NFL Draft Thoughts - Day 1

The Browns traded down in the first round too far and did not receive enough in return.

Let's look at this. Moved from #6 (WR Julio Jones) to #21 (DT Phil Taylor) in exchange for:

• moving from #70 to #59,
• pick #124,
• 2012 first and fourth round draft picks approximately #27 and #120.

To compare, New England's Bill Belichick traded down from #28 to #56 in exchange for a 2012 first round draft pick.

Everyone on TV says history (Mike Ditka / Ricky Williams, Herschel Walker) will be on Cleveland's side in this trade. I point to two years ago when all the Browns have left from the Mark Sanchez deal is C Alex Mack.

I never heard of Phil Taylor and at least he fills a huge need. Colt McCoy still needs help offensively (WR, RT, RB). While we're at it, the Browns still need to plug holes on defense (DE, CB, S) as well.

Obviously, the Browns have plenty of holes so the extra picks will come in handy too bad only one of the extra three picks is in 2011's draft.

Another disappointment in the round of 16

My biggest fear coming into this weekend was OSU would go cold offensively and/or get into foul trouble. The former happened tonight as the Buckeyes couldn't buy a basket in a 62-60 loss to Kentucky.

Here are some random thoughts:

• With Ohio State struggling from the field, it would make sense to let Jared Sullinger go to work on UK's Josh Harrelson. Instead, Harrelson was able to guard Sullinger straight up eliminating his passing skills and eliminating open looks for the Buckeye's three-point shooters.
  
• William Buford was ice cold. Buford? Buford? (Ben Stein Ferris Bueller voice). Him taking the last shot was a mistake. OSU coach Thad Matta should have called a time out to get the ball into the hands of Jon Diebler, after all the senior from Upper Sandusky tied the game with a three. It would have been nice to see him attempt to the game-winner.
  
• From a David vs. Goliath standpoint, a great game. Brandon Knight did nothing tonight until the game was on the line and hit the game-winner with 5 seconds left.
  
• Jared Sullinger tells the media afterward he will return for his sophomore season. I'll believe that when I see it.
  
• "I wonder if Jim Tressel received any emails about the whereabouts of the Buckeyes offense but just didn't tell anybody."

Final High School Basketball stats

GIRLS SCORING
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Ashley Montgomery, North Ridgeville	19	433	22.8
Lacy LeDuc, Avon Lake	20	369	18.5
Shanique Ogle, Lorain	19	343	18.1
Emily Julius, Avon	17	241	14.2
Ashley Shuster, Elyria Catholic	18	235	13.1
REBOUNDING
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Ashley Shuster, Elyria Catholic	18	209	11.6
Alexis McGhee, North Ridgeville	19	213	11.2
Emily Julius, Avon	17	183	10.8
Shanique Ogle, Lorain	19	202	10.6
Alexandria Harris, Lorain	19	156	8.2
Christine Lyzen, Columbia	19	148	7.8
ASSISTS
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Emily Taylor, Elyria Catholic	18	125	6.9
Hailey Schroeder, North Ridgeville	19	86	4.5
Martha Thompson, Lake Ridge	17	70	4.1
Natalie Wilden, Avon	18	72	4
Danielle Riolo, Columbia	17	58	3.4
STEALS
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Briana Rogers, Open Door	13	86	6.6
Ashley Montgomery, North Ridgeville	19	97	5.1
Lacy LeDuc, Avon Lake	20	96	4.8
Martha Thompson, Lake Ridge	17	68	4
Shanique Ogle, Lorain	19	63	3.3
Emily Taylor, Elyria Catholic	18	55	3.1
BLOCKS
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Alexis McGhee, North Ridgeville	19	68	3.6
Alexandria Harris, Lorain	19	63	3.3
Ashley Shuster, Elyria Catholic	18	58	3.2
BOYS SCORING
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Ron Willoughby, Avon Lake	18	324	18
R.J. Kauffman, Avon	20	325	16.3
Kody Bender, Elyria	20	320	16
Shakeem Jones, Amherst	19	304	16
Marvin Coleman, Avon	20	278	13.9
Chase Farris, Elyria	18	250	13.9
Michael Davila, Lorain	18	239	13.3
REBOUNDING
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Chase Farris, Elyria	18	184	10.2
Jerome Golson, Lorain	20	185	9.3
Claude Gray, Avon	20	173	8.7
Cody Northeim, Firelands	19	156	8.2
ASSISTS
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Brandon Murway, Avon Lake	18	83	4.6
R.J. Kauffman, Avon	20	85	4.3
Garrett Klekota, Amherst	19	76	4
STEALS
Player, school	g	pts	avg
Kyle Smith, Firelands	19	80	4.2

Amherst has familiar name, new head coach.

