Monthly Archives: November 2013

Going 1 on 1 with former Cav and current Bobcats assistant coach Mark Price

“Friday Football Forecast” Ohio State at Illinois

Mike Brown Post-game press conference after 86-80 loss to Bobcats 11-15-13

Kyrie Irving Post-game press conference after 86-80 loss to Bobcats 11-15-13

Instant Analysis: What’s wrong with the Cavs?

URBAN MEYER NOT HAPPY WITH EVAN SPENCER’S COMMENTS

When I asked Urban Meyer today during the Big Ten conference call for his thoughts on the comments made by Ohio State wide receiver Evan Spencer about Alabama and whoever (I’m a little biased, but I think we’d wipe the field with both of them,” Spencer said. “They have their strengths and weaknesses,” the junior said. “Personally, I think we can exploit them, but I’m a little biased.”)  Meyer was not happy at all.

“I’m very disappointed. I can’t stand that. He’s certainly not the spokesman for our team.” Meyer further added, “I don’t like disrespecting other teams.  That’s not good sportsmanship. I know Evan well enough. I talked to him briefly. He won’t be speaking to the media for a long, long time!”

Meyer would rather his team make its statements on the field and on the scoreboard and not to the media to provide bulletin board material for other teams, or to make Ohio State look bad by making those type of comments. Remember Gordon Gee!

While Spencer won’t be talking to the media any time soon, I don’t expect those comments to affect his playing time with the Buckeyes. I’m sure Meyer made his point to Spencer and if he ever gets a chance to chat with the media again, you’ll hear a different Evan Spencer.  In other words, it’s OK to think those things and talk about them in the locker room, but that’s where it stays. I have no doubt in my mind that  Urban Meyer is happy that Spencer feels that way about the Buckeyes chances should they get the chance to play Alabama or Florida State, but on a Meyer coached football team, it’s not OK to talk about those beliefs to the media.

2013-14 NBA ROOKIE WATCH

NBA ROOKIE WATCH 2013-14 – (As of 11-11-13)

 

#1 Pick – Anthony Bennett – Cavs – 0.7ppg – 2.6rpg – 0.1apg – 4%fg – 9%(3fg) – 50%ft

 

#2 Pick – Victor Oladipo – Magic – 11.4ppg – 4.3rpg – 3.3apg – 41%fg – 33%(3fg) – 61%ft

 

#3 Pick – Otto Porter Jr. – Wizards – DNP – Injured

 

#4 Pick – Cody Zeller – Bobcats – 5.2ppg – 3.3rpg – 0.5apg – 46%fg – 0%(3fg) – 50%ft

 

#5 Pick Alex Len – Suns– 2.5ppg – 1.5rpg – 0apg – 50%fg – 0% – 50%ft (Inj. played 2g)

 

6 Nerlens Noel – 76ers – DNP – Injured

 

#7 Ben McLemore – Kings – 8.8ppg – 2.3rpg – 0.7apg – 44%fg – 42%(3fg) – 50%ft

 

#8 K. Caldwell-Pope – Pistons – 6.8ppg – 0.3rpg – 0.8apg – 44%fg – 40%(3fg) – 83%ft

 

#9 Trey Burke – Jazz – DNP – Injured

 

#10 C.J. McCollum – Trail Blazers – DNP – Injured

 

#11 M.Carter-Williams – 76ers – 18.7ppg – 6rpg – 8.1apg – 41%fg – 42%(3fg) – 67%ft

 

Urban Meyer Big 10 conference call racap – 11-5-13

Meyer believes this Ohio State team is a national championship contender and compared it to his 2006 team at Florida that ended up beating Ohio State for the title. He said there are a lot of similarities between the two teams from replacing a lot of starters on defense from the year before, battling through injuries, two good QB’s and the team gets better each week like they did at Florida.

Meyer is happy with his run defense and how the defense has improved overall, but two areas he feels they need to improve in the most are pass defense and in the kick return game and they will work on that during the bye and rest of the season.

Meyer said he’ll try and watch both games on Thursday night – #3 Oregon at #5 Stanford and #10 Oklahoma at #6 Baylor.

Meyer loves the fact that on this year’s Ohio State team –“These kids want to be coached and want to be great”, Meyer loves that attitude!

Meyer said starting right tackle Taylor decker’s knee sprain is coming along. He said it didn’t swell, but he isn’t going to practice this week and the Buckeyes hope to have him back next week.

Meyer said that running back Jordan hall has a chronic knee problem and was a late game scratch versus Purdue because it stiffened up on him.

Meyer said he thinks tight end Jeff Heuerman could end up being one of the best tight ends in the country by the time he’s done at Ohio State.

Meyer also handed out praise to Michigan State, calling them one of the best defenses in the country.

Meyer also said that Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland is the best blitzing linebacker in the country, but that OSU’s Ryan Shazier is right up there.

Instant Analysis: Ravens 14 Browns 6

THE MONDAY MORNING DUMP 11-4-13

Here’s what I liked about the Browns 24-18 win over the Ravens;

The bounce back game that Davone Bess had!  After fumbling a punt and dropping 3 passes versus K.C. to raise his NFL leading total to 9, Bess came back yesterday and made 3 HUGE catches that were instrumental in the Browns win. 2 touchdown grabs and 3rd down catch late in the game that picked up a first down and allowed the Browns to eat up most of the clock down the stretch and help preserve the win. Kudos to a guy I would have cut a week ago.

Loved Jason Campbell’s toughness, game management skills and play making ability. He could of easily left the game late in the first quarter when Haloti Ngata fell on him and severely bruised his ribs. Instead Campbell gutted it out and made plays that Brandon Weeden would have never made. Campbell also didn’t turn the ball over once and threw 3 touchdown passes.  Outstanding performance!

Greg Little also came up big in the win. Yes he has to shut his mouth a bit and play smarter, but he made some tough catches yesterday and played very physical, which he needs to do more of.

Hats off to head coach Rob Chudzinski for getting his team ready to play and then executing an aggressive game plan from start to finish. Loved this post-game quote from Chud, “We’ve been the kid brother in this division for a long time. If you want to change that, you have to do things to change it. It’s a matter of being aggressive.”  That mindset rubbed off on his players yesterday and it was a big reason they prevailed.  Joe Thomas post-game comments back that up, “I expect to go for it on fourth and 1. That’s Chud’s mentality. He has confidence in us and it’s built into his philosophy.”

The Browns controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and when you do that you improve your chances of winning dramatically. On defense they recorded 5 sacks and held the Ravens to just  55 yards rushing. On offense, they gave Campbell enough time to find his open receivers and ran the ball just enough to keep the Ratbirds defense honest.

The Browns are now (4-5) overall and (2-1) in the division. Yes they’ve got to close strong with 7 games remaining, but to have 4 wins already going into the bye week and be the only team in the division with a winning record in the division, that’s showing major improvement. I expect the Browns to get back to .500 after 12 games. That’s right I expect them to be (6-6) going into the final 4 games of the season as long as Campbell stays healthy.

And let’s give some credit to the front office who’s taken a lot of heat from yours truly and many other media members in town. Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi have done an above average job so far with a lot of the moves they’ve made. That trade with the Steelers on draft day is looking pretty good now, as the Steelers are tied for the 4th worst record in the NFL. Bringing in both Jason Campbell and Brian Hoyer at quarterback have paid major dividends as Hoyer is (3-0) as a starter and Campbell is now (1-1) while Weeden is (0-4). They got abused for trading Trent Richardson and that deal seems to be going in their favor as well. So maybe, just maybe, this front office does know what they’re doing!