No you didn't misread that headline. If you follow basketball in any form or fashion you have to wonder whether the Buckeyes basketball coach sold his soul at basketball's crossroads.

Why ask this question now?

Because Matta, scouting guru that he is has gone into the Cleveland area and nabbed a shooting guard to be part of his Class of 2010. You read that right. Not, 2008 or 2009, but 2010. This kid is currently a star at Cleveland's Benedictine High School.

Here's the lowdown: Mr. Cameron Wright, Benedictine High School student, a 3.83 GPA sophomore, and basketball athlete who stands at 6 feet, 4 inches weighing 200 lbs. Mr. Wright averages 15 points and 5.7 assists per game. Mr. Wright came to Benedictine High School from Shaker Middle School.

And now Matta has him in the Buckeyes' fold - at least verbally. You have to like that about the guy - the ability to relate to kids on that level to make them want to make such a life-altering choice so soon.

For the record, it's Matta's third commit to the Class of 2010. The others are:
Trae Golden, a point guard out of Powder Springs, Georgia who is rated a five-star prospect

Jared Sullinger, a power forward out of Columbus who is also rated a five-star prospect.

Yes, the silence is gone and I'm back ranting and maybe raving.  We shall see.

What's there to talk about? Well despite the fact that the only real sport playing right now is baseball plenty.  But let's start with America's Pastime and the hometown team.

After several years of being labeled cheap and not wanting to be competitive, the Cleveland Indians have to be given some serious props for inking DH Travis Hafner - a.k.a. Pronk - to a four-year contract extension.  Although the DH struggled the first half of the the season, his bat will eventually awaken and he is a core member of what will hopefully be a championship season.  With him and Westbrook signed, the Tribe can concentrate on C.C. Sabathia.  Although I suspect that will be much more difficult because the hurler hasn't been shy about saying that he'd would love to pitch near his home in the Bay Area.  But as they say: "money talks and …."

Speaking of a little bull.  Apparently Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants to buythe Chicago Cubs - or at least is applying to check out the team's books.  Good for him.  Baseball needs a little showmanship, but more importantly it needs owners such as Cuban who possess a competitive spirit and are willing to actually spend some cash to win.  It would also be enormously entertaining to see how he tweaks the noses of the powers-that-be in baseball.

My colleague, Brian Windhorst, who I soon learned was one of the best NBA beat writers in the country after spending some time with him covering the Cavaliers during the playoff run, reportedthat the Cavs still itching to get the Sacramento Kings' Mike Bibby in the wine and gold.  If nothing else it's going to prove to be an interesting off-season.  The Kings reportedly want Drew Gooden in the deal.  Eh.  Gooden has his flashes, but where he might be missed most is the locker room.  He's one of the Cavs' genuine good guys.  As for Bibby?  He can score.  The assists this past season were a bit scant, but what I'm afraid of is a contract that he can opt out of after next year.  If I were the Cavs I'd want nothing to do with that.

Brady and Thomas where are you?

Cleveland Browns' training camp is two weeks away and still there is little mumbling out of Berea.   Word is that both Brady Quinn and left tackle Joe Thomas might go through lengthy holdouts.  That's not music to the ears of Browns fans, but it's reality.  With respect to Thomas, it has a lot to do with his slotting.  Players selected in the No. 3 position in the draft the past three years - Larry Fitzgerald (WR), Braylon Edwards (WR) and Vince Young (QB) - all received ginormous signing bonuses.  But keep in mind that they play skill positions, which means those huge piles of cash weren't out of line.

The Browns will likely argue that kind of cash is out of line for a left tackle.  Given the state of the left side of the team's offensive line since its return in 1999, allow me to disagree.  The team drafted him there.  He fills a cavernous hole.  Now pay him.

As for Quinn that's a different story.  General Manager Phil Savage said all along that Quinn was listed in their top five on the draft board.  Don't think that Quinn's agent, Tom Condon, didn't take note of that and will use it as leverage.  Additionally, the Browns worked feverishly to get back into the first round so they would get Quinn, Condon will use that as well.  The reality of the situation, however, is that Quinn fell fast and hard during the draft and it will cost him a huge hunk of cheddar.  He should be paid like the 22nd choice in the first round and get his tookes into camp on time.

No, there isn't going to be a lot of game analysis here, primarily because I don't think there's much of a point to dissecting something that's likely already been sliced and diced to death today.

