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Current mood:  mellow Category: Sports
Outline format. I haven't used it in a while. I enjoy the "unordered list" and "list item" tags. They're useful.
I choose this format because I spent a lot of today doing other stuff -- getting a haircut, taking Dad to church, etc. -- so I'm not going to say I spent today looking at a ton of stuff and trying to form broad-based opinions. So, instead, let's keep it quick as we discuss some of the issues of the day.
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 The top story when I first logged onto JSOnline's Sports Section was Bob McGinn's grades for the Packers. Really? The season's over. Deal with it. This shouldn't be the top story. At least put the two playoff games ahead of it.
- Mike Stock, Packers special teams coach, "retires." He was fired. As undisciplined as the Packers were at times this year, the fact there are victims in the coaching staff shouldn't come as a surprise. I think the pieces are there -- Will Blackmon has big-gain potential every time he touches the ball and Mason Crosby, despite the Bears' block, still has to be considered one of the top kickers in the game right now (imagine if he'd have hit that free kick against the Lions). Much like with a healthy defense next year, the Packers just need to find the right brains to put the pieces together.
- Penn State falls to the Badgers at the Kohl Center. Please, Big Ten opponents, beat the Badgers when they're at your gym (I'm looking at you, Michigan). I say this because I know it's way too flippin' hard to do it in Madison. I beg you, beat the Badgers in your gym. Thank you.
 The Bucks drop the back-half of the back-to-back with the Charlotte Bobcats tonight. It's a disappointing loss, but as well as the Bucks have been playing lately, and as badly as they destroyed the Bobcats in Milwaukee last night, this isn't a complete failure. I like the fact Scott Skiles is making sure he lets his guys know that he's let down by the loss, but I'm OK with the Bucks finally letting one go. They're not the Celtics. If anyone isn't impressed by the Bucks' start to this year, they need to start watching more games (or at least listening to Ted Davis more, which I strongly encourage). Furthermore, when you decide to start Dan Gadzuric over Andrew Bogut, yes, there will be a significant dropoff. I know the Bucks have a ways to go to catch up from the period where they were missing Michael Redd but I don't think this loss should be seen as a huge setback. I know a lot of people aren't taking notice yet, but there's been a major attitude shift with this Bucks team and it's fantastic to see.
- The headline for Michael Hunt's column in tomorrow's paper says Packer & Badger football fans might be losing trust in their teams. If you're a Packer fan who's lost faith because of this season, you're both not very bright and not very loyal. If you sat through 29 seasons of despare between Super Bowls and you leave after one bad year, give me your season tickets or let me take your name off that list. And if you hopped on the bandwagon only because of a quarterback, fine, jump off, we don't want you anyway. As for you Badger fans considering losing faith, let me remind you that the NFL is the most successful pro sports league in the world, college football has a lot of player rotation and is very hard to keep up with, and Marquette is always looking for new season ticket holders, so you're welcome to trade in your cardinal & white for blue & gold.
 Marquette/Cincinnati, tomorrow at the Bradley Center. Cincinnati ain't what it used to be in basketball. I expect MU to win by 14 and make a nice statement to the rest of the Big East by starting 2-0.
 A vote on JSOnline asking fans who they think has had the best college basketball season thus far has Wes Matthews beating out Marcus Landry, 40 percent to 30 percent. I just take pleasure in this. In fairness, though, Wes is having a great year and deserves the credit he's getting from the fan base.
- UWM is 4-0 in the Horizon League after sweeping a mini-road trip through Chicago. You knew the Panthers were talented, but you have to be impressed with the way they bounced back from their early-season adversity. UWM now plays five-straight games at home and is in position to get some momentum and establish themselves as a team to beat in the Horizon League. Don't forget, the top seed in the Horizon League tournament gets to host the final games, so it's really important to have a good regular season in that league. It's a great system and you know Rob Jeter will keep on cracking the whip through a stretch of games they could easily go at least 4-1 on.
