Short & Quick

Izzo
Why would Tom Izzo come to Cleveland when it is 50-50 at best LBJ will be here?

Is doubling your salary worth it if you end up with your best player being Mo Williams?

Why would the Cavaliers want a college coach with no NBA experience to run a team potentially on the brink of winning a championship?

Name me a Hall of Fame college coach who was successful in the NBA? And Larry Brown doesn’t count. First, he’s a gypsy and second he had pro experience both as a player (ABA) and a coach.

One more time – hire an NBA coach who can take his and beat yours and take yours and beat his!

Again, Pat Riley & Hubie Brown come to mind. If they say no, got get Scott Skiles, whose teams always overachieve.

A Real Shocker
Big surprise – after nearly five years of investigation, USC is going on probation. Meanwhile as predicted here, Pete Carroll is able to skip town without any repercussions.

You want to know how you might reduce some of the cheating? Read the following.

Why doesn’t the NCAA just say if your program is put on probation, the head coach in question is banned for life from coaching at the college level?

That way, when Carroll and others like him flame out in the pros, they can’t go back to college to earn a living. That’s punishing the guy ultimately responsible and it would send a message to head coaches you can’t go to the “hear, see and speak no evil’ defense. The buck stops with you scumbag.

And how does the guy who caused all this (Reggie Bush) get to keep his Heisman?

It is not as though he was a third string kicker who had no input on the success of the season. If he shouldn’t have been playing, he shouldn’t be able to keep his hardware. And all the wins should be voided.

In high school athletics in Ohio, if you use an ineligible player – what happens afterwards doesn’t count. Period. With the NCAA, there is less incentive to stay clean. The cost and reward benefits of cheating don’t necessarily scare you away.

First, you have to get caught. Second, it takes the NCAA forever to make a decision. Third, you lose scholarships, not something that really hurts – like $. And fourth, you might get a slap on the wrist, depending on the penalties given.

It makes no sense to take away scholarships – that only hurts a future head coach and kids who had nothing to do with the cheating.

You want to make it hurt? Besides no post-season play and taking away past wins, fine the school severely. Nothing gets the attention of college presidents and athletic directors like putting the athletic program/school in the red.

Then they will thin twice about hiring a coach who can win but has a shaddy reputation.

There, I fixed the problem – kinda.

Draft
The Indians recently took part in the annual amateur baseball draft. I have an idea - in the future, why not let Gordon Gund make the picks for the Tribe. While we are at it, put him in charge of the Browns’ draft as well.

Can he do any worse?

It's all about pitching
One of you wizards recently asked me what I would do if I were in charge of the Indians.

What follows is my approach and general philosophy.

First, baseball is all about pitching. Therefore, if I have a strong staff, my margin for error elsewhere is much greater. I call it the "Lempke concept."

Those of you old enough to remember know the pitching heavy Braves of the 90s won year in year out with a second baseman named Mark Lempke who epitomized a player with limted skills - to put it kindly. In fact, the Braves had several players in the line-up that never scared you. But they could pitch - especially their starters.

However, since it is extremely difficult to put together a strong starting staff, why not focus your energy on building an outstanding bullpen first – aka: what John Hart did in the mid-to-late 90s with the Tribe. See, I can give Hart credit when credit is due.

Here’s how you start the process in Cleveland – we all know the Tribe will be shopping Kerry Wood, Johnny Peralta, Jake Westbrook and others prior to the trading deadline.

I would immediately instruct my scouts/player personnel people to identify the top lefty and righty relievers at the AA & AAA level in baseball.

In discussions with other teams, I would zero in on those specific prospects and make sure I come away with as many quality young bullpen arms I could acquire for those players that would be leaving town.

Teams are more likely to trade a quality young reliever than a starter. And the Indians in particular are currently in desperate need of lefty relievers for the parent club.

In other words – have a specific plan, do your research and carry it out. Of course, the down-side immediately in Cleveland is that I would be depending on scouts and player personnel people with poor track records.

I can’t fix everything right away.

Therefore, I would begin an exhaustive search for the best talent evaluators in the game – at all levels. In simple English, I would get all the other Major League teams pissed at me because I would legally raid their personnel staffs and create a new pay scale for scouts and player personnel people.

If a good, young scout with the Twins made $75,000 a year, I would double his salary with a chance to move up quickly. Word would spread and aggressive, quality talent evaluators would be sending me resumes daily.

I would also put extra incentives in – just like you do with players.

If you sign a 20th round pick who makes it to the bigs and contributes, you get a nice bonus. If you suggest trading for John Doe in LA’s minor league system, we get him and he turns out to be a first division player, you get a very nice bonus. If your 40th round gem makes the Major League All-Star team, you get a large bonus, etc…

Think about it, for the yearly cost of an average set up man ($2 million), you could add several good talent evaluators who would make a huge difference in terms of your overall batting average in making the right decisions on players – at all levels.

This type of strategy isn’t glamorous and would barely get noticed by the media and fans, but would be the type of forward thinking that in the long-run, improve your chances of success at the Major League level.

Duncan & More
Can someone explain to me what Shelly Duncan is doing in the line-up? Are you telling me you have no young hitter in the minors who deserves a chance to get some ML at bats against lefties? Is Matt Laporta that bad?

On a lighter note, the Indians finally called up catcher Carlos Santana. Finally.

Travis Hafner is starting to drive the ball some. I PRAY the Indians have enough sense to see if there’s a market for him out there. I doubt it, but if they could get someone to take him and half his salary (the Tribe would pay the other half) in return for a nominal prospect, it would be a huge win for the Tribe.

I would then put the money I saved into talent evaluation discussed above.

Kobe
I like him more and more. I haven't seen him smile very much when on the floor during the playoffs. He's all business. The Lakers are down 3-2 but I still like them to win. It would be nice if they fed the post more when they get back home. Just a suggestion. Give the Celtics credit, those old guys compete and they are extremely well-coached (Doc Rivers).

World Cup
Yes, I have watched several World Cup games already, including the USA’s gift 1-1 tie with England. I also got up at 7:30 a.m. this morning (Monday) watching the Netherlands (otherwise known as the “Orange Army”) earn a 2-0 victory.

No, I don’t have a favorite. I don’t know enough about these players to make such predictions. However, if you watch, several things will likely happen. They include the following –

Team Azzuri (Italy), the defending WC champs, will play boring soccer as usual but not be scored on during pool play. They traditionally have the best defense in the field. See, you learned something. Italy is the Michigan State basketball of World Cup soccer – they bore you to sleep and advance.

Brazil will sign the most autographs since none of their players carry last names.

England and Netherlands will battle for the title – no, not the World Cup title but the “most drunks who get in fights and have to be jailed till they sleep in off” crown.

Some poor player who commits an own goal (likely from a South American nation) will accidently fall off a cliff back home a year from now. Ditto for a ref who causes someone to lose.

A team representing either a Muslim nation or an African country will have the most defections – since losing in those countries often results in leg amputation when you get back home.

Finally, if there’s a terrorist act at the World Cup (heaven forbid), look for the nations of the world to apologize to the terrorist and FIFA to form a committee to study what can be done to avoid such future actions.

I told you, I’m a soccer wizard. Go AZZURI!