More Than A Friday: Cavs, Cups, Coyotes, Keely and Cavuto

There’s so much going on this week, I feared I wouldn’t be able to drop a subtle #MACtion reference into this week’s column¹Let’s just say the table is being set nicely for yet another Bowling Green-Northern Illinois showdown in Detroit, for the MAC Championship.. We have civil unrest in Missouri²Again., and it’s such a mess that I’m legitimately uncomfortable talking about it, other than to acknowledge I feel the sports angle is gone from that saga, at them moment. We’ve got three sports in full-swing, as we approach mid-November, and while I usually stick to the entree portion of the menu (football, of the college and professional variety), this week I found myself willing to sample the entire menu.

How to Combat Boredom While Waiting for the Playoffs

There’s been a lot of back and forth about how to deal with the 82-game season, between the Cleveland fans who watch basketball and the basketball fans who like the Cavaliers. Both groups are waiting for that race to 16 wins, which begins in April and ends in June. One side says, the regular season doesn’t matter. The other side says, who cares(!), be entertained.

Neither side is completely wrong, though finding myself somewhere in between, I put a little more stock in the regular season than the casual fan might. It’s not just about staying healthy for the run in the spring, but no matter how much the narrative wants to highlight the individual superstar, these teams need to get a feel for playing with each other.

For 36 minutes on Tuesday, the Utah Jazz were not intimidated by the star-power of the Cavaliers. It isn’t always going to be this way for the 7-1 Cavaliers, but it was one of those nights when everything was going well, but they still needed Lebron James to find a new gear. He won’t always be able to answer the call, but he found a way in the win over the Jazz.

Actually, he found a few ways. When you think about the classic triple double, you wonder if it’s the net result of a well-rounded effort or stat-padding. In the case of James, to the dismay of the visiting Jazz, it was the former, and what led to the Cavs being on the positive end of a 118-114 final. He found and exploited mismatches to score, even when it required an ambidextrous effort on the offensive side of the ball.

When you talk about that feel for playing together, you appreciate the chemistry he’s created with Kevin Love after just a season on the same bench, and you remember why you loved Mo Williams being on the same roster, especially when both are hitting their jumpers.

Lebron owned the glass late, at both ends of the floor on Tuesday, extending possessions for the Cavaliers and putting an abrupt end to Utah’s offensive trips down the floor after one shot. It’s difficult find enough defensive opportunities to lock down that elusive quadruple double, but his two steals³Albeit, versus five turnovers. both came in the fourth quarter, and led to scoring opportunities on the other end, inlcuding an amazing “And 1″, where the shot fell despite James being bear-hugged on his way up.

Save a big night from Jared Cunningham or Joe Harris, nothing from these contenders should surprise you, but it’s still fun to watch…and these games matter, no matter how simple it is to suggest something to the contrary.

Why is the Song Called Cups?

This isn’t about Anna Kendrick, Pitch Perfect, or the song that mostly just repeats “you’re gonna miss me when I’m gone”⁴If you watch the video, you’ll see that a plastic cup and clapping of the hands are the only “instruments” in this mostly a capella song.. I guess the point is that cups have nothing to do with that song, and I might add they don’t have anything to with faith or the celebration of holidays.

Of course, I haven’t seen anyone bitching about cups, just people bitching about people bitching about cups. The closest thing I’ve seen, regarding outrage of the now-snowflakeless Starbucks seasonal cups is Donald Trump’s endorsement for the outrage.

Honestly, at this point, if you choose to take Trump with anything more than a grain of salt, I am unable to work through these things with you.

On that note, it’s just matter of aesthetics, and it doesn’t affect the taste of your caffeinated beverage of how you celebrate the holidays, so maybe we just move on from this? Aesthetics don’t affect the result of a football game either, but man, it might affect my decision to watch. I was going to a hockey game on Thursday evening, but I caught a glimpse of the Jets and Bills in their Technicolor garb. I mean, I’m not going to watch that one, willfully, because it’s Jets and Bills, but that color explosion was for the birds.

No McDavid? What Are We, Savages?

