Winners

Nice night for my squads. Kansas blew away Fort Hays State 93-56 in their final exhibition tune-up and the Cavaliers went to Oakland and knocked off Golden State 108-104. In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't watch a second of either game. Who has the time or interest to stay up and watch a November regular season Cavs game that starts at 10:30 EST? As for KU, I would have watched, but the ESPN Full-Court package doesn't start until Friday.

Lets talk Cavs first. My sources told me yesterday that Anderson Varajao was on his way to Cleveland, but I couldn't leak it until I had some confirmation. Well, yesterday SI.com's Marty Burns reported Varajao is looking for a one year deal for the midlevel exception. According to the Burns article, The Cavs have no intention to make that offer. "The team told the player's agent if the qualifying offer passed, they would not entertain a one-year deal," the source said Tuesday. "They were told at the time, if we can't get a deal done by the [time the qualifying offer expired], the team would not do a one-year deal."

Good for the Cavs for playing hardball with Andy. While they do need him desperately, signing him to the contract he wants, 5 years, between $45-$50 million would be ludicrous. Drew Gooden signed a three-year, $22 million deal before last year and he is a much better player the the offensively challenged Varajao. Reality needs to set in for The Wild Thing. The Cavs own his rights, he can't go anywhere, he isn't worth $10 million a year, and he has no other options. GM Danny Ferry won't and shouldn't cave to his ridiculous demands.

As for last night, The Cavs won without PG Larry Hughes. They scored 108 points, Boobie Gibson moved over to the point and the rusty Sasha Pavlovic started at the SG slot. Without the injured Hughes and Donyell Marshall, Mike Brown essentially played a two man bench of Devin Brown and Damon Jones against Don Nelson's small ball approach. While Sasha did his best Larry impression (going 2-11 from the field), Boobie stepped up again with 22 points. Z added 22 of his own, and Lebron led the cavs with 24. I hate to bring this up again, but just like last year, doesn't it seem as though the Cavs are a much better offensive team without Hughes?

Now to the Jayhawks. The one thing you don't see with KU, as you did with Michigan State and Ohio State (lost to Findlay last night), they take these preseason tilts seriously and put the hammer down. They came out blazing in the Red uniforms. Last week, the KU guards were jacking up a ton of threes and not working inside out through Darrell Arthur. Last night, they made sure Shady was fed. He scored 20 points in 22 minutes, grabbed eight boards, and blocked two shots. That's the kind of stuff we are expecting out of the Sophomore big man. The rest of the post players got theirs too. My guy Darnell Jackson came strong with 10 points and eight boards. Shaggy Center Sasha Kaun added nine and eight rebounds, and Freshman Cole Aldrich scored six with three boards and three blocks. “We were trying to get the bigs going. We tried to get them involved early,” said sophomore guard Sherron Collins.

There is still a long way to go, committing 19 turnovers won't work against real competition, but the defensive pressure was suffocating again, causing 25 Ft. Hays turnovers. Friday we get it going for real, as Louisiana-Monroe comes to the Fieldhouse for a 7 PM CST tip-off.