The final football opening in Lorain County was filled last night as the Amherst board of education approved Chad DiFranco as the new Comet head coach.

***Other Lorain County Head Coaching changes***

DiFranco, 37, started at Amherst in 1999 and has been an assistant coach for 12 years with the last six as the defensive coordinator. He has worked under Jeff Riesen – now the head coach at North Ridgeville, Keith Grabowski – now the offensive coordinator at Baldwin-Wallace College, and Kevin Fell – now the head coach at Elyria High School. Last year, DiFranco's unofficial title was assistant head coach.

He is also part of the legendary DiFranco family at Midview where his brother Troy is the head basketball coach. Chad DiFranco played football at Midview (class of 1992) and Ashland University. Middies head coach Bill Albright gave DiFranco his first assistant job out of college before going to Columbia where he is also was an assistant.

DiFranco will have some familiar faces in the early going next season. Week 1, Amherst plays Kevin Fell’s Elyria and in week 2, the Comets play Bill Albright’s Midview.

Cavaliers say no Mo

The Cleveland Cavaliers in the middle of a 10-47 season are looking for first round draft picks and they acquired one last night when they traded point guard Mo Williams and small forward Jamario Moon to the Los Angeles Clippers for a 2011 first round draft pick and point guard Baron Davis.

Usually fans get excited about big trades, I'm going to hold my excitement until the NBA Draft this coming June. I'm excited about more ping-pong balls in the hopper come NBA Lottery time (of course, the Clippers need to oblige by missing the play-offs). I'm indifferent about the players.

Triple H and the Undertaker return to the WWE, Ho-hum

Watched Monday Night Raw tonight for the first time in a while. I wasn't impressed.
I know it's early in the WrestleMania 27 build up but the card does not excite me and neither did this show.

First off, the return of the Undertaker. The return lacked a critical element - logic. Why was Taker at Raw? He's a Smackdown wrestler and what exactly was he going to announce? Since storyline-wise wasn't he put out of action by Kane? Shouldn't his vignettes been featured on the Friday night show and with the arena lights flickering at various times during the Smackdown broadcasts.

AIW Wrestling at St. Gregory's Byzantine Hall

Results from last Friday's card in Lakewood Ohio.

1. Benny Boone beat Knight Wagner & Joey "The Altercation" Luciano
   
   
2. Da Latin Crime Syndicate defeated Lights Out, "Mr. RBI" Izeah Bonds, & Kombat Kid when Jake Marimberga pinned Ben Fruith.
   
   Afterwards Da Latins continued the beat down which lead to The Duke making the save and calling out Lamont Williams for their match.
   
   
3. The Duke beat Lamont "Action" Williams. Afterward The Duke brought out a cake for Mr. RBI's birthday.
   
   Chest Flexor with Jessika Havok came out and interrupted Pedro during the opening announcements. Flexor announced he was not only going to find somebody in every title division for "Flexor Industries" but also just continue his goal of destroying AIW once and for all.

Yes, Cleveland. We do have a basketball team.

I'm just as stunned as the rest of the country over the Cavaliers win over the Lakers.

After the Varsity team delivered a 55-point beat down to a bunch of 8th graders, it was nice to see the "Cadavers" get mad and do something about it. They couldn't let that shellacking go unanswered. The team finally played some defense, played with a lot of energy, and for once acted like they cared.

I still find it hard to believe how Cleveland has laid down in games against Miami, LA, and most recently Detroit and Washington. After last Sunday, I had no reason to watch that team again this season. I guess that's how the NBA works.

Maybe even more stunning is how LA, aside from Pau Gasol, didn't get off the bus. They were terrible. I haven't seen Kobe Bryant play that poorly in a long time - probably because he wasn't facing LeBron James.

I know a lot of things were in Cleveland's favor:

• last game for LA before All-Star break – final game of an East Coast trip,
• LA has played a lot of games in recent years going to the NBA Finals in three straight seasons, 
• Coach Phil Jackson has to pick and choose when to go through the motions to avoid burn-out.
• LA is weak against young team like Cleveland because the Cavaliers can run and had two full days of rest since their last game at home. 

Still, Laker fan has to be gripping.

SuperBowl Trivia

1. The Oakland Raiders won the 1981 SuperBowl and became the wild card team to host the Lombardi Trophy. How many times has it happened since?
2. NFC won 13 straight Super Bowls from 1985-1997. How many have they won since?
3. The winning share for the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I was how much?
4. In SBXXIX, Steve Young's first touchdown pass of the game went to which teammate?
5. In SB IX, how were the first points of the game scored?
6. USC was (a) the college SBXXVIII MVP  Marcus Allen attended or (b) the college where Raiders owner Al Davis was an assistant coach
7. Which New York Jets player had 2 interceptions in SBIII?
8. Name the defensive teammates who were co-MVPs of SBXII?
9. Name the Cincinnati Bengals TE who had 11 receptions in SB XVI
10. Which starting DB for the Kansas City Chiefs, who played in SBI, went on to have a career in movies and TV?
11. Name the two Willies who started in the secondary in SBII?
12. Who coached the Colts in SBIII?
13. Which former Heisman Trophy winner started at running back for the Chiefs in SBIV?
14. Which DB was SBVII MVP
15. Which LB was SBV MVP?

