A post with no college basketball talk… almost

Today may be the one day this week I don’t mention college basketball other than saying I’m going to take Coppin State over Mt. St. Mary’s in tonight’s play-on game. I couldn’t tell you one thing about either team, I just like the name Coppin State.

 

So, we’ll avoid college basketball for one day because there are a few things I want to mention about the Browns and Cavs.

 

Here at work, we have an old guy who drives around and delivers things between our three offices. He’s a great guy, loves his Cleveland sports and literally wears their colors on his sleeve. His wardrobe changes with the seasons. Not spring, summer, winter or fall, but basketball, baseball or football. Everyday he’ll wear a coat and a shirt of either the Indians, Cavs or Browns depending on what is going on with each team. Very seldom does he mix and match. All day long the guy drives around listening to sports talk radio so he usually is pretty well informed and gets the latest news before I do. Well, he is also 82 years old so sometimes I question his inside information and wonder if he is confusing what he heard on the radio with what the Leprechaun said. 

 

Yesterday, he came into my office and said did you hear about the Browns? I, of course, had not and was intrigued to what information he had. He said WKNR (ESPN radio in Cleveland) was reporting that the Browns are going to deal Derek Anderson on draft day to get a draft pick. Has anyone else heard this rumor? He said that KNR was reporting that is basically a done deal. That makes no sense because if everyone knows you want to trade someone, you aren’t going to get full value. I don’t see this happening because it seems like Phil Savage is keen on keeping two quarterbacks for at least this year. Savage already said he isn’t trading DA for anything less than a first and third round pick. If no one was willing to give that up a few weeks ago, why would anyone be willing in April?

 

The second rumor this guy came in with is the Browns are going to wear throw back uni’s this year with white helmets. I researched and found that the Browns wore white helmets from 1946 to 1949 for day games but couldn’t find a picture of it. Has anyone else hear about the plans for these throw back uni’s? I just can’t picture the Browns playing in anything other than orange helmets. I don’t know why the Browns keep wanting to wear throwback jerseys. Their uniforms are already like throwbacks. The throwbacks they wore the last two years, the ones with the only noticeable difference is numbers on the helmet, are stupid. They look too much like the normal ones to make anyone say, wow, those are cool. And can’t the NFL put a stop to his? Didn’t they see how bad the Eagles and Steelers looked last year in their throwbacks. I used to like the retro uni days but now they are out of control and need to stop.

 

One more Browns note: William Green is attempting a comeback. He has been out of the NFL for two years and in the time he, supposedly, found God. I don’t even know what that means. Did he find Him during one of his tripped out marijuana binges? Did he find Him on the bruise he gave his wife? Did he find Him in a hallucinate state after being stab by his wife/girlfriend? Good luck Willie.

 

As for the Cavs, what a surprise. They lost the second night of a back-to-back on the road. For once though, it really wasn’t through any fault of their own. Well, maybe a little fault. The Cavs led the whole first half because Orlando wasn’t shooting the ball well. That changed in the second half. Orlando lit it up like Ashley Alexandre Depre lights up New York City (that’s the whore in the Spitzer scandal for those of you uninformed people). By the time the third quarter was over, you could see the Cavs say “screw it” and the effort just wasn’t there any more. When a team hits that many three’s and shoots the so well, it will do that. Orlando will be a scary team in the playoffs. If they can shoot like they did last night, they can give Detroit a great series in the second round. Of course, they can’t shoot like that every game and could just as easily get blown out because the shoot so many.

 

The loss isn’t that big of a deal. The Cavs stay in the fourth spot and it seems like that is were they will end up. That’s fine. They’ll take care of Toronto and then beat Boston. 

 

Back to Orlando’s three’s, our favorite play-by-play guy, Austin Carr, was on top of it again last night. “It doesn’t do a lot of good just to take a lot of three’s but to make them.” Awe, the wonderful insight of AC.

 

However AC’s line of the night, after a LeBron James dunk, and it looked like the Cavs may get back in the game in the middle of the fourth quarter, “The L-train is all the way open now.” Anyone know what he means here?

 

I need help with this one too. Z was called for a clear path foul on Dwight Howard with 3:21 to play. Only Howard didn’t have the ball. He was waiting on a long full court outlet pass. Z fouled him way before the ball got there. How can it be a clear path foul if he doesn’t have the ball? Who’s to say he even catches the long outlet pass? 

 

The Cavs have big games with Detroit and Toronto the rest of the week. They would be nice to win to send a message to both that Cleveland is still the team to beat.

 

OK, I lied. I can’t make it through this post without saying something about college basketball. I filled out my picks since the tourney starts tonight. No, not the Play-in Game, the NIT gets under way. I figured if filling out a bracket for the NCAA is fun, why not do it for the NIT too. So here are my picks, if you want to play, leave your picks in the comments.

 

For the real tourney, I’m not setting up a thing since Graig already did. Join his and lets show him and his readers that me and my readers are better. Let’s take the top spots. Register over at Yahoo. Group ID# is 20090 and password is poopsmells. (yes, Graig is classy and intelligent). Let’s show him up.

 

NIT PICKS

 

FIRST ROUND 

OSU over UNC Asheville

CAL over New Mexico

DAYTON over CSU

ILLINOIS STATE over Utah State

VA-TECH over Morgan State

VCU over UAB

CHARLOTTE over Nebraska

OLE MISS over UCSB

ARIZONA STATE over Alabama State

S. ILLINOIS over Oklahoma State

CREIGHTON over Rhode Island

FLORIDA over San Diego State

SYRACUSE over Robert Morris

MARYLAND over Minnesota

AKRON over Florida State

SFA over UMass

 

SECOND ROUND WINNERS

OSU

Dayton

VaTech

Ole Miss

ASU

Florida

Maryland

Akron

 

QUARTERFINAL WINNERS

Dayton

VaTech

ASU

Mary

 

SEMIFINALS WINNER

VaTech

ASU

 

WINNER 

VaTech

 

 

Fratello