A lot of people have asked me what it's like to cover the Eastern Conference Finals, so what the heck.  I figured I'd offer some insight (as if the rest of you really care).

-  I've heard some people complain about the pyrotechnics the Cavs use before games.  Here's a piece of advice:  do not go to The Palace of Auburn Hills to watch one.  During their pre-game festivities they use the fireworks and spewing flames.  By the time it was done I felt as if I should have had an apple in my mouth, been garnished with pineapple and pineapple juice and roasted over an open pit.  Fun. Fun. Fun.

- I've been to a few arenas in my lifetime, but I've yet to meet ushers the caliber of the ones in Motown.  Ushers?  Who the hell am I kidding?  Some of them acted as if they worked with Tony Soprano.  Some of the badges don't even give them the title of "usher".  They actually read "crowd control."  How welcoming.  But on at least two occasions the crowd control folks crossed the line.  One grabbed me without permission and by the time he was done I wanted to ask him if it was good for him and whether he wanted a smoke.  Such fun.  And the biggest crime of all, he didn't even ask for my number.  I feel so cheap and used.

- Then there's always the irrationality that follows losses such as the one Thursday night.  I get home from Detroit and this gem waits in my mailbox.  Please note that as sloppy as I can be on this blog occasionally, the spelling and grammatical errors are not mine:

"i am sending in this preemptive email, before everybody starts bashing lebron.  why is it that everybody except maybe dan gilbert, see that mike brown is the problem.  he could get away with ineptitude against terrible teams, but the pistons bring out what many die hard cavs fans have been seeing all year."

Now everyone out there raise your hand if you think that the Cavaliers have a championship caliber team.  Go stand over there and the folks from your local mental health institution will be by shortly.

- Then there was this gem of an email that came in response to a column of mine that ran today:

After reading your article about the guy who doesn't have cable, I thought you might offer up better solutions. There are plenty of places to go and enjoy a game that are fan friendly. How about going to watch the game at a Damon's Grill??? They are family friendly

with four 12 FOOT Big Screen televisions. Personally I am sick of people whining about cable tv. This isn't 1979, its 2007! This person wasn't complaining the Cavs weren't on television when they were they were only winning 17 games a short time ago?!?!
Tell the guy to quit whining and do something about it!  He is probably the same guy who called Mark "Munch" Bishops show the other day complaining the game wasn't on TV.  It was on TV, its called CABLE TV and no one wants to hear his whining.

Ahhh such intelligence.  Such compassion.  Such questionable taste in dining choices.  Damon's?  As Rodney Dangerfield said so eloquently about the country club cuisine in Caddyshack - "Tell the chef this was low grade dog food."

As for getting cable because it's 2007, please.  He's a parent who doesn't want to put temptation in his house in the form of unwanted channels.  Being a parent, I get that.  Secondly, any league that wants to please its fans will want to make sure its post-season games are easily accessible.  Selling the rights to cable networks who do not intend to sell the feed to over-the-air stations doesn't exactly fall into that category.  This is why the NFL continues to dominate and the NBA and MLB continue to eat football's turf.

If I were running the Memphis Grizzlies or Boston Celtics right now, I'd be working on trying to rid myself of a serious hangover.  Usually when someone goes on a serious bender it starts innocently enough with a beer or three.  A buddy meets you and you start to think you're twentysomething and in college once again, so shots get added to the mix.  Finally, complete and utter stupidity sets in and Jager Bombs began to get tossed down the gullet.  

For the Grizzlies and Celtics, last night was a go-straight-to-the-151-rum kinda night because their dreams of getting one of two prized picks - Ohio  State center Greg Oden or University of Texas' Kevin Durant - morphed into one of those nightmares remembered for a lifetime.

Memphis and Boston finished with the worst records in basketball, respectively, so they figured that when it came to the league's annual ping pong derby last night that there was little way that they could lose.  HA!  There won't be any New York Knicks-Patrick Ewing-bent-corner-conspiracies this year.  The Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Supersonics will select one and two next month.

Perhaps it was the Hoops gods looking down on Memphis and Boston and chastising them for allegedly tanking games at the end of the season just so they could be in the prime position to win the lottery.  And before anyone utters the words:  "the Cavaliers did the same thing four years ago" I will only say the Cavs sucked for so long that they were due for some sort of good luck.   Almost 40 years and no championship?  Something had to be happen.  Think of it as Al Pacino finally getting the Oscar for A Scent of a Woman that he deserved for any number of prior roles.

