The NBA is a tough business. The players bodies suffer enormous wear and tear. The travel is brutal, the season is long and the way the game is played now and what is allowed means the normal players body gets hammered on a nightly basis. There are veteran players that survive to play at a high-level...Tim Duncan springs...to mind...but more and more it's becoming a young mans game...and this year two teams really personify this...the Oklahoma City Thunder and the LA Clippers. With two of the brightest young stars in Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin...the Thunder & the Clips have moved into the second round of the playoffs and a potential meeting is looming. The Thunder hammered the Lakers by 29 last night...the Clippers begin their series with the grizzled Spurs tonight. The Clips-Spurs series is a fascinating contrast...Chris Paul vs Tony Parker...Duncan vs Griffin...Popovich vs DelNegro(not really a fair fight). I'm lookng forward to either a Thunder-Spurs or Thunder -Clippers Western conference final. Either should be great.

The Badgers will face Virginia this year in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Former Merrill star Paul Jespersen will return home with the Cavaliers. The game is scheduled for Wednesday Nov 28th. The other matchups are Minnesota-Florida State, North Carolina-Indiana, NC State-Michigan, Maryland-Northwestern, Iowa-Virginia Tech, Nebraska-WakeForest, Purdue-Clemson, Ohio State-Duke, Georgia Tech-Illinois, Michigan State-Miami,  & Boston College-Penn State.

Long time Lakeland High School boys basketball coach Ted Voight is retiring after 38 years. He played at Wisconsin and was an assistant at UW and UW-Eau Claire before starting with the T-Birds.

You can hear high school baseball today on Foxsports1390...its Wausau East at DC Everest starting at 4:20.

A former childhood friend of mine is giving a lunchtime speech at UWMC today. Chris Bangle is the former head designer at BMW and has had a lasting impact in the car design business. He went to UWMC after growing up in Wausau. He was designing cars from an early age.

Songs of The Day   (from my I-pod)

It's The End Of The World As We Know It-REM (1987) the boys from Athens, GA channel their inner Bob Dylan and free associate a hit,

It's Too Late-Carole King (1971) a collaboration from King & Toni Stern that was part of King's groundbreaking "Tapestry" cd. A number 1 smash from the scented gardens of Laurel Canyon