— Spurs 120, Pelicans 116 OT- Wembanyama had 29 points, 11 boards, nine blocks
— Pistons 115, Rockets 111- Detroit was +15 with Duncan Robinson on the floor.
— Knicks 105, Celtics 95- Knicks outscored Boston 42-14 in second quarter.
— Hawks 111, Magic 107- Hawks outscored Orlando 33-21 in fourth quarter.
— Cavaliers 131, Nets 124- Mitchell scored 35 points, had five assists.
— Wizards 117, Mavericks 107- George scored a career-high 34 points.
Quote of the Day
“I am going to get myself in trouble, but I listen to people talk about how kids changed. Kids aren’t the problem, we’re the problem. This was sprung on us again yesterday where a guy can be in the G League for two or three years and then all of a sudden, he’s eligible.”
Tom Izzo
Saturday’s quiz
Where did Aaron Rodgers play his college football?
Friday’s quiz
Jaxson Dart is the all-time leader in passing yards for the Ole Miss Rebels.
Thursday’s quiz
Shawn Green is the only baseball player that hit 100+ home runs for both the Blue Jays and the Dodgers.
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Saturday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here…….
— Blue Jays 11, Dodgers 4Game was tied 2-2 after five innings.
Toronto scored nine runs in the bottom of the 6th.
Addison Barger hit a pinch-hit grand slam.
Game 2: Yamamoto vs Gausman Saturday night.
— Kind of cool that Toronto bench coach Don Mattingly is in his first World Series. Mattingly was a really good player who hit .307 in his 14-year career with 222 home runs, but he never played in a World Series. He also managed the Dodgers and Marlins.
— Virginia Tech 42, California 34 OT
Golden Bears led 20-10 at halftime.
Tech ran ball 58 times for 357 yards (6.2 yards/carry)
Hokies improve to 3-5; California is 5-3.
— North Texas 54, Charlotte 20
QB Mestemaker threw for 608 yards, four TD’s. 608 yards!!!!
Game was tied 17-17 at halftime.
North Texas was minus-2 in turnovers, but they gained 754 yards.
— Chargers 37, Vikings 10
Chargers outgained Minnesota, 419-164.
Chargers in first half: 38 plays, 282 yards, 24 points
Vikings in first half: 26 plays, 83 yards, 3 points
Minnesota only ran the ball 11 times, for 34 yards.
— So far this season, NFC teams are 25-12 SU against AFC teams.
— NFL replay challenges, thru seven games, the last five years:
2021- 46 challenges, 16 overturns 34.9%
2022- 51 challenges, 18 overturns 35.3%
2023- 55 challenges, 24 overturns 42.9%
2024- 53 challenges, 21 overturns 39.6%
2025- 60 challenges, 36 overturns 60%
Coaches have access to better technology in the booth this year, which is allowing them to make better challenges..
— Vikings’ QB Carson Wentz has had an unusual career:
2016-20- Eagles 35-33-1
2021- Colts 9-8
2022- Redskins 2-5
2023- Rams 1-0
2024- Chiefs 0-1
2025- Vikings 2-3
Six different teams the last six years.
— Famous birthdays, October 25:
Marion Ross, 97
Dan Issel, 77
Gifford Nielsen, 71
Danny Darwin, 70
Marc Vlasic, 62
Pat Swilling, 61
Mike Harkey, 59
Terrell Lowery, 55
Pedro Martinez, 54
Katy Perry, 41
Chandler Parsons, 37
Juan Soto, 27
— Oklahoma City Thunder is the first NBA team EVER whose first two games of a season both went to double overtime. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played 92:00 in those two games, scoring a total of 90 points.
— Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat G Terry Rozier were indicted this week on charges that involved illegal sports betting and rigged poker games. Two separate cases that have some overlap, but they are separate cases.
I don’t want to say a whole lot about this; I’m not a lawyer and this process is likely to drag out a while, but I’ll say this:
Rozier has earned $135,085,373 in his career, was scheduled to earn another $26,643,031 this season.
Billups earned $107,227,720 in a playing career that ended 12 years ago; he’s been coaching since then, which is still good money.
Why the BLEEP would these guys be involved in a mess like this?
— Tiago Splitter is the interim coach in Portland; he was the coach of Paris Basketball Club during the 2024-25 season, where he led the team to a French Basketball Cup championship.
Four of Portland’s six assistant coaches this season are new to the team.
Splitter played seven years in the NBA, most of which came with the Spurs after being drafted 28th overall in the 2007 Draft. He was a key player in San Antonio’s 2014 championship run and also had a long international basketball career.
— Have been reading thru college basketball stuff, getting ready for the season; reading up on the WCC, I was getting a headache. Just about every team has a mostly-new roster, think one team had as many as two starters back. Players don’t stay anywhere anymore.
On teams that do well, players get bought up by bigger $$$ teams; on teams that do poorly, teams clean house and poach players from other schools, as well as add freshmen.
Used to be fun handicapping games in November; the teams with more continuity usually did pretty well. These days, no one has continuity; we have to learn on the fly.
— Louisville, Santa Clara have recently signed players who have played in the G League, which seems to defy the NCAA’s previous amateurism/eligibility rules, which barred any players who had previously competed for money at a professional level from playing Division I basketball.
Coaches around the country are confused by this. Does the NCAA know what its doing?
— Was surprised to see that Mike Trout wound up this season as the #56 outfielder in fantasy baseball, then you read that he testified in court this week in a civil trial brought by the family of former Angels P Tyler Skaggs, who died in 2019 of an accidental drug overdose- the family is suing the Angels for $118M.
Messy situation, has to be a huge distraction to people who were with the Angels back then.
— Watching YouTube late at night this week, I found an 11-minute clip about the old TV show The White Shadow, about a retired NBA player who gets a job coaching basketball in urban Los Angeles. It was a really good show that was on when I was in college (late 70’s); the guy who wrote it was Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth Paltrow’s father.
We used to joke that one of the characters, Salami was a hacker; he fouled a lot. They said in this show that Timothy Van Patten, who played Salami, had been a high school wrestler in real life and was the only player on the Carver High team who had no actual basketball experience, so at least we were right about that.
