Sports on Monday is considering moving to some other day for the duration of college basketball season .... perhaps Wednesday, so as to more immediately process the Big Monday and Super Tuesday matchups . But we'll see how things work out after school starts next week.

So..... how about those football playoffs? I know it's really just a coincidence, but to have so many close, exciting and/or overtime playoff games right after Major League Baseball stages one of it's best postseasons ever -- it's almost like the NFL's pulling an Annie Oakley. (You know, "Anything you can do, I can do better ..."). One can only hope that, come June, the NBA and NHL will follow suit.

Meanwhile, things didn't go so well in college basketball land ... at least not in Oklahoma, where all four of OU and OSU's teams suffered losses in big games. In Cowboy land, the men lost by 21 to Texas Tech, while the poor Cowgirls had to play the No.1 or 2 (depending on the poll) Tech women ...getting spanked by 60 plus. But point differential isn't that important in basketball, and truthfully the Sooner men lost almost as badly (albeit to No. 1 UConn) as their O-State counterparts. Will the admittedly overrated Sooners rally after this setback, or fall to pieces?

The Almost-But-Not-Quite Award went to the OU women, who put up quite a fight in Austin against a Texas team that has won the last 6 (now 7) meetings in Longhorn Land. Considering that the Texas women soundly defeated a Tennessee team that soundly defeated OU in Norman over Christmas break, it seems that the Sooners may be coming together as a team. Looking forward to that rematch in Norman. Still a loss is a loss, and I'm skipping the Smileys this week for good reason -- who wants all that depression displayed on the page?

On a side note, my more avid sports fan readers (I have a few) might note that I refuse to use "Lady + School Nickname" to describe any of the women's basketball teams, even when that is the accepted team nickname. While I have no problem with altering a nickname when there is an acceptable female form (such as "Cowgirls"), I find the practice of sticking "Lady" in front of a gender neutral nickname (i.e, "Volunteers," "Huskies") somewhat insulting. It implies that such a distinction is necessary, that a woman athlete isn't a true Volunteer (for example), she's just a Lady Volunteer. I am grateful that it hasn't become common practice to refer to "Lady Sooners" when talking of the women's sports teams at my alma mater. (This would be historically inaccurate anyway, since there were undoubtedly some female Sooners back at the Land Run. But I digress).
Sports on Monday Sports People of the Week:
Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley, MLB Hall of Fame Class of 2004. Eck's induction makes him the second Hall of Famer whom I saw play in person (after Ozzie Smith). I know he won't be wearing a Cardinal hat on that plaque, but he'll always have a special place in the Redbird Nation's collective heart.