arm stronger in long run. If thats true, its more than a little scary.

4) They honored the 1972 World Champion A's in Oakland Saturday night, my boyhood heroes. Vida Blue-Dick Green-Joe Rudi-Ken Holtzman-Dave Duncan-Gene Tenace-Rollie Fingers-Bert Campaneris and a bunch more were there. Brought back awful lot of good memories.

3) Was ironic seeing Dick Green in Oakland Saturday night, after watching Bobby Valentine's rough day in Boston; Valentine was a promising player until he broke his leg in Anaheim, trying to pull a home run back in the park at the Big A, a ball hit by a second baseman named Dick Green.

2) Did you know that in 1972, the year before the DH, Oakland carried as many as four 2Bs and would pinch-hit for them every time they came up, because Green hurt his back and missed a good chunk of that season? Other guys were awful hitters-- Ted Kubiak/Tim Cullen/Larry Brown/Marty Martinez/Dal Maxvill. It was an interesting time, for sure.

1) Have to check EBay later this week and see if I can get me one of those Rollie Fingers bobbleheads they gave away Saturday in Oakland.

Saturday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a spring weekend........
13) Celtics played their 12th game in 17 nights Friday; how did the NBA Players’ Union agree to this schedule? The product this season has been very poor. Teams like Charlotte and the Warriors appear to be tanking games. Bobcats are 4-14 AGAINST THE SPREAD in their last 18 games, (0-18 SU). Not good.

12) CBSSports.com reports that last year in this country, 19 new golf courses opened, 158 closed, the 6th year in row more courses closed than opened. I always thought owning a driving range would be a fun job.

11) Kids who get drafted by NFL teams cannot report for minicamps until their school has graduation that spring; Stanford’s calendar runs later than most schools, so Andrew Luck will miss some off-season time in Indianapolis. Curious to see if they start Luck right from the beginning.

By the way, lot of people think that horseshoes are lucky and Colts have horsehoes on their helmets, so it figures that Oliver Luck would play with them. You won't get lame humor like that on this website, though.

10) Guy that owns the Orlando Magic is 86; interesting to see who he sides with in this Dwight Howard/Stan Van Gundy fiasco, or if he just lets both of them walk and starts over. Like we said before, if I owned the Magic, I’d hand Howard a clipboard, and tell him either you coach the team or shut up and listen to the guy that does coach it. Take your pick.

9) Fenway Park turns 100 years old this week; some national scribe wrote how its still the nicest ballpark. Like hell it is; they do as good as they can do sprucing Fenway up, but its old and small and not nearly as nice as most of the new ballparks. If a ballpark has a retractable roof and a swimming pool (Phoenix/Miami) it has to be nicer than Fenway. Not even close.

8) The defending Super Bowl champ has won its opener the next season 12 years in a row.

7) Jets face four of LY’s top six defenses in first five weeks of the season; most of their primetime games are in the second half of the year. Think the networks want Tim Tebow starting in primetime?

6) Charlie Casserly, the former Redskin/Texan GM, is very good on NFL Network; he has an odd voice, but is outspoken and knowledgeable. Figures to be a busy week on Channel 212, with the draft coming up Thursday.

5) From the Tell Your Statistics to Shut Up Dept: Packers gave up the most yards of any NFL team LY. That’s how much that stat means, unless you put it in context.

4) Cautionary note about Robert Griffin III: He played in same college offense as Kevin Kolb, who hasn’t had much NFL success so far.

3) The Steelers throwback jerseys are unspeakably hideous. Horizontal black/gold stripes- they look like bumble bees who got caught committing a felony.

2) Phoenix-Chicago series in NHL playoffs is first one since 1951 Stanley Cup finals to go OT in each of the first four games. Visiting team won three of those four.

1) Want to win a bet? Only hole-in-one on a par 4 in PGA Tour history was Andrew Magee at the Phoenix Open in 1992, on a 332-yard hole, where the guys on the green were so surprised, the ball hit off one of their putters and rolled into the hole. One of the golfers on the green was Gary Nicklaus, Jack’s son.

Friday's List of 13: Doing some tinking out loud.........
13) In 1990, the Mets changed managers, replacing a guy who went 595-417 as their skipper; they’ve made the playoffs three times in 21 years since, with no world titles.

In ’95, the Reds replaced a manager who was 204-172 for them; their record in playoff games since then, 0-3.

In ‘97, the Orioles went 98-64, then changed managers after the season. They haven’t had a season over .500 since.

Why do I bring this up? In all three cases, the manager who left was current Washington manager Davey Johnson, who was also 163-161 as manager of the Dodgers in ’99-’00, and 50-44 currently with the young, improving Nationals, so in five different places, his record is over .500 in all five. Pretty impressive.

12) Elias Sports Bureau was scrambling late Wednesday night, trying to find the record for most consecutive strikes thrown by a pitcher; best they could come up with (since 1988) was knuckleballer Tim Wakefield’s 30 strikes in a row, back in ‘98. Bartolo Colon threw 38 in a row Wednesday, from 5th-8th innings, as he blanked the Angels for eight innings in a 6-0 Oakland win. Not sure why batters don’t try and bunt more against him, but they don’t.

11) Umpire Bob Davidson is famous for calling balks no one else would, gaining him the nickname Balkin’ Bob; when he called one against Arizona’s Ian Kennedy Tuesday night, manager Kirk Gibson was seen cursing Davidson out (wasn’t hard to read his lips) from the 3rd base dugout.

Once again, while the umpires are a vital part of the game, but no one pays to see them work.

10) Mariners’ crowd of 11,343 Wednesday night was lowest in history of still fairly-new Safeco Field. New ballparks are nice, but if you don't win, people are still going to stay home.

9) Every spring, I read these articles about how the Royals are going to be so much better; based on what? Bruce Chen as their Opening Day starter? After opening the season by taking two of three in Anaheim, the Royals are 1-8, losing their first six home games. You need pitching to win. Lot of it.

8) Giants beat the Phillies 1-0 in 11 innings during the week, a game in which only 59 pitches were called balls, the lowest I can remember in time ESPN.com has been running their new/improved boxscores. 59 balls, 45 called strikes; that’s the closest I’ve seen to a game with more called strikes than balls. Lee-Cain were the starters, which figures.

7) How does SMU offer basketball coaches $2M a year when their average home attendance LY was 2,013? And if they can’t find someone better to run their program than Larry Brown, a guy who changes jobs every year and a half or so, then they should pay me to be a head hunter, because I could find the right guy. This is a Big East job now. You don't hire a coach just because the guy is bored and he has a lot of connected friends.

6) How does SMU offer a basketball coach $2M a year when their average home attendance LY was 2,013?

5) NC State got some great news when CJ Leslie decided to come back and play next season; its decisions like that a school needs to stay in the top 20 year after year. Helps the team and also helps the kid get better.

4) Kid named Jarrod Uthoff was Iowa’s Mr Basketball in 2011; in his first year at Wisconsin, he red-shirted this past year, but now wants to transfer out of Madison. Badgers coach Bo Ryan released him from his scholarship, but also blocked Uthoff from going to any Big Dozen school or in-state rival Marquette (which is common) and also Iowa State and the entire ACC (which is quite uncommon).

Ryan took so much grief that he changed his tune and now Uthoff can go anywhere he wants, except to another Big Dozen school. Thats fair.

3) Baltimore Ravens brought former starter Kyle Boller back in to tryout as a backup to Joe Flacco; without Boller a couple years ago, the Rams never would’ve gotten Sam Bradford. Rams were trailing San Francisco 7-6 late in the second half of the season finale, a game they had to lose or else blow the chance to draft Bradford, their QB of the future.

Coaches took one look at the possible win and yanked QB Keith Null (who wasn’t half bad) and put Boller back in, thereby guaranteeing defeat. That was one time I was rooting very hard for the Rams to lose, and Boller came through bigtime.

2) How would you like to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting where the Secret Service guys had to explain to the White House guys what their people were doing down in Colombia? Whoops.

1) NBA scoring is down three points per 100 possessions this year, due in large part to the ridiculous condensed schedule teams were given after the lockout. Watch some of these games; not many of them are being played at full speed. You’ll see a big difference in energy when the playoffs start, and teams actually get to prepare/rest.

Thursday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a spring day......
13) Umpire Larry Vanover has umpired three games behind the plate this season; a total of 8 runs scored in those games. Cody Ross was called out on strikes on a 2-2 pitch to end Monday’s 1-0 Tampa Bay win; I am told Ross took all five pitches, none of which were in the strike zone. Looked pretty bad on TV. No one pays to see the umpires dominate a game.

12) Each umpire gets a report from MLB after they ump a game behind the plate; from what I’ve read/heard from people who saw the game, Vanover’s report won’t be a good one. Am curious to see his next game, to see if he narrows that strike zone some.

11) Lookalikes; Bronx pitcher Freddy Garcia and actor Dwayne Johnson, aka the Rock.

10) When Matt Cain tossed a 1-hitter Friday, the game’s only base runner was opposing pitcher James McDonald; it was only the 7th time in MLB history that a team had one base runner in a game, with the pitcher being the base runner. Last time it had happened was 1986; before that, 1963.

9) If I owned the A’s, either MLB lets me build a stadium in San Jose, or I pack my bags, call Governor Christie in Trenton, and have the state of New Jersey build me a ballpark next to Giants Stadium. One way or the other, I’d get a new ballpark.

8) Colleges should study pro wrestling’s marketing tactics; they put 78,363 people into Dolphins Stadium for Wrestlemania earlier this month; their pay-per-view was seen in 105 countries, broadcast in 20 languages. They’re very skilled at making money.

7) Was he kidding? Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz claims not to know which division of the Big Dozen his Hawkeyes are in. Now, the pompous league office named the divisions Leaders and Legends, so that makes it easier to confuse, but you’d think he would know. They didn’t want to go with east/west because they’re not separating Ohio State/Michigan, but with San Diego State in the Big East, who cares about geographic accuracy?

6) My nomination for the worst quarter of NBA basketball in the last 20 years was the third quarter in Charlotte Monday, when New Orleans outscored the Bobcats 12-8.

I mean, if a high school game was 12-8 after an 8:00 quarter, you’d be yawning. This is highly-paid pros playing a 12:00 quarter. Yikes.

5) Jets are going to have separate offenses for Sanchez and Tebow? Yeah, that always works well.

4) One of Bob Huggins’ assistants got an NAIA head coaching job; his place on staff will likely be filled by former Duquesne coach Ron Everhart, who improved the Dukes but couldn’t get them over the hump in a tough league.

3) Its too bad if the BYU-Utah football rivalry goes away; Utes are in the Pac-12 now, and don’t need an additional non-league game that is highly emotional.

For some ridiculous reason, BYU has become an independent, so they really need the Utah game, it would be biggest game on their schedule most years.

2) BYU sees itself as Notre Dame, which is fine, but my question is, why would you want to be like Notre Dame? They’re an irrelevant program that rarely plays in big games, because the vast majority of big games are conference games. Kids want to play in big games, they want rivalries. My opinion is that being an independent has hurt Notre Dame’s recruiting, and no one wins without really good players.

1) Read recently where Vince Young sees himself as a starting QB. My question to him would be this: Would he rather live in Calgary, Edmonton or Regina? CFL is the only league where he’s still a starting quarterback.

Wednesday's List of 13: Impressions of the 2012 NFL schedule.....
13) Every team is going to be on in primetime this year, with maximum five primetime games. Broncos, of course, are on five times, with Denver debut of Peyton Manning against Pittsburgh a Sunday night game in Week 1. All in all, eight teams have the maximum five primetime games.

12) Jets/Bills and Bengals/Ravens both play each other in Week 1, and then not again until Week 17. All Week 17 games are divisional tilts.

11) Detroit coach Jim Schwartz came to prominence as a defensive coach in Tennessee under Jeff Fisher, whose son Brandon was an assistant coach for the Lions LY, so of course the Rams-Lions meet in Week 1 this year.

10) NFL Network has 13 Thursday night games, from Weeks 2-15; all 32 teams will appear at least once in primetime, and no more than five times. No team can be on in primetime more than five times.

9) Saints interim coach Joe Vitt is suspended for the first six games; after he comes back, Saints' first three games are: at Denver, then Philly at home and then the Falcons, with the Denver/Philly games in primetime. This is going to be a very difficult season on Bourbon Street.

8) Buffalo season ticket holders might not be thrilled by the four December home games- they only have one home game in October.

7) Green Bay and Houston both got saddled with three road games in row, which is difficult; Texans' stretch includes a Thanksgiving Day game, then 10 days before the next game, then eight days before a Monday night game in Foxboro, so at least they'll get extra rest, then they play two of their last three games against the Colts. .

6) Steelers/Ravens play their two games within two weeks of each other,in weeks 11-13; Ravens have a trip to San Diego in between. Steelers have a visit to division rival Cleveland in between.

5) If Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III start right away, their debuts will both be on the road. Colts open at Chicago, the Redskins in Superdome. It is assumed that Luck/Griffin will go 1-2 in next week's draft.

4) Giants open with three road games in first four weeks, but they only leave the eastern time zone twice (Dallas/SF).

3) Thanksgiving Day is Texans-Lions/Redskins-Cowboys/Jets-Patriots. Of the 16 Thursday games this year, seven visiting teams don't have to leave their time zone when they travel.

2) Cowboys play five of last seven games at home, but the two road games are both potential cold weather games, at Cincinnati/Washington.

1) Three of the Jets' four primetime games are at home, including a Week 12 visit by the Patriots. Will be lot of pressure on Sanchez in the home opener with Buffalo, considering that Week 2 is a trip to Pittsburgh. .

Tuesday's List of 13: Questions, questions, always questions......
13) Why the fascination with Tim Tebow? I don’t get it. Bears had QB 40 years ago named Bobby Douglass who was a lot like Tebow, a tough lefty who ran a lot but couldn’t hit the side of a barn passing.

Douglass wasn’t exactly the religious sort- he was married to a Playboy bunny, and he wasn’t a college star like Tebow, but at best Tebow is a marginal NFL starter, but he’s treated like the fifth Beatle. I don’t get it.

12) Why is gambling legal only when the government runs the operation? I’ve always wondered this. I can buy a $20 lottery ticket where I work, but God forbid someone run an NCAA pool. Its complete hypocrisy.

11) Is there anyone in this country who thinks the Electoral College is still the best way to elect a President? In this day and age, why not just count all the votes, and whomever gets the most wins? Would this be so difficult?

10) Who do baseball managers/coaches wear uniforms? They don’t play, it makes no sense, and it doesn't even look right.

9) Why do people in hockey condone fighting? It takes away from a great game. They could do away with it in 90 seconds, if they wanted to. Why don’t they want to?

8) Why are college coaches allowed to bolt jobs before their contracts are up? Why is this allowed? If a school fires a coach, they have to pay the guy (unless he is married and wrecks his motorcycle while his girlfriend is riding with him), I just wonder why coaches aren’t bound by a signed contract?

7) How come nobody ever talks about Larry Doby as a great pioneer? He was the first African-American to play in the American League; back then, there were 16 big league teams, three in NYC, two each in Boston/Philly/ Chicago and St Louis, which means that Doby was first African-American to be a visiting player in Detroit, Bronx and Washington DC, as well as #2 in four other cities, yet you never hear his name mentioned.

6) Why do fans have to be quiet when a golfer is hitting the ball? Albert Pujols is trying to hit 95 mph fastballs with movement on them, yet the fans are allowed to yell, it doesn’t seem to distract him too much. Golf balls are sitting there, waiting to be hit. I’m just sayin’.

5) Do politicians realize how little the average citizen respects them, and how we just assume most of then are corrupt and flush with self-interest?

4) Why don’t boxers have to wear headgear? With all this talk about concussions in football/hockey, and boxers are allowed to fight with unprotected heads? Its insane.

3) Why hasn’t one of the old NBA teams had a retro-ABA night, where they bring back red/white/blue ball for a night? Who would be against this?

2) Why do pro football players have radios in their helmets? Who decided this was a good idea? You have six days to prepare for the game, how about on the 7th day, they just let the players play.

1) Can you believe that as late as 1974, an NHL goalie played without a mask? Seriously, Andy Brown was the last guy. Now that’s crazy.

Monday's List of 13: Happy Patriots' day, everyone........
13) MLB is going to have special uniforms to honor Jackie Robinson where every player wears number 42 every April 15; they need to put their names on the back, so we can tell who is who. Wouldn't cost much more.

12) Richard Pitino gets his first head coaching job at age 29; his dad was 26 when he got his first head coaching job, at Boston U. Few of the players at FIU asked for their scholarship release after Isiah Thomas was fired, but the school turned them down. Curious to see what happens there now.

11) Celtics played their ninth game in 12 days Sunday. Hard to believe the NBA has subject its players to such a grueling schedule. At some point, the league has to look out for its product, no?

10) SMU is talking Buzz Peterson as its new hoop coach; Peterson is good guy, but he is one of the few coaches in America who is more nomadic than Larry Brown, and he hasn't won enough to merit being a Big East coach.

Put it this way: SMU is in Dallas, a talent-rich city. Moving up to the Big East, they need a bigtime coach to get some of that talent to stay home.

9) Before he homered Sunday, Ike Davis had come to bat with 35 men on base, and hadn't knocked any of them in.

8) A's won their game Wednesday, on a walk-off HBP; they also loaded the bases on a HBP, making it the first game to end on consecutive HBPs since 1966. Have to take these wins any way you can get them.

7) The first cellphones were made by Motorola in 1983, and cost $3,995.

6) Tampa Bay's Matt Joyce has already batted 9th twice and cleanup five times this season. In nine games. You don't see that every day.

5) They show Greg Louganis diving highlights on the scoreboard at Staples Center after the Kings are called for a penalty. Apparently someone thinks the Canucks have been embellishing big hits by taking a dive.

4) How do the Penguins allow eight goals in back-to-back playoff games? They had home ice in the series, but seem to be in the tank, down 3-0.

3) Norfolk Admirals of the minor league AHL won their last 28 games in the regular season; wouldn't expect them to lose a best-of-7 playoff series.

2) Lance Berkman has already suggested that Marlins will move the fences in at their new stadium, within two years. Very pitcher-friendly right now.

1) If the playoffs started Monday morning, Mets-Arizona would be the NL one-game Wild Card playoff; can't tell about the AL, because multiple teams are tied for the Wild Card spot. 5.5 months to go, anyway.

Sunday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday..........
13) Dwyane Wade's career earnings, just in the NBA, not counting his many endorsements: $85,466.666: he could use extra cash from the Olympics.

12) Would it be legal for Saint/Hornets' owner Tom Benson to offer his QB Drew Brees a small ownership stake in the NBA team, as part of his next contract with the Saints?

11) Penguins outscored Philadelphia 6-1 in first period of Games 1-2 in this year's NHL playoffs, but managed to lose both games. Unusual.

10) Former NFL LB Teddy Bruschi, who does good work on ESPN and has also recovered from a stroke, is running in the Boston Marathon Monday.

9) Lost in the Bobby Petrino debasco down in Arkansas is fact that Paul Petrino is Arkansas' new offensive coordinator, and he hasn't been fired. Will be tough working under his brother's dark cloud all season.

8) Angels have used seven different lineups in their first eight games. Not sure if that indicates their depth, or their inability to settle on a 3B.

7) UConn's Alex Oriahki is transferring from Storrs to Missouri, and I'm thinking he can play right away. Good for Frank Haith.

6) David Wright is playing with a broken pinky; he hit first pitch he saw Saturday for a homer. Mets are off to an excellent 6-2 start.

5) Mississippi State charged $25 for its spring football game, but that also included a ticket to a Sugarland concert-- I'm assuming they're a popular southern band, seeing as I've never heard of them. Missouri charged $3 for its game; would love to know how that figure got decided upon.

