Saturday CBB Afternoon Games Thread

Submitted by A Lot of Milk on February 23rd, 2019 at 1:03 PM

See a need, fill a need.

Bunch of huge games going on right now and a couple big ones later on.

#3 Virginia trails by 10 at #18 Louisville at half, a half that saw Louisville knock down 10 of 16 threes while UVA went 0-11 from behind the arc

#5 Tennessee leads by 5 at #13 LSU at the half. LSU star PG Tremont Waters (the dude who destroyed us in Maui last year) is out today with an illness and probably would've been a huge boost to LSU's upset chances today

In Big Ten land, Penn States leads by 7 at Illinois at halftime. Would be nice to see them collect a few more Big Ten wins to take the stink off our road loss a bit

What are you watching today?

Mike Damone

February 23rd, 2019 at 1:09 PM ^

Hate to say this - but Tennessee looked pretty damn good in the 1st Half against LSU.

As LSU is trailing by 5 - there is certainly still a good chance for an upset LSU win.  But it feels like LSU gave their best in the 1st Half.  Hope I am wrong - Go Tigers!

rob f

February 23rd, 2019 at 3:51 PM ^

Do you also have a farm pond for skating and hockey?

In my youth, nearly every winter weekend was spent outdoors enjoying winter sports: first it was sledding and tobogganing on my grandparents fruit farm (my back yard bordered their peach and apple orchards) on some hills so steep that one of my younger brothers dislocated a shoulder and a cousin broke a leg out there.

Then we discovered skating and made frequent use of a farm pond on my neighboring uncle's farm.  We'd do a shovel brigade on Fridays after school, then cut a hole in the ice in one corner of it and have a bucket brigade to flood the surface if the ice was too rough for skating. Saturdays and Sunday afternoons were usually spent playing hockey---we were never short of players, as I have 5 brothers, plus 8 male cousins who lived within a half mile, not to mention school friends and neighbors.

When I reached high school I and my oldest cousin were introduced by friends to downhill skiing, so eventually several of my brothers and cousins also took up that sport, especially after I got my driver's license and pretty much took over my dad's Olds Vista Cruiser, loading it up with skis and skiers for the 20- minute drive to Cannonsberg.

But even then, the pond hockey was free and a two minute walk from home, so hockey was usually the activity of choice most weekends.  And we all survived it with many a cut, scratch, or bruise---but somehow with no broken teeth or bones.

Good times!!!

 

 

xtramelanin

February 23rd, 2019 at 5:24 PM ^

great stuff rob.  love those kind of stories.  i am on the township board and was 'instrumental', you might say, in getting a really nice outdoor rink put in just down the road.  before that, years ago, i actually made an ice rink inside the barn - it was the best (but a lot of work) because no sun or rain issues to melt the ice, no snow to shovel.  that was before more equipment and livestock, but it was really cool while it lasted.  we have occasionally had a rink here at the farm, outside.  me, the ex-hockey player, refused to let my sons play hockey after mites.  way too much travel for us.  

as to my youth, not too much different than yours, lots of outdoor skating and my first years in organized hockey were outdoor rinks, too.  i won't bore with tales of pond and outdoor hockey, but yeah, lots of that and very fond memories.  i even remember playing outdoors my late college years in ann arbor, when i was no longer playing for the team.  there is a purity in outdoor hockey that is hard to articulate, but it is special. 

rob f

February 23rd, 2019 at 10:22 PM ^

Do any of your sons or daughters still have the hockey itch, wanting to follow the skate tracks of dear old Dad?  If they do, and then one day announce to you and your wife that they want to play HS hockey, is that still an option, do schools in your neck of the woods have prep hockey teams?

I would have loved to have played organized hockey if my HS would have had the sport back then, but back in the mid 70s in GR, none of the City League schools had teams and very very few of the suburban schools had teams, either---maybe EGR and Forest Hills if anybody, the biggest problem being lack of suitable area hockey facilities.

By the time my next younger brother Jim (he was 4 years younger) was a h.s. senior, an effort was made at our school (GR West Catholic) to field a team; it progressed far enough that he was chosen as one of the co-captains, but for some reason the school finally nixed the idea and never fielded a team until several years later. 

Even today, most Michigan high schools don't have hockey programs or at very most, they combine 2 or more schools to put teams together.  And suburban Detroit teams have a huge talent advantage over outstate teams, mostly because they have a LOT more facilities.

