NBA Betting News, Match-Ups and Trends For Saturday 11/16/24

Saturday’s 6-pack:
Six college basketball teams playing the fastest tempo so far:
1- New Mexico
2- Portland State
3- Arizona
4- Kennesaw State
5- Bryant
6- Cal-Northridge

Quote of the Day 
“It is your character, and your character alone, that will make your life happy or unhappy. That is all that really passes for destiny…..…others can encourage you to make the right choices or discourage you, but you choose.”
John McCain

Saturday’s quiz
From 1967-73, UCLA won March Madness every year; what team beat them and ended their streak in the 1974 national semi-finals?

Friday’s quiz
Joe Gibbs was head coach of the Washington Redskins/Commanders last time they won a playoff game, in 2005; Mark Brunell was the QB.

Thursday’s quiz
Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels played college football for Arizona State and LSU.

— Marquette 78, Maryland 74
Maryland led by six points early in second half.
Visiting Marquette was 18-24 on foul line, Terps were 9-14.
Marquette played nine guys double figure minutes; quality depth.

— Purdue 87, Alabama 78
Alabama was 9-29 on the arc, Purdue 9-16
Crimson Tide led by 6 with 11:00 left in game.
Purdue only had 3 turnovers in a 68-possession game.

— Virginia 70, Villanova 60
Cavaliers made 14-25 shots behind the arc. Impressive.
Virginia didn’t play any seniors in this game.
Villanova started five seniors; they’re 0-3 vs teams in the top 250.

— Butler 81, SMU 70
Butler shot 46.2% on the arc, 37.1% inside the arc.
Bulldogs had six players score in double figures.
SMU’s Harris scored 21 points in 30:00; he didn’t start.

— Florida 87, Florida State 74
Gators shot 66.7% inside arc.
Senior G Clayton was 4-10 on arc, scored 25 points.
Florida has a 7-foot-9 freshman who will redshirt this year. 7-foot-9.

— Michigan 76, TCU 64
Wolverines won despite being minus-9 (21-12) in turnovers.
TCU shot 34.4% from the floor, scored 0.88 points/possession.
Horned Frogs are #90 in experience, #330 in continuity; lot of transfers.

— Charleston 119, Florida Atlantic 116, 2OT
Charleston led by 13 with 6:47 left in regulation.
Cougars were 15-30 on arc; FAU was 16-29.
93-possession game; five guys who didn’t start scored in double figures.

— Tennessee-Martin and Oregon State have the most foreign players on their team this season; both teams have players from nine different countries.

— Famous birthdays, November 16th:
Herb Washington, 73
Marg Helgenberger, 66
Dwight Gooden, 60
Maggie Gyllenhaal, 47

Amare Stoudemire, 42
Denzel Valentine, 31
Jason Sanders, 29
Grayson Rodriguez, 25

— Colorado State 24, Wyoming 10
Favored Rams led 14-0 after the first quarter.
Colorado State is 7-3, 5-0 in Mountain West games.
Rams averaged 11 yards/pass attempt.

— Texas-San Antonio 48, North Texas 27
Roadrunners led 27-7 at halftime.
There were five TD plays of 39+ yards in this game.
Both teams are 5-5, both need a win to be bowl eligible.

— East Carolina 38, Tulsa 31
ECU scored two TD’s in last 5:30 of game; they’re 6-4 and bowl eligible.
Pirates ran ball for 222 yards, survived having 125 penalty yards.

— Movie of the Day: The Verdict (1982)- An alcoholic lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling, even though his client was offered a hefty settlement.

Paul Newman is the lawyer, Jack Warden is his friend, James Mason is the opposing lawyer.

Very good movie, albeit a little dated now. Paul Newman’s character plays pinball on those cool old-fashioned pinball machines that used to be in bars.

— Tampa Bay Rays will play next season in Tampa, but at the spring training home of the Bronx Bombers. Rays actually have to pay their division rivals $15M to use the facility, because Tropicana Field was wrecked by by a hurricane last month.

— Los Angeles Angels added utility man Kevin Newman for one year, $2.5M; they’ve also added P Kyle Hendricks, C Travis d’Arnaud- they’ve been the busiest baseball team this off-season.

— Pitcher Cole Irvin signed a $1M contract with the Doosan Bears of the KBO; $1M is the most a first-year player can make in Korea.

Irvin is 28-40, 4.54 in 93 MLB starts over six seasons for four teams.

— Cal Poly in the Big West appears to be a vastly improved team; they went 65-202 the last nine years, going 4-65 in conference games the last four years, but the 2-2 so far this year, with 75-71 win over Seattle, plus respectable losses to San Francisco, Cal.

Mike DeGeorge is the new coach; his teams play a faster style, which should help recruiting.

— Mentioned on Tuesday how November 13 was Felix Unger Day, in reference to the great TV show The Odd Couple. Turns out that Garry Marshall’s birthday was November 13; he was one of the show’s writers, and a creative genius with an amazing resume of movies to his credit.

— Eagles 26, Commanders 18
Commanders led 10-6 after the third quarter.
Eagles’ first five drives: 30 plays, 177 yards, no points.
Eagles rest of game: 43 plays, 350 yards, 26 points.
Eagles won 12 of last 14 series games.

Philly was 9-16 on third down, Commanders 3-12.
Eagles outgained Washington, 434-264
Last five games, Washington was outscored 67-36 in 2nd half.
Commanders are 4-7 ATS in last 11 NFC East road games.