I'm sorry, but I feel that the NBA and the NHL have it wrong with the playoffs.  Any league that allows over half of their teams to advance to the postseason is worthy of being smacked in the face.  Now I know there have been some 8 seeds that won(see Golden State and Denver in the NBA and San Jose a few times in the NHL), but do all of the games matter in the regular season when 16 out of 30 teams advance to the playoffs?

It was different in the NHL when the set up was different(actually having division playoffs then the conference finals) and I think the NHL can go back to it.  When a league has 3 divisions of 5 teams each, there should be a divisional round of playoffs between the top 2 teams in each division.  Here are what the matchups would be:

East(divisional round-best of 5)
Atlantic:  New Jersey v. Pittsburgh
Northeast:  Ottawa v. Montreal
Southeast:  Carolina v. Washington
The team with the highest point total that loses in this round advances as a wild card(we could tweek this)

West(divisional round-best of 5)
Central:  Nashville v. Detroit
Northwest:  Colorado v. Minnesota
Pacific:  Anaheim v. San Jose
And a wildcard team

The NBA could also do this, or they just allow the top 4 teams in each conference to advance(each division winner and top 2nd place team)

Round 1(Best of 7)
East
Cleveland(Wild Card) v. Boston(Atlantic)
Orlando(Southeast) v. Detroit(Central)
West
San Antonio(Wild Card) v. Los Angeles(Pacific)
Utah(Northwest) v. New Orleans(Southwest)

I would actually care about the NBA playoffs if this was the layout, instead of waiting until the conference finals to start paying attention.

Why is it that everything you are tired and want to go to sleep, there's a good game on?  Such was the case for me yesterday.  I got back from class at 10 pm and turned on ESPN2 while I was winding down.  What was on you may ask.....The first OT in the Texas-Oklahoma State game.  They were going back and forth during the final 2 minutes of the OT and the battle of the top scorers in the Big 12 took place when Mario Boggan hit a 3 with a little over 3 seconds left in triple OT for an OSU 105-103 victory.  Kevin Durant is for real(sorry Longhorns fans, but he'll be in the NBA next season) but UT needs another scorer. 

the NHL Minute
The Blues won 6-2 at Anaheim last night with a familiar face in goal.  Curtis Sanford started in goal and looked great.  The Blues are 9-2-2 in their last 13 games and are making a playoff push.  They also traded for Yan Stasney yesterday.  He is the nephew of Petr Stasney.  Sidney Crosby scored 2 goals yesterday against the Islanders...There's no new news on the Penguins move from Pittsburgh, but my money is on Kansas City.  It would be awesome to be able to drive 3 1/2 hours to see Malkin and Crosby play

Sammy Who?
The Texas Rangers offered a minor league contract with a spring training invite to "Slammin" Sammy Sosa and Sosa is contemplating it.  GM John Daniels stated that Sosa deserves a "second chance".  Funny he would use those words because Sammy was offered the same deal last off-season by the Washington Nationals, wasn't that his second chance in baseball?  If you knew what was best for you Sammy, you would officially retire and try to leave the game with some dignity.

Odds and Ends
Arkansas QB Mitch Mustain was given permission to transfer from the school yesterday.  How ironic is it that he would do so 2 days after his former high school coach, Gus Maltzan, resigned for the offensive coordinator job at Tulsa.  Mustain is the second of the "Springdale Four" to leave the school.  Before their bowl game, WR Damian Williams transferred to USC because he said that the offense wasn't what he thought it would be.  I wouldn't be surprised if Mustain follows him to USC, that would be a terrific fit for him.  He would be replacing John David Booty and will have the best WR corp in the country.  Other places that would be ideal would be Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tulsa, and Tennessee...

Mike Shula has interviewed for the head coaching position with the Miami Dolphins?  Has Wayne gone NUTS?  Why, in the name of all that is holy, would he contemplate hiring someone who was fired from Alabama after having only 1 good season?  The only reason he is getting a look is because of his last name and it would be a travesty to all Dolphin fans if he is hired to be their head coach....

Benny Parsons died yesterday at the age of 65.  BP made people love NASCAR and he will surely be missed by most people who now love NASCAR, I know I'll miss hearing him at Daytona in a couple of weeks...

Carlos Zambrano is arbitration-eligible, I hope the Cubs have a vault big enough to pay the biggest pitching ego in the majors!

College Basketball Game of the Day
#4 North Carolina @ #16 Clemson, 6 PM ESPN.  Carolina going into Littlejohn after losing in Blacksburg on Saturday and Clemson coming off of their first loss.  I'm going with Carolina by 5.  Lawson to Hansborough, that's going to be said a lot tonight

........The University of Florida.  That's right boys and girls, the Florida Gators won the BCS Championship game on Monday over Ohio State 41-14.  I have to admit that I was wrong, but in some ways I'm happy that the Gators won.  Florida went through the toughest conference in the country with an 8-1 record and then defeated the Buckeyes, a team that everyone had put in this game since August.  Troy Smith struggled after winning the Heisman Trophy and the Buckeyes never recovered losing Ted Ginn Jr. in the first quarter to a sprained ankle.  Urban Meyer and his Gators will come into next season as one of the top teams in the nation because of one player...Tim Tebow.

