NBA Betting News, Match-Ups and Trends For Thursday 11/14/24

Thursday’s 6-pack:
Six college basketball teams with least continuity in country:
— DePaul
— Iona
— Missouri State
— Niagara
— Tennessee-Martin
— West Virginia

These teams started the season with zero continuity, totally new teams.

Quote of the Day 
“I was ready to leave the G League, maybe go overseas. I talked to my dad about that. He thought maybe if it doesn’t work out I’ll have to go overseas and try to do it over there, but I kind of just thugged it out and stayed and believed in my NBA dreams and I got the call.”
Scotty Pippen Jr, who is making a name for himself with the Memphis Grizzlies

Thursday’s quiz
Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels played college football for which two schools?

Wednesday’s quiz
Klay Thompson played his college basketball at Washington State

Tuesday’s quiz
Los Angeles Clippers have existed since 1970, but they’ve played home games in two other cities. Their first eight years in the NBA, the Clippers were the Buffalo Braves, before they moved to San Diego and became the Clippers.

— First things first……best wishes to Spurs coach Greg Popovich, who suffered a mild stroke on November 2nd. 75-year old Popovich has missed the Spurs’ past seven games; he’s started a rehabilitation program and is expected to make a full recovery. Popovich is the oldest coach in NBA history; he has 1,560 wins, winning five championships.

Get well soon, coach.

— There are 1,271 regular season games in an NBA season; every once in a while you see one with a little extra intensity. Tuesday night in San Francisco, Klay Thompson returned to the Bay Area with his new team, the Dallas Mavericks, after playing 11 years with Golden State, helping the Warriors win four championships.

Golden State won the game 120-117; Thompson scored 22 points, but Steph Curry scored 37 for the 9-2 Warriors. This was basketball at its highest level, a very entertaining game.

— Hofstra 49, Seton Hall 48
Pirates lost last two games, to Fordham/Hofstra, both by a point. Not good.
Seton Hall is scoring 53.7 ppg, shooting 37.6% inside the arc.

— St Joe’s 83, Villanova 76
Hawks beat Villanova for second year in a row; going back to last year, Wildcats are 9-13 in their last 22 games. Villanova made the NCAAs the last nine years Jay Wright was coaching; this would be the third year in a row they miss the NCAA’s, bad news for the current coach.

— Cal-Santa Barbara 91, Fresno State 86
Fresno has a new coach and only two players back from last year; they were 16-24 on the foul line in this game. UCSB G Turner was 15-16 on the line, all by himself.

There are a lot of college teams that are total rebuilds; they’re learning on the go. Guys who were junior college coaches have an advantage now; they’ve done all this before.

— Oregon 80, Portland 70 OT
Ducks were down 13 with 8:11 left in game, but they fought back, forced overtime and escaped with a win to improve to 3-0. Portland had lost its previous game by 41 points to UCSB.

— North Dakota State 88, Santa Clara 80 OT
Santa Clara led 37-18 early; they led by 5 with 0:14 left in regulation, Ugly loss for a team that starts four seniors and is #11 in country in continuity. North Dakota State had lost its first two D-I games, but they made 15-32 on the arc in this game.

— Famous birthdays, November 14th:
Mike Livingston, 79
Jack Sikma, 69
Curt Schilling, 58

Lionel Simmons, 56
Josh Duhamel, 52
Kyle Orton, 42

TY Hilton, 35
Francisco Lindor, 31
DeVonta Smith, 26

Mid-week college football
— Buffalo 51, Ball State 48 OT
Ball State led 45-31 with 6:00 left in game.
Bulls tied game on a 33-yard TD pass with 1:49 left.
Cardinals outgained 6-4 Buffalo 520-470.

— Bowling Green 31, Western Michigan 13
Falcons ran ball for 226 yards (6.8 yards/carry)
Western Michigan was 4-15 on 3rd down, 5-6 on 4th down.
Bowling Green is 6-4, and bowl eligible.

— Toledo 37, Central Michigan 10
Rockets had 5 takeaways, including a 45-yard pick-6.
Toledo led 27-3 at halftime.
Chippewas have lost five games in a row.

— Miami OH 34, Kent State 7
Kent State scored a TD 1:20 into the game; that was it for them.
Miami outgained the Golden Flashes, 477-178.
Redhawks ran ball for 275 yards; they’re bowl eligible now.

— Northern Illinois 29, Akron 16
Huskies had two guys run ball for 100+ yards.
NIU outgained Akron 439-255; they led 23-16 at halftime.
Akron scored a touchdown on a blocked punt.

— Ohio U 35, Eastern Michigan 10
Ohio QB Navarro threw for 277 yards, ran for 106 more.
Bobcats led 14-7 at halftime.
Ohio outgained Eastern Michigan, 433-266.

— Movie of the Day: He Got Game (1998)- The best high school basketball player in the country has to choose what college to go to; his father, who is in prison, will get his sentence shortened if the son goes to the college where the warden of the prison wants him to.

Denzel Washington is the father, Ray Allen is the son, Ned Beatty is the warden, Jim Brown is a probation officer. A mostly sad movie, but it is well done. 

— Cincinnati Reds hired Brad Mills as Terry Francona’s bench coach; Mills has been one of Francona’s coaches in 17 of his 22 major league seasons- he also managed Houston from 2010-12.

— Tropicana Field in St Petersburg isn’t going to be ready for the 2025 season; they think it’ll be ready for 2026, but next season is only 20 or so weeks away and the Rays have a new stadium opening in 2028, so will they spend $55M to fix this ballpark?

Speculation is that the Phillies’ spring training ballpark in Clearwater is the favorite to be used by the Rays for the 2025 season.

— Red Sox P Nick Pivetta got a qualifying offer for $21.05M for next year; he is expected to turn it down, even though he was 6-12, 4.14 in 26 starts last year. Word has it that Pivetta wants a 3-year deal; he’s going to be 32 on Valentine’s Day, so three years should be the ceiling on any kind of deal he gets.

— Indianapolis Colts are going back to 2nd year QB Anthony Richardson this week for their game with the Jets. Richardson has completed only 44.4% of his passes but has run for 242 yards. Colts have split his six starts; they’re 1-3 when 39-year old Joe Flacco starts.

— Vikings’ rookie QB JJ McCarthy underwent a second surgery earlier this week on his right knee as he continues to recover from a torn meniscus; it is not good when you’ve had two surgeries on the same knee, before you’ve played in a game.

McCarthy is still expected to be ready to play next season; the question is, if Sam Darnold keeps winning games, will the Vikings need McCarthy to play?

— Slugger Mark McGwire got his first major league hit in 1986 off of Tommy John, who was in his 23rd major league season at the time.

Tommy John’s dentist back then was………Mark McGwire’s father.