ON TODAY'S SCORECARD
Coach Speak Goes Silent

Lou Holtz, who became a legend during his Hall of Fame ead coaching career at Notre Dame and Arkansas, died yesterday He was 89 years old.

He transformed every team he inherited and captured the 1988 National Championship with the Fighting Irish - his lone title as a head coach.

Throughout his more than 40-year coaching career, including 32 as a college head coach, Holtz amassed a 249-132-7 overall record. He won two Bear Bryant Awards and Eddie Robinson Awards as national coach of the year while winning conference championships at William & Mary, NC State and Arkansas.

Holtz entered hospice care in January just weeks after his 89th birthday. He won a national championship at Notre Dame as part of a decorated coaching career which included a memorable debut season at Arkansas. The Razorbacks went 11-1 during that 1977 season and took down Oklahoma in a memorable Orange Bowl upset.

Perhaps he was most famous for downplaying his team’s chance in football games while building up opponents. It became so commonplace it became his moniker and was widely referred to as ‘coach speak’.

The one thing he couldn’t do, however was turn the New York Jets into a winning team.

His record with the Jets was 3-10 through 13 games, in the 16-game season. He resigned on December 9, 1976, citing that "God did not put Lou Holtz on this earth to coach in the pros."

RIP coach. You will be missed.

Golden State over HOUSTON by 6

It’s approaching ‘Elvis time’ for the Warriors – meaning it’s now or never – as they cling to the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoff race, just three losses away from dropping out of postseason contention at press time. It’s been tough without superstar G Seth Curry, who has yet to start a game for the Warriors this season. Add in the season-ending loss to Jimmy Butler (ACL) and the games missed due to Kristaps Porzingis's injury, and head coach Steve Kerr has had a challenging season to manage. But if there’s one area where Kerr’s team has excelled this season, it’s in games following consecutive losses – going 8-2 SU / 7-3 ATS – including 4-0 SU / ATS as an underdog. The season has turned bumpy for the Rockets, who enter this game with a shaky 9-19-1 ATS record post New Year’s Day. However, the ultimate point is THE CLINCHER: Steve Kerr is 35-15 SU (31-19 ATS) as a head coach with Golden State when his team has a winning record and is playing with season revenge – if the Warriors are coming off a loss and facing and playing with same-season revenge.

The game write-up above was extracted from the current 7B edition of the Playbook Hoops Newsletter.

Click here to download a copy now.

March Madness is rightly lauded as the crown jewel of the college basketball season, but there's an argument to be made that the two-week conference championship sprint — which began Monday — is just as exciting. 31 leagues. 361 teams. All chasing coveted automatic bids to the NCAA tournament.

They include some seriously wonky formats, like the Sun Belt and WCC's laddered brackets (the top seeds get so many byes!) and whatever the heck the Horizon League is doing.

As an example, with 11 teams in the league, the bottom two teams kick off the tournament. The winner advances to a 10-team bracket and then the five winners are re-seeded from there.

The top three remaining seeds get byes to the semifinals, where the lowest two remaining teams play a quarterfinal game for the final spot in the semis.

Raise your hand if you follow this convoluted mess.

All we know for sure is Wright State has the top seed in the conference tournament, though Robert Morris (No. 145) is seven spots higher in KenPom.com’s rankings. Robert Morris went 21-10 overall, while Wright State was 20-11 and won the regular season conference title by two games.