Tough stuff

This is the cruel-hand-of-fate stuff you'd expect to be dealt a Cleveland team.
The Cavaliers have lost Larry Hughes at the most inopportune time, and they are feeling the pain now. After tonight's 89-87 loss to the Blazers, they have lost a season-high four in a row, all by less than 10 points. They are now 0-3 halfway through their Western Conference jaunt.
The diagnosis of this losing streak is both comforting and discouraging.
The Cavs have been in the thick of every game they have lost since the start of the calendar year. All have been winnable. But the loss of Hughes is proving to be enough of a dent to make the difference between winning and losing.
That's why the Cavs will wake up today with a 20-15 record instead of a 23-12 record.
I am becoming more and more concerned that GM Danny Ferry will have his hand forced into making a trade for another scorer before next month's trading deadline. The signing of Damon Jones is proving to be more questionable with each missed three-pointer. As we all know, he can't defend all that well, doesn't possess extensive point guard skills, and has a tendency to abandon all other options in the name of getting his three-ball off. In a nutshelll, he's not a very good starter, at least in his Cleveland situation.
The net result is that the Cavs might have to sacrifice a young player with a manageable salary to take on a higher-priced veteran to plug the hole left by Hughes, so the Cavs aren't left sinking into oblivion like last spring.
In order to fill a short-term need, the price might be watching Luke Jackson mature into a star in another uniform.
It's a tough call for Ferry. Jeopardize this season and the all-important need to finally get LeBron James to the playoffs by standing pat and hoping for a swift recovery from Hughes, or deal off a potential-laden bench player for an expensive, short-term need.
Less than halfway through his first season as a GM, and Ferry already has a pivotal decision to make. The season -- and future -- might hang in the balance.


Papa Cass Poll: should the Cavs make a trade before the February trading deadline, or stand pat? If you were in Ferry's shoes, what moves would you make?

Prime-time players

If you went to bed early last night, you missed a close-shave Cavaliers loss to the Lakers. You also missed one of the most entertaining fourth quarters the Cavs have played this season.
LeBron James and Kobe Bryant went head-to-head in crunch time as you'd expect a pair of opposing superstars to do. The trouble for Cleveland is, Bryant has three rings' worth of experience on his side, and that was the difference in the 99-98 Lakers win.
Much has been made of Bryant being a selfish, egotistical player. He is. But having a selfish, egotistical player on your side isn't always a bad thing.
As a matter of ego, Bryant refused to let LeBron beat him last night. LeBron led all scorers with 29 points, Kobe struggled through an off night (for him, anyway) with 27, but Bryant has a Michael Jordan streak in him that LeBron has yet to develop. When the time came to decide a winner, Bryant stuck the dagger in Cleveland's throat.
The late fourth quarter was Bryant at his best. He took over the game, making three straight contested 20-foot jumpers, drawing nothing but net. Bryant made the final jumper, inside of 20 seconds to play, with LeBron and 7'-3" Zydrunas Ilgauskas in his face. It didn't matter who was guarding him.
TNT color announcer Steve Kerr (for my money, one of the best in the business) hit the nail on the head, saying Bryant has "supreme confidence" in his shot with the game on the line. He wants the ball, knows what he's going to do with the ball, and believes he's going to win.
Bryant might need Shaquille O'Neal to be a champion, but he doesn't need Shaq to be a great player.
LeBron had a chance to answer, but showed that he still has a ways to go to reach the clutch ability of Bryant.
With Cleveland trailing 99-97 and inside of 10 seconds to play, LeBron did what he does best: penetrated, drew a foul and got to the free-throw line. But while Bryant was locked in on the hoop like a laser, LeBron drew considerably more iron. He made the first free-throw and missed the second, finishing the night 4-for-9 from the line.
Luckily for the Cavs, Drew Gooden snagged the rebound and called a timeout with just more than four seconds left.
Off the timeout, LeBron took the ball, stutter-stepped, dribbled toward the lane, pulled up for a 15-foot winner at the buzzer and missed wide left.
In the battle of superstars, Bryant took over when it counted. LeBron showed that while his talent is superlative, his experience is not.
LeBron might be the king, but Kobe is still the ring bearer. And he didn't let LeBron forget that Thursday night.

Signed and sealed

With the official signing of Eduardo Perez today, Indians GM Mark Shapiro said the Indians are likely done making moves until spring training, effectively ending their offseason.
So now that we can more or less put a stamp on this winter and mail it, allow me to give you some of my preliminary acquisition grades for Shapiro and his boys.
(Note: Since we are talking a very early reaction here, I'll be using the check-plus, check, check-minus system, like that non-credit gym class you took in college.)

Paul Byrd, starting pitcher
Signed to a two-year, $14.5 million contract in December
Grade: check-plus
Byrd's acquisition pales only because of who he replaces in ERA champ Kevin Millwood. In reality, he is a solid starter who finished last year 12-11 with a 3.90 ERA. He has playoff experience with the Braves and Angels, and is the only offseason acqusition signed to a deal longer than one year.
The only question (and it is the same question we had of Millwood a year ago) is will he stay healthy?

Bob Wickman, closer
Signed to a one-year, $6 million contract in December
Grade: check
Wickman is taking his career in the same manner the Indians are taking their relationship with him: one year at a time.
Wickman proved the old dog still has new tricks when he ducked and dodged his way to 45 saves last year. That alone is worth another look this year. But there is no question his body and pitching arm aren't what they used to be. Wicky is nearing the end of his career. How much more can he squeeze out of the flattened toothpaste tube?

Danny Graves, relief pitcher
Signed to a minor-league contract in December
Grade: check-plus
Graves has had recurring back problems, but he is still only 32 and has never had major surgery on his arm. His freefall last year can be chalked up to a bad season unless future events prove otherwise. For the low risk of a minor league deal, Graves is most definitely worth a look. This was the route through which the Indians nabbed Bob Howry two years ago, and look at him now.... playing somewhere else .... for lots of money.... OK, nevermind.

Steve Karsay, relief pitcher
Signed to a minor-league contract in December
Grade: check-minus
This ship has sailed. Karsay sold off his career when he accepted $28 million to be a setup man for the Yankees four years ago. The ensuing years have brought a battery of back and arm problems for the one-time Tribe bullpen anchor. He is certifyably injury-prone, and isn't so much trying to reclaim his career as simply trying to latch on somewhere and stay in baseball.
There is a coaching job waiting for you somewhere, Steve. Hang 'em up before you ruin your arm.

Scott Sauerbeck, relief pitcher
Re-signed to a one-year contract in November
Grade: check
This signing surprised me. Manager Eric Wedge all but abandoned Sauerbeck down the stretch, even with the unscheduled hiatus of Arthur Rhodes to attend to family issues. I figured Wedge was in the class of managers that believed lefty-righty matchup scenarios were overrated.
But Sauerbeck is back, returning a valuable veteran lefty to the bullpen, hopefully with the blessing of Wedge, who might need Sauerbeck more than he realizes if the efforts to find a Howry replacement fall flat.

Jason Johnson, starting pitcher
Signed to a one-year, $1.25 million contract in January
Grade: check
This grade teeters on the brink of a check-minus because I am not convinced an in-house fifth-starter option like Jason Davis would be that much worse than Johnson.
When the pitching-poor Tigers decide they've seen enough of a pitcher, that is a red flag. The two saving graces for Johnson are his durability and the fact that he is a veteran, but he is likely a downgrade from Scott Elarton as a fifth starter.

Lou Merloni, infielder
Signed to a minor-league contract in December
Grade: check
A definite upgrade from Alex Cora and Ramon Vazquez as a utility infielder. But if the Indians lose Ronnie Belliard, Jhonny Peralta or Aaron Boone to injury, it is a stretch to the think the aging Merloni can be an everyday fill-in. He gets bonus points for making games more interesting simply by letting the fans call out his name, as they did in 2004 : "Louuuuuuu!"

Todd Hollandsworth, outfielder
Signed to a minor-league contract in January
Grade: check
My fearless prediction, as I have written previously: no matter how much Wedge wants Hollandsworth to fill in as the fourth outfielder, he will supplant Casey Blake as the right fielder. Hollandsworth is far from an ideal right fielder, but at least he's an outfielder by trade. Blake is a transplanted third baseman.

Eduardo Perez, first baseman
Signed to a one-year contract in January
Grade: check
Hopefully, he'll be Jose Hernandez with more plate discipline. He won't take over the first baseman's job from the terminally-mediocre Ben Broussard, but his ability to hit left-handed pitching will get him at-bats -- maybe even at-bats against righties, depending on how long and deep Broussard's trademark slumps are.

Jacked up

It's not just Damon Jones now. It's the whole team.
Bad enough when Jones takes a shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality, but now every shooter the Cavaliers have is becoming a gunslinger, with poor results.
In last night's 92-84 loss to the Knicks, the Cavs shot a dismal 6-for-28 from beyond the three-point arc. Single-digit three-point conversions while attempting nearly 30 for the night has become the norm over the past week or so, during which the Cavs are 2-2.
It might be the product of a lot of pressing with Larry Hughes and his 16 points per game inactive until around the start of March. LeBron and his teammates seem to be quite worried about how to compensate for Hughes' production while he recovers from hand surgery.
But hoisting threes like they are going out of style is out of character for the Cavs, against the grain of their coach, and will lead to more games like last night.
With LeBron James, Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Cavs' main offensive strength is front court size and athleticism. Cleveland generally is at their best when LeBron, Gooden and Z are penetrating and pounding the ball down low, drawing fouls and getting to the free-throw line. The perimeter games of Jones and Donyell Marshall are supposed to serve as a compliment to the inside game, preventing opposing defenses from hunkering down in the lane, as they did so often last year.
But with a struggling Jones obsessed with his long-range shooting, and LeBron and Marshall trying to compensate, maybe even overcompensate, for the loss of Hughes, the Cavs are venturing out of their game, settling for outside jumpers.
In last night's loss, Cleveland coughed up a fourth-quarter lead by allowing the Knicks to go on a 13-1 run. Most of it had to do with the Cavs going nearly 10 minutes without a field goal. By the fourth quarter, even backup point guard Mike Wilks was hoisitng threes. He made one.
Knicks guard Quentin Richardson got a lot of credit this morning for stifling LeBron in the fourth quarter. Heading into the quarter, LeBron had 32 points. He had a mere four points in the fourth quarter, two of them at the tail end of the game when the winner had been decided.
Not to undermine Richardson, who is a fine second-tier player in the NBA, but it is hard to think a 6'-5" shooting guard could shut down a 6'-8", 250-pound superstar forward. I have to think some of Richardson's success had to do with the Cavs playing tense, tight basketball late in the game, and making poor shot selections.
This might be where Mike Brown needs to grow as a coach. We know his coaching philosophy is defense first. That's great. Championship teams are almost always great defensive teams. But it might be time for Brown to start developing his offensive brain a little bit more.
Having a player like LeBron makes coaching the offensive end much easier. LeBron can create so much on his own, the need for intricate paint-by-number offensive sets is diminished. But Brown might need to reel in his players a bit with the loss of Hughes.
Brown right now is coaching his offense the way former Indians manager Charile Manuel used to manage his offense. Manuel almost never took the bat out of hitter's hands, at one point allowing pitcher C.C. Sabathia to swing away during an interleague game in Pittsburgh. C.C. grounded into a double play, and the Indians lost the game, 1-0.
Brown almost never tells a player not to shoot. But, like Manuel letting a pitcher hack during his team's only real scoring opportunity of the game, Brown's offensive mindset might be a bit too lassiez-faire.
If his players are jacking up threes in rapid-fire succession, drawing only rim and backboard, killing possession after possession, maybe it's time to rein in the mad bombers and deliver a bit more law and order to the offense. Even LeBron needs some direction once in a while.
High percentage shots inside are the meat-and-potatoes of Cleveland's offense. Brown needs to drive that home the way he has tried to drive home defensive principles to his players since training camp started.
You saw last night what happens when the Cavs subscribe to the Damon Jones offensive philosophy. It looks ... well ... offensive.

