Sports Writer/Designer

The game may or may not be over (I’m watching on about a 20-minute delay) but it’s been over for a while.

In a performance that brings to mind Footsteps Falco’s disastrous 1996 Sugar Bowl (yes I stole this joke from Bill Simmons), the Hawks simply fell apart early and allowed the Celtics to crush them like bugs.

So what did we learn from the Hawks over the last two weeks?

We learned that they are unbelievably gifted athletically (which any of the eight or nine Hawks fans prior to the playoffs would’ve been able to tell you beforehand), we learned that the Celtics may need to work on their mental toughness and we saw definitive proof that the Hawks are just a piece or two from becoming contenders again.

But the Hawks really shouldn’t have even been there.

A 37-45 team should never be rewarded with a playoff berth, especially when a team as good as the Warriors in the Western Conference gets left out.

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about the playoffs being all screwed up, and there have been plenty of examples in recent years of the two best teams meeting before the finals.

So, I present to you my system for making the playoffs better. (This is a post I’ve been meaning to make since they first gave me a blog, so I apologize that it’s not particularly timely. I just now have the time to do it.)

First of all, just take the top 16 teams in the league, no dividing things up by conference.

Obviously, this presents some problems in making sure divisions and conferences still matter, so my solution is to make the top six seeds the division winners, and give them homecourt advantage regardless of whether the team they’re playing has a better record or not.

So once you’ve played out the first round, then you can reseed. The NFL and NHL do it, why can’t the NBA?

So this is what the playoffs might look like under my system.

No. 1 Boston vs. No. 16 Portland
No. 8 Houston vs. No. 9 Phoenix
No. 5 Utah vs. No. 12 Golden State
No. 4 New Orleans vs. No. 13 Cleveland
No. 6 Orlando vs. No. 11 Denver
No. 3 L.A. Lakers vs. No. 14 Washington
No. 7 San Antonio vs. No. 10 Dallas
No. 2 Detroit vs. No. 15 Toronto

I’d say in many ways that’s a lot better than what we wound up with. The top three seeds’ series would be a little bland, but the last five would all be highly entertaining (especially Utah vs. Golden State). Why wouldn’t this be a good thing?

And then if we’re just spit-balling how the first round would go, here’s what the second round might look like:
No. 1 Boston vs. No. 11 Denver
No. 2 Detroit vs. No. 9 Phoenix
No. 3 L.A. Lakers vs. No. 7 San Antonio
No. 4 New Orleans vs. No. 5 Utah

If you’ve followed the NBA at all this year, all four of these series make your mouth water. I’m excited just thinking about it.

I won’t try to project all those series, but doesn’t this sound exciting? Maybe David Stern will take some time out of screwing over Seattle to read this blog.

Sports Writer/Designer

First off, congratulations to the Opelika baseball team and Smiths Station softball team on big wins yesterday.

Secondly, this has been an exhausting weekend.

Usually a busy day or two is having four or five local stories (about what a front page can hold and still look good at our size), but we had seven in Saturday’s and today’s editions.

When you have high school baseball quarterfinals, softball Area tournaments, softball state tournaments, track championships, a big Auburn baseball series and the AU softball team raising money for cancer research, not to mention the Kentucky Derby, NBA and NHL playoffs, a big NASCAR race and the usual fare of early season MLB games, it’s hard to decide what should go where.

Sports editor Mike Szvetitz and I nearly had a few knockdown-dragouts trying to budget.

But we got it done with minimal problems.

I’ll definitely be back later with some thoughts on whatever happens in Game 7 of the Celtics-Hawks series, and may even be back a few more times as the night goes on.

Sports Editor

Like high school sports?

Good.

There’s going to be plenty going on in the Opelika/Auburn area (and around the state) this weekend.

Let’s see ... The Class 4A-Area 6 softball tournament starts today at Beauregard. Tomorrow, No. 1 Opelika will host McGill-Toolen in the quarterfinals of the AHSAA Class 6A playoffs in the best two-of-three. Also tomorrow, the Class 6A-Area 8 softball tournament begins at West Ridge Park in Opelika, the AISA state softball tourney gets cracking in Montgomery and the state track and field meets begin at Gulf Shores (4A-5A-6A) and Troy (3A-1A).

Oh, and Saturday, the Auburn High boys soccer team hosts Fairhope at Duck Samford for a quarterfinal playoff game, while the girls team travels to Mary Montgomery.

College baseball fan? Auburn hosts Mississippi State in a three-game series this weekend at Plainsman Park. First pitch of Game 1 is slated for 6 p.m. Friday.

There’s enough going on this weekend where if you don’t want to cut the grass or do any yard work, you can find plenty of excuses not to. And I here the golf courses are pretty nice this time of year.

So do yourself a favor, get out and take in a ballgame or two and save the yard work for another weekend. That’s what I’m going to do.

*** Well, we’re not going to have a playoff, or even a plus-one game, any time soon in college football.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

Money talks. And the BCS and bowls generate a lot of dollars for colleges and universities.

But it seems to me, the only schools and/or conferences who are for a plus-one or playoff are the schools/conferences who have been burned by the BCS. Maybe the reason the Big Ten and Pac-10 don’t want a playoff—and are using the Rose Bowl as a cover—are because whenever they have a team close to being “the best” they always get a nod into the national title game.

Did Ohio State really deserve to be there last year? Discuss.

Anyway, for now, we’ll have to deal with more bowls and less on-the-field problem solving.