— Should be an interesting week; the first conference tournament in college basketball tips off tonight, with IU Indy visiting Cleveland State in the play-in game of the Horizon Tournament.
Cleveland State lost its last seven games, right after they won five games in a row. IU Indy plays the #4 tempo in America, so no matter what, it should be fun to watch.
— Later this week, the World Baseball Classic gets underway, highly competitive games with players who should be in spring training, getting ready for the major league season.
The bracket in Asia will have a game on TV at 5 or 6am six mornings in a row, so that’ll be bad for my sleep habits, but fun to watch.
One thing we don’t want this year is what happened in the last WBC: Jose Altuve getting hit by a pitch and breaking his thumb. Bad for the Astros, worse for my fantasy team and my freakin’ blood pressure!!! No injuries, please.
— Speaking of injuries, James Harden scored 22 points for Cleveland Sunday night, after he missed only two games after breaking his thumb. Impressive performance. Cavaliers are 38-24, right now the #4-seed in the Eastern Conference.
— Saint Mary’s beat Gonzaga Saturday; their regular season meetings had become an annual staple for 11:30 two Saturday nights a year- I’ll miss them. Will they keep playing each other in the future? Gonzaga is moving up to the Pac-12; the Gaels are staying in the WCC, which won’t be the same without Gonzaga.
Back when Jerry Tarkanian had UNLV where Gonzaga is these days, the Rebels’ main rivals in the Big West were Cal-Santa Barbara, New New Mexico State. When the Rebels moved on from the Big West, they stopped playing those teams, which hurt both of them.
Hopefully Saint Mary’s can still stay a big fish in a small pond; my question is this- the Pac-12 has eight football schools, plus Gonzaga as a basketball-only team, so nine basketball teams. Why didn’t they invite Saint Mary’s to join Gonzaga and make it a 10-team basketball league?
— USC has lost its last five games, is 7-11 in Big 18 and has fallen off the bubble. Sunday came news that Chad Baker-Mazara, who was scoring 18.5 ppg for the Trojans, is off the team, a large red flag.
Baker-Mazara is 26 years old; he had an interesting college career:
2020-21- Duquesne
2021-22- San Diego State (kicked off team)
2022-23- Northwest Florida State (junior college ball)
2023-25- Auburn
2025-26- USC (kicked off team)
— Famous birthdays, March 2nd:
Laraine Newman, 74
Terry Steinbach, 64
Jon Bon Jovi, 64
Ron Gant, 61
Sebastian Janikowski, 48
Ben Roethlisberger, 44
Bud Norris, 41
Reggie Bush, 41
Adolis Garcia, 33
Miguel Andujar, 31
Tua Tagovailoa, 28
Logan Henderson, 24
— Charleston 79, NC-Wilmington 76, OT
NC-Wilmington led 35-23 at halftime.
Seahawks out-rebounded Charleston 47-28.
Cougars were +9 in turnovers (6-15)
UNCW is 14-3 in CAA, half-game ahead of Charleston. UNCW needs to win their last game over Elon to win sole possession of first place in the CAA.
— Florida Atlantic 77, Charlotte 76, OT
Charlotte led 45-35 at halftime.
Brickfest: teams combined to shoot 14-55 on the arc.
FAU won three of last four games, after a six-game losing skid.
— Michigan State 77, Indiana 64
Spartans never trailed, shot 12-24 on the arc.
Michigan State won last four games, giving up 64.3 ppg.
Indiana has lost four in a row, is sliding off the bubble.
Hoosiers were 10-35 on arc; over half their shots this year have been 3’s.
— Illinois State 81, Belmont 74
Illinois State shot 12-27 on arc, scored 1.31 ppg.
Only second loss in last 15 games for Belmont.
Belmont still won the MVC by three games over Bradley.
— Movie of the Day: Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
A sportswriter in New York City discovers that his 7-year old son is a chess prodigy; he hires a coach for the kid, enters him in tournaments, and chaos ensues, as the coach clashes with a guy who plays street chess in the park.
Joe Mantegna, Ben Kingsley, Laurence Fishburne, William Macy, Joan Allen, a great cast in a very good movie, which deals with how parents get stressed over their kids’ successes/failures as they grow up.
— Ohio State 82, Purdue 74
Buckeyes were 25-32 on foul line, Purdue 7-10
By far highest quality win for Ohio State this year.
Third loss in four games for Purdue, which is 5-6 in last 11 games.
— DePaul 62, Marquette 51
DePaul is 8-10 in Big East, their most conference wins since 2007.
Blue Demons out-rebounded Marquette, 41-28.
Big East is looking like a 3-bid league (UConn, St John’s, Villanova)
— Twins’ P Joe Ryan has a bad back, is being replaced on Team USA’s roster by Ryan Yarbrough; Ryan can re-join Team USA after each round, but not during a round.
— St Louis Cardinals gave manager Ollie Marmol a two-ear contract extension; Marmol is 325-323 in four years managing the Cardinals, who missed the playoffs the last three years.
— Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti signed another new contract; his annual salary is now up $13.2M/year. The contract runs through 2033.