Misery

The biggest tragedy of Jim Caple's NFL misery index (in which the Browns are deemed the team that has caused its fans the most misery in the past ... oh, let's say 40-odd years) is the fact that I am not offended by the designation. I'm almost relieved somebody is finally shedding some light on our suffering in Cleveland.
The Browns were football's version of the Yankees from 1946 to 1965, winning four AAFC titles, four NFL titles, and another five appearances in the NFL title game.
Since then, they have been some grotesque mutant combination of the Cubs and Red Sox (pre-2004).
The Browns have tormented their fans, going 0-5 in games that could have sent them to the Super Bowl. The losses in the 1968 and 1969 NFL title games were more or less an older team at the end of the road. The three losses to the Broncos in the '80s AFC championships don't get off as easily, not when I have to flick on "ESPN Classic" and every other night see some special commemorating "The Drive" and "The Fumble."
We musn't forget Red Right 88, which prevented the Browns from travelling to San Diego for the 1980 AFC championship.
Their two most recent playoff berths, 1994 and 2002, resulted in losses to the hated Steelers, who completed three-game season sweeps in both cases.
When the Browns haven't caused postseason tears, they have forced their fans to endure long stretches of lousy football. The Browns spent most of the '70s not being worth a damn, went in the tank in the early '80s before the arrival of Bernie Kosar and since 1990 have amassed a 2-14 record once (1999), a 3-13 record twice (1990, 2000), a 4-12 record once (2004), a 5-11 record twice (1995, 2003) and a 6-10 record twice (1991, 2005).
When they haven't been doing either of the above, the Browns have forced Clevelanders to do without football, period. And that is the trump card over any other football fan base that wants to whine about how hard they have had it.
Due in part to Art Modell's stifling debt, in part to foot-dragging from Cleveland's government on the subject of building a new football stadium, and in part to Baltimore's desperation to regain the NFL, Modell pulled his team out of Cleveland in 1995, resurfacing as the Baltimore Ravens in 1996.
From 1996 to 1998, we had no football team. When we finally got a new team, it was an expansion version hastily flung together in a little under a year by people who didn't exactly qualify as personnel gurus.
Since then, little has gone right. The Browns have been through three coaches in seven years, as well as three directors of their football operations wing. It was almost four, as current GM Phil Savage was allegedly almost forced out of his job by now ex-president John Collins at the end of last month.
Front office power struggles generally don't promote a winning environment.
Draft picks misfired. The owner, Al Lerner, died in 2002, paving the way for his son Randy to take over. The new stadium was flung up on the site of the old one with far fewer creature comforts than some of its contemporary structures.
And while all this chaos was happening in Cleveland, Art Modell got to hoist a Super Bowl trophy in January 2001 for the Ravens.
From a purely football standpoint, Modell had been justified in moving the team. Cleveland lost their team, and the war against Modell. The Ravens became a trophy-toting league power while the Browns were an unstable laughing stock.
The worst part is, Browns fans care about their team like few fan bases do. In other cities, football might be a weekend diversion. In Cleveland, fans paint their cars brown and orange. Every success and failure is lived and died with. And like a loyal family member of some ne'er-do-well who can't seem to straighten his life out, the fans stay devoted and keep coming back for more abuse.
The Browns are a team only a mother could love. In this case, pigskin might be thicker than water.

Better than Blake

The Plain Dealer reported today that the Indians are close to signing outfielder Todd Hollandsworth to a minor-league deal. Should Hollandsworth, a former Dodger, Marlin and Rockie, make the team in spring training, he will fill that all-important fourth outfielder role.
Excuse me? The fourth outfielder?
By a very quick process of elimination, he should be the team anchor in right field. Hollandsworth is probably thinking the same thing. He is a career .270 hitter whose main competition in Florida will be Casey Blake, Mr. .230 himself.
You don't think Hollandsworth is lowering himself to the ranks of minor-league contract without the possibility of a huge payoff in terms of playing time, do you?
A career .270 hitter should hit seventh in the Indians lineup, considering he has to beat out Blake, Ben Broussard and Aaron Boone to be the seventh-best hitter on Cleveland's roster.
That's kind of like having to beat out the Moroccan and Libyan bobsled teams to take seventh place at the Olympics. If you can walk on ice and pick your nose at the same time, it shouldn't be too difficult.
With any luck, Hollandsworth and recently-signed first baseman Eduardo Perez will come into spring training and take charge of their positions, eliminating any temptation for Eric Wedge to platoon -- something I detest in baseball lineups, except in very rare circumstances.
If not, the Indians will still have the same problem as last year: a bottom third of the order comprised of a mish-mash of bench players, none of whom are very productive.
We can only hope Ryan Garko arrives with the same bang that Grady Sizemore did last year.

Bengals bungled

The glass-half-full people say the Bengals were thrown for a loop when Carson Palmer's knee got a little too up close and personal with the full weight of Kimo von Oelhoffen's body on the second snap of Sunday's game.
The glass-half-empty people say "Thanks for the memories. See you again in 2020."
It's hard not to believe in bad luck, hexes, curses and all other sorts of voodoo after watching the Bengals crash and burn in their first playoff game in 15 years, losing 31-17 to the Steelers in a game that probably wasn't even that close.
Palmer's torn knee ligament on the back end of a 66-yard completion probably started Cincinnati's slide, as Jon Kitna had to come in off the bench ice cold. But it can't account for a botched field goal snap, an injury to Chris Perry, and the Bengals basically getting run out ot their own stadium.
Cincinnati is learning what Cleveland has known for a long time: reversing a losing culture and the accompanying self-pity of the fans is a difficult process. Even when teams in Cleveland are good, fans hide behind their jacket collars in terror, waiting for the injury, defection or freak play that makes it all fall apart.
Teams feed on that. If you are scared to the tune of 20,000 or 40,000 or 75,000 strong, the players start to play tight.
My unproven hypothesis says that probably happened to some degree in Cincinnati, when the mood of the fans took a palpable turn from celebratory to stricken as soon as Palmer hit the turf.
The fans were certainly justified in feeling that way, but it added fuel to the fire that consumed the Bengals yesterday.
Even in the NFL, it is hard for a team that has been in the doldrums for 15 years to magically turn the corner to Super Bowl contender. The Bengals have trudged through a pair of 8-8 seasons before arriving with a division title and an 11-5 record this year. Not that it matters to most Bengal fans now, who have to wait until late July for next season to start.
We in Cleveland have the Bengals in basketball sneakers.
We have been waiting for LeBron James to deliver the Cavaliers to powerhouse status, but instead have been greeted with two seasons of nearly missing the playoffs, due mostly to LeBron's lack of a supporting cast. Now, much like the Bengals this season, the Cavaliers have a deeper team and appear headed for the playoffs
Rising a dreg from the ashes takes a lot of right decisions by the front office and coaches, and sooner or later, a commitment of large sums of money from the owner. That process can take years of trial and error to play out.
A game like Sunday's for the Bengals isn't necessarily indicative of overall failure, just as last spring's collpase by the Cavs isn't necessarily. Much like the Cavs last spring, the Bengals are a work in progress. They obviously need help on the defensive side of the ball.
Sunday's loss gives the Bengals a measureing stick to see where they are, both talent-wise and in terms of mental toughness. They are advancing in the former, but might need work in the latter. A few years of being in the playoffs should help that, as with the Cavs.
Having said that, I'm hoping the Cavs do a little better in the playoffs than the Bengals just did.

