— Michigan State 76, Purdue 74
Spartans shot 63.9% inside the arc.
Michigan State is 13-4 in Big 18, in 3-way tie for 3rd place.
Purdue is 5-5 in last ten games, after a 17-1 start.
Unusual game; no one scored more than 15 points.
— Cal-Irvine 68, Cal-Northridge 67
Irvine got layup on an out of bounds under play at the buzzer to win game.
Irvine led 36-24 at halftime.
Matadors were only 13-21 on foul line.
Anteaters win in Northridge for 11th year in a row.
— Hawaii 77, Cal-Davis 73
Hawaii shot 10-22 on arc; they led 43-31 at halftime.
Hawaii has #11 eFG% defense in the country.
Rainbows are tied with Cal-Irvine atop Big West standings.
— Montana State 84, Portland State 69
Bobcats shot 15-30 on arc, won for only third time in last eight games.
Montana State is shooting 38.7% in Big Sky games, best in league.
Vikings lost three of last four games, still lead Big Sky by a game.
— Wichita State 88, Memphis 82
Shockers were 26-33 on foul line, Memphis 13-27
Wichita had a 44-27 edge on the boards.
Shockers won four in row, nine of last 11 games.
Memphis is 12-16, 7-8 in AAC; their last losing season was 2000.
— Kennesaw State 74, Liberty 65
Kennesaw made 11-18 on arc; they’re only #176 in country in 3-point %age.
Liberty loses second game in row, after starting 15-0 in C-USA.
Flames still lead Conference USA by three games, with three games left.
— St Thomas 84, North Dakota State 62
Tommies made 14-35 on arc, shot 81.8% inside arc, scored 1.29 ppp.
Carter Bjerke shot 7-9 on arc, his only shots of game, scored 21 points.
North Dakota State is still going to be top seed in the Summit tournament.
— Famous birthdays, February 27th:
James Worthy, 65
Greg Cadaret, 64
Matt Stairs, 58
Duce Staley, 51
Tony Gonzalez, 50
Anibal Sanchez, 42
— Santa Clara’s basketball team is 23-7 this year, 14-3 in WCC; they’re a bubble team to make the NCAA’s, a place they haven’t been in 30 years, back when Steve Nash played there. As I type this, Bracketology has Santa Clara as one of the last four teams in the Field of 68.
— Oregon State fired basketball coach Wayne Tinkle Friday, after he coached the Beavers for 12 years. Oregon State made the Elite 8 five years ago, but the last two years, they were 19-16 in the WCC, after the Pac-12 was put on hold by re-alignment.
Pac-12 starts up again next year; Corvallis, OR isn’t exactly a recruiting hot bed; unless they can get alum Gary Payton to coach his alma mater, not sure how they’ll made a splash when they hire a new coach. Oregon State paid Tinkle $3M to terminate his contract.
— Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia suggested the NBA sweeten the pot for the Dunk Contest and 3-point contest, offering a $1M first prize for each event; Ishbia wants more star players taking part in All-Star weekend events next year, when Phoenix hosts the All-Star weekend.
— 37 years ago this week, Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys for $150M; these days, 37 years later, the Cowboys are worth $12.8B, that’s billion, with a B.
— College sports isn’t college sports anymore, it is minor league sports.
Former Cincinnati Bearcats QB Brendan Sorsby bolted to Texas Tech to play next year; the Bearcats want him to pay the school a $1M buyout in liquidated damages, which Cincinnati says Sorsby was contractually obligated to pay within 30 days of transferring.
Sorsby reportedly signed an NIL agreement with the Red Raiders that will pay him $5M next year; he is basically giving Cincinnati the finger, refusing to pay the buyout.
— World Baseball Classic starts next Thursday; from March 5-10, there will be a ballgame live on TV at 5 or 6am here in New York, the games in Asia.
— Max Scherzer signed a deal with the Blue Jays, with a $3M base salary; he gets another $1M when he reacher 65 innings pitched, then another $1M for each 10 innings he pitches until he gets to 155 innings pitched.
If he gets to 155 innings pitched, he maxes out at $13M this season.
