— East Carolina 63, North Texas 59
First win in seven AAC games for the Pirates.
East Carolina out-rebounded the Mean Green, 43-28
Pirates survived being minus-11 (18-7) in turnovers.
— Michigan 74, Ohio State 62
Michigan is 8-1 SU in league games; they’re 0-6 ATS last six games.
Buckeyes led by 6 early in the second half.
Wolverines shot shot 75.9% inside arc, had 36-27 edge on boards.
— Saint Louis 97, St Bonaventure 62
Billkens made 19 of 33 shots on the arc.
Saint Louis led 58-26 at halftime.
Saint Louis is the quietest 19-1 team in the country.
— Butler 87, Marquette 76
Butler was 23-31 on foul line, Marquette 9-14
Bulldogs led 66-65 with 6:04 left in the game.
Butler won its last three games, scoring 83.7 ppg.
— Furman 89, NC-Greensboro 66
Furman’s Tom House shot 7-10 behind the arc, scored 25 points.
Furman played only seven guys; they shot 14-27 behind the arc.
UNCG led by a point with 14:03 left in the game.
— UMass 68, Buffalo 67
UMass led 33-13 with 7:09 left in first half.
Buffalo led by 7 with 5:20 left in the game.
UMass won four of last five games, after starting 0-4 in the MAC.
— Utah State 65, Colorado State 61
Last game of the night; Utah State snaps a two-game losing skid.
Mike DeCourcy has Aggies as a 10-seed, if NCAA’s started today.
Colorado State led by 10 at halftime.
Utah State won first meeting this year, 100-58 in Logan.
— Famous birthdays, January 24th:
Neil Diamond, 85
Michael Ontkean, 80
Tim Stoddard, 73
Atlee Hammaker, 68
Neil Allen, 68
Rob Dibble, 62
Matthew Lillard, 56
Ed Helms, 52
Scott Kazmir, 42
Sean McVay, 40
Jose Quintana, 37
Whit Merrifield, 37
— Movie of the Day: Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)- Two young employees tell their boss that someone is cooking the company’s books, but it is the boss that is doing it. He invites the two guys to his beach house so he can have them eliminated, but the mob kills the boss first, and no one seems to notice that the boss is dead.
Andrew McCarthy/Jonathan Silverman are the two employees, Terry Kiser is the boss in this funny movie that is more than a little weird.
— When Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza was in high school, he had no scholarship offers, he was going to go to Yale and play I-AA ball in the Ivy League. He sent his highlight reel to 100 different colleges but had no takers, until about a month before signing day, Cal Bears needed another body in the QB room so they offered Mendoza a scholarship.
Now he’s likely going to be the first pick in April’s NFL Draft. Go figure.
— Baltimore Ravens hired Jesse Minter as their new head coach; Minter was an assistant with the Ravens under John Harbaugh, from 2017-20, then he worked for Jim Harbaugh at both Michigan/Chargers the last four years. This is his first head coaching job.
— Eric Bieniemy is back in Kansas City as offensive coordinator of the Chiefs; he was with the Chiefs from 2013-22. He helped the Chiefs win two Super Bowls before moving on to other jobs.
— Former TCU coach Gary Patterson is the new defensive coordinator at USC; Patterson was 181-79 as the head coach of the Horned Frogs.
— Indianapolis Colts lost seven games this year that they left at halftime, the most of any team in the last 27 years.
Speaking of the Colts, their old QB Philip Rivers interviewed for the head coach’s job in Buffalo. Going from a high school head coach to an NFL head coach would be interesting, especially with him playing three games for the Colts in between there, at age 45.
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Zac Robinson as their new offensive coordinator; next year will be Todd Bowles’ fifth year as Tampa’s head coach, Robinson will be his fifth OC.
— Los Angeles Chargers haven’t played a home playoff game since 2009.
