Monday Cooler Talk

By: Ed Dick

Sports fans, it's time to take a minute to bring up topics on the local and national sports scene:

Ohio State's Men's Basketball team will take over the No 1 spot in the polls this week coming off of a couple of close wins this past week against Michigan and Penn State. The undefeated Buckeyes have been toeing the line in their recent wins, but have persevered through senior leaders David Lighty and Jon Diebler as well as super-freshman Jared Sullinger and the emerging Aaron Craft...

...On the flip side, the Cleveland Cavaliers have sunken to new lows with their morose showing against the Los Angeles Lakers. If your team comes close to losing by the amount of points you actually scored, that's a serious problem. Not to mention, it's a statisical anomoly of futility in pro basketball. Each loss we suffer puts another ping pong ball in our favor for the NBA Lottery...

...Pat Shurmur becomes the 13th full-time head coach of the Cleveland Browns. He comes to the Browns as an offensive coordinator from the St. Louis Rams, and previous to that the quarterback's coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Shurmur is well-schooled in the ways of the West Coast Offense, which emphasizes precision passing and short, horizontal routes that act as hand-offs....

...Team President Mike Holmgren stresses that this should be the only coach he hires as the top dawg for the Browns. He drafted a QB in Colt McCoy to run his type of offense, which clashed with ex-coach Eric Mangini's run-run-pass style of play....

...It is the main job of GM Tom Heckert to surround McCoy with the necessary weapons to run the offense. He has a stud RB in Peyton Hillis and an excellent pass-catching TE in Ben Watson. We need to get the receivers to flourish in the system, hopefully through the draft...

...The Browns own the 6th pick in the draft. As far as I'm concerned, we need a WR and Georgia's AJ Green fits the bill. Should he be taken before our pick, there is an influx of defensive linemen to pluck from starting with Auburn's Nick Fairley, Clemson's Da'Quan Bowers and Alabama's Marcell Darius. With the anticipated move to the 4-3 defense, we'll need an injection of down linemen to help out Ahtyba Rubin and Shaun Rogers...

...Switching gears to the NFL Playoffs, is there anything more sickening than seeing the Pittsburgh Steelers playing in another AFC Title Game? Even worse, it's against the mouthy NY Jets who were a Chansi Stuckey fumble away from losing to the Browns and not even making the playoffs. Nonetheless, it's been a big slap to the face for Cleveland fans who have had to watch Baltimore advance in the playoffs again and to see ex-Brown Braylon Edwards cartwheeling his way to the AFC Title game with the Jets....

...Green Bay is playing out of their minds right now and they picked the best time to do it. QB Aaron Rodgers is quickly making people forget about the exploits for Brett Favre. LBs Clay Matthews and AJ Hawk have been flying around making plays in behind DL Ryan Pickett. They've gone on the road twice and won, and will go into a hostile environment at Soldier Field to take on Da Bears...

...Non-sports related, but I wanted to shout out to Cleveland's Howl at the Moon, which Saturday night celebrated its last deuling piano party in style. From 1991 to 2011, Howl at the Moon in the west bank of the Flats entertained all walks of life with witty birthday tunes, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and my favorite, Tony The Guy Who Drinks The Beer who crushes a beverage in no more than two seconds. Fun atmosphere that will be sorely missed, much like the Browns partaking in a playoff game...

...That's all I got. Make sure to check out Josh Jeffi, Brent Barchak, and Rob Trautman on the blog and look for us all on PrimeTime Sports next month debating all things sports.