4) This week, a 23-year old guy in North Carolina got a hole-in-one on par 4, 373 yard hole. He still shot 86. Longest recognized ace was a 448-yard hole out on Maui. My longest recorded ace came through a windmill, so I've got that going for me.

3) Someone has to explain to me how Tim McCarver is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame as an announcer; its like putting Matt Stairs in as a player, just because he stuck around for a long time. McCarver is no longer good and hasn't been good for several years.

2) So ex-Padre Aaron Harang got beat by his old team Sunday, then comes out Friday night, again against San Diego, gives up a leadoff single, before striking out next nine Padres in a row, then he gave up a home run. Weird.

Tom Seaver holds the record with 10 consecutive strikeouts; Jim Deshaies (8) holds the record for most K's at the start of a game.

1) Why are the fine folks at SMU interviewing Larry Brown? Brown's age isn't a factor, since he would leave the job before he got too much older, anyway. You're offering $2M a year; go hire someone really good.

Saturday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud..........
13) LSU hired North Texas coach and former LSU assistant Johnny Jones to replace the departed Trent Johnson, who did a good job of restocking the shelves in Baton Rouge.There had been rumors LSU was going after Tubby Smith, but Jones has LSU ties and will do well in Baton Rouge.

12) A's TV analyst Ray Fosse brings up a point I haven't thought about; why not a stat for catchers blocking balls in the dirt? They have lot of new defensive metrics for players out in the field; seems like it would be fairly simple to define how many bases a catchers saves blocking pitches.

11) Thanks to MLB schedule makers for giving the A’s three dates against Felix Hernandez in the season’s first 16 days. Terrific. Can't be that much fun for Hernandez either; harder to deceive hitters you see every week.

10) Reason #2,593 I’m glad I don’t have children: What if your kid comes up to you and asks for money and you know he’s taking it to the mall to pay $11 to watch The Three Stooges? There are worse things, of course, but I’d hate to have to bite my tongue on that one.

9) Charlotte Bobcats are 0-9 vs spread at home, if they play on road the next night. Hard to believe anyone is ever 0-9 against the spread at home, in any scenario.

8) Irony Department: Tim Floyd lost a lot of games coaching the Bulls after he took over for Phil Jackson; most Chicago fans probably don’t have much good to say about him, but this year’s Bulls are getting lot of help from Taj Gibson, an athletic shot blocker who played at USC. His coach with the Trojans? Tim Floyd.

7) Its been 135 races since Dale Earnhardt Jr won a NASCAR race; that’s a long time.

6) Add NCAA investigator to long list of jobs I’d never want; supposedly they had to go thru over 900,000 text messages from Baylor staffers while investigating the school’s two basketball programs.

That’s a lot of LOLs, though after this Arkansas/Petrino debasco, no one seems overly concerned with excessive texting.

5) Ottawa Senators brought zero momentum into the playoffs, scoring four goals in losing their last three games; now they’ve lost four games in row, scoring six goals. They don’t start scoring some goals, they’ll be on the golf course before they know what hit them.

4) Saints’ owner Tom Benson bought the New Orleans Hornets for $338M, which seems like a low price; am guessing that’s the end of the Hornets-to-Seattle rumors. Now its time for the Kings-to-Seattle rumors.

3) Justin Verlander has lasted 6+ innings in each of his last 44 starts; that’s being dependable.

2) Just guessing here, but this probably hasn’t been the best week to be an aeronautical engineer in North Korea.

1) Whats with the wave of non-players taking over as NBA head coaches? Miami-Chicago-Detroit-Indiana-Portland all have coaches we had never heard of before they got their current job.

Going to be interested to see how much better the quality of NBA games is once the playoff start and teams get to rest and practice in between games.

Friday's List of 13: Random thoughts with weekend here........
13) In this day and age, if you’re a celebrity of any type, especially if you’re on Twitter, you need someone close to you who has some common sense, to prevent you from making stupid mistakes like the one Dwyane Wade made Wednesday, when he suggested that NBA players should be paid for playing in the Olympics.

Within 24 hours, Wade changed his public stance and all is well, but if he had a “common sense life coach”, or in old-fashioned terms, “a friend with a brain”, all of this would’ve been avoided and Wade wouldn’t look like a greedy bastard. Oh well.

12) World Series of Poker already has 30 commitments for a $1M buy-in tournament that will dwarf the Main Event; if the field stays at 30, first price would be $12.3M. If the field goes to the capped figure of 48, first prize would be $18.3M.

11) Over the last four baseball seasons, under is 71-56 (55.9%) when umpire Wally Bell is behind the plate; home underdogs are 29-19 with Mr Bell calling balls and strikes.

10) 5dimes.com has already listed South Carolina as a 10-point favorite over Vanderbilt on August 30, the first Thursday night of the ’12 college football season. College football magazines come out in early June.

9) Funny how so many college basketball players who transfers come up with sick relatives, so they can be eligible to play next fall, instead of sitting out a year. I’m sure some of the illnesses are legit, but I’m guessing some of the others are like Max Klinger trying to get out of Army on M*A*S*H*.

8) Over the last five years, if you bet the home team every time umpire Barksdale worked behind the plate, you’d be ahead $2,365. Under is 32-22 in Barksdale games the last two years.

7) Andrew Bynum had 30 rebounds Wednesday night, but considering he was 7-20 from the floor, wonder how many of those 30 boards were his own missed shots? 30 rebounds is damned good, doesn't happen much.

6) There were 14 walks, 25 strikeouts in the Nationals-Mets game Wednesday, which means that only 41 of the 80 batters put the ball in play. Unusual how a game like that ended only 4-0. You’d have thought more runs would score in a game with 14 walks.

5) First two games behind the plate this season for umpire Winters have had total of 3 walks, 34 strikeouts, 10 runs, two unders.

4) Seems like there has to be a small town somewhere in western Canada where every person is either a Sutter, or related to a Sutter. Weren’t there seven Sutter brothers who all played in the NHL? #8-seed Kings upset Vancouver in Game 1 Wednesday; they’re coached by a Sutter. Would be lot of unhappy folks in British Columbia if Los Angeles upsets the Canucks in the first round.

3) Rick Majerus turned SMU down; not sure where they turn next for a basketball coach, but if I were them, I’d make damn sure Fran Fraschilla wasn’t interested. He already lives in Dallas, but might be enjoying his TV career too much to get back into the coaching rat race.

2) Red Sox’ home opener should be a frosty Friday at Fenway, thanks to last September’s collapse and this season’s 1-5 start. Lets just say……the natives are restless.

1) Back to Olympics and NBA for a second; shouldn’t NBA teams have the right to prevent their (extremely high-paid) employees from playing in the Olympics?

NBA basketball, moreso than amateur game, is predicated on a star system; if one of those stars got hurt playing in a meaningless exhibition tournament (that’s what the Olympics are, despite NBC’s hype machine saying otherwise), it would cost the NBA team millions and millions of dollars.

If I owned the Miami Heat, sure as hell I’d want Wade/Lebron taking the summer off and resting up. That’s just me.

Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind..........
13) Rough start to season for umpire Tim Welke; first two games he was behind the plate went 16 innings, then 12 innings. Calling balls/strikes is an underrated thing; has to be physically demanding, umpires aren't exactly as young or as athletic as the players.

Over first two games, Welke looked at 967 pitches thrown to 228 batters; umps don't get to sit down in between innings. Its a tough job. On average, a big league ballgame has 280-290 pitches thrown.

12) Eight games shown on one screen; gotta love the Game Mix channel on DirecTV (#720). Can keep up with a lot without using your thumb.

11) For first time I can remember, Mets aren't on local radio, but Red Sox are; if you're not from upstate NY, Albany is three hours north of NYC and three hours west of Boston. We live in a frontrunning culture, so Mets' fan base has eroded, while the Bronx-Boston rivalry is all people seem to care about. Can still listen to Met games if you can get WFAN from NYC on the radio at night. Interesting decision, replacing the Mets with Boston.

10) For first time ever, every NHL playoff game is on regular cable TV, so thats good. Just have to find out where some of these stations are. League is quietly doing a better job of getting in the public eye.

9) SMU is trying like hell to lure Rick Majerus to Dallas, offering him as much as $2M a year; Mustangs are headed to the Big East, and if they don't improve an awful lot very quickly, they're going to be embarrassed when they move into their new league. SMU isn't even any good in C-USA.

8) Colorado State was all set to hire former Oregon coach Ernie Kent, then someone in the CSU administration vetoed Kent, so the Rams turned to the former Southern Miss/Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy, who got Southern Miss back to the NCAAs this year- he is a very good coach and Colorado State has a very good team coming back next year.

7) Coming into Wednesday's game, A's had a cruddy team batting average of .206; sad thing, eight teams were worse off than them. Hard to believe.

6) Rooting for a small market team makes fantasy baseball necessary; how else to stay interested? Some teams have $100M payrolls; some teams use Jonny Gomes as their #5 hitter. At least if my fantasy team is awful, its my fault and I can try to fix it. Can't do anything to help the A's.

5) Edmonton Oilers will have 1st pick in NHL Draft for third year in row; if they use thoe picks wisely, they could build themselves a damn good team, kind of like what the Tampa Bay Rays have done. Sometimes, being awful is better in the long run than being mediocre all the time.

4) When I go to Las Vegas, often stayed at PH Towers behind the Planet Hollywood casino/hotel, but I see that Hilton has taken over the towers and has raised room rates quite a bit, so won't be staying there anymore.

3) Aggravation Department: Burger King at corner of Fuller/Western, near where I work, never gives me what I order at the drive-thru window, as in, never. I ask for two sausage biscuits with egg and cheese, without doubt, at least one of them will be on a croissant. Maybe both. I let it slide couple of times, then I said something and the woman laughed, like it was a joke or something. What it is is bad business. Just give me what I order, OK?

2) NHL's media guide is tremendous source of information; lot of good stuff in there. Hockey playoffs are lot of fun; way better than the NBA's version.

1) Three quick points about Arkansas firing Bobby Petrino:
a) He is 60-38 against the spread as a college head coach. Eventually, he'll get another college job. Might take couple years.
b) The woman involved better get fired too. How is she less guilty?
c) This is where Petrino will regret screwing the Falcons; doubtful an NFL team will give him a coordinators' job right away. Not a dependable guy.

Wednesday's List of 13: Random midweek thoughts........
13) PG Burke is coming back to Michigan next year; Watford/Zeller are both coming back to Indiana, great news for those teams, both of whom figure to be in the top 15 in November. The Big Dozen got lot tougher with those two announcements.

12) Utah Jazz signed Blake Ahearn from the D-League; Ahearn is one of the greatest shooters of all-time (seriously, he is).

11) Mets are 4-1, but 1B Ike Davis is 0-16, and the team’s crack medical staff is wondering if Davis is still suffering from jungle fever. Davis was given Tuesday night off, with the Nationals starting lefty Detwiler. Facing Strasburg this afternoon ain't going to help any.

10) Baseball schedule will be much different next year, with the Astros moving to the AL West, and both leagues having 15 teams. There will be at least one interleague series going on at all times.

9) Former St John’s coach Norm Roberts left the Florida staff to go back to work for old friend Bill Self; Roberts fills Danny Manning’s opening, after Manning became head coach at Tulsa.

8) Texas Tech won the national title in chess last two years; who knew? Their whole team all returns next year to defend their title, but they'll be doing it at a different school.

Webster University in St Louis offered them all full scholarships, so the kids and their coach bolted Tech for the Gateway City, and even better, they don’t have to sit out a year like football/basketball players would. The seven chess wizards are all international kids, coming from Iran, Germany, Israel, Brazil, Azerbaijan and Hungary, so moving from Lubbock to St Louis is no big deal to them.

If this happened with a basketball team, it would be a huge national story. Chess? Well, I wonder if the people at Texas Tech think they got rooked.

7) Arkansas fired Bobby Petrino, which means a top 25 college football job is open. You don't see football jobs open up at this time of the year, so it'll be interesting to see how they go about replacing Petrino.

6) My question is this: Does the woman involved get fired too?

5) Ian Kinsler got five years, $75M from the Rangers; only people happier than Kinsler and his agent are Robinson Cano and his agent; Cano is a free agent this winter. Throw in Brandon Phillips getting $72M for six years from the Reds, and it’s a great day to play second base.

4) Washington Huskies’ two-year starter Colin Porter has had to give up football; U-Dub’s offensive line is so messed up right now they’re not sure if the Huskies will hold a spring game, lest their QB or RBs get hurt, too.

3) Former Buccaneer RB Mike Alstott was an assistant coach LY at St Pete Catholic; this fall, he’ll be the head coach at Northside Christian School in the Tampa Bay area.

2) Rams’ coaching staff will have several second generation coaches; John Fassel is the special teams coordinator, assisted by Paul Boudreau Jr, whose dad is the Rams’ OL coach. In addition, the sons of Jeff Fisher/Gregg Williams are also on staff, on the defensive side of the ball.

1) So the Reds just shelled out close to $300M to secure the right side of their infield for the next six years. Next question, and a more important one: Are they developing any pitchers?, because for sure they won’t be able to sign any decent free agent pitchers to work in that bandbox they call home. Its critical that some pitchers come up thru their farm system.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........
13) Here is yet another reason why I’m seriously considering not posting info on the NBA after this season; it’s a league that has gone insane.

Lamar Odom is making $8.9M this season, bringing his career earnings (I’m not making this up) to $107,767,658, yet Dallas Mavericks just told him to stay home for the rest of the season, then will pay him another $2.4M this summer to never come back, that’s how useless he’s been for them since coming over from the Lakers.

12) Effort should never be negotiable; how a guy making $8.9M a year can be sent home (with pay) for being useless is absolutely beyond me.

No wonder some teams seem to prefer foreign players; they haven’t been poisoned by our system of amateur basketball the way American kids have.

11) By way of review, Odom went to several high schools, including Redemption Christian Academy in Troy, which is just over the river from where I live. They wouldn’t give him a high school diploma, which is saying something, so after basketball season that year, he went to St Thomas More Prep in Connecticut, where he miraculously got his high school diploma, and then shuffled off to Rhode Island, where he led Jim Harrick’s Rams to the NCAA tournament in his only year at URI.

Then he was off to pro ball, where he found his niche as a supporting player on the Lakers and married a reality TV attention junkie. What a country, right?

10) But now he’s in his early 30’s and seems disinterested in playing for anyone other than the Lakers. Hopefully he’s saved a good chunk of his money, or at least hid it from the Kardashian Klan. I’m telling you, you couldn’t make this stuff up, you’d get laughed at.

9) Another sign we have too much media: SI.com had an article Monday speculating on who will take Peyton Manning’s place as starting QB of the Broncos. Seriously. Nothing like getting ahead of yourself.

8) One of the cool things about sports is that stars come from all walks of life, from all over the country. Bubba Watson was once a golfer at Faulkner State CC, wherever that is. Now he’s on top of the golf world. Who knew?

7) Astros drew only 14,195 for their Easter game with Colorado, smallest home crowd they’ve had since moving to Minute Maid Park.

6) Neither Saints or Raiders have a pick in first two rounds of this year’s NFL Draft. Of course, the Saints also have a GM/coach who will be suspended, and some players too, so this could be a lost year for them.

5) Eagles just signed a free agent lineman from Northwestern State in Louisiana named Demetress Bell; his father is Karl Malone.

4) I’m enjoying playing Words with Friends on my IPhone. Addictive it is, though. Damn phone goes off at 3am and I reach for it to play some more letters. Key is to get those triple word scores.

3) Can’t stand the McDonald’s commercial where the guy curries favor with his boss by losing to him on purpose while playing cards; would you want a weasel like that working for you?

I’d want a guy who was honest and competitive, someone you can trust for a solid effort, even if he did beat my butt playing cards.

2) OK, so the TCU basketball coach just jumped ship to go back to the MAC, a step down in class from the Big X. He gets replaced at TCU by a guy who jumped ship at LSU, another guy taking a step down, at least as far as the prominence of the basketball program. Just a weird exchange of coaches, and both voluntary moves. TCU goes into the Big X as a potential doormat. Trent Johnson will have do great work to make them competitive in the Big X, but he had to feel uncomortable enough at LSU to bolt to the Horned Frogs.

1) I had a shop teacher in high school who scolded kids who talked too much, telling them they had “diarrhea of the mouth, it just never stops running.” Well, hopefully Mr Brunn is an Ozzie Guillen fan these days, because the Marlins’ manager has the same problem, he can’t shut up.

Now he’s in trouble for making a comment about Fidel Castro; I’m not even sure what he said, but I know that’s a very, very sensitive subject in south Florida, and now the Marlins are doing damage control in the community. All this, and the season’s not a week old yet. Guillen is going to have to do a lot of fast talking Tuesday morning, if he wants to save his job.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.......
13) Louis Oosthuizen got the first double eagle on the 2nd hole at Augusta National; he tossed the ball in the crowd, where a 59-year old guy caught it. Powers that be at Augusta wound up getting the ball back from the guy, but I hope he cleaned up. No one was talking about what they gave him.

12) Bronx Bombers and Red Sox are both 0-3 in same season for first time since 1966; Boston had a horrendous loss Sunday, blowing a 3-run lead in the 9th inning and a 2-run lead in the 11th. Not good.

11) Alfredo Aceves' career as Boston's closer may already be over; so far he has thrown 14 pitches, given up four hits, gotten no one out. That means it could be Daniel Bard's turn to try and close until Andrew Bailey's thumb is healed. Rough start for Bobby Valentine's tenure in Boston.

10) Surprised to see Jeremy Hellickson on mound for 118 pitches Sunday, in his first start of the season; guess Joe Maddon felt it was important to sweep the Bronx Bombers. I'm willing to bet that Hellickson won't throw 118 pitches in any other start this season.

9) Giants had a 6-0 lead in Arizona with Matt Cain on the mound and lost; what are the odds of that? Diamondbacks swept the weekend series.

8) Interesting tidbit from Terry Francona on Sunday Night Baseball; when he managed Diasuke Matsuzaka, the pitcher often complained about length of plane flights in this country, saying he was too tired to pitch after cross country flights. In Japan, most of the travel is done by train.

7) Francona, by the way, is very good on TV, a natural. He is just what you want, a guy who sounds like a buddy you hang out with to watch games.

6) Saturday night, Evan Longoria hit a homer that was caught by a fan out in rightfield, a guy wearing a Bronx Bomber jersey; it was close whether the guy reached over the fence or not, but he was rooting for the Bombers, so it was shocking when the hideous Joe West overturned the home run and took two Tampa Bay runs off the scoreboard, because a fan of the other team interfered with the ball.

No one cares about this but me, because the two guys wound up scoring later on, but fact is, those two RBI Longoria lost cost me my fantasy game for the week. My team lost RBI by one. Thanks for nothing, Joe West.

5) Orioles and Mets are both 3-0. Niot sure if this says more about them or more about the Twins and Braves, the teams they swept.

4) "I'm not good enough ... I don't have the thing I need to have. In 13 years I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place." That was Sergio Garcia talking about his chances of ever winning a major. Guess he never met Norman Vincent Peale.

3) Still cracks me up how CBS uses the same graphics for The Masters that they used 25 years ago; the white males that run Augusta National must be thrilled to death that someone named Bubba is their new champ.

2) First round matchups in the Stanley Cup playoffs:
East: Ottawa-Rangers; Caps-Boston; Devils-Florida; Philly-Penguins
West: Canucks-Kings; Sharks-Blues; Chicago-Phoenix; Detroit-Nashville.

1) The AD at Arkansas doesn't want to fire Bobby Petrino because Petrino wins games and fans love his offense, so the AD sits there and does nothing, probably hoping some other disaster happens so the Petrino situation gets buried in the headlines. The way this world is now, that might just happen.

Sunday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a sports Sunday.......
13) College kids who aspire to be pro athletes should take courses in school that help them learn how to handle money; its sad when guys squander tons of money and wind up broke. Coaches should encourage kids to learn about how to say no to parasites that follow big money around.

