Weekly Update November 18, 2024

Basketball – NBA: NBA Group Play started Tues. Cavs still undefeated. LeBron gets 4th straight Triple-Double but misses 5th. Costly TO. OTs. Fines.

Basketball – NCAAM: Cuse get Carmelo’s son. Upsets this week – only 4.

Football – NCAAF: 6 Top 25 losses and 1 undefeated team goes down. #1 Oregon gets a scare. Others do not. Gameday at Ohio St.

Football – NFL: Fins get W on MNF. Eagles comeback on TNF. 6 close games. Not close ones. No undefeated teams left…

Golf: Campos first title in Bermuda. Korda back on track.

Olympic Sports: Karolyi died. Shiffrin gets 98. Vonn coming back. USATF names Coliseum for trials. Long died. New women’s lax league.

Quick Headlines: Wings get WNBA draft #1. Martin first independent rider to win MotoGP Championship.

Basketball-NBA:

• The NBA Cup Group play started Tuesday this week. It will run through Dec 17th.
• The Cavaliers are til undefeated. Mitchell dropped 11 straight points in their win on Wed over the 76ers. Also on Wed, Giannis scored 59 points in the Bucks game against the Pistons. They needed all those points too as the game went into OT before Milwauke put it away.

• LeBron had his 3^rd straight Triple-Double on Wed night as LA cameback to beat the Grizzlies by 5. He would get his 4^th on Friday night against the Spurs. That is a career high. He would not get his 5^th in Saturday against the Pelicans although LA would win all those games.
• There was drama besides the OT win of the Celtics over the Raptors on Saturday. Turns out (according to the NBA Last 2 Minute Report) there were 2 missed no-calls in the final possession. 1 was that Tatum traveled right before hitting the 3-pointer at the buzzer to win. Also missed was a Raptors foul on Jaylen Brown in the final 7 seconds. Brown could’ve tied it back up at 123 a piece at that point.
• Heat HC Spolestra made a bad mistake of calling a TO which gifted the Pistons a win in OT. They did not have any timeouts remaining which is an automatic technical foul which let the Pistons go back to the line for the free throw which was enough to clinch the W.

• Timberwolves Anthony Edwards was fined $35k for an inappropriate hand gesture. That was during Friday’s win over the Kings on Friday night with 3:15 left in the 1^st. This is not Edwards’ first fine; he was fined $40K in Jan over critixing the officiating. Kings De’Aaron Fox scored a league season high 60 points in their loss! Fox would also put up 49 the next night against the Jazz and they would get the win this time.
• Speaking of fines, Hornets LaMelo Ball was fined $100K for an anti-gay slur during a postgame interview.

Basketball – NCAA:

• Big win for the Orange and it wasn’t on the court this week. They landed top-40 recruit Kiyan Anthony. You might recognize his dad, Carmelo, who also played for the Cuse. Heck the facility is named after him.
• Upsets this week: #19 Kentucky got the better of #6 Duke in the battle of the bball blue bloods on Tuesday. It was a big comeback too as the Blue Devils got outscored in the 2H 40-26. #13 Purdue upset #2 Alabama handing the Tide their first loss of the season. Purdue is still undefeated. #23 Texas A&M should climb up the rankings this week after handing #21 Ohio St a double digit loss. The Buckeyes started off so slow only scoring 22 in the 1H. Wisconsin not just beat they killed #9 Arizona. The Badgers won 103-88.

Football-NCAAF:

• Week 12 Top 25 Upsets.
  • #6 BYU takes its first loss in a trap game we all saw coming. Kansas has loved to play spoiler this season and they did it again on Saturday night in Provo. We were tied 10-10 at halftime but then the Cougars couldn’t get into the endzone again. To add insult to injury, they fumbled a punt on the 3 to give the ball back to the Jayhawks who scored a TD on the next play. That TD was enough to win and upset BYU. Another undefeated team goes down.

