Not panicking over the Cleveland Cavaliers… yet – WFNY Podcast – 2015-01-15
January 15, 2015Cleveland Browns referring to entire fanbase as “The Dawg Pound”
January 15, 2015Howdy and welcome to Thursday, fellow WFNYers (pronounced WOOF-ners). It’s been quite a week of polar opposites between Ohio State football and Cavalier basketball, hasn’t it? With the Indians in the deep offseason freeze and the Browns still looking for an offensive coordinator, that’s where we’re going to stay for today’s edition of the triple dub.
I’ve got some additional thoughts on Ohio State and their championship. It’s a bit of a sampler pack, so let’s start light and work our way up in strength.
-Our men of the scarlet and gray looked extra sharp in this college football playoff. Why, you ask? Specifically, it’s the return of the wide, gray jersey stripes that harken back to the Cooper and Tressel teams of the 90s and early 2000s. The scarlet jerseys worn in the National Championship Game also had black TV numbers as the 1968 title winners did. I could take them or leave them personally, but sentimentality now has probably shoved me over into the “FOR” column. It’s an incredibly unique look, and Urban Meyer and company would benefit from sticking with them heading into next season.
-My dad told me that he still has the game ticket from our trip to Columbus earlier this year, the loss to Virginia Tech. That was a pretty miserable night with the loss and long drive back home, but now, we can look back on it and laugh a little bit. I think I still have mine somewhere too, stuffed away in a drawer with countless other Browns, Cavs, Buckeyes, and Indians ticket stubs. It’s almost like a Harry Truman holding the “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” feeling when thinking about it. Speaking of which, the Virginia Tech T-shirt economy wasted no time in capitalizing.
-It’s truly staggering how much talent this Ohio State team is going to bring back next year. On offense, they’ll have at least one, almost certainly two, and hopefully three Heisman-capable quarterbacks, the unstoppable Ezekiel Elliott, six of their top seven receiving targets including Michael Thomas, Jalin Marshall, and Dontre Wilson, and four returning offensive lineman plus a strong blocker in tight end Nick Vannett. On defense, Joey Bosa and Adolphus Washington will lead a talented line, Darron Lee, Josh Perry, and Raekwon McMillan will lead the linebacker corps, and Vonn Bell, Eli Apple, and Tyvis Powell will be back in the secondary. That’s 14 of 22 starters returning, and I’d argue that there’s hardly any drop-off when it comes to Vannett, McMillan, and Marshall or Wilson replacing Heuerman, Curtis Grant, and Evan Spencer as starters respectively. After an opener in Blacksburg against the Hokies, the Buckeyes have what would appear to be a relatively easy schedule until the final two weeks where they’ll face the two teams they will be battling in the Big Ten East for years to come when they host the Spartans and then travel to Michigan. Title defense is so incredibly difficult, and really, it’s unfair to talk about it too much. Let’s enjoy this well into the spring and summer as fans. If you do want to read more about next year, Martin Rickman at SI has you covered.
–TIME Magazine had an article about Ezekiel Elliott and how he should be able to go to the NFL now rather than waiting until after three seasons. I think the answer is improving the benefits of being a college student-athlete (some sort of moderate payment or reimbursement following in addition to scholarship, maybe better insurance policies for those returning that do get seriously injured?) rather than turning college football into basketball. The jump between college football and the NFL is much more extreme to me than it is in basketball. The hitting and physical play is an entirely different animal. Maurice Clarett speaks from experience on his Instagram account and urges Elliott to stay in school and not fight it. With the volatility of football careers and the short amount of time a running back has to earn money anyway, I think that’s sound advice. With as much effort as is involved in recruiting, allowing players to leave before three years could potentially really water down the on-field product.
-When the inaugural College Football Playoff is four teams and is won by the fourth seed, you probably need more teams. The committee got it right, but five power conferences with four slots is bound to continue to cause problems and debates. If you play in a power conference and finish your season with one loss or less, you are highly likely to make a 8-team playoff. I think this would encourage teams afraid to schedule tough out of conference games to do just that.