12) There's a chance Felix Hernandez could start against the A's seven times this season; thanks to the nitwit owner of the A's for agreeing to the Japan trip, where he sold off two home games to people who rooted for the other team, and in the process got an extra game against Felix, one of baseball's top pitchers. Well done.

11) A's have now lost their home opener eight years in a row.

10) ESPN's Darren Woodson said 95% of the stuff Gregg Williams said on tape in that locker room speech is fairly common in pro football. People need to get used to the idea that the NFL is an extremely violent sport, part of why it is so popular.

9) When Central Michigan fired its basketball coach Ernie Zeigler, they also fired their best player, his son Trey. The younger Zeigler transferrred to Pitt, where he can play in 2013-14. He's a darned good player.

8) When Lucas Duda homered in the 4th inning Saturday, he became first player to take advantage of the new shorter dimensions at Citi Field. Last year, Duda's homer would've hit the bottom of the fence, not gone over it.

7) I'm probably late with this, but heard it for the first time this week: if you mix Arnold Palmer iced tea with vodka, the drink is called a John Daly.

6) San Diego State-Syracuse are playing on a battleship next fall to tip off the college basketball season, just like Michigan State/North Carolina did last fall- they both wound up as #1 seeds, so it had to help a little.

5) This is the first time since 1980 Bronx Bombers/Red Sox are both 0-2 in the same season; Hideki Kuroda is Bombers' second best starting pitcher?

4) So Joe Girardi walked Sean Rodriguez intentionally Thursday, in the first inning; Rodriguez, who is 6-21 in his career against CC Sabathia, will never be confused with anyone you would walk intentionally, except to pitch to a pitcher. Carlos Pena is 4-35 with two homers against Sabathia; the second homer was a grand slam that followed the intentional walk. Whoops.

3) Pena became only the fifth player in MLB history to hit a grand slam in his team's first inning of the season. Last guy to do it was Juan Encanarcion in 1995, against John Smoltz and the Braves.

2) Kobe Bryant took 20 shots from the floor Friday, 11 more free throws, and had no assists, in a game Andrew Bynum got tossed out of for taunting the Houston bench. Bryant sat out Saturday's game, and Lakers had their worst loss of the season. Sounds like some more drama behind the scenes.

1) What would the odds be that, through first 1,000 games of their careers, that Prince Fielder and his father Cecil both had 232 home runs? There's a guy you need to walk intentionally, not freakin' Sean Rodriguez.

Saturday's List of 13: Random thoughts with weekend here......
13) The best trade in New York Knicks’ history was December 19, 1968; they sent Walt Bellamy/Howard Komives to the Detroit Pistons for Dave DeBusschere, a gritty power forward (6-6, he’d be a 3-man today) who was the final piece in the only Knick nucleus to ever win an NBA title, winning in ’70 and ’73. DeBusschere is deceased now, but was such a god in New York he wound up being commissioner of the ABA after he retired.

12) Why do I bring this up? When DeBusschere was a Piston (he was born/raised in Detroit, went to U of Detroit, was Pistons’ 1st round pick in 1962), at age 24, he was named player/coach of the Pistons, a failed experiment (he went 79-143 over three seasons). The way current star players are shredding coaches, or just refusing to try hard, why bother having a coach? Just let the star player coach the team.

11) Bill Russell was player-coach for the last three years of his career, going 162-83 and winning two titles in three years (the three years before the Knicks won their first title), but those were great teams he played on and coached.

10) My point is this; if Dwight Howard hates Stan Van Gundy as a coach so much, let him coach the damn team. Let a couple assistants do the grunt work scouting, have a couple other assistants work on skill development with players in practice but on game night, Howard is the man, the face of the franchise. Lets see how easy he thinks it is then.

9) On the other hand, while Howard is acting like an immature jerk, almost seemed like Van Gundy was trying to get himself fired, knowing the team is dead as it stands now and would never win. Quitting isn’t an option because of the money involved, so he’d probably be relieved to get relieved of his duties.

8) Elias Sports Bureau pointed out that an average of 4.7 runs/game scored Thursday, the lowest scoring day in the big leagues on a day with 7+ games since 1983.

7) CAA, the league with George Mason/VCU, has signed on to have games shown on NBC Sports Network (the old Versus channel), so they're out of the loop for Bracket Busters, which is an ESPN/ABC production.

6) TCU pulled a coup if they really have signed LSU's Trent Johnson as its new coach, as they head into the Big X. Johnson won big at Nevada and did well at Stanford, but struggled at LSU. No way Horned Frogs were going to do any better than Johnson; this is a home run for them.

5) Last year, Cincinnati Bengals' defense was on field for 1,066 plays; they cut a safety this week named Chris Crocker, who was on the field for 1,019 out of 1,066 plays and was a captain. Bengals are way under the salary cap, so why did they cut a guy who is obviously one of their better players?

4) Heading into Friday's games, 37 of the Lakers' 54 games (74.5%) were within 6 points either way in the last 5:00, highest %age in the league.

3) For years, Rams-Titans played an exhibition game against each other and practiced together for a few days before the game, but now that Rams have former Titan mentor Jeff Fisher running the show, no more. Wonder why.

2) You wonder why some of these college coaches change jobs; often its due to a bad relationship with the AD, especially if a new AD comes in, a guy who didn't hire the coach (see K-State/Frank Martin).

Friend of mine was a coach in a place where the two ADs had backgrounds in swimming and judo; they were clueless about team sports and therefore made people miserable in the athletic department. People work better when they're respected and they're happy. ADs who were football/hoop coaches are generally better to work for, because they have an understanding of what a coach goes through.

1) Last thought on Dwight Howard: with the money Orlando pays him, he should play his ass off every night, no matter who the coach is, even if the team was coached by Moe, Larry and Curly. Howard has a part in the new Three Stooges movie. He actually tried playing against them.

Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind.........
13) The real world doesn't have enough holidays; have to make some of our own, and Opening Day is one of those, though this is a half-day holiday. Get some fast food, watch some ball and its a good afternoon.

12) No New York Met lefty hitter has homered to left field at Citi Field. With the new shorter fences, Ike Davis should get one this year.

11) Adam Dunn's seven HRs, 19 RBI on Opening Day are the most of any active major leaguer.

10) There are 25 guys on a major league roster; if you take away the Pirates' six highest paid players, the rest of the team is making a combined $15M this season. AJ Burnett is making $16.5M himself in 2012.

9) Bill Murray threw out the first ball at Wrigley Field Thursday, but not before he ran around the bases and then slid into home plate.

8) UConn lost its appeal and will be ineligible for both NCAA tournament and Big East tournament next season, which could spell the end of a career for Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun. Looks like players will be able to go to another school and play next season, so they will jump ship.

7) West Virginia is gone from the Big East, UConn is headed downward, and Pitt-Syracuse will be lame ducks in the league next year, before they head to the ACC, so next season figures to be a strange one in the Big East.

6) Mark Cuban makes sense when he says that if a basketball player goes to college, he should be there for 3+ years; thats the way the rule is in baseball. The one-and-done rule is bad for the NBA and college ball both.

5) The Mtn, the TV network dedicated to sports in the Mountain West Conference, is shutting down May 31. Not sure if this is a pre-cursor to the MWC merging with Conference USA, but it could be.

4) Henrik Stenson was -6 thru 10 holes at the Masters, but shot an 8 on the last hole, the first 8 on the 18th at Augusta in five years (Villegas) and was -1 at day's end, four shots out of the lead.

3) Luke Donald almost got DQ'd Thursday, because a fax machine smudge made his 75 score look like 73 and it got misreported. Everything got fixed, but Donald still has some work to do to make the cut.

2) In case you're wondering why Clayton Kershaw came out after three IP in San Diego yesterday, he was very sick before the game but insisted on starting and seeing how far he could go.

1) Murray State and Florida both got good news; their leading scorers will both be back in school next year for their senior seasons. People lose jobs because kids leave school early, and sometimes, guys win big when players stay in school and then go get higher paying jobs. Billy Donovan will be at Florida for a long time, but Murray State's Prohm could strike it rich after next yesr if the Racers have another big season.

Thursday's List of 13: Baseball thoughts on Opening Day........
13) Miami Marlins are the most interesting team to follow early on; new stadium, new uniforms, new manager, lot of combustible personalities, from the owner on down. How will they draw? How will they play? I like the new hats, but I’m still wearing my black Marlins’ batting practice cap with the white F. That’s an excellent hat.

12) I feel sorry for Oriole fans; they have no chance, no matter how much they improve, because the other four teams in their division are all so much better. Toronto is a fashionable pick to contend this year. Bronx/Boston have so many more resources than the O’s; how can they compete?

11) I’m thinking the Rays are going to be disappointing; this is worst spring training record they’ve had since 2007, the last year before they got good. I’m also not optimistic for my A’s, but I can’t wait to see them play on TV; at some point, if they’re going to leave Oakland, I’ve got to get myself out there to see a series in the Coliseum, a much-maligned stadium with a tremendous amount of history (think A’s/Raiders). If they ever get the go-ahead to build the stadium in San Jose, the A’s franchise will rise again. If not, well, that’s another, less happy story.

10) I like the additional Wild Card in each league; think it’ll help make September a more interesting baseball month.

9) I’m hoping the guys on fantasy team get healthy; Victor Martinez is out for the year, Ryan Howard probably until June, Carl Crawford and Tim Hudson until May. Thank God I don’t pay their salaries—that’s an expensive disabled list!!!

8) For my dad’s sake, I hope the Mets are better than expected; Santana’s unexpected start on Opening Day has to be a big lift. Will the shortened outfield dimensions revive the hitting of Wright/Bay? Why are they insisting on playing a defensive liability (Murphy) at second base, a key defensive position? What happened to being strong up the middle?

7) I’m excited for Dodger fans, now that the Frank McCourt era is over and Magic Johnson’s group will be running things; the results won’t show on the field right away, but nitwits like McCourt and the Mets’ Fred Wilpon shouldn’t own big league teams. I mean, its bad enough I root for the small market A’s; imagine rooting for a big market team that acts like they’re a small market team? Not good.

6) I think this is the year the Mark Grace character wins the sausage-type race at the 7th inning stretch in Arizona; they copied Milwaukee’s sausage race, and use costumes of famous D-Backs. The Grace character is like 0 for 200, kind of like Teddy Roosevelt in Washington, with the Presidents’ race. It says here Grace wins one this year.

5) Looking forward to hearing Duane Kuiper/Mike Krukow late at night doing giant games, even if the Giants are the evil group blocking the San Jose stadium. Kuip/Kruk are great together and fun to listen to.

4) Also out west, we get Hall of Famers Dick Enberg and Vin Scully doing games late at night; every new broadcaster should listen to their tapes. It’s a pleasure to listen to them.

3) Mike Matheny has his hands full for sure, taking over for Tony Larussa, skippering a team that won the World Series but let Albert Pujols walk. Their pitching is shaky; this is a tough job for Matheny. Hopefully the St Louis fans will have lot of patience with this team.

2) I think the Angels have overtaken Texas and are better than the Rangers and will win the AL West.

1) To me, sitting in my living room, a bar or a Las Vegas sports book for six hours on a Friday night, scanning 15 baseball games qualifies as an excellent night; not the World Series or playoffs or All-Star Game, just a normal night where you never know what might happen. For six months this plays out most every night and to me, that’s whats terrific about baseball.

Wednesday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a sunny spring day........
13) Naysayers claim baseball is dying in this country. Reds just gave Joey Votto $225M for 10 years, Giants gave Matt Cain $112M for five; that will buy you a lot of medicine.

12) Critics point to Cain’s 69-73 lifetime record; optimists look at his ERA the last three years: 2.89/3.14/2.88 and his durability and age (28). Over the last three years, Votto hit .363 with runners in scoring position. Both seem like solid investments.

11) Was it me, or did John Calipari look very uncomfortable on the podium, waiting to be awarded the national championship trophy? Not sure why, just thought he did. Hope he gets to enjoy it a little before recruiting starts.

10) Not to beat a dead horse, but the Samuels kid on Kansas State got suspended over a cruddy $200, while the NCAA sells the rights to being the official scissors and the official ladder to cut down the championship nets after the game Monday night. I’m not kidding, there is an officially licensed scissors for cutting down the nets.

9) Detroit Pistons’ coach Lawrence Frank has a rule for players: When talking to the media, you must always mention at least one teammate in a positive way. Frank would be an excellent college coach.

8) Out of the 6.45M brackets entered on espn.com, 35.1% of them had Kentucky winning it all.

7) How does a major league team not have a third baseman? Right now, the A’s are using a converted catcher there, after Scott Sizemore blew out his ACL during spring’s first workout. I’d try and trade for the Mets’ Justin Turner. If not, just make Wes Timmons the 3B; guy spent last winter as a substitute school teacher. Perfect for the low budget A's.

6) Redskins are reducing the capacity at Fed Ex Field for second year in row, taking out 4,000 seats; in 2010, capacity was 91,000; last year it was 83,000. This fall, it’ll be 79,000.

5) Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos has scored 46 goals with the Lightning at even strength, the most in a season by any NHL player since 1993.

4) Most college conference moves hurt a school’s basketball program, but Georgia State moving to the Sun Belt actually helps, moving the Panthers from the tough CAA to the much softer Sun Belt Conference. Former Alabama coach Bill Curry is Georgia State’s football coach.

3) CBSSports.com ran an interesting article this week on a guy in California who gets $200 a day to mentor college-age quarterbacks on the nuances of the position, hopefully getting them ready for the pros. Reminds me of the old TV show The Rockford Files, when James Garner got $200 a day (plus expenses) to figure out that week’s mystery.

2) If you like to wager on individual matchups in golf, Eldrick Woods is -$107 this week against Rory McIlroy, -$149 against Phil Mickelson, -$158 against Luke Donald and -$169 against Lee Westwood.

1) Average ticket price for a Red Sox game this year? $151.10, highest in the big leagues. Cubs are next at $108.70. Cheapest average tickets are in Milwaukee-Pittsburgh-Kansas City, all at $48.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........,
13) What does it say about the Basketball Hall of Fame the Nike CEO Phil Knight is in, but Rick Pitino/Jerry Tarkanian aren’t? How does this make sense? What has Knight done for basketball, except make a fortune off it?

12) Jimmy Buffett played a concert in New Orleans Sunday night, wearing a “FREE SEAN PAYTON” t-shirt; he brought Payton on stage to play the bongos for a while. Going to be interesting to see if the NFL shortens Payton’s suspension.

11) Was weird watching Kentucky-Kansas tonight and thinking that freakin’ Butler played for the last two national titles. An amazing feat.

10) Odd stat of the day: New York Rangers haven’t had home ice edge in a playoff series since 1996. They’ll have home ice throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs this spring.

9) Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino was injured in a motorcycle accident this weekend, but a full recovery is expected. We certainly hope so.

8) Long time ago, there used to be an actor named James Stacy; was on a show called Lancer in the 60’s. Stacy lost an arm and a leg in a motorcycle accident. Will never forget him going on the Tonight Show after the accident; I was a kid, and it made a lasting impression seeing him like that, so much so that I never wanted to ride a minibike or motorcycle, anything like that. Coach Petrino is lucky he only broke some ribs.

7) Hopefully some journalist will get to the bottom of how Kansas State found out about the $200 the Samuels kid got wired to him by his old AAU coach, which caused the school to suspend him for the Syracuse game. Hard to believe it was some random customner finding a receipt and bringing it to the K-State gym. Things don’t work that way. Politics are a funny thing; the AD at Kansas State might want that information kept quiet.

6) I’m told that the TV show Mad Men took a cheap shot at Mitt Romney in Sunday’s show, using fact that Romney’s dad was governor of Michigan in the 60’s, and insulting the father in the show without using his first name, delivering the ol’ subliminal message. Not much class there.

5) Ohio U hired former TCU coach Jim Christian, who is smart enough to know that the Horned Frog job is a sinking ship with TCU joining the Big X, for football reasons only. Christian did good work getting TCU to the middle of the Mountain West pack, but getting them to be competitive in the Big X might be an impossible job, giving the difference in resources.

4) The store in Illinois that sold a winning lottery ticket this weekend gets a $500,000 bonus; the store in Kansas only gets $10,000; individual states set those bonuses, so I’m told.

3) Heard Rick Monday broadcasting a Dodger game Sunday night from Arizona; tremendous voice, very fair, not afraid to criticize either team. Can’t believe I’ve never heard him before; he was one of my boyhood idols, when he played for the A’s. Guess he does radio for the Dodgers.

2) One of reasons the A’s won three straight World Series was tremendous starting pitching; after the ’71 season, Oakland traded centerfielder Monday straight up for a lefty starter named Ken Holtzman. Holtzman was terrific for the A’s and a huge reason they were so successful. The trade is one of many reasons Charles O Finley belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1) Read some prominent NFL writer say this weekend that Bill Parcells was an overrated coach, that anyone could’ve won Super Bowls with Lawrence Taylor on his team. Bull.

Taylor was a handful to coach, moreso off the field than on; Parcells was masterful coaching him, keeping him on the field and he is a deserving Hall of Famer. I’m not a fan of any team he has coached, but if you say he’s not a Hall of Famer, then you just don’t like him, and that’s not right. Its not a damn personality contest.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a slow sports Sunday.....
13) Jeremy Lin needs knee surgery; by time he gets healthy, Knicks will be done for the season, so chances are Linsanity is a thing of the past in the Big Apple, since Lin will be a free agent and figures to get paid big money by someone other than the Knicks. Now they can go back to Carmelo Anthony having the ball all the time and playing unwatchable basketball. Too bad.

I know Knicks have been winning lately, but unless they win their division, they're playing Chicago-Miami in first round of playoffs; anyone out there think the Knicks beat them best-of-7 without Lin and Stoudemire?

12) CBS doesn't need three guys broadcasting Final Four games, and the guy who needs to go is Clark Kellogg; people who wanted Billy Packer gone can not possibly think Kellogg was an improvement. Steve Kerr is excellent on either college or NBA games. Actually, its too bad Hubie Brown doesn't do college games- that would be fun to listen to.

11) Pro golfer Briny Baird has made $12,596,088 in his PGA career, but has never won a tournament; you think he cares that much? No one on TV golf broadcasts ever talks about the money aspects the marginal golfer faces, but it has to be big. Winning isn't everything, earning a living is. Baird has made himself a terrific career without ever winning.

10) Since last August, Georgia Bulldogs have had four DBs transfer out, had another couple thrown off the team, suspended three others. How many do they have on their roster? Thats not even counting injuries. By the way, did a little college football work this weekend; its weird seeing some of the new league configurations. Missouri in the SEC just looks wrong.

9) Technical fouls in NBA should also be personal fouls; guys mouth off to the refs and don't get penalized- one foul shot, big deal.

8) Saw excellent high school game on TV late Saturday; Findlay Prep was down to Montverde Prep after three quarters, but scored 37 points in 8:00 fourth quarter to force OT, and then Findlay won in OT. Not sure who is paying the bills for a team from Florida playing a team from Las Vegas in Maryland, but it was fun to watch. High quality basketball. Most of kids on the floor will be Division I players.

7) Kobe Bryant missed his first 15 shots Saturday; don't see that a lot.

6) There have been five Final Fours played in New Orleans; not only has Rick Pitino coached in three of the five, he coached three different schools.

5) Kid on Kansas State gets suspended because a friend sent him $200; if you didn't notice, attendance at the Final Four Saturday was 73,361, all of whom paid a decent amount to get in. Where does all that money go? I'm not big on kids getting paid to play, but there has to be some compassion involved. Its hypocritical to suspend a kid over 200 frreakin' dollars when the powers-that-be are raking in millions to watch the kids play.

4) Kentucky-Louisville was terrific game; Cardinals should hold their heads high, knowing they did their best, even though it wasn't good enough. No regrets when it ends that way.