- The Admirals have won 10-straight at home. I know we don't spend much time at all talking about the Admirals here, but a lot of you are fans and I give you credit. The Ads are having a heck of a season and if you haven't gone out to see them yet, you should.
- Darren Sproles and some help from the boneheaded Colts' defense pushes the 8-8 Chargers past Indianapolis in overtime. The phrase of the week in Indy is going to be "Let the facemask go!" Meanwhile, the Chargers prove that anybody can beat anybody in the National Football League, so that's why 8-8 teams shouldn't be allowed in the playoffs. It seemed, at times, as if the calls were all going the Colts way, but the Chargers fought through. My heart goes out to Nate Kaeding -- after all he's been through, you love to see a guy hitting a field goal like the one he hit to tie the game and there might not be a sweeter fist-pump you'll see all year than his. Nonetheless, if Roger Goodell had a brain on his shoulders, he'd consider changing up the division lineup so a team like the Chargers wouldn't even sniff the playoffs after this. My suggestion: Do something you haven't done in a while and give a nod to the league's history by taking the eight-division setup and cutting it down to four, renaming each division after the divisions in the NFL between 1967 and 1970 -- the Central, the Century, the Capitol and the Coastal. The Central can consist of the NFC North and East, the Coastal can consist of the NFC South and West, the Capitol can have the AFC East and North (it would be a little odd not having Washington in the Capitol, but you would have Baltimore, you wouldn't want to move the 'Skins away from their traditional rivals and the NFC North can't be anything other than the Central) and the AFC West and South can become the Century. The two division winners get the byes and everyone else is up for Wild Card spots. You play the teams from the four-team division you just left twice (six games), all the other teams in your division once (four games) and you play two random teams from each of the three other divisions (six games, totalling 16). It seems so easy, but I'm sure there's some corporate reason why it wouldn't work.
- The Falcons and Cardinals played an NFL Playoff game in something other than Madden 09. I'm still kind of in disbelief, though it was a well-played game and Kurt Warner certainly made a case for being the MVP over Peyton Manning. Even the Yahoo! Sports headline reads "Cardinals win rare home playoff game," which says a lot. The Cards now move on to lose to either the Giants or the Panthers.
- Pittsburgh beats Georgetown to assert itself as the best team in a Big East Conference that is very difficult to interpret. Here's to Marquette knocking them off later this year, then losing to a nothing team like Rutgers or something to throw the world off its axis. In all seriousness, though, Pitt is looking like a very complete, very deep team with size and poise. No one's going to have an easy time beating a team like that. Nonetheless, we'll see what they do against Notre Dame and the big lug that is Luke Harangody at a Joyce Center that's been just as unfriendly to opponents as the Verizon Center was for the Hoyas.
- Kansas beats Tennessee at Allen Fieldhouse. I don't care how good you are, it's very tough to stop them from chanting "Rock chalk, Jayhawk, KU" at the end of games. Bruce Pearl and the Vols will learn from the loss and we'll keep rooting for them, unless they play Marquette again.
- UConn beats Buffalo in the International Bowl. I had the Bison as my top pick in a Yahoo! Confidence Pool, figuring they couldn't struggle in nearby Toronto. The Bison gave up 261 yards to the Huskies' Donald Brown. I probably shouldn't enter college football confidence pools anymore after that pick.
- Vikings/Eagles and Ravens/Dolphins tomorrow. Look for both road teams to have success. I don't think the Ravens are the type of team that will get too fooled by the Wildcat offense in the big stage of the playoffs. Meanwhile, I have faith that this is Donovan McNabb's year. The Eagles have a lot of momentum after that huge win over Dallas and I think that could be a fun game to watch.
OK, that's all I've got. More soon.
Photo: Wes Matthews shoots over Villanova's Corey Fisher on Thursday (Darren Hauck/AP/Yahoo! Sports)
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