Hockey leaving (again)

It was probably inevitable, but the Cleveland Barons will once again be no more after this season.
The Plain Dealer reported today the AHL minor league hockey franchise will end speculation about its future and move to Worcester, Mass. for the 2006-07 season.
There were rumblings this time last year that the Barons would pull up stakes and move to the Quad Cities area of Iowa, but the franchise committed to Cleveland for one more season.
This is the last year of a five-year lease the Barons signed with Quicken Loans Arena upon moving to Cleveland from Kentucky in 2001.
This will be the fifth failed hockey franchise in Cleveland's history, to go along with the Lumberjacks, Crusaders, and two prior incarnations of the Barons, one in the AHL and one in the NHL.
Anyone who has been to a Barons game could easily see how the team could fail in Cleveland. While The Q is brimming with activity and near-sellouts for the Cavaliers, the arena is all but dead for a Barons game, with sparse crowds and very little to keep fans interested during breaks in the action. The result? Barons management elected to curtain off the upper bowl of the arena because they can't adequately fill the lower bowl.
While the Lumberjacks spiced up their minor-league games with zany promotions and giveaways, the most exciting Barons promotion is the chuck-a-puck after each game, during which fans are invited to throw foam rubber pucks onto the ice, aiming for targets that correspond to various prizes.
The results are predictable: the Lumberjacks could draw 15,000 to a Saturday night game. A five-figure Barons crowd is almost unheard of.
With a failing economy slowly bleeding money and jobs from the area, minor-league sports are dying in Cleveland.
The Lumberjacks folded in 2000, along with the Internatioanl Hockey League, due to lack of money and poor management.
The WNBA's Rockers (Yes, they were minor-league in terms of scale of operations. Sorry if that offends anyone.) were the next to go, folded by former Cavs owner Gordon Gund in 2003 because he was losing money on the team.
The Force, a former staple of winter sports in Cleveland back in indoor soccer's 1980s heyday, folded after last season, also due to massive financial losses.
The Lake County Captains, an Indians farm team, have tried to carve their own niche in Cleveland's far eastern suburbs. They are under the Indians' umbrella, so they should be on pretty solid ground for a while, even though their Eastlake stadium reportedly had huge finaicial overruns and is becoming a money pit for the city.
An anonymous AHL source told The Plain Dealer that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert might be in the market for another AHL team. Losing the Barons means losing 40 home dates at The Q each year, and the supplemental revenue provided by ticket and concession sales.
At least three AHL franchises are reportedly up for sale.
However, if a new minor-league hockey team is simply going to be a Barons clone with snoozer games that could very easily have been played at the local rec center, I don't see the point. That franchise, like the Crusaders, Lumberjacks, and each version of the Barons, will be doomed to fail.

Jacobs turning pro

It's too bad, but what can I or any other Bowling Green alumnus tell Omar Jacobs? Stay?
Jacobs announced Friday he will forego his senior year at BG and declare for the NFL draft. He is already the school's all-time leader in touchdown passes with 71 and has a bowl victory to his credit last season.
It is hard to tell a star MAC quarterback to stay, especially with the success Ben Roethlisberger has enjoyed in his first two seasons, and the fact that Charlie Frye is now the starting QB for the Browns.
Like Jacobs, Roethlisberger came out following his junior year.
I was hoping Jacobs would use next season as an exclamation point on his career at BG after a leg injury put a huge dent in the second half of this season. But it might have had the opposite effect. Jacobs got a firsthand look at how fleeting success can be in a violent sport like football, and decided to cash in as soon as possible.
Again, what can you tell Jacobs? It's worth it to stay in college when you know your career could end the next time you land awkwardly on your ankle?
Sure, Matt Leinart stayed for his senior year at USC, but he is the exception. If a player is in line to make the big bucks, might as well do it now.
I doubt Jacobs will go in the first round, and a certainly don't think he will step in and start almost right away as Roethlisberger did. But with size and strength similar to that of Roethlisberger, Jacobs will be around the NFL for a while with the blessing of good health.
The only question I have is how he will adapt from the Bowling Green spread offense, where Jacobs spent the majority of time working out of the shotgun, to a conventional NFL offense. 49ers QB Alex Smith, like Jacobs the product of an Urban Meyer-placed spread offense at Utah, has shown just how difficult the transition to a drastically different offense can be.
Attention at Bowling Green now turns to backup QB Anthony Turner, who was inconsistent in relief of Jacobs this year. The spring intrasquad game should give a decent indicator of whether Turner can step in and fill Jacobs' shoes adequately.

Start Ira Newble

Please, Mike Brown.
Don't subject us to more of Damon Jones. Sooner or later, you are going to realize that the longer you insist on placing Jones in the starting lineup in lieu of Larry Hughes, the more often you are going to have double-digit deficits in the second quarter.
Jones started last night, the Cavs were down by as many as 18 to Houston, and lost 90-81.
It's not all Jones' fault, but a great deal is his fault.
As the starting shooting guard, he went 1-for-7 from beyond the arc and did not attempt a two-point field goal. He is 4-for-20 in his last four games.
If he was a tried-and-true three-point specialist like Michael Redd, I could chalk it up to a slump. But with Jones, a great deal of his shooting problems has to do with a reckless approach, something I have belabored before.
In addition to a small stature for a shooting guard (6'-3") and poor defense, Jones brings a concept of his shooting game that is almost childish.
His response to a missed three-pointer? Get the ball back as soon as possible and jack up another.
That's not playing in the flow of an offense. That's a game of H-O-R-S-E.
A starter presumably is going to be on the court for 30-plus minutes a game. If a player is going to be on the floor for more than 30 minutes, he needs to do more than be a one-trick pony. In Jones case, that one trick has been lousy of late.
Jones almost singlehandedly let Detroit back into the game during last Saturday's win, when he heaved a pair of three-point misses, allowing the Pistons a couple of easy transition buckets and a 6-0 run. Brown had to call a timeout to stop the bleeding.
As I wrote yesterday, Ira Newble is far from a cure-all in Hughes' absence. But Newble brings size, defense and an ability to play in the flow of a game. In other words, he isn't always looking for his own shot (Damon, are you listening?)
The Cavs did get to 10 games over .500 with Newble starting last year, even though Newble has a limited offensive game and poor shooting touch. A big reason why is Newble did what was asked of him and didn't try to do too much (Damon, are you still listening?)
Newble is not a starting NBA two-guard. We all know that. But last year, he was the best option available on the roster. This year, he is a stopgap until Hughes returns, hopefully within two months.
Newble in the starting lineup would return Jones to the bench and limit his effect on a game. He could go back to spot-up three-point shooting, which is his self-proclaimed area of expertise.
In fact, Brown could tell Jones to do what Wesley Person used to do: park it beyond the arc and wait for the kickout pass. When you get the pass, just shoot. No passing, no dribbling, no thinking. Just shoot. Jones would be in heaven.

The truth about USC

Thank you, Vince Young.
I finally have some ammo to quantify this feeling I've had for some time that the USC Trojans are overrated.
A great team? Yeah, I guess. One of the all-time best? Ehhh ... I'm going to say no.
I wanted to say no before Young rallied Texas to their first national title in 36 years Wednesday night in the Rose Bowl. But the din of USC supporters (patron saint: Will Ferrell) from Los Angeles made it hard to be heard.
Two straight national titles? Who's kicking Louisiana when they're down now?
Last time I checked, LSU got the crystal football after the 2003 season. USC finished first in both the media and coaches' polls, but not in the BCS. There are problems with the BCS ratings system, yes, but any USC national title from 2003 is strictly inferred and not won. You don't win a national title by bellyaching the loudest. You win it on the football field.
Same goes for Miami fans still moaning about a scrap of yellow cloth on the field against Ohio State. Go polish your 2001 trophy. But I digress.
USC won a title last year. They were going for two straight, no matter what the appeasement-minded ABC broadcast crews said last night.
And last night, one ofthe supposed titans in the history of college football lost because they didn't have the best player on the field. Don't teams like USC usually trump supposed one-trick ponies like Texas?
USC's 39th-ranked defense gave up 41 points in regulation time last night. My suspicions about not really being challenged in the defensively-soft Pac 10 have been confirmed.
Notre Dame was probably the toughest defense USC faced all year. It took a Reggie Bush pile-driver of Matt Leinart into the end zone for the Trojans to escape from South Bend with a win.
Aren't all-time teams like USC supposed to own the fourth quarter and thrive on pressure? USC coughed up a 38-26 fourth quarter lead last night.
Pete Carroll allowed his USC defense to sink into a Marty Schottenheimer-esque marshmallow-soft prevent coverage late in the game, attempting to sit on the 12-point lead. But giving 20 yards to Vince Young was like giving a starving German shepherd a steak. Young took off at will, scrambling underneath for 10 yards at a time. Once Young gets up a head of steam, one defender isn't going to bring him down. USC found that out the hard way.
Bush and Leinart have the Heismans, but Young was the top dog last night. Playing in far-off Austin, Texas, Young had little to combat the bright lights and glamour of the USC program. But I saw a pressure-cooker performance from Young last night that I hadn't seen in quite some time. He might wind up being better than Leinart or Bush in the NFL.
The best part is, we might have to wait to find out. Young reportedly said he is leaning toward coming back for another year at Texas, trying to do what USC only thinks it did: win two straight national titles.

Hughes out

Larry Hughes is the ultimate second-tier NBA player. He scores, penetrates, plays some defense, passes and can co-exist with bigger egos.
He did it last year in Washington with Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, and he has been doing it this year with LeBron James.
But there is a caveat with Hughes, and it has reared its ugly head again: he can't stay healthy.
This is his eighth NBA season, and only once has he not been relinquished to the injured list.
Prior to last night's win in Milwaukee, Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry announced that Hughes will have surgery on his right hand to repair a broken bone near the knuckle of his middle finger. He is expected to be gone six to eight weeks.
The Cavs' roster is deeper than last year's, but the loss of Hughes still leaves a pretty big hole to spackle for the next two months, during which the Cavs will embark on a two-week gauntlet run through the Western Conference.
Last night, Damon Jones started in place of Hughes, and the Cavs promptly put themselves in a double-digit hole before climbing out thanks mostly to LeBron and Drew Gooden. Jones is 6'-3" with the defensive instincts of a crash-test dummy. If coach Mike Brown repeatedly uses Jones on the opposing team's shooting guard, it will probably result in a repeat of last year's situation at the point, when Jeff McInnis consistently allowed every opposing point guard to burn Cleveland with uncontested penetration and wide-open jumpers.
Brown's other options are Ira Newble and Luke Jackson. Brown's defensive-oriented logic will probably lead him to Newble, last year's starting two-guard who lost his job because he can't shoot. Newble, if nothing else, will bring hustle, aggressive play and a wide body to the floor.
Jackson is struggling through what amounts to a second rookie season after missing two-thirds of last season recovering from back surgery. Brown apparently doesn't have a lot of confidence in Jackson right now, judging by his extreme lack of playing time in recent weeks.
Whatever Brown decides, it's not going to completely cover the hole created by Hughes' injury. But injuries are part of life in professional sports, and all teams sooner or later have to cope. LeBron, Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Donyell Marshall will have to step up until Hughes can put on a uniform again.
This is another test the Cavs will need to pass on the road to title contention.

Final grades

Below, I give final grades for the Cleveland Browns 2005 season. As you might expect, they are reflective of a 6-10 season. Right off the bat, I'll tell you nobody received an A.

