Saint Peter’s, eh?
Saint Peter’s On, Baylor Out, Tennessee Goes Down
The Peacocks did it again, beating Murray State and doing it rather comfortably. The Peacocks did it defensively, for the most part, but also by gobbling up free throws. It was a rough, many-extended-possessions game, and the best way to probably say it is that Saint Peter’s out-slopped the Racers, becoming the latest 15-seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen at the end of it.
Elsewhere, yes, that Baylor/UNC game was wild, and yes, the refereeing was bad, but it wasn’t unipolarly bad. Really impressed by Armando Bacot, who didn’t have a great game statistically but played a full forty minutes and played a lot of them with four fouls, potentially saving the Tar Heels in the process. Michigan upset Tennessee, clearing out that brutal South Region a bit. Memphis played Gonzaga to the wire, but the Zags survived again. The narrative is that they aren’t clicking, but I’m not so sure that’s true. Memphis is capable of great games, and at some point in this tournament, winning’s enough. That said, blowouts would make me feel better, were I a Gonzaga fan or bettor. Kansas survived Creighton, Arkansas survived New Mexico State in a rock fight, Providence looked impressive against Richmond but Richmond isn’t an impressive team, recent results and all.
Today, Texas and Purdue play the game of the day, but Houston/Illinois should be good, Ohio State/Villanova has potential, and I wouldn’t sleep on TCU against Arizona. Michigan State/Duke is a classic, Notre Dame’s got its work cut out for it against Texas Tech but it helps to be able to protect the ball, and Auburn/Miami could be a dud but Miami’s good enough at making shots to potentially keep it interesting, or do something wild.
Can Iowa State Move On?
The answer to this, of course, is yes. The spread is four or five points. But will they? It’s going to be hard for Iowa State to rattle Wisconsin’s guards, and Johnny Davis sure looked healthy enough against Colgate.
The nice thing for Iowa State is that Wisconsin’s defense, while solid, isn’t excellent, and they aren’t the type to take too much advantage of Iowa State’s own sloppiness. Steven Crowl’s scary, as all efficient-scoring big men are against this team, but it’s better for Iowa State defensively to face great guards than a dominant big. Excited to see Davis and Davison match up against Kalscheur and Hunter on the Badger scoring end.
On the NIT Side
Texas A&M, BYU, and Wake Forest did varying degrees of rolling yesterday, and today we’ve got a few games that could be great. Dayton plays at Vanderbilt. Florida plays at Xavier. Washington State plays at SMU. Oklahoma/St. Bonaventure doesn’t project to be as close as those three, but it should have a good atmosphere. Then, of course, there’s Virginia/North Texas. The two slowest teams, per KenPom, in college basketball. Played on that funky court in Denton, this is a joy in waiting, and while it’s likely to be overshadowed by all the NCAA Tournament games going on at the same time (tip in Denton’s just ten minutes before Iowa State’s tip in Milwaukee, and will compete with the Duke and Texas Tech games as well), it should be a funny juxtaposition on the score app if Duke and Michigan State start pouring it in.
Sean Miller: Xavier
Big one! Miller’s obviously had a lot of success, but he’s a bold bet by the Musketeers’ administration. It’s the kind of thing where it does have high upside, but that upside might not be as much higher than Miller’s competition for the role as it would immediately seem. Really, you have a higher median result with Miller, with much lower downside. This could be a disaster if NCAA shenanigans break the wrong way.
That all said, if you’re a purely basketball school in the Big East, you should be able to rebound from disaster. Xavier, as we talked about recently, is a solid, solid program. They can probably weather any storm they might incur.
Trevor Story to Boston
Boston got another bopper, signing Trevor Story to a six-year deal. I would think Story would be a great fit at Fenway Park as a power-hitting second baseman, and man, what an infield offensively. Devers, Bogaerts, Story…well, Dalbec’s got potential. If Dalbec finds the power, it’s going to be quite a Red Sox offense this year.
Drew Smyly to the Cubs
The Cubs are back in on Drew Smyly, giving him a one-year deal at $5.25 million to be a rotation option. Smyly has been pretty bad in recent years, but you could do worse for a fifth starter, and sliding him in behind Marcus Stroman, Kyle Hendricks, Wade Miley, and Alec Mills doesn’t feel so terrible when spelled out like that. You’d hope for someone else to break through (maybe Alzolay, when he gets healthy, or one of the minor league arms like Keegan Thompson or Cory Abbott), and we’d love to see another pitcher added to the mix, but Smyly’s a fine April fifth starter for a team contending with the possibility of contending for contention. All is fine.
Wheels
We’re in on NASCAR, IndyCar, and F1 over in our best bets today. Not looking like the F1 moves are going to pay off, but there’s time left, and our guys are running 3-4-5-6 at the moment. We’ll see.