But this year Memphis and Boston were shameless.  The Grizzlies locked up the worst record in the league and then proceeded to play great basketball the last week of the season against playoff teams.  As for the Celtics?  Wasn't that Danny Ainge salivating over Durant in the stands during March Madness?

If anything it puts to rest the notion that such things are fixed.  Oh wait, given the Sonics threat to leave Seattle next year unless a new facility is built, that does look a little suspicious now, doesn't it?  Somebody put Mulder and Scully on the case, please.

I just got home after driving in from Detroit after helping to cover last night's Cleveland Cavaliers-Detroit Pistons game - one that the Cavs should have won. 

What what was interesting on the drive back was to hear all of the undeserved criticism that LeBron James has received in some quarters.  I saw WKNR's Kenny Roda at the Palace of Auburn Hills and he told me that many fans were frothing at the mouth because LBJ didn't take the last shot, instead kicking it out to a wide-open Donyell Marshall for a game-winning three.

Some may disagree, but I have little problem with what James did.  Everyone has been complaining that LeBron hasn't been attacking the basket enough all season and that may be true.  But in setting up what everyone in Northeast Ohio hoped to be a game-winning shot, he drove to the hoop, felt the defense collapse around him and dished off - the smart play.

Some have argued that he should have tried to finish and take the foul, but the way that game was called last night, there's little guarantee that he would have gotten the call. The refs in the game let both teams play.  It was physical, grind-it-out basketball. 

As I sat watching the Cleveland Cavaliers look like a CYO basketball team last night, something else struck me - the fans - or more appropriately, their expectations and behavior.

I sometimes wonder what state of reality Cavaliers fans live.  Judging by comments from other posts on this blog, it's a state of denial.  Let me start off by saying that right now the Cavs are a good - not great - young team.   But from the reactions of some fans you'd expect them to be contending for the NBA Championship series this year.   Ummm…hold on…it's reality check time.

Former Cavs guard gave a sobering assessment of this year's team when someone asked him how the 1992-93 Cavs that went to the Eastern Conference Finals would do against this one.  He said that other than LeBron James, his team would hold an advantage over this incarnation of the Cavaliers.  Sounds about right to me.

To anyone who thought LeBron James and his teammates would steamroll the Nets think again.  This is a team that features three front line players in Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter all of whom could be all-stars.  From the start this was going to be a tough one, but from the grumblings of Cavs fans you'd think the opposite were true. 

 You could feel and hear it last night at Quicken Loans Arena in the boos directed the team's way, most of which were deserved because the team played dismally.  Considering the "quality" of the basketball they played, refunds could have been in order.

But one aspect of fan behavior last night that proved troubling to me was the reaction to a hard foul that Sasha Pavlovic laid on Mikki Moore in the early going of the game.  There is this misconception that basketball isn't a physical sport.  This black-and-blue series that the Cavs and Nets are currently playing should debunk that myth.  However, when Pavlovic laid Moore out, it was completely unnecessary for the the crowd to behave like beer-drenched cretins.

No, Northeast Ohio, right now you don't have a championship caliber basketball team, but, to be quite honest, I'm not sure you deserve one.

Cavs lead 48-45 courtesy of some serious rebounding.

They've won the battle of the boards in the first half 26-18 and have 11 second chance points to the Nets 2.  Just like the first game you can expect this to be a ground it out kind of affair.

Second half starts and it's clear that the Nets want to get Vince Carter actually involved with this one as he hits his first shot.

Carter's cold and Jason Kidd begins to heat up, dropping a couple of treys inside 30 seconds. 

67-64 Nets and Vince Carter, who had four points at halftime suddenly found his game and he's up to 13.  And once again, the Cavs are willing to settle for outside shots.

Forgive the delay…I'm alternating between this and game notes.  Deadlines will kill some of the writers tonight.  Nationally televised gaems have a way of doing that.  They tip-off a full hour later than regular home contests and heaven forbid we get overtime.  And with the game staying close at 71-70 that isn't out of the realm of possibility here.

74-73 looks as if LeBron James is returning to what he did against the Nets in the last regular season meeting when he dropped 35 points on the Nets by attacking the basket.  He's agressively taking it in here and it's paying off.

