Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Crazy sports numbers Monday night as March Madness starts early



I hope you saw some basketball Monday night, because there were some ridiculous numbers being posted all over the place on what was a great precursor to March Madness. Here are four of the most amazing:

6: The number of points Tar Heel guard Marcus Paige scored on a very off night offensively in UNC's 63-61 win. He even missed two of four free throws in the final minute against Notre Dame to give the Irish a chance to tie the game at the buzzer. But Paige is a difference-maker, and did so again in an unusual way for him Monday -- with a game-saving block. Robert Willett of the (Raleigh) News & Observer got a great picture of it, which is above.

38 and 19: Al Jefferson's points and rebounds, respectively, in the Charlotte Bobcats' 17-point loss to Miami. On most any other night, Jefferson's evening would have received widespread acclaim. But... (see 61)

41: N.C. State sophomore T.J. Warren is the ACC's best pure scorer, no doubt about that. But he outdid himself Monday, scoring 41 -- more than half of the Wolfpack's points -- in a win over Pittsburgh. No doubt Warren is a first-team All-ACC player, and a candidate for the league's Player of the Year award.

61: Oh, LeBron. King James absolutely torched the Bobcats in Miami Monday night, scoring 61 points (his career high) while making his first eight three-point shots. He's pretty unguardable already -- when LeBron is hitting threes, it's over. The point total was helped by the fact that Dwyane Wade took the night off to rest his knee. The Bobcats have now given up the two highest point totals in the NBA this season -- they earlier allowed Carmelo Anthony to go for 62.

3 comments:

Go Cats! said...

They may be giving up points to ultra stars, but they are sure blowing away your predicted wins. But all I hear regardign that call is crickets....

Scott Fowler said...

Chirp, chirp! I picked the Bobcats to go 29-53, and they are indeed going to end up blowing that away, as they already have 27 wins right now with 22 games left to play. My colleague Tom Sorensen will come closer to getting this one right -- he picked Charlotte to win 33.

Anonymous said...

Tj Warren is the best player in the ACC, the country, and the NCAA! He should be the #1 pick in the NBA draft, he has that it thing people talk about!