• • Gameday was in Athens for #12 UGA’s showdown with #7 Tennessee. It was a great game. The Vols got rolling early, putting gup 10 straight points. But then QB Carson Beck looked like his old self in this game. He connected with his TE Delp for the next two TDs. We went into the locker room tied 17 apiece. 2H was all UGA though. Beck ran in a TD in the 3Q. He threw for 347 yards and no turnovers! UGA beats Tennessee 31-16.

• • In a Big 12 elimination game, Arizona State pushed #16 K State around. The Sundevils were up 24-0 before K St would get some points on the board. Damage was done K State goes down 24-14. They are now 4-3 in the conference. Arizona St gets their first CFP Top 20 win since 2019 and was picked to get last in the Big 12 and now have a chance to play for the conference championship game.
  • I also completely missed one on the TikTok video. #18 Wazzu looked to have their game in hand leading 28-14 at half but the Lobos put up 14 points in the 3Q to catch back up. A final drive ending in a 1 yard run into the endzone in the final 21 seconds of the game would put the game away for NM and upset the 2-TD favorite Washington St. All that scoring btw and we still barely covered the O/U of 72.

• • Stanford only had won 2 games all season. The first pass attempt of the entire game by the tree was with just 50 seconds in the game on 4^th and 1. That TD tied it up at 35 all. Stanford gets the ball back with 5 seconds left. Final second of the game had 20 yards of penalties on the Cards to allow Stanford to get into FG range and beat them in the final second with a career long 52 yard FG.
  • The #23 Mizzou/#21 South Carolina matchup was awesome. You could tell why these teams were ranked around each other. QB sellers had himself a day! He put up 353 yards with 5 TDs, a career high for him. South Carolina lead 21-6 at half with only Tiger FGs. But then Mizzou started getting some back in the 2H, putting up an unanswered 16 points to take the lead in the 4Q. We then had 3 scores in the final 5 minutes of the game. SC scored to take the lead 27-22. Then Mizzou had a 37 yard TD pass and a successful 2-point conversion to make it 30-27. But SC would go 70 yards in 6 plays to run it in for the win 34-30.

• • In another SEC game, Florida after taking a beating from Texas last week bounced back nicely. Much to the shagrin of #22 LSU. It was tied 10-10 at halftime. Nothing but FGs in the 3Q – still tied. But a fumbled punt in the 4^th set up for a short field for Florida. The Gators take the lead. Lsu would get a FG to keep it a one score game but then Florida only needed 3 plays to go 75 yards for the final TD. Gators upset LSU and knock them out of the SEC race 27-16.

• Some scaries that shouldn’t have been:
  • #1 Oregon finally looked like they were going to fall trailing Wisconsin 13-6 going into the 4Q. All the Ducks could manage before that was FGs in the 1Q. That was until they put together a 6 minute drive to get into the endzone tying up the game. They would win on a FG in the final 2:36. They did give the ball back to the Badgers with 1:38 to go but QB Locke threw an int to seal it and the Ducks escape.
  • #14 SMU was winning against a 5-5 BC team but not by a lot. The Eagles kept it close only trailing 20-14 at half and 31-21 at the start of the 4Q. SMU would win this one only by 10.
  • #20 Clemson only had 8 rushing yard before Klubnick’s 50 yard run to score the final TD to escape from Pitt 24-20.

•  Shoutouts:
  • #2 Ohio State scored 21 points in the 2Q and another 10 in the 3Q to beat Northwestern 31-7 but not cover.
  • #3 Texas barely beat Arkansas 20-10 in a low scoring battle. They put up the first 13 points but then the Razorbacks would score 10 unanswered to bring the game back in hand. Texas would score again with 9min to go in the game to win 20-10.
  • #13 Boise St put up 14 points in the 2, 3, 4Q to easily beat San Jose St 42-21
  • #25 Tulane shutout Navy 35-0, scoring at least 1 TD in every Q.
• Unranked quick highlights:
  • Hope you took the over in the Baylor/West Virginia game (59.5). Both teams put up 21 each in the 2Q alone. WV did have a wonky weird path to the Big 12 championship game. But not after this loss. Baylor wins 49-35.
  • USC benched their starting QB for Jayden Maiava and it paid off. He threw for 3 TDs and led the Trojans to a narrow win over Nebraksa 28-20.
• Gameday will be going to Ohio St for their match up against undefeated Indiana!