Perhaps it’s just a sign of my privilege, but I like sarcastically throwing out that savages line over first world problems that present themselves. November 12th was just a day to go to a Coyotes home game with a friend and some of his clients, the fact that the Edmonton Oilers were in town, and we were promised the next big thing in hockey was just a bonus. Last week, that bonus was taken away, but the kid has a broken clavicle. Honestly, my tale of woe isn’t as bad as Connor McDavid’s, at least in this context.

So, I ended up seeing a below average team from Western Canada take on my⁵I really do love this hockey team, despite all the turmoil they’re going through and the vitriol from opponents of the NHL in the Sun Belt. I didn’t have a team growing up in Cleveland, and I didn’t just automatically adopt this team. This is about a 12-year relationship, more time than I had with the original Browns (1985-1995). Arizona Coyotes. Unlike the Cavaliers, there are surprises with this club. Some of the usual suspects are still around–Shane Doan, Mike Smith, Dave Tippett–and there are some familiar faces that were traded away and returned via free agency, but you always like to see promising youth. That’s what the Coyotes have, and you can look at teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, Houston Astros, and Carolina Panthers⁶You could throw the Cavaliers in there, when you consider they netted Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson from a dreadful 2010-2011 season., and how they’ve made lemonade from lemons by netting high draft picks after miserable seasons.

While trying to get the imagery of Jets vs. Bills out of my system, the Oilers got a quick one on Thursday night, giving them a 1-0 lead. Oilers fans packed our arena in Glendale, Arizona, with hopes they could be better than their 0-5 mark against the ‘Yotes a season ago. As the game went on, you could see Arizona was having none of that. This is a team that doesn’t have any desire to throw everything on net, but they pick their places for the breakaways and one-timers. The old seems to mesh with the new pretty well, and even with the guy picked two slots after McDavid in last summer’s draft still slumming it in the minors, you have to like the youth on the ice for the NHL club just outside of Phoenix.

The true hero of tonight's game. pic.twitter.com/19y4qD2gPg

— Yotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) November 13, 2015

4-1 final, Coyotes win on a fun night at the arena.

Some Are Calling It Child Abuse; I Mean, Absolutely

You’re probably going to see it at some point, whether you want to or not. It’s Fox News, so most of you will immediately dismiss it, sight unseen. I know Neil Cavuto, because he does the business report on our local FOX affiliate, not from what he does for the cable channel that’s either a big hit or a big miss, depending on the eye of the beholder. I didn’t know Keely Mullen and I withhold judgement on someone I only became familiar with moments before she faced the firing squad in a now-infamous interview for the right-wing network.

She was supposed to speak to the motive of the Million Student March, but she got tangled up in a web of follow-up questions that she was unable to answer about the “1%”. Going in, she didn’t have a chance; the entire strategy of the conservative news organization was to make sure she didn’t look good in promoting this effort, in the name of today’s student. The point was to undermine the youth not understanding the economics of their demands⁷Tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, $15 minimum wage for all campus workers, and while I don’t feel there’s a reasonable way to satiate these requests, I’m not applauding the smearing of this young lady, regardless of how confident she appeared to be in supporting her views and this activism we’re seeing this week.

You know who I’m going to call out? It’s your turn to the carpet, Facebook commenters. Le sigh.

This isn’t even exclusive to one side of the argument or the other. I cringe when I look at comments⁸I have no shame; it’s like rubber-necking a car accident, but as my old man and his pals say at the poker table, “I gots to know.” and see the destruction of this beautiful English language. It’s not so much the ignorance as it is the apathy, with the defense mechanism of calling those who correct “Grammar Nazis”.

Misuse of “their”, “there”, and “they’re”, not to mention improper application of “your” and “you’re”, are just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t even get me started on “would of”, once defended as a Southern thing…gross!

These are the people that live in glass houses and throw stones. The ones saying Cavuto abused this child that was trying to get her message out, if they’re breeding, and they honestly care that little for the English language⁹Not to mention, how would they feel if their child was the victim of grown folks abusing their young-adult child on social media?, they’re would be the ones abusing America’s youth?

Don’t you think?

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