QB: Charlie Frye, C and Trent Dilfer, C
Inconsistency is the buzz word here. Dilfer appeared to be an adequate presence in the huddle, and led the Browns to an impressive road win in Green Bay, before we realized just how bad the Packers were going to be this year. He also presided over embarrassing losses against Detroit and Houston. When the season became a lost cause, he was rightfully benched in favor of Frye.
Frye looked every bit like a MAC superstar making a leg-straining jump to the NFL. Against Cincinnati, he was quick and resourceful, and nearly pulled out a win. Against Pittsburgh, he was a Luke McCown redux. Having said that, he did manage to pilot a downtrodden team to two wins in their last three games.

RB: Reuben Droughns, B; Lee Suggs, C- and William Green, F
Droughns is about the only calling card I could see this offense leaving right now. He is the most punishing runner the Browns have had since Kevin Mack, and not coincidentally, the first 1,000-yard rusher since Mack and Earnest Byner. His production fell off toward the end of the year due somewhat to fatigue, but more glaringly to the presence of Frye in the pocket. It's defense 101: against a rookie QB, stack the box, stop the running game, and dare the rook to beat you.
Suggs made his annual December cameo, had some moments of production, and will probably be laid up again by August.
Green will be lopped from the roster by summer, or should be.

WR/TE: Dennis Northcutt, C; Braylon Edwards, C; Antonio Bryant, C+; Steve Heiden, B; Kellen Winslow Jr., F---
Everyone except Heiden had points docked for bouts with the dropsies. Northcutt redeemed himself a bit with a rare punt return for a touchdown against Baltimore on Sunday. Edwards could have had a higher grade, but his knee injury stuck his grade in suspended animation for the remainder of the year. Winslow gets the lowest grade in history for obvious reasons.

Offensive line: C
Again, injuries took something of a toll, as center Jeff Faine once again sustained a season-ending injury. The offensive line was the most competent since the playoff season of 2002, and the Browns appeared to have made the right call getting rid of the overinflated ego and price tag of tackle/party animal Ross Verba. L.J. Shelton stepped into Verba's left tackle slot and started 16 games with no major incident. In other words, he was decent --Verba at his best.
Right tackle Ryan Tucker is the closest thing the Browns have to a franchise lineman. Off-season acquistion Joe Andruzzi didn't have the impact he had in New England, but consider the setting. There is time still for Andruzzi and the Browns to grow together.

K: Phil Dawson, B
He missed an extra point, which eliminated any possibility of a B+. All in all, Dawson redeemed himself after a shaky finish to 2004, during which I was questioning if he was losing his touch. Dawson finished this season with a mere two field goal misses, and is the Browns' all-time leader in field goal percentage. He's a keeper.

P: Kyle Richardson, C-
Maybe we were spoiled by five seasons of Chris Gardocki. I think we were. Richardson shanks the ball way too much. It's difficult to play the field-position game when your punter is hitting ankle-shots to the 50-yard-line. He's better than Derrick Frost, but far from an elite NFL punter.

Defensive line: C+
Much of this grade is due to the play of Orpheus Roye, my uncontested defensive MVP of the team. He still managed tackles even though he was playing in a foriegn 3-4 scheme and getting double-teamed. Signing him is a top priority. What the d-line didn't do was consistently get the initial push into the offensive backfield, allowing the linebackers to penetrate for loss-tackles and sacks. Getting some more beef up front should cure some of that. Jerry Ball, where are you?

Linebackers: D
It's a tough grade because I saw them trying out there. Unfortunately, the linebacker corps is manned by Butch Davis holdovers, meaning many are too small and not strong enough to stop lumbering tight ends or running backs like Jerome Bettis. Andra Davis was the tackles leader for the team, but had only four for a loss heading into the season's final week. It might have been asking too much for Kenard Lang to drop 30 pounds and move to linebacker. He isn't mobile enough to play the position well. He needs to go somewhere where he can go back to being a defensive end in a 4-3 scheme.
This is where I put in my A.J. Hawk plug. Unfortunately, if the Browns stay at 14 in April's NFL draft, Hawk might be gone already.

Secondary: C-
This is also a tough grade. Injuries took their toll early on the defensive backfield. Gary Baxter was gone for the season by Week 6. Daylon McCutcheon also missed significant time recovering from some sort of vertigo. The emerrging bright spot late in the season was the play of corner Leigh Bodden, who smothered Cincinnati's Chad Johnson in early December. He did indeed cover No. 85 in 2005. Ask 85 himself.

Coordinators: Maurice Carthon, D and Todd Grantham, B+
With all the head coaching vacancies appearing in the NFL, I am becoming nervous about Grantham's longevity as Browns defensive coordinator. Grantham took what was supposed to be a team weakness and turned it into a team strength, new defensive schemes and all. His defense shut out the Dolphins, and held the high-powered Colts attack to 13 points in Week 3. He looks like a rising star in the NFL coaching ranks.
Carthon could soon be gone for different reasons. The Browns offensive coordinator looked overwhelmed at times in his first year as the sole pilot of his playbook. His play-calling was questionable to the end of the season, though some of that had to do with erring on the side of caution for the sake of Frye.

Head coach: Romeo Crennel, C+
The good: his team kept trying for 16 games, he is realistic in his analysis of his team, he doesn't jump to conclusions or let his emotions get the better of him, his players seem to respect him and want to follow him, he is a big reason why Phil Savage is still the Browns general manager.
The bad: he blatantly waffled on a first-string quarterback for several weeks, his leadership tactics appeared to lack strength at times. He oversaw an embarrassing 41-0 home loss to the Steelers, and met criticism of the game with a shrug, meaning he doesn't yet fully grasp what getting blown out by the Steelers means to Browns fans.

General manager: Phil Savage, B-
Given the choice between keeping Savage or keeping team president John Collins, any sane person should pick Savage. Stability is one of the foundation blocks to building a winner, and losing Savage would have destroyed that. Any other GM would have had a slightly (or much) different philosophy on building a team.
Savage's 2005 draft wasn't a barn-burner. Outside of Edwards and Frye, just about every other player spent the entire season flying under the radar. However, his free agent and trade class looks to be far better than anything Butch Davis ever concocted. Droughns is solid running back, Dilfer added stability to the offense at the outset, and safety Brian Russell finished the season strong with two picks against Baltimore.
A much clearer picture of Savage's work can be painted after next season, when the vast majority of the roster will be his acquisitions.

Setting the record straight

In light of recent events, most specifically the acidic reaction of Dave (Emperor) to my post, "Your Catholic duty," I think some things need to be cleared:

• I am not an anti-Catholic bigot. I don't care who you root for, so long as you are rooting for the team because you want to, and not because you think you have to.
• I might have overestimated the "Wrath of God" factor among Catholics. Granted, I do take issue with some of the archaic, ritual-based practices of Catholic masses, but that's my personal belief and not something I usually share on this blog. Most Catholics have very modern sensibilities, and (as in Dave's case), are Notre Dame fans except when playing the local favorite team.
• A great portion of the post was hyperbole, and might have been equal parts funny or offensive depending upon the reader. Notre Dame, for example, probably couldn't raise enough money to build a new football center in two weeks simply by placing donation boxes in every Catholic church in America. They'd raise money, no doubt, but Notre Dame I'm guessing respects the practice of tithing more than that.
• I think Notre Dame's standing among Catholics in America has been explained to me. Many Catholic fans identify with Notre Dame because it represents a part of who they are. I'm so city-centric with my allegiences that I guess rooting for a team because they embody your religion is kind of foreign to me.
• I wasn't trying to stick it to Catholics in my post. However, with the Fiesta Bowl less than a week away, I was trying to stick it to Notre Dame and their fans a bit. But any malice wasn't mean to go beyond the scope of football, even in non-football references. I never intended to attack the institution of Catholicism, or the institution of Notre Dame. I do not have an "axe to grind" with Catholicism. Philisophical differences, maybe, but it hasn't stopped me from attending numerous Catholic masses with my girlfriend (who is Catholic by baptism) in the past year.
• Lest anybody think I was dragging my feet in posting a response, I need to point out that my Internet access was limited to a virus-stricken laptop and a desk model from 1995 this weekend. In other words, I had no Internet access until I arrived at work today.
• And, Dave, I have to point something else out. This goes all ways. If I have to be more sensitive to Catholics, you can't take me for a bleeding-heart when I say I can do without Chief Wahoo, the Indians logo. I am not offended personally by the logo, but if the Indians said tomorrow they were eliminating it in favor of another logo, I'd have no problem with it. Change can be good sometimes.
• Dave, You spent Friday evening trying to tell me that offensive material is in the eye of the beholder. If my blog post is offensive to you, you have to be open to the idea that the people who protest Chief Wahoo are every bit as offended by that logo (which is far more public than my blog) as you were with my post. Blinding outrage to one person is "suck it up and quit whining" to another. It's all a matter of perspective.

The Morning After: Baltimore

Browns 20, Ravens 16
Final record: 6-10
Final divisional record: 1-5

That stick in the divisional win column is magical, isn't it?
OK, maybe not. But going winless in the division for the first time in franchise history would have entered uncharted waters of embarrassment for a team that has had an ongoing relationship with embarrassment for the past seven years.
The downside: the draft positioning. a 5-11 team will likely pick within the top 10. The Browns, at 6-10, could pick as low as 14.
But first things first. We don't know how/when/where/if the Browns will pick in April. Friday, we didn't even know who the general manager was.
In true Cleveland Browns fashion, allowing bad things to happen at the worst possible time, rumors began swirling Friday afternoon that GM Phil Savage was fired and/or resigning as the team's personnel chief after 11 months on the job. The purported reason was a philosophy difference with team president John Collins. Collins, it turns out, had a low opinion of Savage as a money manager.
It must be pointed out that Savage was hired as talent guru, not as a money man. That's what the Browns wanted as a GM last winter, and that's what they acquired. Money-managing abilities didn't come up, at least not publicly.
The protracted and apparently contentious Braylon Edwards contract negotiations this summer looks to have soured Collins on Savage's GM abilities a bit. So Collins wanted to take the contract-negotiatng responsibilities away from Savage and hand them to a new guy. Savage didn't like it, and a long silence apparently followed.
Collins came on local radio station WTAM Friday to tell sports yakker Mike Trivisonno that he, Savage, owner Randy Lerner and head coach Romeo Crennel "renewed our vows" and Savage wouldn't be fired.
But this is America, where sadly, half of all marriages end in divorce. The "Savage resignation radar" was still beeping at media headquarters all weekend. Savage remained mum. With good reason.
He wasn't leaving. Collins was.
Man, were we faked out. Like defending Allen Iverson's crossover. Our shoes are at the other end of the court. Collins resigned Tuesday as Browns president, made public in a statement from Lerner.
"I am more committed than ever to this franchise and to helping the organization bring the Browns fans a winner," Savage reportedly said Tuesday.
Apparently the distraction of philosophical differences is over for now. But the Browns now don't have a president, and the whole organizational realignment undertaken last year, with a football operations wing overseen by Savage and a non-football wing overseen by Collins, appears to be up in the air.
The Browns are in a state of transition again. How shocking. At least it looks like the Browns will have a GM from now until the draft, and that the organizational philosophy won't suddenly go from building a dominant defense to building a spread offense.
Sixteen games after an opening loss to Cincinnati, and what have we learned about the Browns? Hard to say, and that's the problem. Reuben Droughns looks like a franchise running back. Beyond that, I struggle to find the building blocks for next year.
But that's why Savage makes the big bucks, and talks of bringing Cleveland a winner. It's his job to identify the strong points and build around them. If he doesn't, it won't matter if John Collins or Phil Collins is the team president.
(Sorry, Zach, I didn't want to rip off your joke, but I can't think of another famous Collins).