Football – NFL:

• Wrapping up week 10 MNF: The Dolphins snapped their 3 game losing treak with a win over the Rams. The Rams never found the endzone in this game, scoring 4 FGs and still only lost by 8.

• TNF: The Commanders looked to have the Eagles in hand keeping Phili to only 2 FGs going into the 4Q. But then Saquon Barkley went off in the 4Q. The Eagles put up 20 to hand the Commanders their 2^nd straight loss.

• There were 6 close games this weekend (week 11):
  • The Packers and Bears game went back and forth. The Packers scored the first TD but the Bears led 10-7 at half. The Bears were still leading after the 3Q but a final TD in the 3 minutes of the game would put the Packers up 20-19. The Bears set up a 46 yard FG to win the game but it gets blocked! Packers escape.
  • The Rams put up 14 in the middle 2 Qs and that’s all they needed to beat the Patriots by 6. They even got an INT to end the game when the Pats were dirivng.

• • The Colts were leading 13-0 until the final 40 seconds of the 1H when the Jets managed to get into the endzone. The Colts would then fumble the ball on the 25 to give the back to the Jets who scored a TD in 2 plays; both plays were Breece Hall who did all the work. Then the scores would go back and forth but a big stop by the Colts defense kept the Jets to a FG in the final 2:41 of the game. That was enough to make the difference. Instead of tying the game with a FG, Colts QB Anthony Richards would score with 46 seconds left on the clock to win by 1.

• • I don’t even know what happened to the Ravens offense on Sunday. They were non existent. They had 329 yards total and 3 turnovers and only held the ball for 23 minutes of this game. That allowed the Steelers to beat them with NO TDs! Pitt would win with just 6 FGs.
  • The 49ers and Seahawks would trade scores all game long but the Seahawks had the ball last and managed 1 more TD to beat the Niners by 3.

• The last undefeated team goes down! The Chiefs may have made it to week 11 but that was the end of the undefeated road. The Bills scored first and would still be leading going into halftime 16-14. The 2H was lower scoring with the Chiefs only finding the endzone once and the Bills getting in twice. One was in the final 2:30 on a 4^th and 2 QB run play from the ~35 yard line. They win 30-21 and hand KC their first loss of the season!

• The not so close ones:
  • The Lions had themselves a day. They put up a CFB score. They won 52-6 and yes that 6 means just 2 FGs for the Jags.
  • Speaking of no TDs, the Falcons never managed to find the endonze on Sunday. They would lose 38-6 to the Broncos.
  • The Vikings scored 7, 9, 7 in the first 3 Qs which was enough to put away the Titans 23-13.
  • The Dolphins/Raiders was pretty back and forth until the 4Q. Miami scored 17 to put this game away easily winning 34-19.
  • Speaking of good 4Qs, the Saints put up 21 to run away with their game, beating the Browns 35-14.

• SNF: The Chargers went off in the 2Q scoring 17 to lead going into the locker room 24-6. The bengals tried to mount a comeback with 3 TDs in the 2H but it wasn’t enough to make up the difference. Chargers win 34-27.

Golf:

• Rafael Campos almost lost his card and had missed 5 cuts in a row before the Butterfield Bermuda Championship this week. The season ends next week and he was sitting at 147 on the FedEx Cup list. The 36 year old from PR won his first PGA Tour title by 3 over Andrew Novak. To add to the fairytale ending, he has also just become a dad 6 days ago! Talk about having a good week!

• Nelly Korda returned to the LPGA this week after 2 months away. You couldn’t tell. She won her 7^th LPGA Tour title this year at the Annika. She had a late Sunday surge with 5 straight birdies to seal the victory by 3 shots over Charley Hull who had a dreadful final round of +3.