-I generally ignore the babble of morons like Clay Travis and Mark May, who sadly collect a paycheck by being little more than the equivalent of a professional wrestling heel of a villain. But, it’s extra sweet to hear them try to explain their way out of their dismissive hatred and lack of respect for the Buckeyes. Travis spends all of his time retweeting the dregs of the Ohio State fan base (and trust me, with a fan base as large as OSU’s, there’s plenty of uneducated masses that don’t know which “your” to use), while he goes on national television and proclaims that Alabama would beat Ohio State if they played again this week. That’s great, Clay, except a) been there, done that and b) it doesn’t matter if they could. That’s why you play the games. You don’t have to win ten out of ten times. If the Buckeyes had played Miami in 2003 ten times, I don’t know how many times they would’ve won, but I think it may be less than five. It’s really tragic that people like Travis and May move the needle and poke the hornets’ nest such that networks cultivate a captive audience and continue employing them.
-That seems like as good of a transition as any to the toxicity of our city when it comes to the Cavaliers right now on the Twitterverse. I think it’s safe to say that out of all the WFNY crĂŒe, I spend the most time on Twitter (except for maybe #JakeyStats).
-I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. On the plus side, it’s how I first connected with the WFNY guys and eventually was asked to join up about four years ago now. It’s how I’ve met probably a dozen or so really cool people in person on several occasions that aren’t affiliated with the site and are just fun Cleveland sports fans to socialize with. It’s changed the way and speed with which I consume sports news in real-time. It’s made a pretty shy guy like myself at varying times feel funny, intelligent, informed, creative, and innovative. It’s a vehicle through which I brainstorm and converse and react.
-On the downside, the negativity can become overwhelming. My best comparison for Cleveland sports Twitter in trying times is a dementor. If you follow the Harry Potter franchise, a dementor as Remus Lupin explains it…
“Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them… Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself… soulless and evil. You will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.”
As I’ve explained before, I can be as reactionary as they come in the heat of the moment during a game on a particular play, drive, possession, inning, etc., but I like to think that when the red face subsides and the blood pressure comes down a little bit, I’m able to think through my raw emotion and rationalize it a little more effectively. I also realize that not everybody is going to nor do they want to nor should they have to take the same approach as I do.
-#CavsTwitter right now, however, is very dementor-ish. Never mind that the Cavaliers were 18-11 when LeBron James originally went down and have been adjusting to losing Anderson Varejao and adding two new rotation players (and another soon with Iman Shumpert). It’s already the most games James has missed in a regular season. This is uncharted territory for LeBron teams in Cleveland or Miami, so to stack them up head-to-head is a little obtuse. Depending on who you listen to, either David Blatt has to be fired yesterday, LeBron James is a monster for having attended a National Championship game on an off night after practicing earlier that day, Kevin Love is irrevocably broken, Kyrie Irving can’t play winning basketball, Dan Gilbert can’t get out of his own organization’s way, etc. etc. etc. It’s all a little too much right now. Everybody has their off the wall hyperbole machine working overtime.
-Scott touched on the being right for some “fans” being the most important thing in the past. If you end up being right about the outcome of something, it doesn’t matter how outrageous your claims were on the way or the method with which you conducted yourself in the meantime. YOU WERE RIGHT!!!! 1000 Internet Points for you!
-So, I’m going to put forth my best Patronus and tell you that things will get better for the Cavs. How much better? I don’t know. But, LeBron looked much more springy and athletic in the Phoenix game. Had they played an ounce of defense in the first three quarters, they would’ve won instead of coming up just short on a 19-point comeback. This team has all the talent it needs right now to make it out of the East. Things look AWFUL right now, but they play the postseason in mid-April. There’s three months for bad things to happen to other teams in the East for a change and for the Cavs to get some floor time together and figure this thing out the hard way. Don’t forget that they’ve already beaten every team that they’ll have to go up against to get out of the East and make it to June. Let’s hope the Cavs stop the bleeding tonight in Los Angeles against the Lakers.
