While We’re Waiting… Cavs gaining ground, Duke forgetting Kyrie and more Tribe injuries

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

Thanks for those that voted last week to move WFNY to the second round of Cleveland Magazine’s Nothing but Net bracket contest. We will need your support even more if we are to move past round 2! Voting might take you 30 seconds, if you read slow. Help a brother out… [Cleveland Magazine]

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“Following an improbable, highly exciting three game win streak against Western Conference teams best characterized as somewhere between good and excellent; the Cavs are one game outside of the 8th seed in the East. Six of their remaining eleven March games are against teams with winning percentages below five-hundred. Anderson Varejao should return later this month. The trade deadline is a few days away – how should the Cavs respond?

While I’m not a proponent of “tanking”, the Cavs still need to focus on the future. I am super psyched about the three recent wins, especially against OKC (seriously – who saw that coming?), but the sixteen games in twenty four days in April is daunting and could very well leave this young Cleveland team outside-looking-in regardless of their mid-March moves. For me, the win streak hasn’t changed the view on trade deadline questions. Trading Sessions still seems to be the right move. After this season, his player option likely won’t be picked up. Acquiring a first round draft pick beats the value of twenty-seven more games of Ramon.” [Hetrick/Cavs the Blog]

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Forgetting Kyrie? “And then came Carolina. With one shot (capping a 29 point performance), Austin arrived. Now Duke is in the Tournament as a 2-seed. And it’s clear from recent games that this team is going to succeed or fail due largely to what Rivers accomplishes on the court. He’s the man. He has the ball. Coach K wouldn’t put that kind of pressure on him if he didn’t think he was ready. Now, with four wins, he can make Duke fans forget any of them ever compared him to Kyrie Irving.” [Rogner/Pro Basketball Talk]

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“So now you realize where this is going: The Buckeyes have ten* Final Fours. Only two of them are of the formula we’re all accustomed to, i.e. winning four tournament games to get there. Without knowing the details, being presented with 13 Sweet Sixteens, 12 Elite Eights and 10 Final Fours you might conclude that Ohio State should have, maybe, a half-dozen titles?

As you already probably know – regardless of your previous intimacy with the backstory – the Buckeyes have one crown that came in 1960. So it’s been 52 years since an Ohio State team lived forever. Every run since has either left the Buckeyes partially-dead or mostly-dead, depending on if there was a ribbon attached to the corpse. Not one team since has captured irrevocable immortality Among its Big Ten brethren, Ohio State isn’t living too badly with its solitary championship. Indiana is without peer with five titles (on two fewer Final Fours than Ohio State; imagine that) while Michigan State has two. Michigan and Wisconsin also each have one. Then it gets ugly.” [Ramzy/Eleven Warriors]

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Luke Harangody, D-League star. “It was announced on Monday that Luke Harangody was named the Co-Performer of the Week in the D-League. Harangody was recently sent down by the Cavaliers and has been playing with the Canton Charge. Harangody averaged 24.3 points and 14.3 rebounds per game this past week as the Charge went 3-0. The Charge has also won 12 of their last 16 games. It turns out that the Cavaliers’ really crappy NBA players make some mighty fine D-League players — who knew?” [Kaczmarek/Fear the Sword]

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“Indians first baseman Casey Kotchman (back tightness) and outfielder Felix Pie (stiff neck) were still unavailable on Monday. Manager Manny Acta noted that Pie, who crashed into a wall on Sunday, might be cleared to resume playing on Tuesday. Acta added that it isn’t as clear whether Kotchman will be ready to go on Tuesday, but he’s still considered day to day. Another one from the Department of Health: Indians lefty Rafael Perez threw another bullpen session on Monday with no leftover issues from the sore shoulder that’s bugged him so far this spring. Facing live hitters is the next step, after a couple of days off, according to Acta.” [Bastian/MLB.com]