— Nevada sports books made a profit of $9.89M on the Super Bowl; last year, they made a $22.1M profit, when the Eagles beat Kansas City.
— It takes a little bit of luck to win a championship; you have to be really good, but you need a few things to go your way, too.
Last year, Minnesota Vikings went 14-3, their best record since 1998; they lost in the playoffs and they moved on from Sam Darnold as QB, deciding to play JJ McCarthy instead.
Darnold went to Seattle and made history last week; the Vikings fired their GM last month. If Minnesota had held onto Darnold, this season would’ve had a different ending.
Kind of like two years ago, when the Giants let RB Saquon Barkley walk, and he moved on to help their divisional rival Eagles win the Super Bowl. If the Giants had paid their star player, who knows what would’ve happened?
— Pitchers/catchers reported to spring training this week; thinking about baseball makes it seem warmer, in what has been a dismal winter here in upstate New York.
— Milwaukee Brewers traded IF Caleb Durbin to the Red Sox in a six-player deal; Milwaukee gets P Kyle Harrison, and some minor leaguers also changed hands.
— Kind of a busy baseball day Tuesday, seeing how it was February 10th:
Detroit Tigers signed Justin Verlander for one year, $13M
Mets’ SS Francisco Lindor has a left wrist injury, may need surgery; if he has hamate surgery, he is expected to be out for six weeks.
Mets’ OF Juan Soto is moving from right field to left field.
Braves signed C Jonah Heim.
Pirates signed DH/OF Marcell Ozuna
A’s signed P’s Aaron Civale, Scott Barlow.
Rockies signed P Tomoyuki Sugano
Braves put P Spencer Schwellenbach on the 60-day DL (elbow)
— Right now, Minnesota Twins’ payroll is $60M less than it was three years ago, when the Twins went 87-75 and made the playoffs.
— Arizona P Brandon Pfaadt had some interesting home/road splits last year:
Home: 9-3, 3.24 in 17 home starts, with a 1.17 WHIP
Road: 4-6, 7.71 in 16 road starts, with a 1.53 WHIP
— Famous birthdays, February 11th
Tina Louise, 92
James Silas, 77
Carey Lowell, 65
Todd Benzinger, 63
Jennifer Aniston, 57
Damian Lewis, 55
Jacque Vaughn, 51
Dansby Swanson, 32
Graham Ashcroft, 28
The great actor Leslie Nielsen was born 100 years ago today.
— In the NBA, Chicago Bulls are 6-17 ATS as a favorite this season.
— If you have Prime Video, there is a series starting this week on the history of the old ABA, a basketball league that existed from 1967-76. The ABA used a red-white-blue basketball; it is where the 3-point shot became popular. Teams generally played at a much faster tempo.
In 1976, the league folded, but the NBA took in four of their teams: Nuggets, Pacers, Nets and the Spurs. Lot of great players played in the ABA: Rick Barry, Julius Erving, Artis Gilmore, Dan Issel, George Gervin. The show should be fun to watch.
— Purdue 80, Nebraska 77, OT
Purdue led by 22 early in the second half.
Boilermakers out-rebounded Nebraska, 54-37
Nebraska lost three of last four games, after a 20-0 start.
— Wisconsin 92, Illinois 90, OT
Illinois led by 12 with 8:10 left in the game.
Badgers shot 16-36 on arc, were +9 (13-4) in turnovers.
Illinois played six guys 30+ minutes, a 7th guy played 1:00.
20-5 Illinois lost their 2nd game in row, both in overtime.
— TCU 62, Iowa State 55
Cyclones led 28-19 with 3:23 left in first half.
Horned Frogs were 15-23 on foul line, Iowa State 2-8.
Loss snapped Iowa State’s five-game win streak.
— Miami 75, North Carolina 66
Tar Heels follow up their win over Duke by laying an egg on the road.
Miami won four of last five games, improves to 19-5, 8-3 in ACC.
Hurricanes never trailed, shot 53.1% inside the arc.
— Villanova 77, Marquette 74
Marquette led by nine with 6:13 left in the game.
Villanova has won four in a row, improved to 10-3 in Big East.
Marquette is 0-9 in true road games this season.
— Virginia 61, Florida State 58
Seminoles led by 9 with 8:22 left in the game.
Florida State was 16-22 on foul line, Virginia 5-8
Virginia is 21-3; none of their starters scored in double figures.
— My phone says the high temperature in Albany Wednesday will be 35 degrees; if so, it’ll be the first time in 19 days the temperature has been above freezing in my hometown. Spring cannot get here soon enough.