Up next: hopefully, better days ahead

Fiesta all year

This could be me looking a gift horse in the mouth, but what exactly stopped Ohio State from competing for a national title this year?
The Buckeyes are a big-game team with a big-game coach. But the biggest game, the one that now sticks out like a sore thumb, is the loss in September to Texas.
Think about it. If Ohio State beats Texas, there are a whole slew of one-loss teams led by Ohio State and Texas. With the win, the Buckeyes would have gotten the tiebreak over Texas for a berth in the BCS championship. At least that's the popular theory.
Instead, the Buckeyes stubbed their toes not once but twice, losing also to Penn State, and have to settle for the at-large BCS bowl game while Southern California and Texas square off Wednesday night.
They were rally kings against Michigan, and dominated Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl even more than the 34-20 final score would indicate. If quarterback Troy Smith played all games like he did against Michigan and Notre Dame, he'd be a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Instead, we have a reverse-John Cooper factor. During Cooper's years, Ohio State generally took care of business leading up to Michigan and the bowl games, and sputtered thereafter. Now, Ohio State wins the two most important games of the year, but has to guard against mental lapses in the months leading up so they don't ruin their national championship chances.
This was an Ohio State team that should have been competing for a national title. They certainly had the defense, and the last two games have shown the offense has an ability to kick it into a higher gear.
Smith is a mad bomber, capable of finding Ted Ginn, Santonio Holmes and Anthony Gonzalez downfield? Prior to Michigan, who knew?
In a big game, there are few coaches I would rather have on the sideline than Jim Tressel. His ability to remain cool under fire and make his team rise to the occasion is becoming legendary. But he also needs to get his players to realize a loss in September means something, too. The loss to Texas sure did this year.
I am happy Ohio State is once again Fiesta Bowl champions. But not ecstatic. This team could have accomplished much more.

LeBron turns 21

Happy legal drinking age, LeBron! The next time you suit up at The Q, for Saturday afternoon's game against the Pistons, you'll be able to legally visit the bar at Gordon's afterward.
Twenty-one is a milestone for anybody, but in the case of LeBron James, it's a landmark.
It's a landmark for professional basketball. And certainly a landmark for Cleveland sports.
Nobody in the history of professional basketball has been this good this quickly. Not Magic Johnson. Not Michael Jordan. Not Kobe Bryant, who was the previous king of the under-21 class.
LeBron has averaged 20 points per game in each of his first three seasons. This year, he is averaging 30, even with the scoring help of Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones.
Last season, he was one of three players in league history to average 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for a season. Jordan and Oscar Robertson were the others.
It's difficult to define a player's game as "limitless." There really is no such thing. But LeBron is the closest I've seen anyone come to no boundaries.
He honestly can be as good as he wants to be. If he wants to score 50 points, he can do it. Dish out 20 assists? Check. Be a top-10 rebounder? He could probably do that, too.
If the defensive fire continues to grow in his belly, he can be a shutdown defender in the mold of Ron Artest as well.
Other players have the athleticism of LeBron, but not the size (Allen Iverson). Some have the size and scoring ability, but not the passing (Amare Stoudemire). Still others are burdened by selfishness that won't let them be a conduit for their teammates (Bryant).
LeBron has the speed to burn defenders in single-man matchups. He has the size (6'-8" and nearly 250 pounds) to draw contact inside and still be able to put the ball in the hoop. He has the ups ... well, if you've ever seen him elevate his elbow above the rim before a throwdown dunk, you know about his ups.
He has the coordination to dribble through traffic and thread the needle with his passes. He has the width to defend and post up. He has the height, quickness and coordination to rebound. And he does it all with a team-first mentality that allows him to always look for the best way to help his team win, be it by scoring himself or by finding his teammates.
Keep in mind that he has required no major development as a pro. LeBron came into the league requiring some sanding and polishing, but no major construction or reconstruction for his game or attitude.
He is 21, but at 18 already had the look and mentality of a veteran. That is incomprehensibly rare. Some great players (Artest, for one) might never learn to grow up.
Everything he has improved since coming into the league he has taken on himself. He worked on his outside shot over the past two summers, and now is an upper-echelon shooter. Now, with defensive-minded Mike Brown as his coach, LeBron is starting to value defense. He's still coming along, but we are starting to see flashes of LeBron's potential as a defender.
Could LeBron be the greatest ever? He has a long way to go. He needs to stay healthy and win some rings along the way, hopefully in a Cleveland uniform.
LeBron already has only Jim Brown standing between him and the title of "greatest Cleveland athlete ever." If anybody is going to break the four-decade title drought in Cleveland sports, LeBron stands the best chance. Now that he has the people around him to help get it done, hopefully he sees things the same way. Realistically, the best chance of getting LeBron and an NBA championship in Cleveland at the same time is probably going to require at least one contract extension. The Cavaliers can offer LeBron a maximum contract beginning July 1.
But it's so Cleveland to worry about the the thunderclouds that might or might not form on the horizon two or three years from now. In the meantime, Northeast Ohio's boy wonder has officialy become a man. And he is taking us all on the ride of a lifetime. We should enjoy every minute of it.

Your Catholic duty

I am not Catholic. I don't profess to know what it is like to be Catholic. So would someone please explain to me this hallowed position the University of Notre Dame holds among Catholics nationwide?
I have nothing against rooting for Notre Dame. The campus is beautiful and there is most definitely a magic about football there, something you don't need to even watch the movie "Rudy" to sense.
It's more this sense that Catholics (at least the ones I know) almost feel it their duty to root for Notre Dame. Like God views it as a sin to root against the Fighting Irish. This is coming from people who have no connection to Notre Dame beyond their Catholicism and have never been to South Bend.
Would an Ohio Catholic even root against Ohio State in next week's Fiesta Bowl, an Ohio Catholic who is an avid Wolverine-despising Buckeye fan under any other circumstances?
Maybe not. But apparently the Notre Dame factor makes loyalties waver more than you'd realize.
Poll the Catholics you know. Not the Catholics in name only. Poll the ones who go to mass every week. You might be surprised at how many are at the very least walking the fence ("Does there have to be a loser?")
It's a unique phenomenon. Kind of like, "Man, I do want Ohio State to win. I really do. But if I root against Notre Dame, God might be looking over my shoulder, tapping his foot like a parent who caught his kid going through cookie jar before dinner."
No other school enjoys the benefit of implied wrath of God. And you wonder why Notre Dame will never join a football conference.
Notre Dame could really exploit their position if they wanted to. My guess is that if they wanted to build a new football training facility, they could get the money in about two weeks. Just place donation bins in every Catholic church narthex in America.

The tithing priorities for your average Midwestern Catholic:

1. Starving children in Africa
2. World Youth Day
3. Notre Dame
4. Local soup kitchen
5. Restoration of the Sistine Chapel
6. Notre Dame

Sometimes I wonder if other Catholic schools feel left out. Do officials at St. Bonaventure sometimes say "Hey, where's our piece?"
But the Bonnies don't wear gold-flake helmets. They were never asked to "win one for the Gipper." And they certainly don't have "Touchdown Jesus" painted on the side of their library.
Every religion has their pilgrimages, their own holy places. Muslims have Mecca. Jews have the wailing wall. Catholics have a college in northern Indiana where football and Christ are both kings.

Blog bash, Day 2

Today, we highlight some suggested posts from Zach Baker, like myself and Joel a decorated veteran of The BG News who remains in the professional biz. His blog was really the impetus for me to start my blog. Unlike my blog, which pretty much focuses solely on sports, Zach fearlessly switches between sports, music and politics. Zach's many loves include the music of Van Morrison and being perpetually suspicious of Indians owner Larry Dolan.

Zach's selections:

St. Belichick, February 7
Erik's comment: Pure hyperbole, but what can you expect from a bitter Cleveland fan? We sat here and watched an inexperienced Bill Belichick help run the Browns into the ground in the early '90s, either intentionally or unintentionally adding fuel to Art Modell's movement to relocate the team. Five years later, with the Baltimore Ravens hoisitng a Super Bowl trophy and Cleveland left with a miserable expansion facsimile of their team, Belichick resurfaces in New England and becomes the greatest coach of his generation. Modell and Belichick get the hardware, Cleveland gets screwed. Sucks to be us, I guess.

Summer is over, October 3
Erik's comment: Another post born out of bitterness. Every year, summer ends for me when the Indians season ends. But this past year, it was especially bitter. The Indians might not have gotten past the White Sox, since Chicago was having a season on loan from God in 2005, but that could have been them playing the White Sox in the ALCS instead of the Angels. They had the pitching to get there, and enough offense to get by. The last week of the regular season killed all of that.

Redemption in Buckeye, May 14
Erik's comment: I ususally use my blog as a diversion from work writing, but when Buckeye's school board took sports away due to lack of funding, I had to blog about it. The lives of most high school kids exist in the small world of their school. Who they are within those walls is how they view themselves. To take sports away is to take a huge piece of a 16-year-old's athlete's identity. Three days after the tears, however, there was redemption. The school board voted to accept an alternate funding proposal from district boosters, using donations, fundriasers and pay-to-play fees. Buckeye is still trying to pass a levy that would restore district funding for athletics.

