Basketball woes

A little bit of that and a little bit of this ...

Pat yourselves on the back, Cavs. You've set an NBA record. And no, it's not a good kind of record. You just lost the most consecutive games in a row in a single season.

Twenty-four straight losses and counting. Joe Cleveland is PROUD that you represent his town. PROUD, I tell you!

Yes, Joe Cleveland can be very sarcastic. To quote the foreign co-worker in "Family Guy:"

"Oh, ho-ho ... eees funny cause eet's not true .... oh, ho-ho ..."

Who would have thought that the Cavs would go from being the first team in the NBA to reach 40 wins to the first team to reach 40 losses in one single season. Well, ESPN and all the other haters who thought that the Cavs would suck without LeQuitter did, but still ...

The Cavs have tied their own record (set during the Ted Stepien years ... who would have thought the Cavs would ever rival those forgettable years?) for most consecutive losses. Although, back then, the Cavs lost 24 straight during the course of two years. They did this in one.

Does anyone else think that the Cavs will win another game this year? How about two games? Three? Four? OK, that's just crazy talk right there, so I'll stop before it gets ridiculous. Heaven forbid, an NBA team can't win five games over the span of three months. How sad is this team?

The sad part is, as much as people like Joe Cleveland applauded Dan Gilbert for his "open" letter to the fans just hours after LeQuitter made his self-indulgant "Decision," I think we can all step back and realize that maybe Gilbert should have left well enough alone. Perhaps this is what he deserves.

A guarantee that your team will win an NBA title before LeQuitter's team does? Wow.

It's one thing to call out LeQuitter for what he really is, which is a quitter. It was fairly obvious to anyone with a pulse (or anyone not associated with ESPN) to realize that LeQuitter tanked those last two games of the Boston series. You don't play that poorly all of a sudden. And, remember when people (even media-types) were saying that LeQuitter was going to have elbow surgery after the season, and that he had a serious injury? Joe Cleveland wants to know when that elbow surgery happened, and how did it go? Because, he obviously didn't hear about it. Did you?

However, to make outlandish guarantees is something else entirely. The national media roasted Gilbert following the letter, which let LeQuitter off the hook. The Cavs' current struggles only makes Gilbert look worse (and LeQuitter look better).

In case you wanted to know, the NBA record for least wins in a single season is 9, set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. All the Cavs have to do is win two games over the remaining three months to avoid this ignomious record.

Wow, two whole games. That's like asking someone to dig a replica of the Grand Canyon with a spoon, right?

Thanks a lot, Cavs. You disgust me. Take a bow, morons!

***

Speaking of basketball, Joe Cleveland finally got out to see the "winning team in town," Cleveland State, last Thursday against Valparasio. Then, I watched as ESPN came to the CSU campus and broadcast the Vikings big matchup with Butler to the nation on ESPN2.

What a difference two days make.

The CSU I witnessed on Thursday did not resemble the CSU I watched on Saturday. Joe Cleveland would like to know who those imposters were wearing Forest Green and White (well, they were wearing black jersies instead of the usual ones, so maybe that had something to do with it).

I was impressed with the Vikings against Valpo, although they missed too many free throws to my liking and they kept committing dumb fouls (although, it's fairly obvious that the Horizon League is taking on the bottom-of-the-barrell college refs. I don't know how many traveling calls they missed on Valpo, among some other questionable calls). I like their ability to play defense and that they aren't afraid to run. I like that, while Norris Cole is clearly the top option offensively, they have guys who can hit the long-range jumper like Jeremy Mongtomery and Tre Harmon.

Aaron Pogue, however, looks like a stiff to me. He looked like when I saw him in person, and he definitely looked like it against Butler. How do you miss layups when you're 6-10 or 6-9 or whatever you are?

A win over Old Dominion on the road in the Bracket Buster could be good enough to salvage their chances at qualifying for the NCAA Tournament (which is now accepting 68 teams this year, not 65). However, at this rate, CSU better hope Butler gets beaten in the HL Tournament. Because its obvious that Butler has some sort of hex on them.

How can Butler lose to Youngstown State but yet beat CSU? For that matter, Butler has lost to a LOT of teams in the HL this season. Yet, they are 2-0 against a team that is 21-4, and handed that team their only loss on their home court.

Maybe the weight of the bandwagon was too much for CSU. A nearly full house greeted CSU and the ESPN cameras for the noon tip-off. It was the first time all season that the Wolstein Center was that full. Maybe they were better when they were playing in front of people dressed like green seats instead of actual people. Who knows.

