NFL: Coach Marty Schottenheimer and General Manager AJ Smith couldn’t get along, so Marty is out. He is out after going 14-2 and suffering another playoff loss that adds to Marty’s post-season misery. Just as it was unreasonable to say John Elway wasn’t a great QB before winning a Super Bowl, or Dan Marino for never winning one, the failure of Marty’s teams in the post-season do not relegate him to the Bad Coach category. He is a good coach that has suffered come tough losses. This year the toughest loss wasn’t to the Patriots, it was to the Cowboys for taking Wade Phillips and the Dolphins for taking Cam Cameron. Once those two left it appears that there was no way Marty and AJ were going to get along well enough to find replacements that would satisfy them both. Marty will land somewhere and have more success, because that’s what he does. . . . Wade Phillips seems to be a great fit for the Cowboys. Not only is he a Texan (not the Houston football team variety), but he has a personality that should go well with the rest of the team and he has a successful track record to boot. And by rest of the team I mean TO. Tony Romo has an even personality and TO supported him after Romo’s fumbled snap ruined the Cowboys chances of advancing in the playoffs. That relationship will be the most crucial as it has always been TO vs the QB that was the downfall. First he turned on Garcia, then he turned on McNabb. They say three’s a charm, and I find it hard to believe TO can learn any lessons, but a guy like Phillips should be able to facilitate a positive enough relationship that the Cowboys will be a team to be reckoned with next year. . . . NCAA Basketball: ACC: It is just about time to actually pay attention to college basketball. I am not one to pay any attention to the rankings as they don’t mean a thing. The only contributing factor they do have is to put a bulls-eye on the back of highly ranked teams. There is nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t interest me much. What does interest me is Duke @ Boston College tonight. With Virginia Tech’s second defeat of North Carolina, BC can open up a 1.5 game lead on the Tarheels, the Hokies and the Cavaliers. Duke is desperate for a win to break their losing streak, but it won’t come easy tonight. . . . Big 12: The Big 12 saw a nice upset last night with the Red Raiders of Texas Tech coming from behind to defeat Texas A&M. The Aggies are a team that I feel will have a good run in the Tournament despite their stumble last night. . . . Anytime a team has a player that can carry them they stand a good chance of getting hot and making a run at the title. The Texas Longhorns fit that criteria with their super-star Freshman, Kevin Durant. The Horns can score, their problem has been stopping other teams from scoring. If they get a good draw, look for them to go deep this year. . . . Big EastThe Big East is full of very good teams, but lacking any great ones. By my estimations, they have 6 teams that are capable of winning at least 2 tournament games, but those same 6 could also be knocked out early. I know this sounds ridiculous, and it won’t happen, but there are 12 teams in the Big East that have a shot at being in the NCAA Tournament. The remainder of the regular season and the Big East Tournament are going to play a major role. My prediction is that there will be 7 teams from the Big East qualifying for the Big Dance. . . . Big 10: I find it really hard to care about the Big 10. Wisconsin is a nice story and a very good team. Ohio St is overrated. They have had 3 games this year against the upper-echelon and they’ve lost all three. They have a ton of wins and a pretty little ranking, but don’t count on them going any deeper than one or two wins in the Tournament. . . . SEC: Florida has been so dominant that they are almost not even on people’s radar screens. That will change of course, and the Gators will go deep again if not all the way. . . The SEC seems like a great conference, but I wonder if it is not a bit overrated. The SEC West has Alabama and Mississippi on top, both at 5-5. The SEC East isn’t much more impressive except for Florida’s 10-0 mark. Is this a sign of very good teams all knocking each other off? Or the sign of mediocrity? If its mediocrity then maybe I should qualify my earlier comments on how deep the Gators will go. . . .PAC-10: Washington St is the team out of this conference surprising everyone. I have my doubts on how strong the Pac-10 is from top to bottom. Oregon looked strong but wasn’t able to win some games that they needed to have in order to be considered an elite. UCLA has talent, but their loss at West Virginia, while not a bad loss, shouldn’t have happened to them. There are 7 teams in the Pac-10 with a chance to win 20 games. My bet is that there will be no more than 4 Pac-10 teams in the Tournament.