Elyria's Fell, Lorain's Solis and Firelands' Passarello named new football head coaches

February is here and January was a big month for Lorain County high school football coaching changes. Here's a recap.

Mark Solis, Lorain

This hire is a big win for the city of Lorain. Coach Solis has been a winner everywhere he has been including Ashland Crestview from 1999-2004 (42-11, two play-off appearances), Elyria from 2005-2007 (20-12, one trip to play-offs) and Twinsburg from 2008-2010 (32-14, three appearances). If Solis can win at Elyria, he can win at Lorain.

10th annual WWE Royal Rumble Party

Congratulations to Marc Iacianci and Stella Mismas as they were the big winners at last night's 10th annual Girod Royal Rumble party. Both had wrestler Alberto Del Rio who was the 38th entrant and the last man standing in a 40-man over the top rope battle royal. Marc randomly picked #38 in the Hearts Division and Stella had picked #38 in the Clubs Division.

All WWE blog posts
Wikipedia Royal Rumble page

UNDERCARD

Smackdown World Champion Edge pinned Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero)

WWE Royal Rumble - Hearts Division

Payouts
$20 Marc Iacianci - Last Man Standing (a)
$5 Kevin Kowel - First to loose a wrestler (b)
$5 Carol Kalas - First to loose all four wrestlers (c)
$5 Monica Newell - Wrestler #13 (d)
$5 Monica Newell - Wrestler who eliminated Wrestler #13 (e)

The Match
(1) C.M. Punk - Katie Sobey
As Punk waited to see who drew no. 2, The Core walked out to the ring and surrounded Punk. They went after Punk in a five-on-one attack. The rest of the New Nexus ran out and joined in the brawl. The G.M. chimed in. Announcer Michael Cole stepped up to the podium and called for everyone's attention. He said the G.M. was ordering them to stop. Everyone stopped fighting after a few seconds. Cole said the G.M. declared that everyone other than Punk must return to the locker room immediately, and failure to comply would disqualify them from the Rumble. Everyone but Punk left.

WWE Royal Rumble - Clubs Division

Payouts

$20 Stella Mismas - Last Man Standing (a)
$5 Jerry Stepnicka - First to loose a wrestler (b)
$5 Dave LeGates - First to loose all four wrestlers (c)
$5 Doug Andrassy - Wrestler #13 (d)
$5 Jerry Stepnicka - Wrestler who eliminated Wrestler #13 (e)

The Match

(1) C.M. Punk - Buzz Schafer
As Punk waited to see who drew no. 2, The Core walked out to the ring and surrounded Punk. They went after Punk in a five-on-one attack. The rest of the New Nexus ran out and joined in the brawl. The G.M. chimed in. Announcer Michael Cole stepped up to the podium and called for everyone's attention. He said the G.M. was ordering them to stop. Everyone stopped fighting after a few seconds. Cole said the G.M. declared that everyone other than Punk must return to the locker room immediately, and failure to comply would disqualify them from the Rumble. Everyone but Punk left.

Holiday Basketball Tournament recaps

High School Basketball Tourneys have come and gone. Here are some of the results involving Lorain County schools.

Lorain County Holiday Tournament (Dec. 27 & 28) at Vermilion

Championship Game
Elyria 62, Sandusky 59 | 2nd recap | Listen
Sandusky (3-4) (11 15 22 11—59): Jefferies 4-1-9, Johnson 2-0-5, Smith 2-2-6, Stickland 5-0-11, Stovall 2-1-5, Turner 1-0-2, Turner 8-3-19, Williams 1-0-2
Elyria (6-1) (11 16 17 18—62): Bender 5-2-14, Dickerson 8-3-20, Horton 3-5-11, Latees 1-0-2, Swidecki 2-0-4, Walton 3-0-6, Zinimon 0-5-5

Consolation Game
Lorain 64, Vermilion 43 - Listen

First round games
Sandusky 64, Vermilion 61

WWE wrestling at the CSU Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio

Just returned from a Smackdown house show on the Cleveland State campus.

1. Kofi Kingston won a battle royal with the winner earning an Intercontinental Title shot later in the evening. The final four eliminations were Mason Ryan (eliminated by Ezekiel Jackson), Jackson (by Drew McIntyre), McIntyre (by Kingston) and Jack Swagger (by Kingston).
   