CSU still is the frontrunner to get the top-seed in the HL Tournament, which means there's a good chance they will be hosting that championship game should they not choke (knock on wood). However, it appears likely that, despite a glittering record, they may need to win the league if they want a shot at the field of 68. National perception is reality, and the nation has witnessed two terrible CSU performances against Butler and a third against West Virginia. Both teams clearly aren't the same teams that reached the Final Four last year.

Best of luck, CSU. You're our only hope.

***

So, maybe it's time for a Super Bowl prediction. After all, it is being played later today.

Take this for what it's worth (and, I'm sure the bandwagoners will believe that I'm not being objective), but I'm predicting Green Bay 30, Pittsburgh 21.

Pittsburgh is great against the run. However, Green Bay is not a running team. They are a passing team. I believe they can exploit the Steelers secondary and Rodgers can avoid the rush to make some great throws. They've got at least two huge plays in them.

Green Bay is great against the pass. Pittsburgh may try to run with Mendenhall a lot. However, their offensive line is weaker without center Maurkice Pouncey. Doug Legursky is undersized and not that good. You can bet that B.J. Raji will try to put pressure right up the middle. Green Bay will try to bring the heat on Roethlisberger. The Billy Joel wanna-be is best at bouncing off would-be tacklers and making plays out of nothing. It will be up to guys like Clay Matthews to make sure they bring him down when they hit him.

If Brian Schaefering can do it twice and Hank Poteat can do it once, I think Matthews can handle it.

Besides, the team that's had the most distractions this week has been the Steelers. Paparazzi have hounded them all week. Green Bay has been left alone. People were just waiting to see if Roethlisberger would screw up, or Harrison, or any of them. A routine trip to the strip club got posted to the Net. Roethlisberger drunkenly warbeling Piano Man made it to SportsCenter, where they spent 20 minutes debating on whether it was a story or not.

Umm, if you're going to spend 20 minutes talking about it, guess what: IT'S A FREAKING STORY!

Yes, the heart is rooting for Green Bay. However, the head believes that it will happen, too.

***

Two more weeks until the Indians open spring training. How long is it before the NFL Draft starts?

***

So, Joe Cleveland's latest poll is, if you had a choice right now for a winter sport, would you keep the NBA and the Cavs or an unidentified NHL team? Simple question.

The NBA is built so that teams from large media markets or teams with superstars succeed. The Cavs have neither right now, and those prospects don't look like that's gonna change, even if they get the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft.

The NHL, meanwhile, seems to be more wide open. Sure, they're trying to market their superstars (like Crosby and Ovechkin) and hope that those teams get the big push. However, it seems like it doesn't have the preferential treatment that proliferates throughout the NBA like a fungus.

Cleveland fans may believe that the NHL won't work here. They point to the two seasons in the late 1970s that the Cleveland Barons were in the NHL as proof of that. I beg to differ.

The Barons, when they were originally in the AHL, were a powerhouse and very popular among the fans (remember, there was no basketball in town then). They were replaced by the Crusaders in the fledgling WHA (which tried to pawn itself off as a legitimate competitor to the NHL), and the Crusaders did well here. After the Barons were moved to Minnesota by the Gund Brothers, Cleveland had some minor league hockey teams that drew OK. The Lumberjacks got a nice niche for a while. The reincarnated Barons were afterthoughts, but the Lake Erie Monsters seem to be marketing themselves fairly well.

Cleveland sees itself as a major league town (eat it, haters), and supporting a minor league team isn't high on the radar. But a major league hockey team? I think Cleveland fans (a blue-collar bunch) would support it.

I always felt hockey was more conducive to the average ticket-paying fan base in Cleveland than basketball, especially as contracts got bigger and superstars began acting more and more like spoiled divas and/or wanna-be thugs. Cleveland finally had one of them, and for 7 years, they were the hot ticket in town. But, the diva is gone, and we're left with a bunch of scrubs who can't buy a win if they could get it on clearance at Big Lots.

Feel free to vote in the poll, and comment your thoughts about which would be better here -- NHL or NBA. Don't let the stench of the current Cavs affect your thinking. Think about the 41-year-old body of work.

***

Lastly, the man behind "Joe Cleveland" would like to dedicate this installment of the blog to the late John G. Cole. Cole was the longtime editor-in-chief of the Lorain (OH) Monring Journal, where I cut my teeth as a sportswriter. I learned a lot about being a journalist, a writer and a good man from Cole. He was a tough person to work for, but you were a better person for it in the long run that you did, and that you survived.

Cole died suddenly this week at the age of 61. Rest in peace, sir!

Untl next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!