3) Got my first look at the new Marlins Park today; looks pretty cool, but could the nitwit Bronx announcers realize attendance will go up, if only due to the retractable roof, which guarantees there will be a game every night? In previous years, sporadic downpours in south Florida would make it unsure if a game would be played or not. Now you know there's a game, and with the new ballpark in downtown Miami, its easier to get to the game.

2) Stadium is on the site of the old Orange Bowl, which hosted five Super Bowls; lot of history on those grounds.

1) At first glance, even though they have a strong lineup, park looks like a pitcher's yard, which is a curious decision they made. There is also a bobblehead museum there, which looks like it could be a lot of fun to see.

Sunday's List of 13: Things I'm looking for with April here.......
13) Studying the NFL schedule is always one of the highlights every spring; it comes out in a couple weeks-- will every Denver game be in primetime? Will the Saints get any night games? Which Jet-Patriot game is a Monday nighter? Lot of questions to answer there.

12) Will Bill Parcells really coach the Saints this year? What a unique situation that would be.

11) NFL Draft closes out the month; ESPN’s Todd McShay is saying Texas A&M QB Ryan Tannehill is just about as good as Robert Griffin III, which I strongly disagree with, but he knows more about it than I do. Time will tell. The draft is now spread over three nights and is almost always solid entertainment.

10) Rangers have won one Stanley Cup since 1940, but will be top seed in the East this year; can they parlay that into their first title since 1994? NHL playoffs are always great fun.

9) How many star players will miss the NBA playoffs because of injury? The condensed schedule was a stupid idea, but as long as the owners make money, who cares if the product suffers? And it is suffering.

8) Now that Eldrick Woods has ended his winning drought, will he keep on winning and get another green jacket? My theory was that he wouldn’t win, but if he did, he would win several times, not just once.

7) New baseball season starts Thursday; I’m not optimistic for my A’s, but I do think they have their best coaching staff they’ve had since the Larussa days and they won’t go in the tank late in the season. They’ll compete every night, but they’re talent-shy.

6) Looking forward to seeing the new ballpark in Miami, and also changes that were made at Citi Field. How hitter-friendly is the Queens ballpark now? Enough to revitalize David Wright’s career?

5) Red Sox fired their manager LY, a guy who won them two World Series; they let their GM and closer walk. Will they be any better? Something tells me they’re going to miss Mr Francona a lot more than they think.

4) How much of an immediate impact will the Dodgers see from getting out from under the cloud of Frank McCourt? Having Magic Johnson is an owner will be tremendous in the community, but the team that takes the field won’t change much this year. The perception of that team could change a lot.

3) Chase Utley has two bad knees; Ryan Howard has a surgically repaired Achilles tendon, which won’t be ready for games until Memorial Day or so. The Phillies’ position players are old and tattered; can the stellar starting pitching keep them atop an improved NL East?

2) College basketball coaching carousel will start spinning Tuesday morning; Mississippi State-Kansas State-Colorado State are three of the better jobs still available. Lot of talent coming back next year at both K-State and Colorado State; they both should be tournament teams.

1) Who is going to win the national title Monday night? Its been a fun and educational college basketball season; we’ve already started preparing for next season. Lot of work to do in the next month, before my annual spring vacation. April should be a very interesting month.

Saturday's List of 13: Random thoughts with the weekend here.....
13) ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb is smart, outspoken and can be abrasive; he has never coached, but he did play PG at both Notre Dame/Oklahoma State. He has been openly campaigning this week to be the new basketball coach at Kansas State.

Doubt K-State honchos would take such a gamble, but Gottlieb does have a plan, and he does have recruiting connections (his dad, who was once an assistant at K-State, runs a recruiting service in southern California).

12) There were a total of three walks and 26 strikeouts in the two ballgames over in Japan. Wonder what the Japanese fan thinks of our game, as opposed to the Japanese version?

11) OK, there is a new TV show coming on the NatGeo network called Wicked Tuna; its not about Bill Parcells, its about fisherman in New England. I kid you not.

10) If you’re a bigwig at the TNT network, how do you approach Shaquille O’Neal and tell him he’s not good on TV and his contract isn’t being renewed? His defense of Andrew Bynum Thursday was incredibly lame.

9) I need an explanation of how Don Nelson is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but Rick Pitino/Jerry Tarkanian aren’t. Nelson coached forever in the NBA and never once got to the Finals. When he was coaching the Warriors, he basically rolled the balls out and watched both teams run up and down the floor like madmen, while he planned building his new home in Hawai’i. Nelson was a supporting player on many terrific Celtic teams, but other than longevity, nothing about his career says “Hall of Famer”.

8) Lookalikes: actor Breckin Meyer (the little guy on Franklin & Bash) and Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks.

7) Odd Stat of Day: Someone from 1070 AM radio in Indianapolis tweeted Friday that Dusty Baker is 322-326 in his first four years managing the Reds. His record in his first four years managing the Cubs? 322-326.

6) Rio Grande Valley in Texas had six inches of hail Thursday. Yikes.

5) Charlotte Bobcat coach Paul Silas is having one of his assistants coach the team one game a week; he has to notify the league office when the assistant is going to be the head coach. The assistant? His son Stephen. Quite an organization Michael Jordan has assembled down there.

4) They show GM Mitch Kupchak sitting by himself at Laker games in the Staples Center and I have two thoughts:
a) Doesn’t this guy have any family/friends to sit with him during games? and b) This poor guy looks totally miserable. Both are probably untrue, but I’d like to see Craig Sager run up there one night and interview Kupchak during the game, just to give him a little company.

3) Tony Larussa landed $2.5M gig as special advisor to the Commissioner. Must be nice.

2) Wish I had Gio Gonzalez on my fantasy team; think he’s going to have a very big year in Washington.

1) Land of the Stupid: Mets’ home opener is next Thursday the 5th; instead of finishing Grapefruit League play on Tuesday, flying home that night and having a workout at Citi Field Wednesday (they moved some of the fences in, so its going to be a somewhat different ballpark) and letting the players get settled, these nitwits have a game in Tampa Wednesday, so the first time the Met players will Citi Field is Thursday morning, on the day of the first game. Brilliant!!!

Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) Illinois hired Ohio U’s John Groce as its new basketball coach, but there is dissension in the ranks at Illinois; when the Illini hired Tim Beckman as its new football coach, two members of the board voted against him, simply because Beckman isn’t African-American.

Seems that Illinois has never had a black coach in football/basketball. Groce continues that trend, but he was successful at Ohio U and if he continues that in Champaign, then everyone will either be happy or quiet. Winning tends to silence the critics, just ask the Auburn people who wanted to hire Turner Gill as football coach instead of Gene Chizik.

12) OK, so Magic Johnson’s group paid $2.15B for the Dodgers; do they just write a really big check? How does that transaction work? A wire transaction, like in a John Grisham book? Or a really big suitcase filled with $1,000 bills dropped off under a bridge? How do you move $2.15B?

11) Maryland transfer QB Danny O’Brien is following in the footsteps of former NC State star Russell Wilson and will play QB at Wisconsin next fall; he has two years left to play, whereas Wilson only played one year for the Badgers. If ACC quarterbacks keep transferring, Bret Bielema will never have to recruit another freshman signal caller.

10) Knicks’ JR Smith apparently doesn’t like morning shoootarounds on game day; there are those in the New York media who suggest that Smith signed with the Knicks simply because Mike D’Antoni didn’t have morning shootarounds on the day of a home game. Smith was fined over $1M while playing in China for missing practices.

9) I’ve read it suggested more than once that the Jets should go for two after every TD next year, using Tim Tebow as a goal line QB. Would be fun if someone tried that approach, as long as it isn't the Rams.

8) Final Four coaches all cashed in on their success this month: Thad Matta earned an extra $80,000 for getting to the Final Four, Bill Self $100,000 with potential for $100,000 more if he can win twice this weekend, John Calipari $200,000 already, $400,000 if he wins Monday night and Rick Pitino $175,000 to this point, another $150,00 if he wins the national title.

7) Arizona State hired a new AD; not sure what this means for hoop coach Herb Sendek, who is a very good coach but doesn’t seem like the best fit for the Sun Devils. Curious to see how ASU does next year with prize recruit PG Carson finally eligible.

6) Watched Laker-Warrior game Tuesday, listened to Andrew Bynum’s comments after the game about getting yanked after hoisting up a ridiculous 3-pointer; coaching in the NBA has to be all about the paycheck, because after listening to Bynum, no way has any coaching gotten through to him. He sounded like a 9-year old talking about getting sent to his room.

5) Maybe that’s why the Spurs win; they don’t have guys like Bynum; seven of their 15 players were born outside this country, and of the eight Americans, the only one who didn’t play at least some college ball is in his 14th year in the NBA, so he is highly experienced and somewhat mature, because otherwise, you don’t last 14 years in the league.

4) Hard to believe that Louisville-Kentucky didn’t meet once in the regular season from 1922-1984.

3) Rumor has it Larry Brown is interested in the SMU job; yes, that Larry Brown. Mustangs just fired one North Carolina alum (Matt Doherty); doubt they’ll hire another one.

2) If Dennis Rodman is indeed broke, this is another cautionary tale of an athlete going broke even though he’s made millions and millions of dollars in a short period of time. There is such a thing as too much, too soon.

I don’t necessarily feel bad for guys who go broke like that, since its their fault, but more like I just feel bad they haven’t gained the knowledge of how to handle large sums of money. Lord knows if I had that much money I’d probably screw it up, too.

1) CBSSports.com runs our fantasy baseball league’s website; does a good job. Puts a red cross next to injured players’ names on your roster, so you can keep track of who is healthy and who isn’t. Season doesn’t start for six days; out of 25 guys on my roster, six have red crosses, and two others had them earlier this month but have since healed.

One of the red crosses is for a guy who hurt his pitching arm by sleeping on it funny. I’m not kidding and I'm not amused. Keep in mind that a lineman on the Patriots played in the Super Bowl two months ago with a torn ACL.

Thursday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a spring day...........
13) Got my bill from DirecTV right on time, with charges for the Extra Innings package already in there; they’re very good about that. Too bad the A’s-Mariners game from Japan was blacked out when I tried to watch it. Terrific. Apparently, MLB knows it screwed up and will show the game on Thursday morning live.

12) Speaking of which, if the A’s bat Pennington/Crisp 2nd/3rd all year long, they might lose more than the 108 games the ’79 A’s lost. Cespedes looks like a ballplayer; he must bat higher in the order.

11) Read where the Mariners’ TV announcers are calling the Japan games from a studio in Bellevue, WA; costs too much to engineer a broadcast all the way from Tokyo.

10) Whether or not Bill Parcells is the Saints’ interim coach shouldn’t affect his clock to get elected to the Hall of Fame; he’s already done enough to get in, anything he does in New Orleans would only add to his resume. He should be in there already.

9) Something to think about: Kentucky’s lowest points per possession in any game this year was the New Year’s Eve game with Louisville.

8) University of Houston has a new coaching staff, with Kevin Sumlin now at Texas A&M; their new offensive coordinator was a punter in NFL for a while. Cougars are also getting a new on-campus stadium soon, but they'll run basically the same offense that Sumlin ran.

7) After this horrendous NBA regular season, with too many games jammed into too short a time, the playoffs are going to look super, with players having time to rest/practice in between games, providing of course there are enough healthy players to go around. Awful lot of injuries with such a ridiculous schedule.

6) Illinois is having trouble finding a new basketball coach; do they know that Florida State won four of its last five games against Duke? Leonard Hamilton would be a good choice; Illinois has to be a better basketball job than FSU. They’re offering $21M for eight years; that’s serious money.

5) Ohio U’s John Groce appears to be the leading candidate for Illinois right now, but his 34-30 record in MAC games with the Bobcats isn’t exciting the fan base very much.

4) South Carolina’s Frank Martin slots in as the 4th-highest paid SEC basketball coach, behind Calipari-Donovan-Mike Anderson. If I remember right, Gamecocks’ football coach was 9th-highest paid in SEC LY, and Steve Spurrier’s obviously a damn good coach.

3) Two voters didn’t vote for Kentucky’s Anthony Davis as a first-team All-American; those two should have to explain why, and unless it’s a damn good reason, or they never vote for freshmen, something like that, they should lose their voting rights for a year or two. Davis is a tremendous player; you have to be an imbecile to think he’s not one of the five best players in the country.

2) So Jack Del Rio goes from coaching the lowly Jaguars to being DC of the Broncos, who now have Peyton Manning, and are a likely playoff team; something tells me he’ll enjoy 2012 a hell of a lot more than he did 2011.

1) Giants-Dallas open the NFL regular season Wednesday, September 5; that opener is usually on a Thursday, but President Obama is speaking at the Democratic Convention that Thursday, so NFL moved the game up.

Wednesday's List of 13: In a perfect world, where I make decisions
13) Baseball season would never, ever start in Japan. Ever. If teams have to go over there, they play exhibition games. Period.

12) I-A college football teams wouldn’t play I-AA teams and if they did, tickets prices would have to be reduced by at least half of what they are for a I-A opponent.

11) The Presidential election would be determined by popular vote, not the outdated electoral college. With the electoral college, only votes in certain swing states have a real impact on the election.

10) It would be OK to make noise during a golf swing. Put it this way; on a baseball field, Albert Pujols tries to hit a 95 mph fastball with 35,000 fans yelling, when the pitch might just as easily be a 72 mph change-up; the golf ball is sitting still. Just hit it already.

9) All states would have a shot clock for high school basketball; we have it here in New York—just makes the game so much more fun to play and watch. Most states don’t have it.

8) Fighting would be banned from the NHL, just like all the other sports. Hockey is a great game; you don’t need it.

7) Wouldn’t turn the clocks back in the fall, just leave them the way they are now. Its cruddy when it gets dark at 4:30 in December.

6) NBA playoff series would be best-of-5, at most, instead of best-of-7.

5) Online poker would be legal again; its legal everywhere else in the world. I know guys who spend a lot of their year in Malta so they can play cards for a living; they’re Americans. They should be able to do that here.

4) NFL teams shouldn’t call a press conference after trading for a backup quarterback. Unless, of course, they’re just starved for attention. That usually leads to trouble.

3) Our taxes pay the salaries of state troopers; the first time you get pulled over for speeding, you should get a warning card saying to slow down. No one should get a ticket the first time they’re pulled over, and no, I haven’t gotten any tickets recently.

2) Sports teams shouldn’t be allowed to price tickets on tiers, according to the opponent/event. If a team charges more because the Angels are in town, but Pujols doesn’t play that day, you don’t get a discount, do you? Why should Opening Day tickets cost more than tickets later that week? Why do teams blatantly rip off their own fans?

1) Kids should be able to go straight from high school to the NBA; the pro league should be in kids’ ears, telling them where they’re likely to be drafted, if at all, then kids can make better decisions. Its ridiculous for a kid to go to college for only one year, and then bolt for the league. I’m surprised that wasn’t addressed with the new NBA labor agreement.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........
13) What does it say that Tim Tebow did his introductory press conference in New Jersey while the Jets honchos were away at NFL league meetings?

12) MLB Network is tremendous in March; exhibition games most every day. Good stuff. I buy the Extra Innings package, so I won’t watch MLB Network much once the season starts, but it is great in the spring.

11) I’m not thrilled about two teams playing real baseball games in Japan, a week before everyone else starts. Takes a little bit away from Opening Day, especially since my A’s are playing over there.

10) Lakers-Spurs haven’t played yet this season; they meet three times between now and the end of the regular season in four weeks.

9) Think Dick Cheney went through normal protocol for a heart transplant patient, or was he pushed to top of the list? I don’t want to know the answer to that question.

8) Was flipping through channels the other day and saw a clip of Bob Davie addressing the crowd at a New Mexico basketball game; had forgotten that he’s the Lobos’ new football coach. I’ll miss him on TV; he’s a likeable guy.

7) Rough news for the Royals, with closer Soria having Tommy John surgery. Looks like they might put Aaron Crow back in the bullpen to fill that void.

6) NY State parks lowered the prices to play golf on Long Island; anytime the price is lowered on anything these days, it’s a newsworthy event.

5) Someone said the NASCAR race at Bristol two weeks ago only drew 90,000 fans to a track that seats 160,000; is the economy that bad? If I ever go to a NASCAR race, I’d like to see the Bristol night race.

4) Did I read right that The Hunger Games took in $155M at the box office this weekend? Wow; wonder how much overpriced popcorn was sold at all those theaters?

3) I know AJ Burnett is hurt, but if you’re a Pirate fan and you see your Opening Day starter is Erik Bedard, doesn’t that make you a little queasy?

2) Need to read more about this Frank Martin-to-South Carolina story; why the rush to get out of the Little Apple? Last time the Gamecocks were good in hoop was when Eddie Fogler was there and they used to get upset as high seeds in the first round of the NCAAs every year.

1) More than any other year, cannot wait to see the NFL schedule, who they assign the primetime games to, and all that. That will be worth a couple days of material here.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........
13) Kentucky is an 8.5 or 9-point favorite over Louisville; Ohio State is a 2.5 or 3 point favorite over Kansas in Final Four Saturday in Superdome.

12) Kentucky's spread is the biggest in a Final Four game since UConn was an 11-point favorite over Michigan in the 1998 semifinals.

11) The entire golf world and ESPN can all breathe a huge sigh of relief after Eldrick Woods ended his 30-month drought by winning at Bay Hill for the 7th time. Just in time, too; Woods' video game hits the shelves Tuesday.

10) Bay Hill host and golf legend Arnold Palmer was taken to the hospital before the tournament ended with blood pressure issues. He was on TV for a decent length of time during the broadcast. Hopefully he is OK.

9) If FOX has a chance to hire Sean Payton for this season, they have to do it; when else will they have the chance to hire a sitting NFL coach to work on Sundays? Supposedly, they're trying to get it done.

8) ESPN's Greg Cosell, who spends ton of time analyzing film of prospects for the NFL Draft, says the Tannehill kid from Texas A&M is a better QB prospect than Christian Ponder, who played for the Vikings last year.

7) Atlantic 14 is losing Temple to the Big East and Charlotte is probably going to the Sun Belt as its football program starts up, so A-14 is looking to expand, and its looking at Butler/VCU/George Mason. As hoop season is winding down, conference realignment season heats up, unfortunately.

6) Wagner filled its head coaching job, the one left open by Danny Hurley's departure to URI, by hiring from within, the 5th of 27 job openings filled this offseason. There will be more.

5) Jazz lost 139-133 to the Hawks in four OTs in Atlanta Sunday night, the NBA's longest game in 15 years.

4) "More importantly, Kobe Bryant approves. Thats the most important part of this acquisition by the Lakers."

Thats Hall of Famer Chris Mullin on the Lakers acquiring Ramon Sessions; he said it on the air just before the start of Sunday night's Laker game, and sadly, he's right, and thats what is hideous about the NBA. NBA game is all about star players and everything else branches off from there.

3) A's shut out the Yomuiri Giants in Tokyo Sunday; think its too early to order playoff tickets online? Most definitely, since they got spanked 12-6 by some team called the Hanshin Tigers Monday. Terrific.

2) No one looks quite as relaxed as major league managers sitting out in the sun watching spring training games, since winning/losing doesn't matter.

1) 25,304 brackets out of 6.25M entered had the Final Four right; mine was half-right. Had Kentucky/Louisville, also had North Carolina/Vanderbilt.

Sunday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a quiet weekend.......
13) Kentucky beat Louisville 69-62 on New Year's Eve; if the teams play at the Final Four and Kentucky wins again, Cardinal fans might actually think they've had a lousy season, even though they made the Final Four.

12) Kendall Marshall practiced some Saturday; you have to think he'll be in uniform today, harder to tell if he'll play, and if he does play, how effective can he be? Kid had his wrist operated on six days ago.

11) Florida was 8-11 from the arc in the first half, 0-9 in second, in a bitter 72-68 loss to Louisville. Billy Donovan is now 0-7 against Rick Pitino, but this was first time they met since Donovan won his two national titles.

