A Tough Loss, The New App. State, and Golden Grady

The woman who watches the heir to the MTAC throne decided to call in sick today. Mrs MTAC has to work, therefore yours truly gets the task of watching the eight month old, working from home on my real job, and entertaining the masses via MTAC. So forgive me if you see a lackluster performance out of me today. We'll start with a list technique.

1. Nobody said going into Utah and coming away with a win was easy. The Cavs found that out last night. A close game throughout, the Cavs trailed by three with the ball with 7 seconds left. Lebron James buried a three to tie the game at 101. Unfortunately for the superstar, he, as well as Devin Brown and Z forgot to pick up Jazz Point Guard and budding superstar Deron Williams who drove right to the basket for a game winning layup with 1.3 seconds left. If Lebron ever wants to be the next MJ, he needs to realize the game is played on more than one end of the floor. Its kind of hard to pick on a guy who had a triple double (32 points, 15 boards, and 13 assists), and buried the game tying three. I guess this can be considered a "good loss." Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall didn't play again ans didn't seemed to be missed at all either, other than from a minutes standpoint. Again, Mike Brown was forced to play pretty much a seven man rotation and a three guard offense. Devin Brown and Damon Jones combined for 14 off the bench.

2. Speaking of the Cavs, without Anderson Varajao, they are dying for frontcourt help. So much so that their have been published reports on both espn.com and si.com that they are talking to 38 year old Center Dale Davis. Davis would provide toughness, defense, and rebounding, but its four on five offensively when he is in the game. Although, anything is better than Dwayne Jones. They better develop a bench soon before Z and Drew Gooden either get hurt or burn out.

3. Props out to Grady Sizemore for winning his first Gold Glove, announced earlier this week. Usually, these awards are reputation based, but Grady won his on merit and his many diving catches. Pudge Rodriguez won the Gold Glove at catcher. Talk about reputation. Pudge was the king of the passed ball this year and actually had a lower percentage of runners thrown out than Victor Martinez, who routinely gets killed for alleged lack of throwing arm.

4. Marlins Third Baseman Miguel Cabrera is supposedly out there for the taking via trade. He is arbitration eligible for the next two years. The man can flat out rake. Ok, so his range is so-so and his weight is fastly becoming a problem, but you cannot deny his bat. How would he look in a Tribe uniform? They Marlins want a major-league ready position player and young pitching. How about Cliff Lee or Jeremy Sowers, Andy Marte, and Casey Blake for Cabrera? I'd do that in five seconds. Would Mark Shapiro? Imagine Cabrera hitting between Victor and Pronk.

5. No, what you saw on the net and in the newspaper was not a misprint; Kentucky lost to Gardner-Webb at Rupp arena 84-68 in the coaches vs cancer classic. The boo-birds were out at Rupp and it took one whole game for the honeymoon to be over for new coach Billy Gillispie. I don't care how good Gardner-Webb was last night, at Kentucky, you don't lose to Gardner-Webb ever. Just like at Notre Dame you don't lose to Navy in football. Oops. Seriously though, Findlay beat Ohio State the night before, Michigan State lost to Grand Valley State and only beat Michigan Tech (did you even know that was a school) last night by four at home. Meanwhile, Gardner-Webb is on its way to New York for the semi-finals and UK gets to stay home and regroup. If KU loses to Louisiana-Monroe at home Friday, i'll walk into Allen Fieldhouse naked at some point this year. One last Gardner-Webb factoid from espn.com's college hoops insider, Joe Lunardi:

Listed below is a five-year chronology of the program and the Bulldogs' best RPI win in each of those seasons:

• 2002-03: 4-24 (2-14 conference), Appalachian State, No. 162

• 2003-04: 7-20 (6-14 conference), Mercer, No. 208

• 2004-05: 16-12 (13-7 conference), at Central Florida, No. 108

• 2005-06: 17-12 (13-7 conference), at Minnesota, No. 83

• 2006-07: 8-21 (7-11 conference), Lipscomb, No. 179

Webb Snares Cats - Jerry Tipton, Lexington Herald-Journal