Again the Cavs are winning this game because of what they're doing on the boards.  They have 37 rebounds to the Nets 25.  Fourteen offensive rebounds to the Nets 2 and 13 second chance points to the Nets 2.  What they don't lead is in shooting a stat that the Nets own 54 percent to 44.

The Nets are in the double digits in turnovers, right now it seems as if they're trying to give the game to the Cavaliers and they won't take it. 

Sorry but it kinda took me a sec to get to my seat.

Cavaliers once again look to be settling for jump shots to start.  That's great if they hit them but should they hit a cold streak….

Initial thoughts:  the Cavs are into it.  The crowd is seriously into it on each and every possession.  Sasha Pavlovic has hit two of his first three, a good sign. He wants to keep that hot hand that he found in Game 1.  The Cavs are once again playing aggressive defense.   Early on it looks as if the Nets want to try to push this game more and dictate tone.

Nets up 14-9 early.  Last thing the Cavs and Mike Brown want is to see Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter get untracked. 

How do you know it's playoff time?  When players actually dive for every ball as if it were a vital possession.

Kidd pops a three to put the Nets up by that many.  The LAST thing you wanna see is that guy unable to unleash his full game.  Remember in the Nets series against the Raptors he averaged a triple double. 

Bostjan Nachbar comes in.  The guy popped a few from the outside in the first game and looked to be the only Nets player in any sort of rhythm.

Hughes gets a good look on a three, but it doesn't fall.   On the Cavs next possession LBJ actually drivves to the hoop for a lay-up.   They need to do more of that and look for Zydrunas Ilgauska more in the paint and closer to the hoop. 

The New York-New Jersey media grumbled about Nets Coach Lawrence Frank giving his team Monday off.  In this first quarter that move paid dividends. They're less lethargic and own a four point lead after the first quarter by a score of 28-24.

Cavaliers lose the shooting battle in the first quarter 61.1 percent to 55.6 percent.  Both teams shooting at a blistering clip.

Every possession, every play.  Boobie Gibson's steal and subsequent assist to Anderson Varejao who slams sends the crowd into spasms.

For now Vince Carter only has three points as the score stands at 35 all.  The Cavs continue to send a neverending stream of bodies in his direction, the last time forcing a turnover.

39-35 Cavs up.  They go up after some serious rebounding and Drew Gooden already has five of them. 

Cavs up 43-42 and it looks as if Pavlovic has his stroke leading all the Cavs in scoring with nine.  LBJ assumes a commanding leadership role in taming what could be viewed as some wild action.  He calms things down, pops a three.   Overall you can see a big difference in the playoff version of the Cavs.  Every possession matters and they're palying like it.

OUCH!!!  All I can say about that knee injury to LeBron.

For the Cavaliers opening series against the Washington Wizards you could walk around Quicken Loans Arena and it was if it were the regular season.  That could have been because the Wizards were outmanned.  It could have been because expecations are higher this season for the Cavs.

However, the atmosphere has changed.   There's a discernible buzz in the air for this series.  It could be the Jason Kidd factor.  The guy only averaged a triple double in the New Jersey Nets series against.  But there  are other worries like…ohhh…I don't know…Vince Carter.  Then there's Richard Jefferson who appears to have his explosiveness back.

This is going to be a tough series - no cakewalk.  The Cavs will need their new-found balance for this one.

I was sitting in the press area at Quicken Loans Arena Sunday, I looked up and suddenly realized that Larry Hughes had dropped 27 points on the Washington Wizards.  Normally that would be LeBron James, but this afternoon, Hughes was on display.  Maybe that $2 million bonus he got for the team's 49th win put a little pep in his step.  Or, perhaps, there's something else.

In his second season with the Cavs, Hughes suffered through an injury plagued first season and the tragic death of his brother.  There exists some validity to the argument that he never got into any kind of playoff groove last season because of that.  If his performance today is any indication of what the playoffs could be, then Cavs fans will be saying "Welcome, Larry." 

Since being moved to the point guard position, Hughes and LeBron James have played in harmony - certainly a little out of tune on occasion - but for the most part it seemed as if they are on the same page.

Dare we think that Hughes might be LBJ's Scottie Pippen?  No one is likely to go that far, but if Hughes can continue the consistent play, the Eastern Conference Finals are certainly attainable.