College Basketball scores if you please

#3 Wisconsin 72, #5 Ohio State 69

#2 Florida 79, Arkansas 72

#13 Alabama 71, #18 LSU 61

#9 Texas A&M 61, Baylor 51

#14 Clemson 87, N.C. State 76

#15 Air Force 65, New Mexico 57

Notre Dame 61, #21 West Virginia 58

The NHL Minute

This will be the place where I talk about the NHL every Wednesday

Sidney Crosby leads all votegetters for the NHL All-Star Game

The St. Louis Blues are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, tied for the most wins in the NHL during that time frame.  The "Note", as they are called in the St. Louis media, defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 yesterday.

College Basketball "Game of the Day"

#10 Oklahoma State @ #6 Kansas, 8 PM CT on ESPN2

Both of these teams are in the top 10, even though they both have some losses that they need to overcome.  JamesOn Curry is a big time shooter, as is Brandon Rush, but I think that the key to the game will be the home court advantage that KU has.  the Phog is one of the toughest places to play in the country, even though #### Roberts(Bill Self's first head coaching job) came in and cut down the wheat in November.

The Coaching Carousel

If Pete Carroll leaves USC, then he is the biggest #### on the face of the Earth.  In LA, he is a God.  USC bigger than any NFL team would be in that city and he has the opprotunity to win the national championship every season.  If he were to go to Miami, he would ask for total control and that just wouldn't work.  He has a winning record in the NFL, but I don't think now is the right time to get back into it.

Bobby Petrino is filling out his coaching staff with the Falcons.  First, he made a good hire with Hue Jackson, previously of the Cincinnati Bengals as their WR coach, to be his offensive coordinator.  Now, he has hired Mike Zimmer away from the Dallas Cowboys to be his defensive coordinator.  Zimmer is a great DC and was put in a tough situation when "The Tuna" wanted to switch from a 4-3(Zimmer's defense that he has been working with for years) to a 3-4.  The last 2 seasons in the 3-4, the Cowboys were 9-7 each season and the defense had become worse because a 3-4 is more of a blitzing defense.  Look for the Cowboys to bring in someone like #### LeBeau to become their new defensive coordinator if he is not brought back to the Steelers.

LSU lost their offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to Florida State this week.  Fisher will replace Jeff Bowden.  Jimbo was the leading candidate to be named head coach at UAB, but the board of trustees(which includes Alabama-Tuscaloosa and Alabama-Huntsville) would not give him the contract he wanted so he was not hired and the general consensus was that Nick Saban would bring him to Alabama.  If you were Fisher, would you have gone to a University system that would not hire you as the head coach for a school?  I think Jimbo did the correct thing in taking the OC position at Florida State because he will be the first in-house candidate(mainly b/c Mickey Andrews will probably retire when Bobby Bowden does) to replace Coach Bowden after he retires at Florida State.

The Cardinals still haven't hired anyone(what a shock) and neither have the Raiders.  At least the Raiders have an in-house candidate that is worthy of the job.  Rob Ryan, their defensive coordinator for the past 3 seasons, has had the defense in the top 10 in the league every season.  Ryan, son of Buddy Ryan, definately looks the part of the Raiders coach and would be an awesome hire for Al Davis.  The Cardinals, on the other hand, would be wise to offer the job to Bears DC Ron Rivera.  Rivera is one of the hot coaching candidates in the NFL(Cam Cameron, the OC of the San Diego Chargers is the other one) and leads a defense that is one of the NFLs best.  If he is hired, he might try to lure someone like Jim Mora to be his defensive coordinator.

The MLB Hall of Fame

Explain to me how Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn aren't unanimous selections into the baseball hall of fame?  Oh well, both are first timers on the ballot and were elected by over 97% of the vote.  Goose Gossage should get in next season, with 71% of the vote this year.  Mark McGwire received 23% of the vote.

College Basketball top 5(as of 1/10/07)

1.  North Carolina:  14-1, v. Virginia(1/10/07), @ Virginia Tech(1/13/07)

2.  Florida:  15-2, @ South Carolina(1/13/07)

3.  Wisconsin:  16-1, @ Northwestern(1/13/07)

4.  UCLA:  14-1, @ USC(1/13/07)

5.  Kansas:  13-2, v. Oklahoma State(1/10/07), @ Iowa State(1/13/07)

Coming up later this week

Thursday:  College Basketball Pick'em, Mid-Major update

Friday:  NFL Playoff preview, NFL Draft position preview-QB

Saturday:  College Basketball Weekend Preview

Sunday:  Blues and SLU recap