Still depressed after Friday's debacle, I'm trying to tell myself that it's been worse than this. But I'm still not convincing myself.

Please, nominate your "Worst Loss Ever" candidates. I have a list of five, to start:

• Last Friday
• T.D.S - the Harline game.
• T.D.S. - Lavell's last game, '00
• New Mexico, '94. Ruined our up-'til-then undefeated season.
  
• Colorado State, '89. Caused me to vow not to return for another season as long as Jim Fassel was head coach. Fortunately, Fassel was fired soon after the season ended.

I'm thinking the Jazz will need 44 wins to get to the playoffs. Breaking down the remaining schedule:

Absolutely Must win:

• vs. Denver 3/3
• vs. Sacramento 3/5
• vs. Minnesota 3/16
• vs. Washington 3/28
• vs. Portalnd 4/7
• vs. Denver 4/13

Really should win:

• at Toronto 3/9
• at Minnesota 3/11
• vs. Philly 3/14
• at Memphis 3/21
• vs. New Orleans 3/24
• at Sacramento 4/3

Would help to win

• at New York 3/7
• at Houston 3/20
• at Oklahoma City 3/23
• vs. Lakers 4/1
• at New Orleans 4/11

Upsets that shouldn't be counted on

• at Chicago 3/12
• vs. Dallas 3/26
• at Lakers 4/5
• at San Antonio 4/9

The must wins and should wins get the Jazz to 44 wins. There are several road games in that group, and this concerns me less than it would have "back in the day," when it seemed a lot harder to win on the road.

But the "must-wins" start Thursday and Saturday. The Jazz have to pull out of the home freefall now.

Give the Jazz management credit.

It did business with the other team, not in the blogs or on ESPN. It assessed the likelihood that Williams would walk after next season. It let the media shills that think Williams could be the top PG in the league talk like crazy. They got great value for him.

Devin Harris is an upper tier, though not elite, PG. Derrick Favors has upside that draws comparisons to Dwight Howard and Karl Malone. The Nets pick that goes to the Jazz is sure to be of lottery flavor. Plus another first rounder from a habitual lottery team and $3 million? Whoa.

In his last four outings Williams has had his lunch handed to him by Derrick Rose and Monte Ellis, and lead his team to narrow defeats to Steve Nash. Russell Westbrook abused him when OKC visited SLC three weeks ago. Is this the way the league's best PG plays?

Well done, Kevin O'Connor. Now let's hope the team pulls out its' current tailspin and make a run for the playoffs.

All this angst has made me realize I should throw my hat in the ring.

I'll take the USC coaching job.

No, I never went to USC or played college football, but I have coached up 11-year-olds beyond their expectations. And I know how to run a pro-style offense.

I figure a repeat performance would be spectacular at Southern Cal.

Granted, I'd rather have the Utah job. But I recommended Kyle Whittingham to Chris Hill when Mac left. It just wouldn't be right to me to bully him out of town now.

I see Dan Sorensen at utah.rivals.com has a piece staing that 4-star lineman Stanley Hasiak OG from Hawaii is considering a trip to Utah.

But Hasiak is listed as late as 1/13/09 as a solid verbal to Cal. To further the confusion, rivals.com says Hasiak is scheduled for a visit on 1/30/09, even though he has no interest in any school but Cal.

Hasiak would be a great addition to the Utah recruiting class, but the timing of these each of these announcements has me wondering about their validity.

Anybody have any insight?

Thanks.

We could see the following news item:

Carolina to host NFC title game despite playoff loss

The Carolina Panthers will host the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship game despite losing to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Divisional Playoffs.

The Cardinals' win was considered a fluke by the voters, and thus the Panthers will host the Eagles this coming Sunday. "The Arizona win was impressive, but not enough for the me to consider the Cardinals to be better than the Panthers," said one unnamed Harris poll voter.

"I hadn't really seen the Cardinals play, except for a couple of highlights on SportsCenter," said another Harris voter. "Well, maybe that was the Cardinals. Truthfully I was too busy staring at Sage Steele to remember any highlights."

Arizona dominated Carolina 33-13 in the game, but the voters were unimpressed. "Maybe if the Cardinals keep winning playoff games for the next 3-4 seasons we'll feel good about voting them into a conference championship game," said another Harris poll voter.