10) Eldrick Woods leads the Bay Hill tournament by a stroke, interesting to see if he can hold the lead and win for the first time in couple of years. Also interesting to see what the TV ratings will be for it.

9) Rumors from people who live in central New York indicate that at least part of the reason Fab Melo was ineligible revolve around an old girlfriend and a restraining order that may or may not have been adhered to.

8) Baylor is the only team in Elite 8 this year thats never won the national championship before.

7) Ohio State got a total of 8 points in 20 minutes played out of its bench, as Thad Matta showed zero confidence in his subs, even in a game that saw Jared Sullinger play only six minutes in the first half. Lenzelle Smith had a huge game, stepping up to make baskets at critical times.

Just for the hell of it, some spring training stats..........
6) Howie Kendrick and the world famous Lorenzo Cain (KC) are batting .462, which leads the major leagues this spring.

5) Tigers must be scoring lot of runs this spring; Delmon Young (19) and Ryan Raburn (18) leads the major leagues in RBI.

4) Erick Aybar and the obscure Eric Sogard (Oak) have both scored 13 runs, which leads the major leagues. A's may need to make Sogard a 3B, since as I write this, they really don't have one with major league qualifications.

3) Neither Adam Wainwright (14 IP) or Jake Westbrook (12) has allowed a run so far this spring; Josh Beckett has allowed two runs in 14 IP.

2) At the end of the day, with all the stuff thats gone on, you have to think while Jim Boeheim is disappointed about losing, he's probably also at least a little bit relieved the whole long season is finally over with. No more press to badger him, no more irritating questions to answer.

1) Hasn't been lot of high drama in the tournament so far, which means one thing; the last five games are going to be much better than usual. Whole key to Sunday's UNC game is whether or not the Marshall kid can play.

Saturday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........
13) Its obvious that Bobby Valentine is going to be like a wrestling manager up in Boston, constantly tweaking the Bronx Bombers and keeping his team and more importantly his name in the news, even if its for annoying reasons like Thursday, when he complained because the Bombers begged out of playing the 10th inning of an exhibition game because they only had minor league pitchers left. Before the summer is over, Valentine might throw some ceremonial salt into ARod’s eyes before he bats, the way the Grand Wizard of Wrestling used to do.

12) Speaking of the Bombers, Joba Chamberlain tore up his ankle playing on a trampoline with his son; its an injury similar to Buster Posey’s last year, which means he is done for the year.

11) Given whats gone on this week, don’t the Saints have to give Drew Brees whatever he’s asking for?

10) Wagner offered their coaching job to Bobby Hurley, but the former Duke star is headed to Rhode Island with his brother Danny; word is that Danny Hurley’s wife doesn’t want to leave the northeast, so his future job mobility could be limited, unless he were wind up with the UConn job when Jim Calhoun retires.

9) Only three brackets out of 6.45M were perfect thru the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, but it wasn’t because of the East bracket; 25.1% of entrants had Syracuse-Ohio State in the regional final. Probably not many Ohio U entries into the Sweet 16, though.

8) Good to see Kendrys Morales on the field for the Angels, almost two years after he broke his ankle while celebrating a walk-off homer on May 29, 2010. Tough way to get hurt.

7) Billy Donovan is 18-2 in his last 20 NCAA tournament games, but he is also 0-6 against mentor Rick Pitino as a head coach. No #7 seed has made the Final Four since the tournament went to 64 teams; they’re 0-6 in regional finals.

6) San Francisco Dons lost six transfers this week; that’s half their returning players, including two starters. Has to be an interesting story behind all that, especially since USF played really well in February.

5) We’ve talked couple times this week about Duquesne losing three hoop transfers, now we hear that the school fired coach Ron Everhart, who’s a pretty good coach. Question begs to be asked, did the transfers know he was getting fired, or was firing the result of the aftermath of the transfers, especially star point guard McConnell leaving?

Duquesne had winning records the last five years; the 12 years before they hired Everhart, they had zero winning seasons.

4) Austin Rivers leaves Duke after one year; kid doesn’t need the money, since his dad makes a few mill a year. This one-and-done stuff is a joke and should end. If kids want to go from high school to the NBA, let them go, and then if they don’t make a roster, let them to come back to college, with stipulation that they can’t go back to the NBA for three years. Would that be unfair?

3) Central Michigan canned coach Ernie Zeigler, which puts the next coach in a tough spot, since the Chippewas’ best player, by far, was Zeigler’s son. Am guessing young Zeigler may test the NBA Draft waters.

2) Minnesota got tremendous news when injured star Trevor Mbakwe was granted a sixth year of eligibility; Gophers could be very good next year, if all the expected returnees do indeed return.

1) Contrast of good/bad franchises; David Carr quietly re-signed as Giants’ backup QB, an easy job, since Eli Manning never gets hurt. Carr gets paid to run the scout team and buy Manning donuts.

Meanwhile, across the parking lot, Jets’ #3 QB Drew Stanton (who??) got himself traded to Indianapolis because of Tebowgate. Been a dismal winter for the Jets; even nobodies demanded to be traded.

Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) While Sean Payton serves his one-year suspension, can he appear on TV? Write for a newspaper/website? He’d be a great get for ESPN or FOX, but not sure what he’s allowed to do. He has to be able to earn a living somehow, though he hopefully doesn’t need the money. I mean if some entity that isn’t involved with the NFL wanted to hire him to do NFL-related commentary, or even analyze college games, would that be OK?

12) Ben Gordon was 9-9 behind arc Wednesday night, scoring 45 points for Detroit; back in 2001, before this website existed, I was an assistant coach for a high school team that was playing in the Final Four of the New York State public high school tournament. We won our semifinal game, and were relieved when Gordon’s Mount Vernon team got beat in the other semifinal. Excellent player. Hard to guard.

11) Buffalo Bills suggested a rule change that would have the replay official upstairs decide on instant replay challenges, much like they do in college ball. Would make for faster replay reviews.

10) Now that Hines Ward has retired from the NFL, he is selling his 12,000 square foot, 8 bedroom, 13 bathroom house, all for a mere $7.5M (hey, it has a pool, too).

9) PGA Tour pretty much scuttled Q School as a way for new players to get on Tour, building up the Nationwide Tour, primarily because they need a sponsor for that tour. Golf will pretty much be year-round now. Not all the details are etched in stone, but Q School will only get guys onto the Nationwide Tour, and guys from that tour will comprise the PGA Tour’s rookie class each year.

8) Denver Nuggets have been a single digit home favorite in 15 games this season, and are 1-12-2 against the spread in those games. That not good.

7) NFL teams that played to the lowest percentage of capacity in their home stadiums last year: Bengals, 75.2%; Dolphins 81%, Redskins, 83.9%, but they have the biggest stadium (in terms of seats. Dallas has more standing room).

6) I know there’s enough basketball on TV in March, but I’d love to see the junior college national tournament, even if someone taped it and showed it during the summer. Lot of future D-I players are playing and it would be enlightening. I know its a high quality of basketball.

5) 25 years ago Providence made the Final Four; Rick Pitino was the coach, Billy Donovan the point guard, Jeff Van Gundy was a graduate assistant. Lot of basketball brains on that bench.

4) This is the first NCAA tournament since 1992 where no 5-seeds made the Sweet 16.

3) Average major league baseball team is worth $605M; only two teams are worth less now than they were LY, the ownership-challenged Mets and the Tampa Bay Rays, whose TV ratings plunged with Carl Crawford off to greener pastures. Rays are another team that needs a new stadium.

2) We talked yesterday about Duquesne losing TJ McConnell, the fine point guard, who is transferring out; apparently the kid isn’t too fond of his teammates, so he left. His dad is tight with Sean Miller’s dad, both being coaches in western PA, so Arizona is a possible destination, and he would help the Wildcats. He'll help no matter where he tranfers to.

1) KL Wheat reports that he bought tickets to the Mets' home opener this week on StubHub and they're cheaper there than they would be at the box office at Citi Field, because of something called a facility charge they put on tickets sold at the ballpark. Terrific.......

Thursday's List of 13: Random thoughts after an odd Wednesday
13) As Wednesdays in March go, this was an amazing day for news; the Jets give up two draft picks for Tim Tebow, guaranteeing that they will own the backpages of the NYC tabloids in August, but will it help them own them in December/January?

12) Roger Goodell put the hammer down on the Saints, suspended Sean Payton for a year, the GM for half a year and the assistant head coach who would’ve taken over for Payton for six games. Saints also lose a couple of second round draft picks, which is a severe penalty.

11) Where do I start? The penalties in New Orleans are as much about lying to the league as they are about the bounties. Moral #1 of story: Don't mess with Roger Goodell. He's serious about protecting the NFL's integrity.

Not serious enough to suspend Bill Belichick for Spygate, though.

10) Drew Brees can't be happy; will the team re-sign him before the GM goes on his half-year suspension? Does he even want to be there anymore?

9) Who will coach the Saints? Who will make personnel decisions? You can divide the head coaching position to an extent, letting the coordinators run just their side of the ball, but who makes the key strategic decisions? Who decides when to go for it, when to use an onside kick? Tough call.

8) As for Tebow, how will the Jets use him? As a Wildcat QB, or as a genuine threat to Mark Sanchez?

They just gave Sanchez a contract extension, so its hard to believe they’re out to undermine him, but they have to know Tebow’s presence will create media mayhem if Sanchez struggles at the start of next season.

7) New York papers have to love this, and what about the NFL schedule makers? Their heads have to be spinning like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist; they're probably adding Jet broadcasts and subtracting Saints broadcasts from the national TV schedule, as we speak.

6) Elsewhere on this strangest of spring days (its not often it is 80 degrees in Albany in March), Shaka Smart shunned Illinois and will stay at VCU. Good for him; he’s happy and you don’t mess with happy.

5) One of the names mentioned for the Illinois job is Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin, who has done well in his two jobs, but has never been in the NCAAs- his Volunteers went scoreless for the last 6:00 Monday, as Middle Tennessee ended the game on an unlikely 15-0 run.

Some of these guys keep getting better jobs without actually achieving anything at their previous stop. In my opinion, Martin owes Tennessee more than the two years he’s worked there; his program is making progress. Bolting for Illinois would be a strange thing to do.

4) Duquesne’s basketball program takes a huge hit with three transfers, including their best player, PG McConnell. Kid’s dad says he loves the coach, but he just wants to play at a higher level. If he loves the coach so much, why did he transfer, making it likely the coach will get fired next year? The A-14 is a pretty high level.

Where this kid winds up is going to be very interesting, because poaching of mid-major players is becoming more prevalent in D-I hoops, and it stinks.

3) Arizona State’s leading scorer is also transferring, but because his mother has been diagnosed with cancer and he wants to be closer to their home in Minnesota. We wish the family well.

2) Nebraska is whiffing badly on their coaching search, having already been turned down by the coaches at Wichita-Colorado-Gonzaga; now they’ve turned their sights on the Colorado State coach, who should stay in Fort Collins one more year, because the Rams will be tough again next season. Nebraska is a bad basketball job; they should’ve kept the coach they had.

1) Seriously, someone needs to explain why Belichick was never suspended for Spygate; if Payton gets a year, spying on your opponent before a Super Bowl has to be worth eight games. At least. The commissioner can talk all he wants about integrity, but blatant cheating went unpunished, at least as far as the head coach of the cheating team was concerned.

But a bounty system opens the NFL to lawsuits from injured players, and the league obviously wants no part of being sued anymore.

As a wise man once said, “If you don’t think its about money, remember: Its always about the money.”

Wednesday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.........
13) 6.45M brackets were entered on ESPN.com; after the first weekend, only three were perfect. Three. Out of 6.45 million.

12) Ohio State played Cincinnati for the national title in basketball in both 1961 and 1962 (Robert M Knight was a Buckeye sub back in those days), but they’ve only played once since, in 2006, with Ohio State winning 72-50 in Mick Cronin’s first year as UC coach. Dick Vitale wrote some stuff on ESPN.com this week saying its Ohio State that doesn't want to play.

11) Four Big East teams are in the Sweet 16, but with three of them being Cincinnati-Louisville-Marquette, it might be more accurate to note that the old Conference USA is having an excellent tournament (had Memphis/ Florida State in, too).

10) You wonder why the 49ers went after Peyton Manning; they just had a great season with Alex Smith at QB- he bonded with his new coach, most every intangible went their way, and they seemed to have a bright future. Question has to be asked; did the pursuit of Manning damage the Harbaugh/ Smith relationship? Smith re-signed with the Niners, and we all know its a business, but some damage had to be done there.

9) How tough are football players? Patriots lineman Logan Mankins unknowingly played in the Super Bowl with a torn ACL; he had it operated on right after, which is why the Pats signed Robert Gallery this week to play some guard next season.

8) Danilo Gallinari broke his thumb Monday, is out 3-4 weeks, which is most of the rest of the regular season, which cripples Denver’s chances of making the playoffs. This is a year where anyone can win the title; just get in the tournament and see what happens, but this injury really hurts the Nuggets.

7) Southern Illinois wants Bruce Weber back as hoop coach, which makes sense- they won a lot when he was there the first time, which is how he got the Illinois gig. He seems like more of an MVC guy than a big-timer, and that’s a compliment. Illinois wants Shaka Smart; no idea what direction they’ll go in if Smart turns them down.

6) Why is Vladimir Guerrero unemployed? Wouldn't the A's be better off with Guerrero at DH and no Coco Crisp/Manny Ramirez, especially since Cespedes is going to play CF? Hard to believe the Bronx baseball team be improved if they had Guerrero as DH, or are they stuck with having to rest their aging stars as DHs every so often?

5) Top free agent pitchers next winter are Matt Cain/Cole Hamels. Both figure to get ridiculously wealthy if they stay healthy this season.

4) Southern Miss revoked the band scholarships of five musicians who hurled racial slurs at a Kansas State player last week; I had no idea band members even got scholarships. Now after seeing Oregon’s cheerleaders, I’m wondering if they get financial aid. Couple of them should.......lol

3) If the NBA playoffs started tomorrow, which they do not, the first round matchups would be:
East: Knicks @ Bulls; Celtics @ Heat; Pacers @ 76ers; Hawks @ Magic.
West: Rockets @ Thunder; Nuggets @ Spurs; Mavs @ Clippers; Grizzlies @ Lakers.

2) In the NHL, same scenario, matchups would be:
East: Washington-Rangers; Ottawa-Boston; New Jersey-Florida; Philly-Pittsburgh.
West, Kings-St Louis; Colorado-Vancouver; Chicago-Dallas and Detroit-Nashville.

1) Not a lot of enthusiasm for the Metropolitans in the Big Apple. Lousy ownership does that to a fanbase. Mets haven’t sold out their home opener yet. Think even the A’s and Pirates sell out the home opener.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........
13) Its funny how the biggest winner in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes might be the Jaguars’ ticket office, since it probably means the Broncos will trade Tebow to northern Florida, where he is a god.

Not sure if its good news for the Jags’ new coach, since he will be stuck with a project QB who is extremely popular with the home fans, and will spur a big boost in ticket sales, but isn't an accurate passer.

First big decision for the Jags' new owner, Shahid Khan.

12) 25% of the Sweet head coaches, that’s four out of 16, were student managers, not players in college. Mick Cronin/Scott Drew are coach’s sons; Tom Crean/Buzz Williams are the other two. I mention this because that’s how I put myself through college, and yes, it makes me feel good to see guys like that succeed.

11) Jamaal Tinsley is a 34-year old NBA veteran trying to extend his career as long as he can; he hadn’t been playing much for the Jazz, so as part of his game day training regimen, he ran twice a day before the game, runs totaling nine miles. That’s the kind of dedication it takes to be a professional.

10) Over the last five years, Georgetown is 2-4 in the NCAA tournament; teams they beat were 14-15 seeds; teams they lost to were 10-11-11-14 seeds. Not an impressive record there.

9) Manager of sportsbook at Ceaser’s Palace said the book made $300,000 Sunday, just on the Cincinnati-Florida State game, as bettors tried to get even with the last game of the weekend.

8) Godson update; my godson is a college pitcher for a Division II team; this is his second year. He did well last year (allowed five hits in 63 AB) so we’re continuing his updates this season.

So far in three appearances, he’s allowed two hits, two walks and a run in four IP, with three strikeouts. He’s a lefty reliever and he might have a future in the game, if he keeps working at it. Seven kids from the league he plays in got drafted by the pros last spring.

7) If you go to spring training games in Florida, you can go see the Rays for as little as $9. If you go to see the Bronox Bombers play, tickets range from $20 to $40, for spring training games in a minor league park.

6) Rays’ OF Sam Fuld’s mom is a state senator from New Hampshire.

5) College basketball is such a long season. Cincinnati Bearcats are in the Sweet 16, their season is now a rousing success, but back on Nov 19, when they lost at home to Presbyterian, things weren’t looking quite as rosy. Lot can change in a couple months.

4) NC State coach Mark Gottfried was seen on camera celebrating with his players when the Wolfpack were shown as an 11 seed in the tournament. For the kids, it was their first shot at March Madness. For Gottfried, in addition to this season becoming a full-blown success, it meant he also bagged a $1.5M bonus. Not a bad day’s work.

3) Hard to believe that VCU scored on only two of its last 16 possessions Saturday. They had Indiana by the throat but let them get away, much to Kentucky’s delight. Wildcats will be out for revenge Friday night.

2) Mets’ ownership settled the Madoff case for $162M, very bad news for Met fans, since it means the inept Wilpons will likely stay in charge of the team. They’re both corrupt and stupid, always an excellent combination.

1) Seriously, how happy is John Fox today? He looked like a genius the way he milked a playoff spot out of the Broncos last year, now he gets handed Peyton Manning, supposedly healthy as ever. Rest of the AFC West can’t be very freakin’ happy.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.........
13) North Carolina easily beat a defense-less Creighton team, but in process lost its point guard, as Kendall Marshall broke his wrist on a fall midway in the second half. He is scheduled to be operated on Monday. Hard to believe he could play next weekend. Big loss for the Tar Heels.

12) Reality set in for a Norfolk State team that celebrated a little too much after upsetting Missouri. Spartans got shredded by Florida 84-50; it was an ugly 47-19 at halftime. Missouri people must've loved seeing that.

11) The other 15-seed to win Friday was Lehigh- they led Xavier 35-20 in the first half, but ran out of gas, missed 19 of 22 treys and got beat 70-58, the first game they lost by double figures all season.

#15 seeds that pulled first round upsets are now 0-6 in second round games, 1-4-1 against the spread.

10) Saint Louis fought their hearts out against Michigan State, but you can not shoot 35.3% (7-25 from arc) and win; Billikens did Tom Izzo one big favor by beating a Memphis team that was talented enough to beat State.

9) NC State took a long time last spring when they hired a new hoop coach; from everything we read, Mark Gottfried was nowhere near their top pick for the job, but he got the job and now everyone is happy. State is in the Sweet 16 despite shooting 37% from the floor, 19-31 from the line, beating Georgetown 66-63. Henry Sims' foul trouble doomed the Hoyas.

8) Florida State's mediocre guards doomed them down the stretch, as they were outscored 13-6 over the last 1:45, and lost 62-56 to the Bearcats. Was an excellent year, disappointing end for Leonard Hamilton's Seminoles.

7) We don't seee enough MAC basketball on ESPN; teams are athletic and play a fun style. Ohio Bobcats beat South Florida 62-56, the first team in dozen games to score 60+ against the Bulls. Now Ohio plays a UNC squad that won't have a D-I quality point guard playing with Marshall out.

Ohio is first MAC team in Sweet 16 in ten years; last team was Kent State, coached by Stan Heath, the coach Ohio beat Sunday.

Quick question: what does CBS do with Clark Kellogg if Ohio makes it to the Final Four with his son on the team? No way he could broadcast their game and be anything close to impartial.