-I’m wrong a lot. If they made being right a prerequisite, I wouldn’t be typing here. It’s why I love following people on Twitter that give *me* value. They either tell me something I don’t already know, entertain me with the gift of laughter, or they challenge me with healthy and friendly debate. My favorite discussions on Twitter (and they’re becoming more rare these days) is when neither person feels like they have to win, and both walk away from the encounter having learned something or at least viewed something from a different perspective.
-So, I guess what I’m saying is I’m going to try and take my own advice and keep as many encounters as I can constructive and courteous and block or ignore the people who feel like they need to gloat or ridicule the things I enjoy. Lord knows I’m far from perfect and I’ve had Twitter back and forths that I’m less than proud of, but I’m going to try to get better.
The former Thursday WWW guy, Jacob, hooked me up with some more for links for you all.
ESPN is riding high as the three college football playoff games came in as the top three cable television viewings of all-time.
To go right along with that, have you seen the new Wall Street Journal college football team values? Ohio State is the new number one there too.
This Twitter map shows NBA team followers. The Cavs hold down most of the State with the exception of some of the extreme southern portions and they also grab a few Pennsylvania counties around Erie.
There’s some fun notes here from SBNation’s Spencer Hall about the Texas experience for the title game.
Have a tremendous day.
46 Comments
2015 Buckeye football schedule OOC is interesting.
@VaTech – should be a game where Meyer has them put a stamp on things to eradicate last year’s loss. But, they still have one heck of a defense and we’ll see if they can find some offense.
Hawaii – poor team on the road historically, but look at their games last year. They played a ton of teams tough including the power-5 conference teams. We should win easily, but we have to be focused to do so.
NoIll – A dangerous game from a good program. Personally, I would prefer the Buckeyes to schedule smaller schools from Ohio (Toledo had a similarly good year in the MAC for instance), but, regardless, Urban will have to make sure the team stays focused.
W.Michigan – another good MAC program. Again, Ohio State should be able to handle good MAC programs, but this will be the 3rd straight week that the Buckeyes will have to come focused for a team that is good despite being from a lesser conference. If they come out flat, then things will be more interesting than they should be.
The sad things is that the main storyline here will likely be that we haven’t played anyone after 4 weeks no matter what results we have (VaTech will have Furman, @Purdue, @E-Car after our game). But, these are teams that will likely be in contention for their conference titles (unless Braxton goes to Duke, which would really hurt the Hokies chances).
I’m confident that the team will be so fired up for the Va Tech game and the chance to make amends for the previous matchup that they will absolutely dominate. And Urbs will let them drop 70. Going to be a REAL ugly day for the Hokies.
Definitely disappointed not seeing a fellow Ohio school on the schedule, but hopefully that’s just a scheduling quirk and not a new trend going forward.
On the downside, the negativity can become overwhelming.
I don’t do twitter, but from what I have seen and from what I also see on comment boards, it is the political debate style that the American public seems to have drifted towards that is most frustrating to me.
1) Pick a side
2) Defend that side against any and all logic either with intelligent backing (hopefully) or just random snarkiness (more often)
3) If side is eventually proven completely false, then just never do not mention it again.
4) Repeat steps 1-3 and make sure to have as little respect for those commenting on “the other side” as possible.
One of the things I like about the comment sections here is that people treat each other with respect (for the most part) and tend to bring real backing for their opinions. I may not always agree with people, but many of the writers and commenters here make me re-think my stances on subjects and change my mind on things as well.
Yes. I suspect the same for that VaTech game even opening week in Blacksburg.
2016 and forward, the Big10 moves to a 9 game conference schedule, so only 3 OOC games per year.