UMinSF

February 24th, 2019 at 2:55 AM ^

Few things about that:

First, that's "announced attendance". Screenshots don't look close to announced numbers. There are articles questioning the figures, especially "20k" in San Diego - looks like an Indians game at the old Municipal Stadium.

Second, San Antonio looks to be by far the best city for AAF (I'd bet Birmingham does pretty well too). Phoenix and San Diego look like disasters, and from the pic I saw nobody showed up in SLC either. Apparently they didn't even announce an "official" figure in Phoenix, though somehow a figure made some reports.

I checked ticket prices for San Antonio - you can sit in the end zone for $14. They only sell the lower bowl, so all seats are pretty good. They sell (or at least charge) $250 for some seats, but there are great seats (40YL rows in the 20's) for $50.

Finally, the Chargers are playing in a temporary stadium, and frankly the NFL doesn't much care about attendance other than how it looks/sounds on TV. I read AAF gets nothing from CBS, and it's unclear if they get anything from NFL network. They need butts in the seats.

Anyway, I honestly hope it survives, but I'll be surprised if it lasts 2 seasons.

They probably said the same thing about the old AFL - so what do I know?

 

 

MH20

February 23rd, 2019 at 1:35 PM ^

I think that was actually a three for Hunter on that shot called a two. It looked to me that there was a tiny sliver of space between his shoe and the line.

A Lot of Milk

February 23rd, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^

I thought so too. I'm always amazed at the inconsistency of whether refs choose to review things like that or just let it go. There's so many timeouts, would it kill them to spend 10 seconds to check the tape during any one of them? I thought the same thing during Watkins' controversial shot against us at PSU. Looked like he just barely missed the buzzer after he double dribbled, but no review at all, even at a critical moment late in the game.

Monk

February 23rd, 2019 at 1:44 PM ^

this is the second time that Louisville has gone through a 20 pt swing, up ten to down ten here and blowing the 20 pt lead vs Duke.  I'm not watching the game, but assuming that like the Duke game, UVA started pressing, they just turned the ball over a lot leading to easy points. 

A Lot of Milk

February 23rd, 2019 at 1:49 PM ^

That would have actually been interesting, watchable basketball. But it's Virginia so that wasn't the case. Only 5 turnovers for Louisville all game. Hunter stepped up huge for UVA in the second half, and Louisville just stopped making shots. 2-16 from three in the second half after going 10-16 in the first. Only 15 points in the second half. Really sad and boring to watch

MH20

February 23rd, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^

Seemed like for the most part that UL just stopped making all the threes that they were drilling in the first half (10/16 vs 2/17) and UVA started chipping away with timely baskets and DeAndre Hunter taking over. There was a technical in there on Chris Mack, too.

A Lot of Milk

February 23rd, 2019 at 2:19 PM ^

I think the only thing I have ever agreed with Dickie V on is that the endings of college basketball games are amongst the most unwatchable things in sports.

Twenty minutes to play one minute.

And to keep this fart of a game going, Bone slips on a game winning fg attempt. On to OT.

A Lot of Milk

February 23rd, 2019 at 2:21 PM ^

I've seen some Sparty fans on twitter mocking the PSU loss. Penn State knocks off Illinois in Champaign, a feat that not even MSU could muster. Northwestern sits alone in last place in the conference now

wolverineRXblue

February 23rd, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^

The bottom of the big ten is not bad at all. NW and ohio state (lol) are the only teams in the big ten without a win against a ranked team. Very impressive conference top to bottom.

A Lot of Milk

February 23rd, 2019 at 2:40 PM ^

Way too good of a look for Tennessee in that situation, but LSU knocks them off with their backup PG. The #5 (Nevada) and #6 (Tennessee) ranked teams have now lost this weekend. Big change for Michigan to move up a few spots in the polls this weekend. Might even start to get some 1 seed talk again

Perkis-Size Me

February 23rd, 2019 at 5:12 PM ^

Doubt it. Gonzaga, Duke (assuming they win tonight), Kentucky, and UVa will still be ahead of us. 

But what I am hoping Tennessee losing means is that Michigan can get out of the same region that Duke is in. WOTS is that Williamson is coming back and I want to put off having to face that man for as long as humanly possible.

Mike Damone

February 23rd, 2019 at 2:43 PM ^

Can't believe UT fouled with 0.6 seconds left and game tied.  So stupid.

Glad I was wrong above - LSU gave them a great game.  LSU's freshman guard Ja'Vonte Smart was incredible with 29 points - and he was the backup w LSU's starter out.  Tennessee's guards could not cover him - a clear weakness,

Geaux Tigers!!!