Basketball has gotten soft; they call a lot of flagrant fouls now. Kid takes a jumper and falls down, chances are they’re calling a foul. God forbid someone takes a random elbow, even if it isn’t intentional, it will be a flagrant foul. Soft.
Understood, I sound like an old guy whining, but it is true……
— Marshall 94, Appalachian State 93
Marshall is #84 tempo team, App State #358; game only had 66 possessions.
App State led by 13 with 16:47 left in the game.
Marshall shot 67.6% inside arc, scored 1.41 ppp.
App State was 28-40 on foul line, Marshall 15-21.
Back in the day, when ESPN first started, Sun Belt was the first league they showed on a regular basis. ESPN should give the Sun Belt a regular Thursday night slot on their schedule.
— Cal-Northridge 85, Cal-Santa Barbara 83 OT
UCSB led by five with 0:30 left in regulation.
Matadors were 28-63 inside arc, 3-17 outside arc.
UCSB was 13-40 on arc, only 9-25 inside arc.
CSUN has won six in a row, is now 10-5 in Big West games.
Northridge was +10 in turnovers (6-16)
— Texas State 90, South Alabama 82 OT
Bobcats were 24-33 on foul line, South Alabama 13-19.
Texas State’s bench outscored Jaguars’ subs, 45-6.
South Alabama split its last four games, all decided by 6 or fewer points.
— Campbell 84, Wm & Mary 83
Camels got over the hump, hit runner at the buzzer for the win.
Wm & Mary led by 10 late in first half.
Jeremiah Johnson played all 40:00, scored 32 points, had 7 assists.
Campbell has won four of its last five games.
— Tulane 77, North Texas 71
North Texas led by 15 with 11:33 left to play.
Tulane won four of its last five games.
Green Wave covered six of their last eight games.
— Weber State 82, Montana State 79
Weber State’s bench outscored Montana State’s subs, 34-17
Bobcats lost 4 of last 6 games; they trail Portland State by 3 games.
Montana State lost despite shooting 64.7% inside arc.
— Little Rock 67, Tenn-Martin 65
Skyhawks led by 6 with 2:52 left in the game.
Tenn-Martin lost four of last five games, after starting 10-2 in OVC.
Just second win in last nine games for Little Rock.
— Famous birthdays, February 20th:
Bill Gullickson, 67
Charles Barkley, 63
Stephon Marbury, 49
Jay Hernandez, 48
Justin Verlander, 43
Robyn Fenty, 37 (Rihanna)
Jurickson Profar, 33
Luis Severino, 32
— Kansas City Chiefs re-structured Patrick Mahomes’ contract this week, creating $43.56M in salary cap space. Chiefs converted $54.45M of Mahomes’ 2026 salary into a signing bonus. Mahomes is under contract to the Chiefs through 2031; his salary cap number next year will be around $85M.
Chiefs, by the way, were 1-9 this past season in games decided by 8 or less points. In 2024, they were 11-0 in one-score games.
— Penn State’s football team has 16 returning starters next fall, but 13 of those 16 players started at Iowa State last year, for new coach Matt Campbell. Only three guys who started for Penn State last year will be on the team next fall.
— Iowa State’s basketball team beat Kansas/Houston Saturday/Monday, a pretty good three-day span; Cyclones had only three turnovers in a slow-paced (58 possessions) game.
— Northern Illinois football coach Thomas Hammock quit this week, to become running backs coach for the Seattle Seahawks. Hammopck was 35-47 at Northern Illinois, 3-9 last year; they’re leaving the MAC for the Mountain West next fall.
— David Blough is the new offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders; back in 2024, Blough was a backup QB for Detroit when the team was featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks.
One of the better scenes that year was when Blough’s wife, Melissa Gonzalez, ran in the 400-meter hurdles in the Olympics in France. Several of Blough’s teammates/coaches gathered in a meeting room to watch the race on a big screen TV.
— Which reminds me baseball needs a Hard Knocks-type program, to show younger people how cool baseball is.
Here’s the thing: the NFL is expert at promoting itself, so baseball needs to do the same stuff the NFL does to promote their sport. This seems kind of simple.
—Interesting team to follow in spring training would be the Cincinnati Reds, who made the playoffs last year for the first time in five years, the first year for manager Terry Francona.
Reds haven’t won a playoff series since 1995, but they appear to be on an upward trajectory.
