Betting news, trends, odds and predictions from various handicappers and websites.
Friday’s 6-pack:
Interesting bowl spreads……..
— Memphis -4.5 vs West Virginia
— California -1.5 vs UNLV
— Indiana @ Notre Dame -7.5
— SMU @ Penn State -9
— Clemson @ Texas -11
— Tennessee @ Ohio State -7.5
Quote of the Day
“You can shear a sheep many times, but only skin him once.”
Amarillo Slim
Friday’s quiz
In the history of the New York Knicks, who has scored the most points?
Thursday’s quiz
Who is the Kansas City Chiefs’ all-time leader in passing touchdowns?
Wednesday’s quiz
Jameis Winston played his college football at Florida State.
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Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here…….
— Rams 12, 49ers 6
Rams’ first five drives: 23 plays, 51 yards, five punts
Rams’ last five drives: 45 plays, 218 yards, four field goals.
Steady rain in 2nd quarter; no rain in second half, until last 2:00
Rams won 44-42 last week, 12-6 this week.
Really good teams find different ways to win games.
Rams outgained San Francisco, 302-191; there were no TD’s in this game.
QB Stafford threw for 160 yards, 97 of them to WR Nucua.
RB Williams ran ball 29 times for 108 yards.
49ers completed only 14-31 passes (3.8 yards/attempt).
San Francisco has now lost four of its last five games.
— In a year where strange things keep happeniong, Bill Belichick is the new football coach at North Carolina, at age 72. Belichick won six Super Bowls as an NFL head coach; he has never coached in college. This is going to be very interesting.
— Iowa State 89, Iowa 80
Cyclones trailed 62-53 with 11:37 left in the game.
Both teams shot 11-28 on the arc.
ISU’s Jefferson was 10-12 on foul line; entire Iowa team was 13-15.
— Strange but true stat: So far this season, SEC basketball teams are 26-3 vs ACC teams.
— QB Tommy DeVito is starting at QB for the Giants this week against Baltimore; Drew Lock is in a walking boot.
Saints are giving Jake Haener his first NFL start this week, with Derek Carr hurt.
— QB transfer info:
QB Thomas Castellanos is bolting from Boston College to Florida State, where he will re-unite with FSU’s new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who coached Castellanos at UCF.
QB Connor Weigman is bolting from Texas A&M to Houston, which is 4-8 in its first season as a Big X team.
— Former UNLV coach Barry Odom is now the Purdue coach, after going 19-8 with the Rebels the last two seasons. Odom had previously gone 25-25 in four years at Missouri.
Purdue has some advantages that UNLV doesn’t; a strong alumni base led by former NFL star Drew Brees, a recently renovated stadium, other upgraded facilities and a reputation as a cradle of quarterbacks. UNLV has Allegiant Stadium, but not much of a football history.
Big 18 is also a much deeper pond than the Mountain West; Purdue has finished under .500 in 10 of their last 13 seasons.
— Famous birthdays, December 13:
Dick Van Dyke, 99
Ferguson Jenkins, 82
Lemar Parrish, 77
Larry Kenon, 72
Andre Turner, 60
Jamie Foxx, 57
Scott Zolak, 57
Ricky Nolasco, 43
Taylor Swift, 35
Luis Garcia, 28
Gleyber Torres, 28
Brock Bowers, 22
— 1B/2B Spencer Horwitz had himself an eventful day Tuesday; first, the Blue Jays traded him to Cleveland, part of a 4-player deal.
Later that day, the Guardians traded him to Pittsburgh, for P Luis Ortiz and two prospects.
Horwitz played in 97 games for Toronto LY, hitting .265 with 12 home runs, and a .790 OPS. Not often a guy gets traded twice in the same day.
— Texas Rangers acquired 1B/3B Jake Burger from Miami, in exchange for three prospects; Burger hit .250 with 29 homers for the Marlins LY, with a .750 OPS.
He is expected to mostly be a DH for the Rangers.
— Unusual to read that 3B Nolan Arenado is asking off the St Louis Cardinals because he thinks they’re in decline; he has a no-trade clause in his contract, but supposedly will agree to be dealt to a contending team— he might even agree to move to first base.
Arenado is an 8-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner who is entering his age-34 season and coming off his worst offensive year (.272/.325/.394) since his rookie season.
— White Sox traded P Garrett Crochet to Boston to four prospects, two of whom got a strong thumbs-up from MLB Network analyst/former Colorado GM Dan O’Dowd.
Catcher Kyle Teel, OF Braden Montgomery are the two prospects.
— Rule 5 Draft was this week: it is designed to prevent teams from stockpiling too many young players. Players not on a team’s 40-man roster can be chosen by other clubs.
If a player is chosen in the Rule 5 draft, the player must be kept on the selecting team’s major league active roster for the entire season that follows the draft, so the 15 guys taken this week will be in the big leagues this entire season.
11 of the 15 players chosen this week are pitchers.
— RIP George Kreske, better known as the Amazing Kreskin, who passed away this week at age 88; when I was a kid, Kreskin was a fixture on a lot of talk shows- he was on The Tonight Show 88 times.
Kreskin was a “mentalist”, kind of like a psychic; one of his best-known tricks was to find his own paycheck for his current performance.
If he did not find it, he didn’t get paid for that day. He would instruct the audience to hide an envelope containing his paycheck, while he was escorted off stage and into seclusion by other members of the audience. He then re-emerged and hunted through the audience, almost always being able to find where it was.
It was fun to watch his act, especially as a kid. RIP, sir.
NBA
Friday, December 13
Trend Report
Washington vs Cleveland
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Washington's last 5 games when playing Cleveland
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Washington's last 8 games when playing on the road against Cleveland
Cleveland is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games when playing at home against Washington
Cleveland is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Washington
Indiana vs Philadelphia
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Indiana's last 5 games when playing Philadelphia
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Indiana's last 7 games when playing on the road against Philadelphia
Philadelphia is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Philadelphia's last 5 games when playing Indiana
Charlotte vs Chicago
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Charlotte's last 5 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Charlotte's last 5 games when playing on the road against Chicago
Chicago is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games when playing Charlotte
Chicago is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Charlotte
Brooklyn vs Memphis
Brooklyn is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games when playing Memphis
Brooklyn is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing Memphis
Memphis is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Memphis is 9-1 SU in its last 10 games
LA Lakers vs Minnesota
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of LA Lakers's last 9 games
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of LA Lakers's last 9 games when playing on the road against Minnesota
Minnesota is 13-2 SU in its last 15 games when playing at home against LA Lakers
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Minnesota's last 6 games
LA Clippers vs Denver
LA Clippers is 5-1 ATS in its last 6 games when playing Denver
LA Clippers is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing Denver
The total has gone OVER in 7 of Denver's last 8 games at home
Denver is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games when playing at home against LA Clippers
Phoenix vs Utah
Phoenix is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Utah
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Phoenix's last 5 games when playing Utah
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Utah's last 5 games when playing Phoenix
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Utah's last 6 games at home
San Antonio vs Portland
The total has gone OVER in 4 of San Antonio's last 5 games
San Antonio is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing Portland
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Portland's last 8 games when playing San Antonio
The total has gone OVER in 15 of Portland's last 22 games when playing at home against San Antonio