Duke and Gonzaga get the boot, will Players Championship stars get same treatment?

For unrepentant Duke haters like Chris Baldwin and Drew Curtis, yesterday’s Duke loss to LSU had to be like having their birthday fall on the same day that their new Playboy arrived – so good they had to lie down.

Add to that Gonzaga falling apart against UCLA and the NCAA’s have now lost two of their biggest stars – Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick.

With the second day of the Players Championship getting ready to kick off, one wonders if the “5th major” will be losing some of its biggest stars soon. Guys like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and David Toms are all in need of going several shots under par in order to make a run on the weekend, while a bad round for any of them will earn a ticket home.

Meanwhile, recent PGA winners like Rod Pampling, Luke Donald and Geoff Ogilvy will be playing today with their eyes already on a Friday commute home.

Luckily for the PGA, however, its corral of stars is more than big enough to handle the loss should most these guys, or others wash out, as players putting up solid numbers on Thursday include – Davis Love III, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson.

Who will pull things back together or fall on their face this weekend at the TPC at Sawgrass? That remains to be seen. But one thing can be said with all certainty – Duke will not win the NCAA College Basketball Tournament in 2006, and for this, there is much rejoicing across the land.

–WKW