6) Indiana's last-second shot that beat Kentucky in December was shown on ESPN so much that John Calipari actually thanked them for pissing off the guys on his team. We'll see the rematch in Atlanta this week; Atlanta, by the way, is SEC country. Kentucky fans call it Cat-lanta.

5) New Mexico's loss Saturday night left the Sweet 16 without any teams in the Mountain or Pacific time zones.

4) Four of the Sweet 16 are from Ohio; Cincinnati-Ohio State play next, and Ohio U/Xavier also advanced. Big weekend for the Buckeye State.

3) Conference breakdown: 16 teams left-- four each from Big East and Big Dozen; two each from ACC, SEC and Big X. One each from MAC/A-14. Three double digit seeds made it this far. .

2) When the dust cleared after an outstanding weekend of basketball, out of 48 games, favorites were 23-23-2 against the spread; 16-15-1 in first round, 7-8-1 in second round. Tremendous entertainment.

1) Read interesting article this weekend on how Indiana coach Tom Crean decided how to tweak his program after doing prep work for being on TV during last year's tournament-- Hoosiers reduced their foul rate from #333 to #114 in country, and won a hell of a lot more games. Of course, Zeller was a big reason why, too. At the end of any day, players win games.

Sunday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday.........
13) VCU went up 57-48 on Indiana with 12:20 left; I'm sitting there trying to figure out when this tournament turned into a Shaka-thon, but then the Rams stopped scoring points. VCU was outscored 15-4 over the last 12:20 by an Indiana team whose point guard blew his knee out last week, so we will be deluged this week by tons of Kentucky-Indiana stories. Teams play in Atlanta next week, in a rematch of their December thriller at Indiana.

12) Indiana is in the Sweet 16 for the first time in ten years.

11) Kansas State's Jamar Samuels was held out of Saturday's 75-59 loss to Syracuse because his AAU coach gave him $200; are you kidding? School is protecting itself from using an ineligible player and forfeiting the $1M+ they get for playing this March, but its ridiculous to suspend a kid for this, it just totally lacks common sense. Thats politics for you.

10) One quick question that bears asking: How did anyone find out about the $200? Did the kid post it on Facebook?

9) Ohio State didn't get a point from its bench in 27 minutes, but the five Ohio State starters scored enough to fend off Gonzaga, 73-66. Best game I've seen John Stockton's son play for the Zags.

8) 49ers got suckered into signing Mario Manningham to a 2-year contract, and they're now involved in the Peyton Manning drama, after they signed Randy Moss. Wow, imagine if they didn't go 13-3 last year? Its very hard to believe they would jettison Alex Smith after his great 2011 season.

7) So I'm watching games in a teletheater where they also have horse racing; there is this horrible accident in the 11th race at Gulfstream; hope all of the jockeys are OK. Couple of them might've been trampled by a horse or two.

6) Andy Pettitte is coming back, again? Does this mean the Bronx Bombers are deperate for pitching, or does Pettitte's family like his paychecks more than it likes to be around him all summer?

5) Used to be that when a shot hit back of the rim, it had zero chance to go into the basket; heard an explanation why shots occasionally hit the back of the rim and fall in-- think ESPN's Dan Dakich explained it. They changed the makeup of the basketball a few years ago, it is softer now, so once in a great while, shots take a weird bounce and go in when they shouldn't. Just wish it wasn't always when the other team was shooting.....lolol

4) Would love to know why Vanderbilt center Festus Ezili didn't start for the Commodores; he sat out for first 4:00, and Vandy fell behind 7-2. As it turns out, they only caught the Badgers once, and lost by 3 points. Hope it was some hideous crime the kid committed to end the season and the kid's career for. But how bad could it be, since he only sat out less than 4:00?

3) So Iowa State makes a run early in second half to tie Kentucky 42-42; next thing you know, Wildcats are back up by 18 points. Wow are they an explosive team!!!! Cyclones played well, didn't shoot it very well and lost by 16. Fred Hoiberg did a nice job reviving the ISU program this winter; he becomes a lot smarter if Royce White comes back to Ames in the fall.

2) Its interesting to watch games without sound; you get a real feel for how much contact these officials let go, especially in March. There are certain refs, though who love to call the charge, and so they have kids flopping like dead squirrels all game long. Terrific. Kids with less talent win because they can fall down well, and the refs reward them for it. Its not basketball.

1) After Sunday's game, we''ll be down to 16 teams and I'll have a headache to take to work Monday morning. Been a fun three days of basketball this weekend; wonder how Norfolk State/Lehigh will do Sunday?

Saturday's List of 13: Wrapping up a basketball Friday.........
After going 9-6-1 Thursday, favorites went 7-9 on a bizarre Friday that will go down as one of the memorable days in tournament history.

-- Mainstream media is obsessed with Duke, but fact is, Norfolk State was a 21.5-point underdog against Missouri, nine points more than Lehigh was in its game with Duke. The Norfolk State win was a much bigger upset, the biggest pointspread upset in NCAA tournament history.

-- South Florida beat Temple 58-44, despite missing 22 straight shots at one point in the first half. Yes, they didn't score for 10:43 and they still won by 14- thats how good USF's defense in. They're also unwatchable; in this day and age, its unusual for a good team to be so poor on offense.

-- LIU went right at Michigan State and predictably lost by 22. Last year they lost 102-87 to North Carolina, so they're a good bet for the over.

-- The winningest basketball coach in Lehigh history has 112 wins; guy named Tony Packer. You may have heard of his son. Billy Packer. Last thing about Lehigh; how did the McCollum kid not get recruited by MAC or Atlantic 14 team? He's a terrific guard at any level.

-- St Mary's had the ball up one in last minute when their inbounder ran the baseline after a violation, which isn't allowed. That was a turnover the Gaels never recovered from, and it cost them the game against Purdue.

-- Creighton had trouble with Alabama's athleticism late in first half, trailed 30-23 and looked beat at halftime, but young McDermott picked up his game and the Bluejays gutted out a 58-57 win over a Crimson Tide club that missed defensive stopper Mitchell.

-- When Creighton plays North Carolina Sunday, it'll re-unite two high school teammates; UNC's Barnes and Creighton's McDermott, whose dad was the Iowa State coach back then. Strangest thing is that two kids like that were in Ames, IA and the Cyclones didn't get either one of them, yet Iowa State still has a very good team now.

-- If any of you know how to get one of the bracket ties that Craig Seger was wearing Friday, let me know. I'd like to buy one.

-- Xavier outscored Notre Dame 18-4 on foul line, rallied from down 10 in second half to nip the Irish, 67-63. ESPN's Bob Valvano had this game down pat last Monday on The Experts; he said Xavier would win.

-- Texas was down 19 in first half, fought hard to tie game 52-52, but fell behind as soon as they tied the game and lost 65-59 to Cincinnati in one of those tense games between middle seed teams from BCS conferences.

-- St Bonaventure played their hearts out but couldn't finish Florida State off, losing 66-63 in a pretty good game. Bonnies jumped out to a 7-0 lead, led by six at the half, but the Seminoles were too tough to beat.

-- Georgetown's Henry Sims is my new favorite player; I love big guys who can pass the ball, and Sims plays a little like Vlade Divac used to when the Sacramento Kings were real good. Hoyas are a smart team that shares the ball really well. Fun to watch.

-- John Henson was in a suit for North Carolina, which means he's probably out for Sunday too; if Henson doesn't get healthy, Tar Heels aren't going to win the national title.

-- Watched most of Ohio's upset of Michigan; not really sure to say about it, other than John Groce is a former Ohio State assistant, so folks at OSU will be happy, as they are any time Michigan loses. Bobcats shot 51% and Wolverines were just 7-23 from the arc. If you didn't know and were just watching the game, you wouldn't have had a clue it was an upset.

-- Rick Majerus is now 11-1 in NCAA first round games after slipping past Memphis 61-54. Going to be a long summer for Tiger coach Pastner and Missouri coach Haith after their first round losses Friday.

-- Kansas and Florida won easily; Gators find themselves with a spunky group of Norfolk State Spartans standing between them and a Sweet 16 spot, which I'm sure no one had even considered a possibility.

Friday's List of 13: Wrapping up a basketball Thursday.......
-- Not the greatest day of basketball Thursday, but VCU-Wichita State was a fun game; UNLV made a wild comeback in the last game of the day but fell short against Colorado, and gutty NC-Asheville got hosed by those refs in a tight loss to #1 seed Syracuse.

Favorites went 6-1-1 vs spread in afternoon games, then dogs went 5-3 vs spread in the night games, so favorites were 9-6-1 for the day.

-- Murray State held Colorado State to 17 second half points, pulling away late from the Rams 58-41. Murray didn't shoot well, 39% from floor, 13-26 from foul line, but they advanced because of their defense.

-- Southern Miss led 45-40 with 12:20 left, but Kansas State played better from that point on and beat the Golden Eagles, 70-64, and now moves on to face #1 seed Syracuse in an interesting second round game. K-State needs to lose the gray uniforms; they look awful on TV.

-- Louisville beat Davidson by 7, despite going just 1-5 behind the arc, the least made 3's by a winning team in the tournament since Boston College in 2004. Cardinals play New Mexico next, a fascinating game.

-- Montana got a bad matchup when they drew Wisconsin in first round, as Badgers do lot of same things Montana does, but with bigger athletes; Griz had a great year, but it ended rudely with a 73-49 loss to Wisconsin. .

-- BYU got down 15 at the half again Thursday, just like Tuesday's game in Dayton, but this time they were playing a Marquette team that defends, so the Cougars went down meekly, 88-68. Jae Crowder had 17 points and ten rebounds.........at the half. He's a tremendous player.

-- Syracuse sleepwalked thru a 72-65 win over NC-Asheville, thanks to some dubious officiating down the stretch. Bulldogs are 7th #16 seed to lead the #1 seed at halftime, but none of them won. Syracuse-Kansas State will be a test of how much the Orange misses Fab Melo.

-- Kendall Williams hit a trey with 4:43 left to put New Mexico up 62-61, a lead they never relinquished, as the Lobos beat Long Beach State 75-68 in one of the better games of the day. New Mexico blocked seven shots, and that interior defense made the difference.

-- Vanderbilt shot 54%, made 8-18 from arc, and dispatched Harvard 79-70 as Vandy shook off the ghosts of upsets past. Most Ivy League teams hit a lot of 3-pointers, but Harvard isn't like that. Commodores had trouble with the Harvard pressure late in game, but they play slow-paced Wisconsin in the next round, so no worries about a press there.

-- South Dakota State got off to a 19-7 lead on enigmatic Baylor, but their star player Nate Wolters got his second foul with 10:02 left in the half, and the game swung from that point on. Jackrabbits have four starters who hit 40%+ from the arc, but were just 10-30 in this game.

-- Western Kentucky ended the game on a 16-1 run, but that was after the cow was out of the barn, as Kentucky built a 45-26 halftime lead and easily beat the Hilltoppers, 81-66. Only people who enjoyed WKU's late run were the investors who took WKU +26.5.

-- Wichita State has to be bitterly disappointed in losing 62-59 to a young VCU team that beat the Shockers 68-67 LY in a Bracket Busters game. In this game, Wichita State went scoreless for the last 2:09 of the game, after grabbing a 59-58 lead.

-- West Virginia has a very young team that just hit the wall late in the year; they were awful Thursday, falling behind 27-10 in an ugly 77-54 loss. Just wasn't a good season for the Mountaineers- Gonzaga drilled them in front of a pro-Mountaineer crowd in Pittsburgh.

-- Ohio State outrebounded Loyola 45-23 and beat the Greyhounds easily, 78-59. Worst Buckeye news of day was Greg Oden getting cut in the NBA by the Trailblazers. OSU didn't play that well in this game, but then again, they didn't have to.

-- Iowa State raced out to a 34-14 lead over UConn, saw lead shrink to six with 7:00 left, but they pulled away again and beat the defending champs 77-64, outrebounding the Huskies 37-20, holding them to 38% shooting.

-- Indiana's players are just more polished than New Mexico State's, inside moreso than on the perimeter. Hoosiers shot 59%, made 7-13 from the arc and won by 13, even though the Aggies shot 55% from the floor. Could be the best game Saturday will be VCU-Indiana.

-- UNLV was down 20 against Colorado, made a furious rally but fell short, losing 68-64 on a night where they were a hideous 9-36 behind the arc. As soon as Colorado got ahead, Rebels seemed to panic and their shot selection became truly awful. They need a better point guard next year.

Thursday's List of 13: Random stuff with best weekend of year here
13) What a year the Knicks are having; first the depressing start, then the Jeremy Lin-led resurgence, now the Carmelo Anthony-fueled funk that has resulted in coach Mike D’Antoni “resigning” (guys don’t really resign, because you don’t get paid if you quit, and no one walks away from that much money). What a disaster.

No wonder they haven’t won a title since 1973. D’Antoni should’ve hired Tonya Harding to take out Anthony with a tire iron, then he’d still have his job. Letting the inmates run the asylum has never been and never will be the right way to do things.

12) Two wild comebacks Tuesday in Dayton; Western Kentucky rallied to win after being down 16 with 4:57 left, then BYU coming back from down 25 to stun Iona. The first game was simply horrendous basketball, but the Hilltoppers gutted it out and get a win. The second game was fascinating; Iona looked awesome for 17:00, then just stopped doing good things—its almost like they punched themselves out and had nothing left for the end.

11) First Four has a definite JV/Varsity feel to it; how bad is the rest of the SWAC if Mississippi Valley went thru the league with only one loss?

10) Loyola Md. coach Jimmy Patsos was once a volunteer assistant coach, earning his money by being a bartender in the Georgetown section of Washington. Not many characters left in college coaching; its become very corporate, but Patsos is undoubtedly a character, and a very good coach. Loyola was 1-27 the year before he took them over.

9) Nebraska has won five national titles in football, but they’ve never one NCAA tournament basketball game. Very curious to see who they hire to replace Doc Sadler, who was making $900,000 as Huskers’ coach, which is low by Big Dozen standards.

8) Greg Schiano had trouble assembling a coaching staff, but he didn’t have any trouble landing free agents, getting three in the first day free agents could sign. Getting Carl Nicks gives Tampa Bay one of NFL’s best guards, and it hurts the division rival Saints at the same time.

7) Raider fans don’t want to be reminded Detroit drafted Calvin Johnson with the pick right after Oakland drafted QB bust JaMarcus Russell. Its not often a prize QB prospect is out of the league as quick as Russell was gone.

6) TCU coach Jim Christian is trying hard for Rhode Island job, knowing the Horned Frogs are going to get their butts kicked when they move up to the Big 12 next year. Christian worked hard to get TCU respectable in the Mountain West and as soon as he did, they switched leagues again, driven by football. Rhode Island is a basketball school.

5) In case you were wondering, the Division I average for making 3-pointers this season is 34.3%.

4) First round games I’m most interested in watching: Creighton-Alabama and Saint Louis-Memphis.

3) So when exactly did Fab Melo become ineligible? Did the school sit on his ineligibility until after the Big East tournament and after the brackets were announced, so the committee wouldn’t knock the Orange down a couple seed lines? It’s a fair question.

2) My Final Four picks: Vanderbilt-Kentucky-North Carolina-Louisville.

1) This is my favorite weekend of the year; just disappear, watch basketball for four days. Nothing else. Hope you enjoy all the games too. If you see me out watching games, say hello.

Wednesday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud..........
13) Kansas State is favored by 5.5 points over Southern Miss, the biggest pointspread in an 8-9 game since Auburn was 6-point favorite over San Diego way back in 1987.

12) Over last three NCAA tournaments, ACC teams have been underdog in 7 of 17 first round games; from 2003-08, ACC teams were favored in all 30 of their first round games.

11) Why are all the ACC teams playing Friday? Doesn’t matter, but its just seems a little odd. By the way, BYU had to play in the Tuesday play-in game because they can't play in Friday/Sunday bracket because they're not allowed to play games on Sundays.

10) Butler is interested in replacing Temple in the Atlantic 14, now that the Owls are off to the Big East. That would be a big blow to the Horizon League, but the Bulldogs should be careful.

20 years ago, LaSalle dominated the MAAC, with future NBA players Lionel Simmons and Randy Woods; they yearned for a bigger pond, and moved up to the A-14, but they’ve seldom been seen since. Sometimes its more fun to be the big fish in a smaller pond, especially in March.

9) South Dakota State is one of the few D-I teams that doesn’t have a coach with D-I playing experience; their head coach played D-II and only one of the three assistants played college hoop, and he played D-III. Just goes to show you that playing/coaching are two different things.

8) Anyone know why the Indians/Reds train in Arizona? Seems like Florida would be more convenient for the Ohio teams.

7) Charlotte’s 73-71 win at New Orleans Monday night was least amount of points a winning NBA team has scored since 2008.

6) Reggie Bush has earned $43,219,860 in his NFL career. Think about that for a second. Pretty staggering number.

5) Finally had a Five Guys hamburger; golf guru Hank Haney has been pumping up Five Guys on Twitter for months, and they just put one in the mall near my house, so I tried it the other day-- they are indeed very good.

4) So the Knicks are 4-13 in last 17 games that Carmelo Anthony played more than 6 minutes; they won seven of the last eight games he didn’t play, but when a scapegoat is identified for the Knicks’ current skid, its going to be the coach, who was just fine when the team played better defense and the ball moved better on offense, in other words, when Anthony was hurt.

Firing D’Antoni would be both stupid and typical of how the Knicks do business. Trading Anthony, even at a loss, would represent a bold and smarter way of going about their business.

3) Oft-injured Nick Johnson has resurfaced with the Orioles, where he could be a big help as a DH, if they can keep him healthy.

2) Randy Moss a 49er? Excellent. As a Ram fan, always like your rivals to add as many cancerous individuals as humanly possible. A passing combo of Alex Smith to Moss is not going to end well for them.

1) South Carolina and SMU fired their basketball coaches Tuesday, as schools not basking in the glow of March Madness try to find the coach who can lead their team there. Gamecocks are in same division with Calipari/Donovan, so it’s a really hard job—even Vanderbilt is good in basketball, and SEC people aren’t exactly known for being patient.

Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall is said to be Carolina’s #1 choice. SMU is headed for the Big East for football reasons; they’re in Dallas where there are a lot of players- they should do better than they’ve been doing.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but.........
13) Coaches generally get fired for losing, but Tulsa just fired Doug Wojcik for not winning enough, in other words, not making the NCAA tournament, which in turn hurt ticket sales. Wojcik is a high-quality person who played at the Naval Academy with David Robinson. Tulsa’s sports programs are in limbo because of the conference-juggling that’s going on- they haven’t found their landing spot yet. Don’t see how firing Wojcik helps them at all.

12) Tulsa has been burned in past by coaches leaving for greener pastures: Tubby Smith, Bill Self, Buzz Peterson. Next time that happens, we’ll think about Wojcik before we criticize the coach who bolts.

11) Over the last two NCAA tournaments, first round favorites of 3 or less points are 6-19 against spread. Lower seeded teams that are favored are 0-5.

10) Over last three tournaments, single-digit first round favorites are 15-42 against the spread. Maybe that’s why the spreads this March seems so much lower than usual.

9) More than 70% of the rum sold in this country comes from Puerto Rico.

8) Must be nice to be rich; had Eldrick Woods gutted out the last seven holes Sunday and played par golf, he stood to make $76,000. That’s more than I make in a year. For the record, his last drive went 321 yards.

7) Sergio Garcia got a 12 on a par-4 hole Sunday. Freakin’ 12. Not good.

6) Packer backup QB Matt Flynn is now a free agent, and will cash in as soon as the Peyton Manning drama is resolved. Browns/Miami/Seahawks all whiffed on Manning, so they’ll be in the market for Flynn, who dazzled in his only two NFL starts.

5) Mets have five guys out with oblique injuries, so now they’re reviewing their daily workout program. Brilliant. Here’s a hint fellas; too much weightlifting.