Olympic Sports:

• Bela Karolyi dies at age 82. No cause of death was given. Bela grew to popularity after he coached Mary Lou Retton to the all around title in LA 1984 games and then he carried off Kerri Strug after her vault at the 1996 Atlanta games. Bela and Marta Karoli left ROM after coaching Nadia Comaneci to gold in the 1976 Montreal games. She hit a perfect 10 for the first time in history and then repeated the feat 6xs. Then they came to the US and had huge success until the whole Larry Nassar issue. The Karolyis owned and ran gym in Houston which was a breeding ground for Olympic gymnasts. They both retired form the sport after the 1996 games until USA Gym asked him to come back and coach after the USA finished last in a world championship. However it was widely believed that they have to have known something of what Nassar was doing. They were released from being Team USA coaches. The Karolyis had always had ciritcs with their harsh way of coaching.

• Mikaela Shiffrin won her 98^th world cup race on Saturday and first win of the season. Making Americans even more happy, this puts her best chance to win her unprecedented 100^th win at home in Vermont (she trained nearby as a teen). She led after run 1 and built her lead on run 2.
• Sticking with US Skiing, Lindsey Vonn will come out of retirement 6 years after she ran her last race. That was in Feb 2019. The 3xs Olympic medals had 82 world cup races which was the highest mark by a woman until Shiffrin recently eclipsed the mark. She will be competing at age 40!
• USA T&F has announced that they would ideally like to host trials before the 2028 Olympics in the LA Coliseum only 6 weeks before the Games. That’s a big change since every US trials have been in Eugene since 2008.

• The Premier Lacrosse League is starting a women’s league in 2025. Lacrosse will be a sport in the Olympics in LA 2028. They will play 4 teams 6s format and ending with a championship series.
• 3x NCAA champion and 2x Olympic medalist in the shot put, Dallas Long died at the age of 84 of natural causes. He won gold in Tokyo (1964) and then bronze in Rome (1960). He reset the WR in the shot put 11xs.

Some quick highlights:

• Dallas Wings get the #1 draft pick for the WNBA draft in April. It is widely expected that UConn’s Paige Bueckers will be the #1 pick.

• Jorge Martin wont he MotoGP World Championship in the final race of the year. That race which is always held in Valencia was moved to Barcelona after flooding devastated the original host area. It had been a crazy season long battle with reigning world champion, Franscico Bagnia. Bagnia won both the sprint race and the race on Sunday but it didn’t matter, Martin had enough points that all he had to do was finish 9^th on Sunday ti seal the deal. He took 3^rd. Martin is the first independent rider to win a championship ever in MotoGP.

What to watch this week

Basketball – NBA:

• Tues 11/19
  • Cavaliers at Celtics @ 6pm on TNT
  • Thunder at Spurs @ 8:30pm on TNT
• Wed 11/20
  • Bulls at Bucks @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Knicks at Suns @ 9pm on ESPN
• Fri 11/22
  • Warriors at Pelicans @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Mavericks at Nuggets @ 9pm on ESPN

NCAAM: (only ranked teams and on normal TV)

• Mon 11/18
  • North Alabama at 5. Auburn @ 7pm on SEC
• Tues 11/19
  • East Texas A&M at 3. UConn @ 6pm on FS1
  • 13. Purdue at 15. Marquette @ 8pm on FS1
• Wed 11/20
  • Merrimack at 24. Rutgers @ 7pm on Peacock
  • Illinois at 2. Alabama @ 8pm on SEC
• Thurs 11/21
  • UNCG at 16. Indiana @ 5:30pm on FS1
  • 12. Baylor at 22. St. John’s @ 6pm on CBSSN
  • UVA at 11. Tennessee @ 8:30pm on CBSSN
• Fri 11/22
  • Campbell at 21. Ohio St @ 5pm on BTN
  • Southern Illinois at 20. Florida @ 6pm on SEC
  • Nebraska at 14. Creighton @ 7pm on FS1
  • Little Rock at 18. Arkansas @ 8pm on SEC
  • 6. Duke at 9. Arizona @ 9:30pm on BTN
  • 10. UNC at Hawaii @ 11:30pm on ESPN2
• Sat 11/23
  • 15. Marquette at UGA @ 10am