Blog bash, Day 1

Today we highlight a few preferred posts of Joel Hammond, a fellow Bowling Green grad who recently started his own blog.
Like yours truly, Joel did just about everything a sportswriter could do at The BG News, the student newspaper of our hallowed alma mater. He was a dutiful foot soldier, a respected sports editor, page designer, columnist and is now making it in the outside world at a paper in Greenville, S.C.
He also gets the title of being the only writer to ever say he "pulled an Erik Cassano" in a column.

Joel's selections:

Harken the masses, February 9
Erik's comment: I am surprised and pleased anyone picked this post, the as-yet-unfinished Shakespearian tragedy of Romeo Crennel. I thought it started out kind of lame, and might leave some readers scratching their heads. Truth be told, I gave up on it because I thought the story would drag on and get pointless. Then the Cavs season heated up and I forgot about it.

An inferiority complex, January 12
Erik's comment: An appropriate selection in the wake of the Browns' 41-0 loss to the Steelers. If you are a Browns fan, really, what football ammo ccan you come at Pittsburgh with?

The Browns-Indians dynamic, December 12
Erik's comment: When you get right down to it, it's the fans threatening to boycott the Indians every year that pisses me off. Don't agree with their moves? Fine. But let's not treat the Indians like Nike using Vietnamese peasants to make $120 shoes. Not unless you are willing to boycott the Browns for the same principles. And we know that won't happen. Asking Clevelanders to give up the Browns is like asking Clevelanders to give up cheap beer.

Five stages of bracket death, March 30
Erik's comment: It was a post that just kind of happened naturally. It was truly how I was feeling at the time. I came into the 2005 NCAAs with all kinds of dynasty sugarplums dancing in my head. I won the 2004 pool at work, and apparently was in need of a dose of humility, which I got, and then some. My Final Four completely folded by the championship round, and if I remember correctly, I barely missed going from first to worst in a year. The only consolation would have been geting my $10 entry fee back, but even that didn't happen

The first year

One year ago today, I sat down at my laptop, logged into Blogger.com for the first time, and created "Erik Cassano's Weblog."
It has been a busy first year chronicling the ups and downs of Cleveland sports, and sports in general. From the Cavs' springtime collapse to the Indians near-miss of the playoffs in October to yet another long, highlight-challenged season for the Browns, I have strived to post my takes on all of it.
This post is my 300th. A nice, round number for the first year.
Since setting up a CQ hit counter on April 27, I have netted 2,169 hits and am averaging eight visits a day. Thanks to everyone who has visited my site over the past year, in particular Zach, Joel, Dave, Marc and Abrasivist. And to anyone else, please come back often and post your comments.
I have asked Zach, Joel and Dave to point out some posts that have stood out to them in the past year. Anyone else is invited to contribute as well by e-mailing me at TheChief87@aol.com.
Over the next few days, I will highlight the posts selected by my readers as past of my first anniversary "blog bash."

The Morning After: Pittsburgh

Steelers 41, Browns 0
Record: 5-10
Divisional record: 0-5

Blogger's note: Yeah, I know this is actually three mornings after, but so what? After that performance, I'm not bending over backward to analyze it over the Christmas weekend.

Believe it or not, the final score isn't what bothers me the most about Saturday's death-star ass whupping. I truly believe it was an abberation. The Steelers aren't that good, and the Browns aren't that bad.
But the Steelers are still much better than the Browns, and that's what bothers me.
The Steelers don't always beat the Browns 41-0, but they almost always beat them. You have to go back to October 2003 to find the last time the Browns beat their purported arch-rivals. You have to go back to 1989 to find the last time the Browns were markedly better than the Steelers.
The Browns are now 3-11 against Pittsburgh since returning to the league in 1999. They are 5-20 since Bill Cowher took over as Pittsburgh's head coach in 1991, including a pair of playoff losses. When your record against your arch-rivals begins to resemble the 2003 record of Tigers pitcher Mike Maroth, things aren't going well.
You think John Cooper had it bad against Michigan? At least he only faced his rivals once a year. The Browns have to go through this twice, sometimes three times, in a year.
Some might even question whether this is a rivarly anymore. The Browns are 0-5 against all division rivals this year, and Pittsburgh has had bigger fish to fry recently, like Baltimore and New England.
It appears to be a rivalry kind of like Ohio State and Illinois is a rivalry. Long-time conference mates? Yes. Game has meaning? Yes. Big for Illinois? You bet. Big for Ohio State? Well, kind of.
But, as The Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi pointed out, the Pittsburgh players still treat it like a rivalry. They relish coming in here and beating Cleveland's brains out, something that makes Cleveland fans fume, and stokes the rivalry's flames.
Now, if we can only get Cleveland's players and coaches to think the same way. Coach Romeo Crennel was non-committal when asked if he thought the fans deserved an apology for such a pathetic game.
"If you go out an purposely lay an egg like we laid, then an apology was definitely needed," he told The Plain Dealer.
Great. Just so long as you were trying, Romeo.
Luckily, Reuben Droughns apparently felt differently.
"We have to apologize," he reportedly said. "They (the fans) wanted a better showing than that, especially against a rival."
Droughns, however, said he was upset by fans who left early, leaving Cleveland Browns Stadium to be taken over by Terrible Towel-waving Pittsburgh fans at game's end.
It seemed approporiate, however, since the only thing keeping the Steelers from owning Cleveland Browns Stadium is a title deed. They have won five straight in Cleveland.
Droughns offered this bit of defiance in Tuesday's Plain Dealer:
"(The Steelers) better enjoy it now because it won't happen again. We just can't accept a loss like that."
You're preaching to the choir, R.D. Tell it to your teammates.

Up next: Baltimore, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET (season finale)

Merry Christmas

This will probably be my last post before the holiday weekend, so let me take a moment to wish the best to you and yours.
Stay tuned next week for my first-anniversary blog bash, as I celebrate the first year of "Erik Cassano's Weblog."

Happy Holidays.

From triumph to tragedy

The Indianapolis Colts are 13-1 and are still the odds-on favorite to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl despite losing their first game of the season last Sunday. But that must all seem so far away to coach Tony Dungy right now.
He is preparing to bury his 18-year-old son, James, after he was found unconscious and not breathing in his Tampa-area apartment early Thursday morning. Efforts to revive him were not successful.
Pre-autopsy reports list James Dungy's death as a suicide.
Tony Dungy has fought uphill battles in his football life before, but probably none like this, none where his personal and public lives collide so sharply.
Dungy is one of the NFL's true good guys, soft-spoken but at the same time a strong leader and excellent tactician. As coach of the Buccaneers, he was unfairly pigeonholed as merely a defensive specialist with no feel for the offensive side of the ball. Three appearances in the NFC championship game with no victories only perpetuated the myth. No one seems to remember how good the Buccaneers were on defense, that they held the high-octane St. Louis Rams to 10 points in the 1999 NFC title game.
Nobody remembers the Bucs had a slog-it-out offense, relying on running backs Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott while limiting the effect revolving-door quarterbacks like Trent Dilfer and Shaun King had on the game.
Dungy made the sad-sack Bucs a league force for the first time in franchise history. His reward? To be fired after the 2001 season and replaced by Jon Gruden, who promptly led Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl win.
That year, the Bucs had Brad Johnson for a quarterback, a sizeable upgrade over anybody Dungy had under center.
Dungy landed in Indianapolis, where he took over a team that had offense in spades, but no defense. He molded the Colts defense into one of the fastest units in the NFL, and paired with the Colts' dominant offense, led Indy to a 13-0 start this season, prior to a loss to San Diego this past week.
Somewhere, the 1972 Dolphins were toasting the end of this lastest, failed attempt at a perfect season.
Dungy has handled all the near misses, all the close brushes with greatness, with the same quiet dignity that has made him popular in NFL circles. No matter the failure, he always seems to be working toward the next goal. It is a great trait for a coach to have.
Now Dungy and his Colts will have to endure a horrible time that will test the mettle of the team. James Dungy's death could unify the Colts and steel their resolve, but that is asking a lot a mere 48 hours after his death.
There will be too much grief, too much stress, and too many distractions these final two weeks of the regular season as the Colts try to maintain a grip on their rudder, the rudder Dungy has so expertly handled this year.
Football has been on the minds of the Colts pretty much nonstop since July. It is a shock, two weeks from the start of the playoffs, when football seems so distant. But there is still a job to do.
If the Colts can emege from James Dungy's death a stronger team, it should cement Dungy's greatness as an NFL coach, even if he never wins a Super Bowl.
Sometimes, greatness isn't measured in hardware. Sometimes, it is measured in your ability to maintain inner strength through the pain life deals you.

The Browns-Indians dynamic

There is a double standard in Cleveland sports I can't ignore any longer. The past few weeks have laid it out for me.
I'm really starting to get irritated by the favored-child status the Browns have in this town, and the whipping-boy status the Indians have.
Does this exist in other cities? No matter how lousy the Browns are, we still hear fans calling up talk shows, plotting out draft picks, talking about this player and that player and how they are the guys the team needs to build around. This year's golden boy is obviously Charlie Frye.
No matter how good the Indians are, all we hear about is how cheap owner Larry Dolan is, and how the team is doomed to fail because they won't spend any money.
The Indians won 93 games last year, remember? They did it with farm system-grown talent and a payroll that ranked near the bottom of baseball. The Browns, playing in a parity-driven league with a salary cap, have so far have won five of 14.
In a stuggling economy that has forced many to do more with less, the Indians did just that. The Browns are trying to claw out of years of wasteful management. Do fans of cash-strapped Cleveland, Ohio admire their "little guy" baseball team that so embodies who they are? No. Maybe it's too much like looking in a mirror.
Fans come to sports to forget about things like financial constraints and the daily struggle to make ends meet. They want their teams to spend like Daddy Warbucks, and storm through the opposition like Patton taking North Africa. The Indians, however, scrimp and save and are unable to make dream purchases, just like you.
Maybe that breeds contempt.
The Browns, meanwhile, might make fans upset by posting losing records year after year. But seldom do their fans doubt, and never do they entirely lose faith. That perplexes me.
When you get right down to it, the right team left Cleveland in 1995. Fans rasied holy hell to get their Browns back. I don't think the same effort would have been put into keeping the Indians or Cavaliers around.
Even when the Browns make questionable offseason moves, fans seem to take a wait-and-see attitude. The geniuses that run the Browns, after all, might have a larger plan in mind. But don't you dare try to sell Indians fans on Paul Byrd over Kevin Millwood. They just might threaten to boycott the Indians all summer (some have, just like they threatend to boycott the Indians when they traded David Justice, Roberto Alomar and Bartolo Colon, and let Omar Vizquel leave.)
Only with the Indians would retaining a 45-save closer from the year before be viewed as an underachievement. Only with the Indians could the return of Danny Graves be met with a lukewarm reception, after fans pined for him for years, lambasting John Hart for the short-sighted John Smiley trade.
And yet, fans are still divided to this day on whether the Browns should have cut ties with Tim Couch, who is now out of football. Somehow, they think Couch still had a chance to be a Pro Bowler, even after being jerked around by Browns coaches and management for five years.
The Indians do things the right way, even with limited money. General manager Mark Shapiro has surrounded himself with young, talented executives who have replenished a farm system that was withering in 2000 and 2001. The farm system has yielded wins, from 68 in 2003, to 80 in 2004, to 93 last year.
Certainly, the Indians haven't had a great offseason. But let's not forget that all the young guys who helped the team get to 93 wins are still here, and there are still trades that can be made. If anybody is going to figure something out, it will be Shapiro and his crew.
In my mind, the Browns are where most of the skepticism belongs. They are the team with the questionable track record. They are the team with more to prove.
But apparently, I'm in the minority in feeling that way.

