Smorgasbord Saturday

We’ve got a taste lot of everything on a beautiful college football Saturday. We’ve got some NBA, MLB, and golf news, and yes, we have controversy from a Friday night ACC matchup. Let’s grab that coffee and get going.

What’s going on in the NBA!?

🏀 Before we discuss a trade, did you see that LeBron might consider a broadcasting career after his playing career is over? We can all agree that we don’t need to see him on TV after he’s been shoved in our faces for the last 20 years.

🏀 The New York Knicks have reportedly agreed to a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Much to the joy of Knicks fans, the trade involved sending Julius Randle and a future first-round pick to Minnesota in return for Karl-Anthony Towns. Much to the dismay of Knicks fans, the trade also includes Donte DiVincenzo, and no one really wanted to see him go.

Record-Breaking MLB Season

⚾️ Shohei Ohtani is crushing it in his first season with the Dodgers. We don’t even feel bad not sharing all these updates with you because there’s no way you’re missing these on your own. Ohtani just hit his 54th home run last night and stole his 57th base. He now has the most stolen bases for any Japanese player in the league, and he just continues to dominate. Want to know a fun fact? The Dodgers win almost 80% of their games in which Ohtani hits a home run.

⚾️ Not all records are good. Ask the Chicago White Sox. Last night, the White Sox lost their 121st game, setting the record for the most losses in modern baseball. The Mets held the record since 1901.

⚾️While not all records are good, some streaks feel good to break. The Detroit Tigers have clinched their first playoff spot since 2014, ending 10-year slump, and they did it in an improbable way. They were on the outside looking in and then posted a 31-11 record since August 10. Good news for the Tigers….September is the time to get hot.

⚾️ The KC Royals have clinched their first postseason spot since winning the World Series in 2015. I would not have guessed they hadn’t made the playoffs between now and then.

⚾️The Oakland A’s played their last game at the Oakland Coliseum, where they actually won 3-2 against the Texas Rangers in front of a sold-out crowd. The fans roared with a “Let’s Go Oakland” after the final out. I think a writer for the SF Chronicle said it best when they said this is a generational theft for moving the A’s out of Oakland. Maybe the MLB will do the right thing and eventually get a new team with good owners.

⚾️ Playoffs start on Tuesday. Check out ESPN’s MLB Playoff Tracker right here.

President’s Cup

⛳️ We’ve got day 3 of the President’s Cup in Montreal today. A little USA vs Everyone else but Europe is going down. The Americans went 5-0 on Day 1, and the international squad took back what they lost by going 5-0 themselves yesterday. The international squad did it in a dominant way, too, with 3 of the matches being taken care of with at least 4 holes left to play.

👉️ It all comes down to today when we have four groups of best ball in the morning and four groups of alternate shot in the afternoon. Check out this guide from golf.com.

College Football

We know why you’re really here, so let’s get down to business.

#7 Miami vs Virginia Tech

🏈 The U narrowly escaped a loss last night after getting a 38-34 win over Virginia Tech after a final-second hail Mary touchdown was overturned. This was a wild game going back and forth, and Miami’s fronts started to show their flaws. Regardless, The U stuck this one out and maybe got some help from the refs on this one.

We’ve multiple ranked vs ranked matchups today. Let’s check them out.

#20 Oklahoma State @ #23 Kansas State

📺️ Noon on ESPN

💰️ Kansas State is favored by -5.5 points and the total is 57.5

👀 Both teams are coming off losses to Big 12 opponents last week, and this could be a crucial game that determines who won’t be playing in the Big 12 championship at the end of the year. Kansas State didn’t show their best against BYU last week as turnovers plagued them. OKST is in a rut of its own. Utah stacked the box against OKST last week, and OKST couldn’t run the ball because of it. The problem for OKST was their QB play was lackluster, and they couldn’t throw the ball either. If Kansas State can limit turnovers and explosive plays, this game should be all theirs.

#15 Louisville @ #16 Notre Dame

📺️ 3:30 pm on Peacock

💰️ ND is favored by 7 points and the O/U is 46.5

👀 It’s all about the weather in South Bend today. Indiana will feel the effects of the hurricanes and get 20+ mph winds during today’s game. Is this a ground-and-pound game where offenses try to maintain possession, and we’ll see a low-scoring affair? That’s what I’m going with. I’ll take the under on this one.

#2 Georgia @ #4 Alabama

📺️ 7:30 pm on ABC

💰️ UGA is favored by 1 point, and the total is 50.5

👀 Georgia just escaped their last game with a 1-point win over Kentucky and then Texas jumped them to the #1 spot in the ranking. Is this enough to give The Dawgs the bite they need to take on Alabama’s new head coach? The Dawgs haven’t produced the fierce running attack they’ve had in the past, but their air raid is still strong. On the flip side, Alabama looked good in their first three outings, but honestly, who did they play? Western Kentucky, USF, and Wisconsin? Not the toughest opponents but at least they average 40+ points each week. If you can find a +2 spread for Bama or grab a decent alternate line, I would take that.

#19 Illinois @ #9 Penn State

📺️ 7:30 pm on NBC

💰️ PSU is favored by 19.5 points and the total is 47.5

👀 We all expected Penn State to be #9 and undefeated at this point, but did we expect the same for Illinois? Probably not. While your eyes will likely be on the UGA vs. Bama game, you might be a die-hard Big 10 fan, so we’ll talk about this quickly. Penn State has one of the better-rushing defenses in the country so far this year. Still, Illinois has the edge in the passing game.. also none of this means anything because Penn State hasn’t really played anyone except for their season opener against WVU. I think Penn State will score points today. They’ve shown that they can do that this year. The question isn’t wether or not Penn State will win, it’s really how many points can Illinois score? Here’s what I’m looking for. Penn State 1st half lines. They have scored more than half of their points this season in the first two quarters of the games, and If I can find something below -10 points, I’ll be happy with that.

Enjoy all the games today. We’ll be back with some NFL stuff tomorrow.

Cheers!

-The DB