NCAAW: (ranked vs ranked only)

• Sat 11/23
  • 6. Notre Dame at 3. USC @ 3pm on NBC
• Sun 11/24
  • 1. South Carolina at 5. UCLA @ 3pm on FS1

Football – NCAAF:

• Tues 11/19
  • CFP Ranking Show @ 6pm on ESPN

Top 25
Week 13
Top 25 Games
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line
5. Indiana	2. Ohio St	Sat 11/23	11:00 AM	FOX	OSU -12.5
14. BYU	21. Arizona St	Sat 11/23	2:30 PM	ESPN	ASU -3.5
16. Colorado	Kansas	Sat 11/23	2:30 PM	FOX	CU -3
18. Army	6. Notre Dame	Sat 11/23	6:00 PM	NBC	ND -15.5
15. Texas A&M	Auburn	Sat 11/23	6:30 PM	ESPN	Tamu -2.5
*GameDay indicated in bold*

Football – NFL:

• Mon 11/18
  • Texans at Cowboys @ 7:15pm on ESPN & ABC
• Thurs 11/21
  • Steelers at Browns @ 7:15pm on Prime
• Sun 11/24
  • 7 games @ 12pm on CBS/FOX
    • CBS: Patriots at Dolphins, Bucs at Giants, Chiefs at Panthers, Titans at Texans
    • FOX: Vikings at Bears, Lions at Colts, Cowboys at Commanders
  • Broncos at Raiders @ 3:05pm on CBS
  • 49ers at Packers – or – Cardinals at Seahawks @ 3:25pm on FOX
  • Eagles at Rams @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 11/25
  • Ravens at Chargers @ 7:15pm on ESPN & ABC
• Byes: Falcons, Bills, Bengals, Saints, Jets and Jags

Golf:

• Thurs 11/21
  • PGA Tour: RSM Classic – Round 1 @ 11am on Golf Channel
• Fri 11/22
  • PGA Tour: RSM Classic – Round 2 @ 11am on Golf Channel
• Sat 11/23
  • PGA Tour: RSM Classic – Round 3 @ 12pm on Golf Channel
• Sun 11/24
  • LPGA: CME Group Tour – Final Round @ 12pm on NBC
  • PGA Tour: RSM Classic – Final Round @ 2pm on Golf Channel

Hockey:

• Tues 11/19
  • Wild at Blues @ 7pm on hulu
• Wed 11/20
  • Hurricanes at Flyers @ 6:30pm on TNT
  • Predators at Kraken @ 9pm on TNT
• Thurs 11/21
  • Panthers at Blackhawks @ 7:30pm on hulu

Olympic Sports:

• Sun 11/24
  • Figure Skating: ISU GP @ 3pm on NBC

Soccer:

• Mon 11/18
  • UEFA Nations: ITA vs FRA @ 6pm on FS1
  • UEFA Nations: CRO vs POR @ 8pm on FS1
• Tues 11/19
  • UEFA Nations: BOS vs NED @ 10:30pm on FS1
• Sat 11/23
  • Premier League: Leicester City vs Chelsea @ 6:30am on USA
  • Premier League: Bournemouth vs Brighton @ 9am in USA
  • USL Championship Final @ 11am on CBS
  • NWSL Championship Final: Orlando Pride at Washington Spirit @ 7pm on CBS
• Sun 11/24
  • Premier League: Southampton vs Liverpool @ 8am on USA
  • Premier League: Ipswitch Town vs ManU @ 10:30am on USA
  • La Liga: CD Leganes vs Real Madrid @ 11am on ABC
  • MLS: LA Galaxy at Minnesota United @ 5pm on FS1