2016 – Bowling Green, Tulsa, @Oklahoma
2017 – Oklahoma, @UNC, {Open Date}
So, BG gets a slot in ’16, but we need to fill the ’17 slot with an Ohio school (in my opinion).
Also, ’17 could be brutal with 11/12 against power-5 schools.
Re: the Cavs – “Refusing to panic” is the new “panicking too soon”.
Sure, they need time to mesh and jell and whatever other cliches there are but you also need to think about what the potential range of outcomes is. A team built like, say, Golden State needs time to develop from a 35 win team to a 60 win team. Their players need to learn to compensate for each others’ weaknesses, to play cohesive defense, to buy into a system.
The Cavs range of outcomes should not be 35-60 wins. They should win 45-50 games without a coach. The presence of Blatt seems to be taking wins away from the Cavs. The range of potential outcomes should be 45-70 wins but they are pushing the floor lower with every game. It would seem nearly impossible for them to miss the playoffs in the East but they are coming very close to the danger zone. I know its unfair to Blatt and unwise in the greater scheme of things, but if they replaced him with Mark Jackson tomorrow, do you think the Cavs will improve by ten wins? So it’s not too early to be highly critical of what’s going on.
Re: Cavs
I’m fighting not to get sucked into the ever-popular Dysfunction meme, but it gets more difficult with every loss. Even without LBJ, you’d think that Irving and Love could at least go .500.
Why can’t they all just get along?
1) Still smiling.
2) I thought it was “WIFF-nee-ers.”
3) I LOVE the VT t-shirts. Good show, Hokies. Very well done, and very clever. That’s the way to prop yourself up without tearing the other guy down. I have no connection or affection for VT (beyond solidarity after the horrible murders [edit: wow, what a stupidly redundant thing to say; however, it just feels like an adjective is necessary there]), but I’d almost buy one of those t-shirts, and wear it, if not for the fact that I’m going to be spending all of my t-shirt wearing time covered by the actual scarlet and grey National Champs gear.
4) Twitter is still one of the Four Horsemen of the Relationship and Civility Apocalypse. Dementor is also a very fitting description.
5) The Simpsons did an episode about Clay Travis and Mark May. The only thing about them that remotely upsets me is that Buckeyes fans bother being upset by them. I cringed in the pre-game coverage with every taunting shout by the Buckeye faithful. Don’t you people know that he eats this stuff up? Your hatred is what drives him! Speaking of Dementors . . . the best Petronus for Travis and Clay is the giant sloth Petronus, ignoring their every thought, word, and action.
Just don’t look!
http://kumquatwriter.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/just-dont-look.jpg
The term “heel of a villain” is redundant.
Pretty sure that Monday night eradicated that loss just fine – but I get your point. I’m sure there will be a regular Virginia backwoods Woolworth’s beat-down administered by the Bucks – not out of revenge, but just because it’s the right thing to do.
http://digital-archives.ccny.cuny.edu/exhibits/CinematicAllusions/images/OBrother/obrother2.gif
Oh, brother.
Although not always. Like the heel of a villain can have a bruise on it. Or the Achilles heel of a villain can be invariably installing a self-destruct button on his or her murderous devices.
The villain can kick the fallen man with their heel.
I have no connection or affection for VT
you just made Pat cry or at least shake his head in contempt.
There’s two degrees of separation in there. That’s too much for connection or affection, in terms of college football teams.
I always thought of it as Whole Foods New Yorkers instead of WOOFners.
getting a graduate degree from Duke is probably worth more than being a 5th round draft pick.
absolutely. It’s why I have started commenting by just saying, “good point,” sometimes. It may seem lazy but I like to let people know when I smell what they’re stepping in. And I don’t mind when people change my mind – it’s called learning.
“Jell” not “Gel”
thank you so much for this.
his dog always listens to the heel of the villain.
Conundrum:
The playoff committee argued that the loss to VaTech (great T-shirts, BTW) was due to what was to be expected from a guy making his second start. But, if they knew what our next guy would do in his second start they could have made the opposite choice and kept the Buckeyes out.