2. Womens Champion Natalya & Beth Phoenix defeated Layla El & Naomi when Phoenix pinned Layla after hitting the Glam Slam.
   
3. Mason Ryan (billed from Cleveland, Ohio) defeated Chavo Guerrero.
   
4. Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre defeated JTG and Trent Barreta when McIntyre pinned Barreta after hitting the Future Shock DDT.
   
5. Rey Mysterio defeated Alberto Del Rio
   
   Intermission
   
   
6. Chris Masters defeated Jack Swagger when Swagger tapped out to the Masterlock full-nelson submission.
   
7. Intercontinental Champion (and St. Edward graduate) Dolph Ziggler pinned Kofi Kingston.
   
8. Smackdown World Champion Edge defeated Kane and CM Punk to retain the title in a triple-threat steel cage match.

NFL needs to stop postponing games

Another week and another NFL game involving the Minnesota Vikings is changed. The blizzard that has hammered the United States East Coast has postponed the Vikings / Eagles game from Sunday night to Tuesday. The blizzard is expected to dump more than a foot of snow on Philadelphia.

Let me take you back to another famous game played in Philly: the 1948 NFL Championship game.

Philadelphia was already well in the midst of an actual blizzard. The Eagles played the Chicago Cardinals in for the championship game in an era where men were treated like men.

Steve Van Buren, Philly's star halfback who was in the fifth season of his Hall of Fame career, had to walk down 12 blocks down Broad Street after having ridden three trolleys from his home to the Eagles stadium. He then set a then-NFL record by running for 196 yards and scored the only touchdown of the game to help Philadelphia win their first championship.

Van Buren celebrated with his teammates, then walked up Broad Street 12 blocks and rode three trolleys home.

I understand most of NFL history prior to 1967 doesn't count but there was a time when NFL players were real men.

AIW Wrestling at St. Gregory's Byzantine Hall

1. Preshow: Mr. RBI/Kombat Kid beat Lights Out
   
   
2. Preshow: "The Aftermath" Justin Lee beat Nick Ando and Maximo Suave
   
   
3. Da Latin Crime Syndicate vs. Blackballed went to a no contest when they refused to wrestle causing Mr. RBI/Kombat Kid/Lights Out to attack. They were quickly out numbered by Da Latins and Blackballed, causing The Duke to make the save. Duke announced he's reforming Alpha Beta Duke and they would be his first pledges.
   

Happy 55th Birthday Steven Wright

OK - this is a sports blog but in honor of the comic's birthday today, here are some Steven Wright quotes to make you smile.

The eyes are the second thing to go. I forget the first ….

I planted some birdseed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.

I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart.

Last week I forgot how to ride a bicycle.

Photons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.

All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

A beggar asked me for 50 cents for a sandwich. I said, "first let me see the sandwich."

What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?

They told me I was gullible – and I believed them.

Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to edge his car onto a freeway.

Two can live cheaply as one, for half as long.

Experience is the thing you left when everything else is gone.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people.

When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?

My weight is perfect for my height – which varies.

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.

How can there be self-help "groups"?

Is there another word for synonym?

Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?"

Don't look now. Tiger Woods is back.

After going winless for over a year, the man now more famous for his out of control adultery than his golfing is now leading the Chevron World Challenge golf tournament in Thousand Oaks. Tiger Woods shot a six-under 66 today at the par-72 Sherwood Country Club to lead Graham McDowell by four strokes.

It's not just the score that is impressive this weekend; it’s how Woods is playing. He is hitting fairways, he is hitting greens in regulation, and he is punishing the par-5 holes. 

Tiger started to find his golf swing again in the last two events finishing in the top-10 including a 65 in the final round in Australia. He has quietly kept the momentum going into this weekend. It will be nice to see Woods make headlines again for success on the golf course.

By the way, the Chevron World Challenge is an 18-player tournament that benefits Woods' charity, the Tiger Woods Foundation, and pays $1.2 million to the winner. Woods has won the event four times - nothing like having the home field advantage.

Boys High School Basketball Results: 2010-2011

Saturday March 12
Berea 64, Lorain 59 | 2nd story
Lorain hungry for more

(6) Lorain (15-9) (19 9 11 20--59): Cheers 3-0-6, Craighead 3-0-6, Mike Davila 7-6-23, Davis 3-0-7, Jerome Golson 4-3-11 (18 rebounds), Wilson 0-1-1, Winbush 2-1-5
(9) Berea (16-8) (12 16 21 15--64): Bates 1-0-2, Javon Cook 2-12-16 (12-14 FT, 4 steals, 5 assists), Hayes 2-5-9, Jared Paster 6-2-20 (18 pts. on 3-pointers, 11 rebounds, 2 steals), Perry 5-0-13, Swinnerton 1-0-2, Wade 1-0-2