Losing out on Booz

Carlos Boozer bolted Cleveland in the summer of 2004, and the running has yet to stop.
Tonight, for the second straight season, Boozer will be thousands of miles away nursing an injury when his Jazz pay a visit to the Cavaliers.
Last season, it was a foot injury. This year, it is a tender hamstring that has sidelined him all season.
Boozer might have this plotted out so he can duck Cleveland from now until the end of his career. Next season, a stomach virus. The following year, a chipped fingernail. Sure, his injuries are legit, but so is his desire to stay away from the wrath of Cleveland fans.
Boozer could soon be finding ways to duck Utah fans if this season is any indication. He bought a 10-bedroom, 13-bathroom mansion in Malibu, Calif. during the off-season, and has reportedly made himself scarce in Salt Lake City, opting to stay in California and rehab with a hand-picked personal staff of trainers and physical therapists.
Rumors have begun to swirl that Boozer would like a trade to the Lakers. Apparently that "next Karl Malone" thing isn't working out so well in Utah, where he has played only 51 games in nearly a season and a half. Perhaps now he's thinking the next James Worthy?
Boozer was called out by Utah owner Larry Miller for a lack of toughness last year. This year, the Jazz had to call a news conference to reassure everyone that, yes, Boozer really is injured, and no, he isn't sandbagging it.
Only Boozer know for sure. What is certain is that Boozer's career is spiraling downward. The Cavaliers, perhaps being naive, trusted him enough to let him out of the final year of his contract with the anticipation he would sign a new deal in Cleveland. To roll the dice on a purported franchise player, the Cavaliers must have gotten some assurance from Boozer's camp that he was staying. But then Adonal Foyle inked a ridiculous five-year deal with the Warriors. Then the Jazz came calling with a six-year, $68 million offer, and Boozer reneged on his Cleveland promise.
It was then Boozer's true colors showed. It was then his career took a bad turn.
Boozer played the part of a nose-to-the-grindstone yeoman basketball player his first two seasons. He looked like the type of guy that put personal gains aside to help his team win.
But underneath that workman exterior was a self-centered, bitter individual, who apparently felt his blood pressure rise every time a reporter reminded him he was a second-round draft pick in 2002. He put up 15 points and 11 rebounds per game in the 2003-04 season. Current Cav Drew Gooden, picked fourth overall in 2002, has yet to have a 15-and-11 season, but made far more money than Boozer his first two years.
Boozer was looking for a payday that would prove he was as good or better than any other power forward picked ahead of him that year, and apparently was willing to step over whomever he needed to so long as he got the money.
Boozer has been branded as selfish since then, and the negative things have kept happening to him.
Bill Simmons of ESPN.com calls it bad karma for "screwing over a blind man," meaning former Cavs majority owner Gordon Gund, who lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa at age 21.
Predictably, Boozer's reaction has not been to meet questions or criticism head on, it has been to go into hiding. In the months after he left Cleveland, he spent much of his time in his native Alaska, waiting for the heat to die down. Now, he is hunkered down in Malibu, hiding from two cities.
Boozer is becoming a basketball version of Roberto Alomar without the superlative ability. He is making a habit of quickly wearing out his welcome wherever he goes. It doesn't seem to bother him, so long as he can keep running away.
If and when he does get traded to the Lakers, expect him to buy a house in San Antonio and begin dreaming of becoming Tim Duncan's understudy shortly thereafter.

These are the Packers?

If you are the Green Bay Packers, now is the time to cover your face.
Kyle Boller dropped 48 points on Green Bay on national television Monday night, passed for 253 yards, three touchdowns, and led the Ravens, who had scored 20 points in a game only one time previously this year, to 24 in the first half.
Sure, it was a statistical abberation. But so are plane crashes.
Remember all the fuss about how the Texans were leading the Reggie Bush first-pick sweepstakes? Well, the Packers (3-11) are very much in the Bush fray, too.
If it's any consolation, I think the Packers, a winning organization, would have a much better idea of what to do with Bush than Houston or any other scrub team chasing the first pick (that includes Cleveland).

No Nomar

Suprise, surprise. Nomar Garciaparra isn't coming to Cleveland, opting instead to wear Dodger blue for the upcoming season.
But Nomar's decision probably had less to do with money and more to do with Mia Hamm.
Garciaparra and his soccer-star wife own a house in the Los Angeles area, something that had to have contributed to his decision.
Nomar's contract isn't beyond Cleveland's grasp, either: one year at $6 million. It's a reclaim-my-career contract, similar to the one Kevin Millwood signed with the Indians for the 2005 season.
Play one year. If that goes well and the injury bug stays away, the door is once again opened for the big bucks.
The difference is, the Dodgers will have a fighting chance to keep Garciaparra if all goes well next season. Cleveland, not so much.
The Indians, meanwhile, put some names in the hopper for the right-handed set up man's job, signing a pair of blasts from the past --Danny Graves and Steve Karsay -- to minor-league contracts today.
Graves' career is in tatters after a couple of dismal years with the Reds and Mets. Karsay was cut by the Yankees midway through last season with recurring back problems.
It is a similar approach to what the Indians took in signing Scott Sauerbeck and Bob Howry two years ago. Roll the dice on a player down on his luck and rub your rabbit's foot. With Sauerbeck it worked. With Howry it worked too well, as he bolted to sign a multiyear deal with the Cubs last month.
In New York and L.A. and Chicago, the suspense comes on the field in September and October. In Cleveland, it comes over the news wire in December.

The Morning After: Oakland

Browns 9, Raiders 7
Record: 5-9

It was exactly the game I expected from a pair of 4-9 teams. Low-scoring and full of mistakes.
The Browns continued to bring Charlie Frye along with training wheels, while the Raiders are just spinning their wheels.
It was a game in which the Raiders could not make the Browns pay for a pair of fourth-quarter turnovers, in which the Browns needed a Reuben Droughns fumble call overturned to set up Phil Dawson's game-winning field goal as time expired.
It was a game in which the winning team failed to reach the end zone, a game in which the winning team was probably the losing team in the long run. Five wins might be enough to force the Browns to draft as low as 10th in April. A sixth win almost assuredly would drop Cleveland to 10th or below.
The Browns' lone chance at a touchdown was stuffed in the first quarter. I'd like to credit the Raiders and their defensive front for stopping everything the Browns threw at them, but that would give Cleveland too much credit. Inside the Oakland five yard line, Browns offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon elected to run Droughns up the gut four straight times, and he was stopped all four times.
I recognize the need to keep things simple for the inexperienced Frye, but there is a saying credited to Albert Einstein. It finds its way onto office walls every now and then:
"The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result."
No harm in mixing in a sweep, or even an old-school option play. Lee Suggs, noticeably faster than Droughns, is healthy for his annual December breakout. He is pretty good at turning the corner with a head of steam.
I'd also like to give the Browns defense credit for holding the Raiders to one Kerry Collins-to-Randy Moss touchdown pass, but again, that would paint an inaccurate picture.
Collins' game was in discord after being benched for Marquez Tuiasosopo last week, then being re-inserted as a starter this week. He and Moss were speaking different football languages all afternoon, save for the touchdown pass, which was mostly due to some soft Cleveland coverage in the secondary, and the Moss' height, which allowed him to snare a high over-the-middle pass from Collins.
The Browns allowed another 100-yard rushing game, as preseason fantasy favorite LaMont Jordan racked up 132 yards, mostly inconsequential due to Oakland's impotent passing game.
An assist in the win also goes to Oakland kicker Sebastian Janikowski, possibly the most overrated kicker in the league. The former first-round pick badly missed a second-half field goal that would have pushed Oakland to 10 points.

Up next: Pittsburgh, Saturday, 1 p.m. ET.

Cool to the Heat

When Damon Jones signed with the Cavaliers in September, Ric Bucher of ESPN.com wrote a pretty bold column insinuating that Jones might be in the Cavs' camp, but still very much yearned to be with the Heat, where he was the starting point guard on a conference finalist last year.
I thought it was a dose of East Coast arrogance from Bucher, a "How could Jones take Cleveland over Miami without being forced?" dig at the Cavaliers and Cleveland's cold, snowy winters.
Three months later, I'm starting to think there was some validity to the column. Most of my suspicions have been aroused by what has come directly out of Jones' ever-moving mouth.
Turns out, Jones thinks Heat GM/coach/puppet master Pat Riley had a pretty good thing going last year, and is more than a little bitter that Riley saw fit to whitewash the team around Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, tossing Damon and Eddie Jones aside for the likes of Jason Williams, Gary Payton and Antoine Walker.
Jones is a spurned lover. He is on the Cavs' arm now, but makes no bones about looking with hurt and longing in Miami's direction.
Losing the starting point guard job to Eric Snow didn't help matters for Jones, who clammed up to the media for most of November because of his bench assignment. Once he opened up again, he reportedly likened his Miami-to-Cleveland transition as going from being in the Beatles to being a backup singer for the Isley Brothers.
During the Cavs' win over the Nuggets last week, TNT's broadcast team of Marv Albert and Steve Kerr shed light on the comment. Albert called it "an insult to the Isley Brothers."
What about the Cavs, who now pay Jones? Seems pretty insulting to them, too.
Jones' bitterness fully blossomed leading up to Saturday's win over Miami at The Q. He hit Riley with both verbal barrels, saying recently-resigned Heat coach Stan Van Gundy was "set up to fail" because Riley was looking for a reason to re-install himself as Miami's head coach.
Jones could very well be right, but the truth seemed less important than sticking it to Riley, the author of Jones' one-way ticket out of Miami.
Riley didn't take the verabl shots laying down, firing back prior to the Heat-Cavs game. He said Jones was "being Damon Jones," an apparent hint that Jones' relationship with Riley has been less-than-fuzzy for some time.
Riley doesn't want anything to do with Jones. The trouble is, Jones would probably put up with Riley again in a heartbeat if it meant he could go back to being the starting point guard for the Heat, the team with which he had his breakout season, the place where he was a favored member of Shaq's court.
Not that being a second lieutenant for LeBron James is a bad gig, but the first thing Jones acknowledged when he signed with the Cavs was that they are more than a few miles behind the Heat in terms of being a title contender.
Jones is a bit reckless when it comes to shooting three-pointers, but he is a professional. He has shown a willingness to take the job assigned him and perform it with enthusiasm. In Cleveland, that means coming off the bench.
But if you are one of those Cleveland fans who thinks every player who suits up for your teams should only have eyes for Cleveland, avoid eye contact with Damon Jones, because you'll probably see images of Shaq, Dwyane and palm trees.