Just being silly, of course.
(Did I mention the Buckeyes are the National Champs? Of course, it’s amazing that people are still bitching about TCU not getting a shot. Sorry, Frog Faithful, but I think that would have been a MAJOR beatdown.)
I actually think he may have meant OR instead of OF.
Not sure if serious. I think that dictionaries would say either word is correct but my instinct is that gel as a verb came later because it was confused with jell.
4 pm news conference by Cardale Jones
Gotta hear both sides.
Plenty of people hear both sides. Most just don’t listen to both sides đ
the best I have heard thus far is someone who thought it was “WtF, NY”
Yes. TCU = Oregon Lite.
What graduate degree can you get in one semester? Let’s not fool ourselves. If Braxton transfers to another graduate school, it’s not for graduate school. To invoke the other Heisman QB at OSU (no, not that one, the other one), he ain’t going to graduate school to play school.
I was serious. Most dictionaries have “gel” meaning something different. Only as a synonym is “jell” mentioned in the definition. Jell actually means to congeal, or to come together to be clear.
It’s the Masters in QBing with the main course being a research assistant to Dr. David Cutcliffe (professor of QB development).
Ok, Sidney.
sorry to have to be so vague, but my sources (someone in Cardale’s circle) tell me he is staying.
Interesting then to skip school to have a conference to announce you are staying in school.
I always thought the best Petronus for ANYTHING was a large
and moving Torg!
Except for the one time when during the third reconciliation of the last of
the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a
giant Slor!
Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the
depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!
Twitter is the equal of debating any religion with anyone who has faith in that religion.
Just don’t do it.
I think part of the issue is the debate mindset itself.
I have had great discussions about my religion with atheists, agnostics, along with people of other religions. But, it goes South once people want to get into debate-mode.
well i guess like Kirk said above… 1,000 INTERNET POINTS FOR YOU!!!!!!
Religion and Politics. My two favorite things.
I like him even more now that couldn’t have been easy.
listen, you just saw how easy it is to spawn an internet reporting career.
I taped – er, recorded – a SportsCenter episode so that i could watch the Buckeyes love after the title game. They had Broussard on talking about Kevin Love. Both he and another reporter (can’t remember who) were “reporting” that Kevin Love will DEFINITELY opt out of his contract at the season’s end. This was mere hours before Love announced he would opt in.
These people are idiots, and my (obviously fake) statement above just proves how these guys operate. Guess. Take a chance. Throw crap against the wall, and see what sticks. If you’re right, you’re “in the know,” if you’re wrong, it’s no big deal because you’ll get the next one.
We need to find a way to hold these people accountable. It’s not like they are breaking news about Tom Izzo going to Cleveland. (sorry, too soon?)
guys on ESPN were very gracious. The one former NFL GM was all over him for calling a press conference and calling him amateurish. But one of Bruschi or Bettis spoke up and reminded him that it’s the media who asked for it – demanded it – and Jones obliged.
I saw it and they were but I’m loving Bruce Drennan crying on STO because the Browns won’t be able to get CJ now. As if they would have ever attempted to try and get CJ anyways.
https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/C44E14ED3F1167624206276550656_3cd6a6e77fc.1.5.6393434764696315349.mp4.jpg?versionId=9Hbgj4c3.ep43INPiaVaihuIIjkWyjt0
I hated Twitter I now love it!
We will see if TCU is still in the mix in 18/19 or if they pull a Cal and the wheels fall off
a bit unfair to lump them in with Cal since they have had more consistent success. and, Gary Patterson is only 54yo.
they should be decent, but I’d be surprised if they were top10 because I assume Texas and the Oklahoma schools will rebound.
When did we schedule Cal? From 2004-2009 they were decent, even moving into the top 10 at some point within many of those seasons.
http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/california/
I do see how Va Tech has been more successful though. They both have dropped off recently. Seems like teams do that often by the time we play them.
http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/virginia-tech/