4) Big X hasn’t had a Final Four team since Kansas won national title four years ago. Jayhawks/Missouri are expected to get there this time around.

3) Long Beach State is a popular darkhorse this month, but the Big West hasn’t won a tournament game since Pacific won first round games in both 2004/2005, and New Mexico is a tough draw for the 49ers.

2) I’ve had a theory for a few years that CBS does some handicapping of its own when they pick TV times for games; for instance, I don’t think they put games they think are potential upsets on in the afternoon, they want those games for prime time, which is why I’m surprised the Harvard-Vandy game is a 4:40 tipoff. Lot of wealthy alums from Harvard, which hasn’t been in the tournament since 1946, and they’ve got a pretty good team- fully expected that to be a 10pm tipoff.

1) Teams that took lot of investment action as soon as the lines came out Sunday night:
UConn, opened +1.5, now -2
Alabama, opened +2, now -1.5.
Michigan State, opened -17.5, now -20
Belmont, opened +6.5, got bet down to +4
Kansas opened -12, got bet up to -15.

Monday's List of 13: First impressions of the Field of 68........
13) I don't get involved much in the debate over seeding; just getting in the field of 68 is a great opportunity, but I always feel bad if a team gets left out of the tournament that deserves to be in. Drexel is 25-2 in its last 27 games, but a non-conference schedule that wasn't ranked in the top 200 doomed them to an NIT bid. Too bad for them.

12) CBS does this every year, because they can; the announcement of the teams gets stretched out to about 45 minutes, so they can sell commercial time and make money, which is their job. Problem is, people's jobs rely on their making the tournament. Keeping them hanging while you wait on the brackets being announced borders on cruelty.

They showed the South Florida team before the last region was revealed; I've seen happier funerals. Luckily the Bulls got in, so their mood got lot better very quickly, but it had to be a long hour for them.

11) Wisconsin-Montana are lot alike, except Griz are more athletic- they really are. Both teams have big guys who can shoot the 3. This will be an interesting game.

10) South Dakota State has four guys who shoot 40% from arc; over last nine years, Summit League teams are 0-9 in round of 64 (Oakland won a play-in game in '05), with Oakland's 85-81 loss to Texas LY only loss by less than ten points. Jackrabbits play Baylor in Albuquerque Thursday.

9) Contrasting styles when Creighton plays Alabama; Crimson Tide beat Wichita State of MVC by 10 in November- they're ranked in top ten in country in defense. Creighton leads nation in eFG%, which counts made 3-pointers as 1.5 made baskets in computing field goal percentage- they are a great offensive team.

8) Iona played a home game November 28; their next home game was on January 6. In between, they played 11 road games and a neutral court tilt with conference rival Siena. Gaels lost by 19 at Marshall, which has to be puzzled why they didn't make the tournament (beat Cincinnati, split pair with Belmont, went 9-7 in its league). Anyway Iona has a play-in game with BYU- they could be this season's VCU.

7) Surprised that 23-11 Lamar got sent to a play-in game; Cardinals have the most experienced team in America, even if their coach doesn't like the seniors, as he very publicly said three weeks ago. UT-San Antonio from the Southland won a play-in game LY.

6) The Midwest #6 seed has lost SU in the first round six of last seven years; that "cursed" spot goes to San Diego State this year (NC State).

Last four years, #12 seeds are 7-9 SU against #5 seeds. Harvard will be a fashionable choice to upset Vanderbilt, since the Commodores have lost as a 4-4-5 seed, just in the last four seasons. Not a great record.

5) Gonzaga can't be thrilled with being a 7-seed but having to travel east to Pittsburgh to face West Virginia, which will very much be a road game for the Bulldogs. Mountaineers have struggled down the stretch scoring at the end of games- other than Jones, they're limited on offense.

4) 25-9 Norfolk State is interesting; they lost to Marquette by 31 in their season opener, then played them again a week later and lost by 2; any 15 seed that loses to Marquette by a hoop is a dangerous team.

3) Memphis is so much more athletic than Saint Louis, but Billikens are a top 20 defensive team and have one of the game's best tacticians in Rick Majerus. Memphis won 20 of last 23 games after starting season 6-5.

2) Florida State went 4-1 vs Duke/North Carolina this year, first team in 16 years (Ga Tech/1996) with four wins in same season vs UNC/Duke, but they also went 0-2 vs Ivy League teams. Interesting to see how the Seminoles do against St Bonaventure, surprise winners of A-14 tourney.

1) Davidson beat Kansas back on December 19, so Louisville better not fall asleep against the well-coached Wildcats, who played the #9 schedule during the non-conference season.

All in all, it should be a fun month. Enjoy the games.........

Sunday's List of 13: Random stuff on Selection Sunday..........
13) I've been a Ram fan long enough that the great George Allen coached the team when I started, way back in 1966. Allen always traded his draft picks; well, the guy who just gave the Rams three picks to move down to the #6 slot in next month's dratt was Bruce Allen, George's son.

12) In other good news for the teams I root for, Yeonis Cespedes drilled a HR in his first spring training game; its only spring training, but its also better than making outs in spring training games. Looks like we may have found a #3 hitter for that new ballpark in San Jose (wishful thinking).

11) We need more MAC games on TV; great fun. Akron has now played in six consecutive MAC title games; they lost in OT in 2010, won in OT LY, then lost by a point last night. Highly competitive league. Lot of good athletes, more entertaining than watching 50-44 games.

10) "We had to overcome a lot of foul trouble, we had to fight through a lot of different things in the game, but our kids never quit. I just think of how proud I am of our guys. We've come a long way and we have gotten a lot better." NC State coach Mark Gottfried's tactful way of saying that they got hosed by refs and deserve to get into the NCAA tournament.

9) Michigan State's win over Wisconsin was their first win in a semi-final game of the Big Dozen tournament in the last decade (1-6).

8) Last time Duke didn't play in ACC final was 2008, when Blue Devils beat Belmont by a point as a 20-point first round favorite, then lost in the second round to West Virginia. Just a little historical perspective.

7) So Pat Knight's Lamar team wins the Southland tournament, then he's on TV saying "I knew they'd respond" to his throwing his players under the bus a few weeks ago. Coaches have to have their players' backs, thats their freakin' job. Knight has clearly shown that he doesn't, but just like his dad, winning makes everything better. Until you don't win, that is.

6) Dick Vitale was touting Duke assistant Chris Collins for the coaching job at Illinois; since when is a top 25 school an entry-level coaching job? Coach K's coaching tree isn't exactly filled with success stories. Let young Collins go win some games/make some mistakes at a mid-major before he is ready for the bigtime. Just like Steve Alford did.

5) Speaking of Alford, his New Mexico Lobos won the Mountain West tournament for first time in seven years, beating San Diego State. They're a good team that shouldn't be easily dismissed from your brackets.

5) I don't know Jay Bilas, don't know anyone who knows him, just hear him a lot on TV, but he comes across as a condescending, pompous guy who thinks he knows everything. He's much more likeable when he's on with McDonough/Raftery, but I won't miss not hearing him again until next basketball season.

4) Missouri has seven scholarship players; three of them got banged up in the Big X tournament this weekend; not serious injuries, but enough that they were limping around some. Caution is advised with advancing a very thin Mizzou squad to the Final Four, especially if they draw a Thursday first round game. They could use another day to rest up.

3) Long Beach State avenged a pair of losses to UCSB in the last couple Big West tournament finals, beating the Gauchos 77-64. 49ers have some seniors who have played lot of tough games over last three years. 49ers are in tournament for first time since 2007.

2) Bubble teams will be rooting like hell against St Bonaventure Sunday, as the Bonnies face Xavier in the A-14 final. Musketeers might already be in; the Bonnies definitely are not, so they could steal a bid.

1) Last game of night was WAC final from Vegas, where New Mexico St outclassed Louisiana Tech 80-57, getting back to NCAAs for second time in last three years- they scared the hell out of Michigan State in 2010.

Saturday's List of 13: Wrapping up a Sports Friday.........
13) Tough night for the Silver State, as UNLV lost 72-67 to New Mexico in the MWC tourney, after jumping out to a 12-0 lead after two minutes. At least the Rebels will still make the NCAA tournament.

12) Crosstown at the Orleans Arena, 26-6 Nevada lost to Louisiana Tech 78-73 and is now headed to a disappointing berth in the NIT.

11) Colorado will face Arizona in the Pac-12 title game in Buffaloes' first season in the league; Buffs upset Cal for second time, 70-59.

10) Cal-Santa Barbara has beaten Long Beach State in last two Big West tournament finals; the two teams meet again in this year's final. 49ers beat UCSB twice this season, but this is the one that matters most.

9) Its an old Metro Conference matchup in Big East final, as Cincinnati faces Louisville; Bearcats lead wire-to-wire in beating Syracuse, 71-68. Cardinals beat Notre Dame, who have never played in a Big East final.

8) Atlantic 14 is wide-open after top seed Temple went down to UMass; Xavier came back from down 10 at half to beat rival Dayton, 70-69.

7) For first time ever, all four top seeds made the semifinals of the Big Dozen tournament, with Michigan needing OT to nip Minnesota, 73-69.

6) Baylor beat Kansas for first time in three tries 81-72; they're playing Missouri in the Big X final, in the Tigers' last conference game before they bolt to the SEC next season.

5) Marshall showed no ill effects from winning in triple OT Thursday, as they beat Southern Miss 73-62 and will face Memphis Saturday morning for the C-USA title, playing for the fourth day in a row.

4) Ole Miss sent Tennessee to the NIT with an OT win over the Vols; Rebels play Vandy next, a team that beat them 102-76 during the season.

3) Ohio-Akron is the MAC final, as top two seeds advanced with pair of wins by a total of seven points.

2) Illinois fired Bruce Weber, Nebraska canned Doc Sadler, as coaching carousel begins to spin faster. Weber will find a new coaching job quickly if he wants one. The Nebraska job ain't an easy one; we'll find out how committed they are to basketball with their new hire.

1) Did I mention my Rams got two #1's and a #2 pick to move down four spots in the draft? Tremendous move by new GM Les Snead.

Friday's List of 13: Wrapping up a basketball Thursday........
13) Louisville scored 84 points despite shooting 37.7% from the floor in a 84-71 win over Marquette, which turned ball over 26 times. Cardinals had 23 offensive rebounds and nine blocked shots.

12) Its tiring listening to ESPN announcers shilling for the Big East every game; when Central Florida/SMU/Houston are in the league next season, are they still going to tell us how great every team is? South Florida has a winning conference record, but they're a horrible offensive team. Letting Pitt/Syracuse get away will eventually be regarded as a huge mistake.

11) Pac-12 tournament doesn't draw well in LA, so looks like its going to be at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas next season, which would make them the fourth league to play a conference tournament in Vegas.

10) Referee Karl Hess is working the Big East tournament; refs at ACC tournament in Atlanta were wearing "KH" on their shoes Thursday, so it looks like Hess was banished to NYC as punishment for the kerfuffle at NC State a few weeks ago, when Hess tossed a couple Wolfpack alumni out of the arena for heckling him. Alumni who played in the NBA.

9) Illinois didn't take any foul shots Thursday in a game they lost 64-61, game Illini led by 4 at the half. ESPN researchers said they're first team from a BCS league in at least fifteen years to play conference tournament game and not shoot a foul shot.

8) Erratic Washington lost 86-84 to Oregon State, making 12-26 on foul line. Beavers were just 17-32. You wonder why our Olympic team can't win the gold medal much anymore? Our kids don't shoot the ball or pass the ball as well as kids from other countries. Simple as that. Its getting to be all dribble penetration, ball screens and pick 'n roll.

7) Game of the Day was definitely in Memphis, where Marshall beat Tulsa 105-100 in triple OT, in a game where nine players fouled out and 101 free throws were taken. Tulsa took 58 foul shots and lost. Of course they missed 18 of them. Marshall plays Southern Miss Friday; the Eagles won in OT too, 81-78 over East Carolina.

6) Cal-State Fullerton handed Long Beach State its first conference loss on Saturday, then went out and laid an egg on Thursday, losing to Cal-Irvine in the first round of the Big West tournament. That not good.

5) Then there is Texas-Arlington, which went 17-1 in the Southland, but lost by 20 to McNeese State in the conference semifinals. McNeese now plays Pat Knight's Lamar Cardinals for the league championship, after Knight ripped his team publicly for being screw-ups off the court. .

4) Arizona outscored UCLA 31-10 from the foul line in its 66-58 win at the Pac-12 tournament. Very few teams looked like they were having less fun than this year's Bruins. Have a nice summer.

3) The noise you heard during the last few minutes of Notre Dame's win over South Florida was James Naismith turning over in his grave, after a series of dumb fouls, careless turnovers and hoisted-up bricks created a very chaotic ending. .

2) Was totally surprised at how easily Colorado State trounced TCU; had thought that was going to be one of the better games of the day, but Rams hung an 81-60 beating on the Horned Frogs.

1) Level of play was way better Thursday than Wednesday, unless you root for Northwestern, then level of play was same underachieving junk they've been giving for the last five decades. Duke wins, Vanderbilt wins, Stanford wins; they're all good schools, just like Northwestern- can't use the crutch that being a good academic school hurts the ballclub.

All Northwestern had to do was beat a Minnesota team that had lost six of last seven games, and didn't appear terribly interested in playing any more this season, but the Wildcats went and gagged away another game, another season. Time for a new coach, a different system; you're close to Chicago. Recruit an athletic point guard. I dare you.

Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind.........
13) Johnny Unitas wound up a Charger, Joe Namath a Ram, Joe Montana a Chief, Brett Favre a Viking; it happens. So Peyton Manning’s divorce from the Colts will be talked about ad nauseum, but it’s a solid business move by the Colts, and likely will help Manning end his career well, too. Divorce can be a positive.

12) I love stats/numbers, but I read some of these baseball metrics that are out there, and I must admit some of them go over my head. At the end of the day, any evaluator has to balance data with the eye test and intuition to make his decision.

11) I’ve had it with mainstream media morons saying the Rams should draft Robert Griffin III; once they get offensive linemen who can protect Sam Bradford, he's going to be just fine. Lot of the writers who are falling all over RGIII had never heard of him until last October.

10) Very cool moment in Dallas Tuesday, when Tyson Chandler got his NBA Championship ring from the Mavericks. Tremendous reception from the fans. Classy ceremony; Mark Cuban does things the right way.

9) If you’ve seen the Timberwolves play this season, you know they’re fun to watch, with several good, young players, but apparently, team brass thinks they’re getting hosed by the refs, and have complained to the league. They’ve actually played better on the road than at home, which is unusual.

8) Its 263 miles from Bowling Green, KY to Dayton, so fans of Western Kentucky should get ready for a 5-hour drive next week for a play-in game, since the Sun Belt champion Hilltoppers are under .500 this year. Quite a run they’ve had since New Year’s, for new coach Ray Harper.

7) When I look at the leftfield bleachers at the Marlins’ new stadium. it reminded me of old Tiger Stadium . Except for the retractable roof, of course. New stadium got positive reviews. Lot of history on that site— that’s where the old Orange Bowl was.

6) Mark Sanchez makes $8.5M a year? Was surprised when I read that. Will be interesting to see how hard the Jets go after Peyton Manning, then how they mend fences with Sanchez when Manning signs elsewhere.

5) Speaking of Manning, I'm guessing this means former GM Bill Polian wanted to keep number 18 as a Colt, and the owner said no.

4) If you bought 10% of Facebook back in 2005, it would be worth $7B now. Apparently, one of the Washington newspapers had a chance to do that but passed. Whoops.

3) Must admit, quality of play in Wednesday's college basketball wasn't so great; some of these teams are hard pressed to score 50 points.

2) I defer to former NFL players when it comes to this bounty issue; those guys played the game, so their opinion on this issue is what matters most to me. I don’t think its something that was all that unusual, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of outrage amongst former players.

1) This is probably a dumb question, but will the Colts lower ticket prices this season? They were putrid last year, they don’t figure to be much better this year, with a rookie QB getting his feet wet, you’d think they’d cut the fans a break. I know, it was a dumb question.

Wednesday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.........
13) Cool thing about Championship Week is that it’s a truly national event; the other day, I was watching the Quinnipiac-LIU game from Brooklyn, then switched to the IUPUI-South Dakota State game from Sioux Falls, then switched to the Western Kentucky-Middle Tennessee game from Hot Springs, Arkansas. All good games, too.

12) ESPN2 kept putting camera on Dikembe Mutombo in the stands Monday night, as he watched his nephew play for Western Carolina in the SoCon finals, which they lost in double OT. I’m guessing for someone like Mutombo, playing was a lot easier than watching a loved one play.

11) I’m in favor of the DH being used in all spring training games, since hitters need more AB’s and pitchers need to sharpen their skills against professional hitters. Maybe for the last 10 days of spring, NL teams could stop using the DH, so their pitchers can get used to making outs at the plate.

10) Pirates gave Andrew McCutchen six years, $51.5M; whats the over/under on years before he gets traded to the Bronx or Boston? Will he finish 2014 as a Pirate?

9) Sad to see Southern League President Don Mincher pass away this weekend; he was a solid 1B in the AL, mostly with the Twins. He helped the A’s win the ’72 World Series as a sub, getting one of three 9th inning pinch-hits in the winning rally in Game 4 (Marquez/Mangual had the others).

8) Canisius/Winthrop/Brown have already fired their hoop coaches this week, as the coaching carousel picks up steam. Canisius/Brown are dead-end jobs; Winthrop fanbase was spoiled by the Gregg Marshall era.

7) One of the advantages of having Sports Pack on DirecTV is that just about every weekday this month, there is spring training baseball from Arizona on TV when I get home from work. Really enjoyed watching the Giants Monday night, listening to Duane Kuiper/Mike Krukow for the first time this season. Its like catching up with old friends.

6) Colorado Rockies have a program where if a player goes out on the town, he can call for a ride home, to avoid any possibility of a DUI. Smart, if the players take advantage of it.

5) Apparently this was the 4th-warmest January, ever. Good for us!!!! Supposed to be above 50 degrees the next two days.

4) If you really, really like to plan ahead, the 2012 SEC football media days are July 17-19. Will be weird seeing Missouri/Texas A&M in that group now. July seems like a long way away, though......

3) Has to be bitter loss for Denver in the Sun Belt semis, losing to a Western Kentucky team they led 43-16 at halftime when the teams met during the regular season. Denver is off to the WAC next year, a better geographic fit for them.

2) Lot of pressure on these favorites in the one-bid leagues; most of them are so tense. Teams like Iona-Middle Tennessee-Davidson-Long Beach State-Oral Roberts are in win-or-else mode, even though they had great regular seasons. The teams that survive and become underdogs in the NCAAs will play much better there, and be live underdogs.

1) Only in America can the nitwits who own the Mets be forced by a court to write a check for $83,309,162, to pay back money they made in the Madoff scheme, and then claim vindication, as if they’d done nothing wrong. That’s $83M they made scamming people out of their life’s savings. How do they sleep at night?

Tuesday's List of 13: Things to look for during Championship Week
13) Texas as a bubble team? Their game first round game with Iowa State Thursday becomes a big one for the Longhorns.

12) Long Beach State got beat in the Big West tournament by UCSB the last two years; they were 15-0 in conference this year, before losing at Cal-State Fullerton Saturday. Can the 49ers finally win the big one and get Coach Monson back in the field of 68?

11) Will Penn beat Princeton Tuesday and force a playoff game with Harvard? If so, where will the game be played? Will it be televised? If Penn wins the Ivy, does Harvard get an at-large bid?

10) Over the last nine years, Michigan State is 0-6 in semifinals of the Big Dozen tournament, another way of saying Coach Izzo wants no part of the Sunday afternoon tournament final.

9) Kentucky breezed thru the SEC at 16-0 this season; they’ve also had a fairly easy time winning the last two SEC tournaments. Can anyone give them a game in New Orleans this weekend?

