Playoffs need to be revamped

Some thoughts to ponder over your Saturday morning breakfast.

(insert bullet) Am I the only one fed up with the 4A playoff format in Nevada?

When is the NIAA going to realize that too many bad football teams are making the postseason playoffs?

This might be the only state in the union where a 3-7 team (South Tahoe) makes the playoffs. It's a tragedy, plain and simple. If you can't finish at least .500, you don't deserve a spot in the postseason.

Four spots in a seven-team league is really too many. It makes the season much too long. I can hear the arguments now about last year's Reno team which was a fourth-place team and ended up winning the state title. That was an aberration. Everybody knows the history of fourth-place teams in the NIAA, The games are usually one-sided, and upsets are rare.

The best solution would be the top two teams in each division. The region playoffs would be over in two weeks, and the state playoffs could possibly be done by Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December. That gives athletes who play winter sports an opportunity to get started with their basketball or wrestling squads.

A year ago, I wrote that they should take three teams and give the division winners a first-round bye.

Douglas' Mike Rippee didn't like the idea of taking a week off, fearing his team could be rusty the following week.

Come on NIAA officials, make it happen.

Rippee took Douglas to within one game of the state playoffs last year, but I believe he and his staff may have done their best coaching job this season, which is why I think he should be the Sierra League Coach of the Year.

The Tigers were 7-2 entering last night's playoff game against Bishop Manogue, and save for a few players, not many starters returned. Staunch efforts by guys like Tyson Estes, Kyle Luken and Spike Agosta to mention a few have sparked the Tigers to a tremendous season.

This was a team that lost around 30 seniors, including University of Nevada redshirts Luke Rippee and Andy McIntosh. That 2003 team was expected to win, this one probably wasn't. If you told Rippee that he would go 7-2, he probably would have taken it and not played the season schedule.

(insert bullet) Lance Buoncristiani returned to the Reno area Thursday night, and the 5-9 guard scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists in Dominican University's 77-63 loss to the University of Nevada.

Buoncristiani was 3-for-9 from three-point range.

"It (playing here) brought back good and bad memories," Buoncristiani said. "It was nice to be back.

"I was disappointed (with my game). I was a little bit sick. We didn't quite get there. It could have been worse."

Buoncristiani, who played at the University of Idaho several years ago, was away from the game for a while.

He went through some personal problems, but is back playing the game he has always loved. He appears to have found a home at Dominican University, a NAIA Division II school located in San Rafael, Calif.

While we're on the subject of University of Nevada sports, I have to admit I've never been in an area where the students do such a pathetic job supporting the athletic teams.

The fans have stayed away in droves from Mackay Stadium, as a season-low of just more than 7,000 made their way through the turnstiles for the wild 54-48 triple-overtime win over Tulsa.

Students, according to UNR officials, get in free or pay just a nominal fee with a student body card. Come on people, show some spirit. You want a winning team?

You'd be surprised at what a loud Mackay Stadium might do for this team.

Yeah I know it's been cold, but I'm not even an alum and I bought season tickets last year and sat in the cold for November games against Hawai'i and Fresno State last year. These guys are representing you, and deserve your support. Like to party? Bring the party to Mackay and help out your fellow students.

Get off your butts, put the homework aside for three hours and have some fun.

Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281.