Thursday roundup

There were a few story threads to follow around the Cleveland sports scene Thursday, but not enough to sustain an entire column. So I'm going to bounce around a bit today.

The Cavaliers looked about as good as they have looked in quite some time in dropping the Nuggets Thursday night at The Q, 94-85.
Two days after their worst performance of the season in a loss to Atlanta, the Cavs rebounded with tight defense and clutch shooting to snap a three-game losing streak.
LeBron James did what he ususally does when the Cavs win: eschewed his own scoring to get his teammates involved. Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones hit four three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Jones finished with a season-high 17 points. He was still a bit reckless in heaving threes, but exhibited more control over his game than recently.
Defensively, the Cavs prompted me to ask "Where has this been since Thanksgiving?" Their spacing was good, energy up, and LeBron, possibly motivated by playing good friend Carmelo Anthony, helped hold him to 23 points on 23 shots. At one point in the second quarter, the Cavs had four straight defensive stops.

All you Browns fans who think linebacker Andra Davis is overrated and underproductive, I have bad news: he's going to be here for a while after inking a five-year contract extension Thursday.
It's not as bad as you think. Davis was the AFC Defensive Player of the Week following Cleveland's 22-0 win over Miami four weeks ago. While he's not a franchise defensive player, he could be a nice compliment to an as-yet-unacquired stud linebacker (A.J. Hawk, anyone?)
After struggling early to adjust to coach Romeo Crennel's 3-4 schemes, Davis apparently looks like a keeper to the Browns. The contract is a huge vote of confidence for Davis, considering how crucial linebackers are in a 3-4 defense.
It also might help reverse the fortunes of Davises in Cleveland, which haven't been too good recently (Ricky, Butch, Andre).

The Indians are still waiting for an answer from free agent Nomar Garciaparra, which could come by today. If general manager Mark Shapiro gets Garciaparra to spurn offers from the well-endowed Astros, Dodgers and Yankees to sign with Cleveland, he might have a future in sales if this whole baseball thing doesn't work out.

Soul searching

It's only mid-December, and I don't think the Cavaliers have reached an "hour of reckoning" point of the season just yet.
But the Cavs are in a stretch of 10 home games in 13 prior to taking off on a long, tough West Coast trip in mid-January. A poor showing over the next 13 games combined with taking their lumps on the West Coast trip could jepoardize the season.
So far, the Cavs are 0-2 in the stretch of 10 home dates. Denver, a playoff team last year, comes into The Q tonight.
Cleveland is 2-7 in its last nine games, causing their record to careen from 9-2 to 11-9. The Cavs now sit a mere half-game out of last place in the stacked Central Division, where the Bulls are bringing up the rear with a 10-9 record.
Tonight's game isn't a must-win, but as the losses continue to pile up and the West Coast swing draws closer, the pressure to start winning will grow. Many of the players and coaches weren't here to witness last spring's collapse that caused the Cavs to miss the playoffs, but after narrowly missing the postseason two years in a row, the pressure to make the playoffs is great this year. If the Cavs are below .500 and in lottery position come mid-February, the likelyhood of the team narrowly missing the playoffs for a third straight year is high. That's not progress. And the "LeBron is leaving" murmurs will grow louder. Even though LeBron has played a hand in the Cavs' recent skid.

Below, I size up some Cavs players and coach Mike Brown, and find out what they can do to help the Cavs rebound before it's too late.

LeBron James
What he is doing: Carrying the scoring many nights, being a willing team leader, not getting down on himself or his team.
What he is not doing: playing consistent defense, spreading the workload around, demanding more of his teammates.
What he needs to do: LeBron has the athleticism to be a lockdown defender, but too often, he is trying for the steal, missing, and consequently giving his man a clear path to the basket. LeBron needs to begin taking as much pride in his defense as he does in his almost-limitless offensive game. While it is great he is not badmouthing his team, there comes a time when LeBron needs to assert himself and demand more of his teammates. Like last season, when the going gets tough, LeBron puts all the weight on himself, and allows his teammates to become passive observers. That's not going to win any playoff series, let alone championships.

Damon Jones
What he is doing: bringing energy on a nightly basis, showing an unwavering confidence in his outside shot.
What he is not doing: playing any kind of real defense, showing good judgment when hoisting three-pointers.
What he needs to do: Jones is, at the moment, not doing a good job of playing within himself. He appears obsessed with the three-ball. During a game against New Jersey last Friday, he grabbed a long-carom rebound at the free-throw line off a missed Donyell Marshall three. Instead of taking the ball to the basket or trying to draw contact inside, he dribbled back out to three-point land and hoisted another miss.
Jones is not Reggie Miller. He is a good but not a great outside shooter, and needs to realize that anytime is not a good time to hoist a three. Jones would also be best-served to focus his energy at the defensive end, and at least be an undersized, disruptive pest even if he can't really guard anyone.

Larry Hughes
What he is doing: being that long-sought scoring compliment to LeBron, showing fearlessness when penetrating to the basket.
What he is not doing: Living up to his reputation as a first-team All NBA defender.
What he needs to do: This is where a Ron Artest trade becomes intriguing again. Artest and LeBron in the lineup could move Hughes to the point. At 6'-5", rail thin and quick, Hughes has the body of a modern NBA point guard, and could shut down smaller guards on defense. But as long as he is a shooting guard, he needs to use that quickness to at least slow down opposing two-guards, if not stop them.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas
What he is doing: Getting to the free-throw line, playing well within his limitations, showing a willingness to work at his defensive game.
What he is not doing: like LeBron, not demanding more of his teammates.
What he needs to do: Z is the elder statesman of the Cavaliers, with 10 seasons under his belt. That level of experience lends itself to leadership. I'm sure Z works with younger players, but he and LeBron could be the standard-setters for the roster if they'd be willing to speak up more often. Not being jerks about it, but leaving strong hints that lax efforts like the one Tuesday against the Hawks is beneath the team and will not be tolerated. To a lot of players, one sentence from a teammate is worth more than an hour-long lecture from a coach.

Mike Brown
What he is doing: saying all the right things, preaching defense, acknowledging that building a team is a process. What he is not doing: building a bridge between the complexities of his playbook and his players, who have to to execute the plays, not just learn them.
What he needs to do: becoming a head coach is like being in a new country for Brown. From the high language of NBA scholars, he must now find a language that reaches the NBA's million-dollar peasants, the players. The players want simple concepts, since they not only have to learn the plays, they have to execute them on the floor. Lengthy skull sessions on the intrcacies of pick-and-roll defense only educates players to a point; after that, it bores them.
Keep it as simple as possible, Mike.

Nomar's decision

Arn Tellem, the agent for Nomar Garciaparra, said in The Plain Dealer today that his client could choose a team by the end of the week.
The finalists are reportedly the NL champion Astros (big market), the Dodgers (even bigger market), the Yankees (King Kong market) and the Indians (mom 'n pop grocery market).
To quote a little ditty from Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the others."
Can you pick out the one that doesn't belong? I'll give you a hint: it's the team whose general manager recently said, "We'd love to have Kevin Millwood back on a one-year contract," likely causing Millwood's agent, Scott Boras, to wet his pants laughing.

Life at the top

No one can guarantee that the White Sox will win another World Series in the next few years, but they certainly are setting themselves up to dominate the AL Central for the foreseeable future.
While the rest of the division is standing pat or making marginal improvements, Chicago has gone out and bolstered their championship roster with big names.
Jim Thome was added in a trade with the Phillies last month. Today, the White Sox added Javier Vazquez to their starting rotation in a trade with Arizona.
The largest price they paid? Aaron Rowand to Philadelphia and Orlando Hernandez to Arizona.
Did I mention they kept free agent slugger Paul Konerko, too?
While the Tigers keep attempting to crawl out of the muck of previous regimes' bad management, and the Indians, Twins and Royals are handcuffed with extremely limited finances, the White Sox have gone out and made the few bold brushstrokes that will ensure "Chicago" will be the name at the top of the AL Central standing for most of 2006 and possibly 2007.
There is a catch. Sooner or later, Thome's contract will be an albatross as he gets older and more injury-prone. Sooner or later, all these big names and big contracts will take their toll, and toward the end of the decade, Chicago will likely have to do some payroll-trimming.
But heck, if they get another world championship or two out of this cast of characters and go down in history as the "team of the 2000s," they will have gotten their use out of them.
The good jobs Cleveland and Minnesota have done in building up their farm systems should keep some semblance of competitive balance in the division. In other words, Chicago probably won't be able to pencil themselves in as division champs on April 1, as the Indians did so often in the '90s.
But the White Sox have the most resources in the division, and they have the rings, which means a predictable bump in attendance and merchandise sales. So while the rest of the division, sans Detroit, is dealing in "Monopoly" money, the White Sox will consistently have the ammo to go out and make meaningful acquisitions. And that will probably be the difference maker come September and October.
If you are a fan of the Indians, Twins, Tigers or Royals, be thankful for the wild card. It might be your team's only chance at the postseason for the time being.