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So can we all just take a deep breath, please? All together now … good. And I’ve never even done yoga before.

The circus road show through Christmas, New Year’s and The Phantom Week In Between have officially been left behind – most likely with a smile on your face.

That is, of course, unless you’re a Bears fan. Or a Colts fan. Or a Lions fan, bless your heart. In any of those cases, I bet you still wish they were running “A Christmas Story” marathon on TBS. In the case of the Lions fan, I bet you just wish you had the Red Rider BB gun at an arm’s length. But we’ll get to the NFL a little later.

I’d rather get to the positive stuff first and get that out of the way. It’s pretty difficult to make any jokes about the Butler hoops team right now, who will now simply be referred to as the more commonly known (at least in my world) ButDogs.

The ButDogs, during my two-week hiatus from writing due to such a busy schedule, made fairly quick work of then-No. 12 (and somewhat overrated) Xavier on the road. They followed that up with a fairly nice win over UAB at Hinkle, seen by the maybe the biggest weeknight crowd I’ve seen at the old barn. Following Saturday night’s snooze-fest rally at Valpo, the ButDogs are now 10-1 and should bump into both polls when they are released tomorrow.

I still maintain my mancrush on frosh favorite Gordon Hayward, even while the opposition has stuck its best defender on the kid the past three or four games. “Gordo” (Spanish translation: Fat man. I say we roll with this.) has been able to hit the boards and play solid D while his buddy Shelvin Mack displays the textbook form on his jumper. But most important, they are finding ways to get Matt Howard more involved in the offense … and if the ball consistently works through those three, then I’m cool with that. Problem is, there are still too many lineup changes for this point of the season. Brad Stevens has my trust, but if there’s one thing that kind of makes me scratch my head, it’s some of the odd five-somes he puts on the floor at times.

While we’re here on this topic, there’s one trend with the ButDogs that is a little troublesome. It’s the turnovers – consistently making dumb decisions on the offensive end. I can liken it to the outgoing single guy who is great in social situations, meeting women, and his friends aren’t really afraid to set him up. Yet he continues to make little stupid mistakes along the way (not on purpose, usually without even knowing), with a girl who just might be take-home-to-mom quality in the long run. While the ButDogs have been winning so far, I get this eerie feeling that these stupid mistakes are going to be what does them in this March. Sorta like the myth of Mike Green last season.

For the time being, heading into conference play, I don’t see anyone in the Horizon league who can compete with them consistently. I say they lose two games in the conference, probably both on the road. That sounds a little familiar to last season, and a few other seasons, doesn’t it? But it’s different this time around, with this group, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. Group hug.

Shoot the college bowl season in the head

Thank you. It’s almost over, I promise. Tonight features a Texas team who got royally screwed by the BCS (and its own conference tiebreaker) against an Ohio St. team who really just kinda sucks in the Fiesta Bowl. Enjoy that one. And don’t forget to set your DVR on Tuesday night for the Too-Late-For-Bad-Teams Bowl when Ball St. squares off against Tulsa.

For someone like me, who pretty much has a girlfriend named College Football for five months a year, I feel like I shouldn’t ever have to wonder when the National Title game actually is. It’s like I have to set a reminder on my cell phone just because it’s about three months after the season ends. I tend to lose interest at that point, but that’s why God invented gambling. I’m not dead set on this yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking Oklahoma and the three points coming along with it.

The game is Thursday night, by the way, and I’m really looking forward to Fox’s continued BCS coverage using NFL personalities with remote memories of college glory days. Just think about it when you see this lineup of talking heads: Eddie George, Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson. When I heard that ESPN got the next contract for the BCS, it was the very first time I was happy about hearing ESPN covering anything.

NFL Playoffs: The good, bad, and ugly

In this past weekend’s Wild Card Round, here’s what happened in case you missed it: Arizona realized they could play run defense for a little bit and beat the Falcons; the Colts realized that most of their last nine games were a fallacy and their defense stinks when they lost to the Chargers; the Baltimore defense made a fool of Chad Pennington and then they made fun of Flipper at the postgame press conference; and Tavaris Jackson is unfortunately the Vikings’ starting QB, so they faded down the stretch against Philly.

Since I’ll be talking about the upcoming round of Division Championship games later this week, instead I’ll continue with a few rather meaningless observations from the Wild Card round. Watching the Eagles-Vikings game, I couldn’t help but want to put up a side-by-side of a walrus next to Andy Reid. Strikingly similar.

But while I was searching the internet for a photo of Reid, I came across this gem of Eagles receiver Hank Baskett’s girlfriend – Girl Next Door Kendra Wilkinson. It’s not that the photo itself is a gem, rather the fact that it’s concrete proof that professional athletes will always have an edge on the rest of us. Huge revelation, but there you have it. Hank freakin’ Baskett.

And, not to kick the Colts and their fans while they’re down, but I had a redeeming moment on Saturday night. I was sitting at my place with a couple guys watching the game, having a few Coors Lights while losing my bets on the Horse AND the over/under, and that’s when we decided to just head to the local Britton Tavern. Choice place, by the way (insert sarcastic joke here).

We got there with two minutes left in regulation, and I got to see the complete meltdown – from the tying field goal, the looming uneasy feeling about overtime, and then the money shot – when Darren Sproles did his best impersonation of a Smart car bobbing and weaving through traffic, into the end zone. Bummer, dude. Myself and one rather large fellow in an Antonio Gates jersey were the only two guys in the place with a grin. I felt safe thanks to him.

Lastly, if there is anyone that actually reads this damn thing, my plan is to now write every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully something fresh around lunch time. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail at thefuncarblog@yahoo.com. Perhaps a mailbag on Friday, who knows. Cheers.