8) Other than Air Force, there are no easy outs in the Mountain West; the 4-5 game with TCU-Colorado State could be an NCAA elimination game for the NCAAs for State, which went 7-0 at home in conference, but only 1-6 on foreign soil.

7) Montana-Weber State, if they meet Wednesday night in Missoula for the Big Sky title, is a better game than you think it is. Weber has an NBA guard in Lillard; the Grizzlies play very good defense.

6) Conference USA always seems to boil down to Memphis and whether can anyone beat Memphis; Southern Miss has been slumping lately, UCF looks dysfunctional away from home. I’m thinking the Tigers defend their home court and move on to the NCAAs. Again.

5) How many coaches will get fired between now and Selection Sunday? Canisius/Brown/Winthrop fired their coaches during day Monday; college administrators can say all they want about coaches and integrity, but they fire you for losing a hell of a lot faster than they do for cheating.

4) Who wins the Pac-12 tournament? Its not impossible that the Pac-12 is a one-bid league, which would be embarrassing for a BCS league.

3) Hard to believe Illinois wound up 9th in the Big Dozen; if they can Bruce Weber after the season, the Illini job will be the crowd jewel of this spring’s coaching carousel, just because of how close it is to Chicago, which has a wealth of talent in the high schools.

2) North Carolina manhandled Duke twice this season, but let the first meeting (up 10 with 2:15 left) slip away. If they play again Sunday, in an event Duke has dominated, can they turn the tables on the Tar Heels?

1) If Northwestern can make some noise this weekend, they're going to be on the bubble for their first-ever NCAA bid. Keep in mind that CBS will be very happy if the Wildcats get in, since Northwestern is very close to Chicago, one of the nation's biggest TV markets. If they can win a couple games this weekend, the Wildcats will be a story Sunday night.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Sunday.......
13) Holding the franchise scoring record for the Nets carries some weight, since Julius Erving played there; well, Deron Williams lit up the pathetic Bobcats for 57 points in New Jersey's 104-101 win Sunday in Charlotte, as Bobcats refused to double him on pick and roll, so he went nuts.

12) Rajan Rondo had 18 points, 17 rebounds, 20 assists, only the second guy in NBA history with a 15-15-15 triple double (Jason Kidd did it two times) as Boston beat the Knicks in overtime, 115-111.

11) Bad idea to go to Jiffy Lube on a Sunday; crying babies, old couples with hearing problems yelling at each other, pretty much total chaos.

10) Rhode Island fired basketball coach Jim Baron, who was 184-167 in 11 seasons at URI, 20-14 LY, 7-24 this year. Baron has to be paid for the last two years of his contract, but supposedly a private source is going to be used to pay off Baron's contract, which tells me the private source is who wanted Baron fired. Pretty sad; he's a good coach.

9) Golfer Tom Gillis is 43; he's had quite a career, playing professionally in 26 different countries. 26. Guy should write a book. When he birdied the 18th Sunday, he made himself an extra $160,000 by tying for second.

8) They said on the NASCAR race Sunday that the average car gets about 4.25 laps per gallon at the Phoenix Speedway, which is 1.6 miles long, so thats roughly 6.81 miles per gallon.

7) Speaking of gas, the price of gas at the corner of Fuller/Central near the world headquarters of armadillosports.com was $4.09 today; half a mile away, at corner of Wolf/Sand Creek, it was $3.95, down from the $4.05 it was at one point last week. 10 miles north on route 9 in Clifton Park, it is $3.81-- their gas musn't be as good as gas in Colonie. Greedy bastards.

6) Middle Tennessee won 25 games this year, was clearly the best team in the Sun Belt Conference, but they got beat in first game of the conference tournament, so that bracket is totally wide open, especially after UALR got beat by Western Kentucky. Tourney is now Denver's to lose. Very disappointing loss for a good Middle Tennessee team.

5) Guess the Georgia State win Saturday took lot out of George Mason-- they fell behind VCU 22-2, then 41-13, before making the final score little more respectable, losing by 10. You don't see lot of 22-2 scores in these conference tournaments, especially with a good team on short end.

4) Michigan State was up 24-9 on Ohio State, then up nine at half, before Buckeyes rallied in second half and ruined Spartans' Senior Day, 72-70.

3) Pac-12 is a mess; Stanford beat Cal, making Washington regular season champ; highest-rated Pac-12 team, heading into the conference tourney, is Cal, too high at #22, then strangely enough, UCLA at #43.

2) Golf announcers damn near swallowed their mikes as Eldrick Woods shot 62 Sunday; the whole sport needs Woods to be successful, so even opposing players should be rooting for him, to a degree. Just have feeling that he played well Sunday because he thought he had no shot to win, so he relaxed and did better. We'll see how he does this weekend at Doral.

1) So Tim Tebow was a guest preacher Sunday at the church in Las Vegas where the Tarkanians attend; you can't make this stuff up.

Sunday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday........
13) Biggest upset Saturday seems to be Illinois State beating Wichita State 65-64 in the MVC tourney in St Louis; Redbirds were 12-point dog, in a game where neither team shot 35% from floor. Shockers led by 8 at half, have to be bitterly disappointed with this result.

12) Utah and Oregon both play in Pac-12; halftime score in Eugene was Oregon 52-14. 52 to freakin' 14. Ducks wound up winning, 94-48. Long way to go in the Utes' rebuilding process.

11) Former Utah coach Rick Majerus forgot to take his blood pressure medication and was hospitalized for a while in Pittsburgh; he missed his team's 75-60 win at Duquesne. Majerus' Saint Louis team is very good, not terribly athletic but they play well together.

10) Tennessee State gave Murray State all they wanted, but the Racers pulled thru at the end and won the OVC title, 54-52. Tigers are going to give somebody some problems in the NIT- they're only team that beat Murray State all season.

9) Long Beach State lost 77-74 at Cal State-Fullerton, 49ers' first loss in conference play this year; not sure if that will relax them or put even more pressure on them next weekend in Anaheim. Long Beach lost in Big West tourney last two years to UCSB; now Fullerton seems like the #1 threat.

8) Iowa State beat Baylor 81-72 after being down 7 at half; Cyclones will be an interesting team to track on Selection Sunday. Fred Hoiberg molded a group of mostly transfers into a cohesive unit.

7) Ben Howland has taken a lot of grief this season, and maybe lot of it is deserved, but UCLA was 7-2 vs spread this season as a home favorite in an arena that isn't their normal home. So Howland may lack people skills, but he can coach. He just needs his players to stay in school longer.

6) Evansville split pair with Creighton during season, with loss by only a single point (93-92), but Bluejays pounded Evansville 99-71 in the semis Saturday, and will face Cinderella Illinois State in the MVC final Sunday. Creighton has an excellent offensive team.

5) San Francisco coach Rex Walters got the cheesiest technical I've ever seen in a college game, when his team was down by a hoop; he didn't say anything to the ref, just clapped his hands and feigned trying to scramble back into the coaches' box. Ref didn't appreciate it and T'd him up, and it hurt the Dons. Sometimes officials get a little full of themselves.

4) Is there a stranger team that Vanderbilt? They whack Florida on Senior Night, a very emotional game, then go to Tennessee and lose to the Vols. You just never know what you're getting with the Commodores.

3) North Carolina jumped out 22-5 at Duke, and the Blue Devils never got closer than 11 points as the Tar Heels won the ACC regular season title with a shockingly-easy 88-70 win. PG Marshall was dominant for UNC, getting to the basket with his dribble over and over.

2) Funny how different leagues have different quirks to their conference tournaments; WCC and Horizon give top two seeds byes to the semis; Summit League has #1/#2 seeds play their first round game a day earlier than the #3/#4 seeds to give them an edge in the semis. Lot of leagues have the tournament on the home court of the #1 seed. Championship Week is great fun; hope the powers-that-be never do away with it.

1) Horizon Final Tuesday night is going to be Detroit at Valparaiso, in an extremely emotional game for Valpo, whose former coach Homer Drew is father of the current coach Bryce Drew-- Homer and his wife are fighting cancer at the same time. Homer's other son Scott coaches Baylor.

Saturday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but.........
13) Not sure why MLB locked their LCS/World Series dates in with TV networks before they decided to create the extra Wild Card. There’s going to be some tight fits in between series, and if there is a rainout or two, there could be some chaos, but it will make the regular season better.

12) The second Wild Card in each league is a superior idea, because it encourages teams to try and win their division, rather than put themselves in a Russian Roulette, one-game playoff to make the Elite Eight of the playoffs. Maybe they should start the season a week earlier to loosen up TV dates for October playoff games.

11) 50 years ago Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game that was played in Hershey, PA. Scoring 100 points was an amazing feat, but even more surprising is that an NBA game was played in Hershey. Too bad Darrell Dawkins (Chocolate Thunder) wasn’t around back then.

10) Chamberlain was famous for being a bad foul shooter, but he was 28 for 32 in that game. He took an amazing 63 shots from the floor, in game where three Knicks scored 30+ points. How do you score 147 and lose?

9) Golf Channel was so busy following Eldrick Woods’ every step Thursday, apparently they didn’t get film of Davis Love’s hole-in-one. Not like Love is one of the leaders or anything, and if he won Sunday it wouldn’t make a great comeback story. Oh wait it would. Bad miss.

8) AJ Burnett is out 8-12 weeks after getting his orbital bone surgically repaired. If its eight weeks, that roughly seven starts, or 20% of his season. Yet another reason why bunting is stupid; a bad team lost its best pitcher for at least 20% of the season, because he was practicing how to make out on purpose. Brilliant!!!

7) Guys from EA Sports, the video game makers, say that some gamers play so much Madden Football that they know the NFL rules better than a lot of NFL players. That made me laugh. Seriously, it did.

6) Southern Illinois canned hoop coach Chris Lowery, who won coaching players he inherited at SIU, then oversaw the program’s demise to the basement of the MVC. Question here is this: if the Illini fire Bruce Weber, do the Salukis bring Weber back to Carbondale, where he was successful? I’ve heard worse ideas.

5) Of the five teams in the NL East, Atlanta has the lowest payroll; now that’s a first in that division.

4) Maple Leafs' GM Brian Burke fired coach Ron Wilson, which doesn't seem that newsworthy considering Toronto's recent struggles, but Wilson has a very good career record, and besides, Burke was his roommate at Providence College. Business can be cold sometimes.

3) NBA trading deadline is March 15, same day that the main part of the NCAA tournament begins; not exactly best way to maximize publicity for your league. Why not have it the following Monday, when there is a lull in sports news?

2) A's opened the 2012 spring training schedule by losing 8-5 to Seattle, the first of many losses this season for a team that will try hard but they have a severe talent deficiency to overcome.

1) NFL apparently is going to come down on the Saints for having some kind of a bounty system that rewarded game-ending injuries to opposing players. Rams’ new DC is Gregg Williams, ringleader of this scheme.

I actually have no opinion, other than the Saints did win a Super Bowl with Williams there. I know its not a big an offense as spying on your opponents, but I’ll leave it at that.

Friday's List of 13: Things I'm looking for this month.........
13 things I’m looking to find out in March………
13) March is mostly about college hoops; who will make the field of 68? Who will whine the most about getting left out? My advice to those who don’t make it? Win more games next year. Its as soimple as that.

12) Middle Tennessee? Belmont? VCU? Long Beach State? Creighton? Murray State? Iona? Who is this year’s VCU/Butler? Will there be a Cinderella story this March?

11) At long last, the great national mystery will unravel and we’ll find out where Peyton Manning is playing next year. Draft isn’t until late April, but NFL free agency starts March 13.

10) Will Knicks sink or swim in the NBA’s second half? Will Jeremy Lin continue to thrive, or will the Knicks have chemistry issues? I’m guessing they’ll be just fine.

9) Pac-12 stinks in basketball this year; if Cal wins conference tourney, do they get any other bids? Arizona? Washington? Once the tournament starts, will the conference win any games? Cal has to avoid a team with extreme quickness.

8) What about Harvard? If they get in the field of 68, will they win a game? They’ve beaten Florida State/LMU, so they’re capable, but they’ve also lost to Penn/Princeton, so not sure they’ve improved since the holidays.

7) the coaching carousel has already slowly started to spin; it’ll pick up steam once Championship Week is over, and then after the first weekend of the NCAAs. Always interesting to see who goes for what jobs.

6) Which unknown minor leaguer will take spring training by storm and become the rage of fantasy baseball leagues?

I remember Brandon McCarthy doing this for the White Sox a few years ago; I went to great lengths to get him on my squad, then he fizzled out. Now 5-6 years later, he’s the A’s Opening Day starter. Go figure.

5) Will the A’s Opening Day 3B be a guy named Wes Timmons, who spent the winter as a substitute teacher? Don’t laugh, it very well could happen.

4) If you have the NBA Full Court package, watch the Timberwolves; very fun team to watch, with lot of good young players. Rick Adelman could very well be the most underrated head coach in any team sport. As I write this, Minnesota is 18-17, 8-7 on the road, and they haven’t even been on the cover of Sports Illustrated yet.

3) Will Eldrick Woods win a golf tournament before the Masters? Been over two years now since his last full-field win. Seems like he's lost that arrogance, that assurance that he was always going to win.

2) Is Kentucky battle-tested enough to survive six tournament games in March. They’re obviously talented enough, but they haven’t had to play a lot of nailbiters. Surviving stressful situations makes a team stronger. Wildcats haven’t had a lot of stress this season, because they’re extremely talented.

1) March is my favorite month of the year; ton of important basketball games, the weather starts getting warmer, spring just around the corner. Should be a fun month.

Thursday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a winter day........
13) Sports Illustrated article on UCLA’s basketball program is required reading for anyone who follows college hoop; interesting stuff, nothing that terribly shocking, but the picture of Howland painted by former players is disappointing. Not exactly a people person. Players need to know you care about them as more than a number on the greaseboard.

12) Good move by ESPN, signing up former Colts’ GM Bill Polian for the network; he should provide a different perspective on how/why things happen.

11) TCU has made great strides in basketball this year, going from 11-22 to 17-12, but next year they jump up to the Big 12 for football reasons, which will make them a doormat in hoops once again. Jim Christian, the former Kent State coach, has had the ultimate uphill climb making the Horned Frogs’ program a consistent winner. He’s obviously a good coach, but does TCU have the resources/facilities to compete in basketball with its new conference rivals?

10) Speaking of the Big 12, Missouri/Texas A&M have to fork over $12.4M each to get away from the league and head to the SEC, where $12M is pocket change, especially in the fall.

9) You don’t have to be Dr Phil or Dr Jack Ramsay to figure out that Lamar Odom isn’t happy in Dallas, and wants out. Tough to trade for guys who played for the fatcat teams; will they be as good a teammate when they go to a team they might not be thrilled to be on? Odom seems like a good guy, but he also seems like a player who wasted a lot of his vast talent over the years.

8) Rajan Rondo didn’t score a point Tuesday, but had 11 assists, five turnovers, and was +7 in 32 minutes in a game the Celtics won by 3. He’s the first NBA player this season to have 10+ assists and not score in that game. Rondo backed that game up with a triple-double Wednesday.

7) Pirates play only nine of their first 25 games at home, and 22 of their first 25 against teams that had winning records last year; now comes the news that AJ Burnett fouled a ball off his eye while practicing bunting on Wednesday. Hopefully the injury isn't too serious.

6) There is nothing common about common sense, which is why there has to be a law against texting while driving; friend of mine does it all the time. I have a hard enough time driving when I’m paying attention.

5) Michael Jordan’s mansion in Chicago is on sale for $29M; it has 15 bathrooms in it. Sounds more like a hotel than a mansion. Must be fun to be rich, but who owns a house with 15 bathrooms in it?

4) Colorado Rockies have an intrasquad scrimmage Friday, with managers Todd Helton/Jason Giambi. Exhibition games get underway Saturday, for the most part. Will be fun to watch these meaningless games for the next month, and I mean that.

3) Eldrick Woods is annoyed about Hank Haney's book; imagine how he'd feel if Haney talked Woods' girlfriends. He had to know something about all that stuff. Now that would've made for an interesting book.

2) Saints are playing a dangerous game, negotiating with Drew Brees on a long-term contract. The two sides are apparently pretty far apart. Just sign the man already; he's earned the money.

1) Totally enjoyed the end of Florida-Vandy game Tuesday, when the Commodore seniors came out one-by-one at end of the game, to rousing ovations from the home fans. A terrific player like Jeffrey Taylor openly crying on the court as he waited to be subbed in for gave you a glimpse of what is good about college sports, a marked contrast from UCLA.

Wednesday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud..........
13) My time as a student manager of the UAlbany basketball team ranks right up there with the most fun I've ever had; every day was fun, and I wasn't a player, just a student assistant. Why do I bring this up?

The more I think about Pat Knight’s rant last week against his seniors, it just makes me sad; by all accounts, Pat Knight isn’t a mean bastard like his father, but there is no way anyone connected with Lamar basketball is having fun this year, and dammit, its supposed to be at least a little fun.

I know it’s a business, and people get fired for losing, but Lamar has a winning record this year, and Knight still obviously despises several of his players. I mean, I can think of better ways of spending my college years (or adult years, for that matter) than being miserable every day.

12) One of the odd quirks of college basketball is that teams need teams they’ve played to do well, to enhance their strength of schedule. For instance, Washington needs South Dakota State to win Summit League, since the Jackrabbits beat U-Dub by 19 in December. Harvard needs Florida State/LMU to keep winning, in case the Crimson gags away the Ivy league title, which now could happen.

A win against Pitt in November doesn’t look that good now, but back in the fall it was a big deal. And so on and so on........

11) OK, who knew that spreading Tide detergent on asphalt made it easier to drive on? The 2-hour delay during the NASCAR race Monday was alternately bizarre/entertaining.

10) Dave Blaney led the race during the 2-hour delay; he needed an 11pm rainstorm to end the race and give him his first win in 398 NASCAR tries, yes 398; too bad he didn’t get it. Blaney’s brother, by the way, was a basketball standout at West Virginia.

9) Under is 49-43 in games involving NBA teams that had 2+ days off prior to the game; under is 29-24 with a rested road team, 20-19 if the home team was rested.

8) Breaking down pointspread records of rested teams is a little more helpful: home favorites: 19-7, home underdogs: 3-8. Road favorites: 11-7, road underdogs, 15-16. That’s favorites 30-14, underdogs 18-24.

7) At the All-Star break, NBA teams were shooting a combined 34.6% behind the arc, the league’s worst mark since they were shooting 33.8% in 1999, the last time they had a shortended season. Makes sense.

6) The Mets desperately need a catcher with some experience in case Josh Thole isn’t the answer, or to back him up either way. Future Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez needs a job. This is a logical connection, right? Why hasn’t this been done?

5) The name Scott Sizemore doesn’t mean much to you, but he tore his ACL Monday, and now the A’s don’t have a big league third baseman. I mean, Sizemore isn’t Longoria or Zimmerman, but he is competent, and now he’s out for the year. His likely replacement? Either Josh Donaldson, who was a minor league catcher until last August, or Wes Timmons, the guy we talked about earlier this week who spent the winter as a substitute teacher. Good God this could be a long summer.

4) Ratings for the NBA All-Star Game were down 22% from last year, not sure why anyone would watch it. if players don’t take a game seriously, why should I watch?

3) Meanwhile, the Daytona 500 did a 7.7 rating Monday night; it did an 8.2 on Sunday afternoon LY, and a 7.0 in 2010. I’d expect to see more primetime NASCAR next season.

2) Tuesday was National Pancake Day. We need more days like that. Nothing like a stack of flapjacks smothered in maple syrup. Now I’m hungry.

1) Free NBA Full Court package this week, as NBA/DirecTV try to sucker us in on buying the second half of the condensed (and shortened) season for $85. Ain’t happening, but we’ll enjoy watching games this week, before March Madness kicks it into full gear next week.

Tuesday's Den: 2011 Over/under win totals for major leagues