The Cleveland State men's basketball team never got its offense on track on Wednesday night at the Wolstein Center, as the Vikings were held to a season-low in points in a 50-41 loss to Wright State.

CSU's previous season low for points was 47 at Michigan on Nov. 13.

"We defended well enough to win, but we didn't hit any shots," said Vikings head coach Gary Waters. "When you go 16-for-61 [from the floor], you can't beat anybody."

CSU (13-16, 5-10 Horizon League) shot just 26.2 percent for the game and were 4-of-22 on three-pointers. They also missed 10 layups.

"We couldn't get anything going offensively," said Charlie Lee, who led the Vikings with 12 points, but struggled from the floor shooting 4-of-15. "We just couldn't execute on offense." 

Freshman Bryn Forbes, CSU's leading scorer at 12.6 points per game, was held to six points on 2-of-12 shooting.

Despite the loss, CSU still has an outside chance to host a first round game in next month's Horizon League tournament because of Illinois-Chicago's 64-53 loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday.

If UIC (6-8 HL) losses its two remaining conference games, then CSU could get the No. 6 seed, if the Vikings win at Loyola of Chicago on March 2.

WSU (18-9, 9-5 HL), who played without Cole Darling (foot) and Reggie Arceneaux (concussion), weren't much better offensively, as they made the same amount of field goals (16) and three-pointers (four) as the Vikings. But the Raiders held a huge advantage at the line, going 14-of-17 (82.4 percent), while CSU went 5-of-10 (50 percent).

The Vikings were consistently bad in both halves. CSU made just nine of 35 shots (25.7 percent) in the first half and were seven of 26 (26.9 percent) in the second half.

CSU only managed to score 13 points in the game's final 15:38.

"What really hurt us was our bench," said Waters. "Our bench has been averaging 25 points over the last five games, but today we only got two points from our bench."

CSU's bench shot a combined 1-of-13 from the field and were out-scored by their counterparts 19-2.

Waters said what hurt the Vikings was having Marlin Mason in foul trouble.

Mason, CSU's top reserve, fouled out after playing only 11 minutes. He went scoreless.

WSU scored the final four points of the opening half and took a 25-21 lead at the intermission.

A pair of free throws from Lee gave CSU its only lead of the second half 32-31.

With 7:12 left and WSU leading 36-35, the Raiders would start to pull away, using a 11-2 run over the next four minutes to take control of the game.

With Mason sitting on the bench in foul trouble, WSU's bigs took advantage, as juniors AJ Pacher (10 points) and Matt Vest (12 points) stepped back and knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to extend the lead to 47-37 with 3:27 left.

"I got to give [WSU] coach [Billy Donlon] credit because he did a good job of isolating our four and five," said Waters. "They put the four and fives in a position where they can step back and they knew our big kid couldn't get out to guard them." 

CSU would answer back with a four-point play from Forbes to cut it to 47-41 with 2:08 left, but it was too little, too late.

Junior forward Devon Long was the only other Viking in double-figures with 10.

The Raiders also got 11 points from junior forward Jerran Young.

The Cleveland Indians will induct former second baseman Carlos Baerga and former general manager John Hart into the team's Hall of Fame this summer.

The duo were chosen on Wednesday by a 17-member committee of Cleveland baseball historians, the team announced on its website.

"Carlos and John are responsible for some of the best memories in Cleveland Indians history, and we're proud to honor their contributions," Indians president Mark Shapiro said in a release.

Hart built the Indians team into what for many fans was the franchise's golden era of the late 1990s. He took over as general manager of the team in September 1991 and, over the next 10 years, the Tribe went 870-681, won the A.L. Central Division from 1995 to 1999 and again in 2001, and made the World Series in 1995 and 1997 (no need to remind everyone how that worked out).

If only Hart had been willing to include Jaret Wright in a deal for Pedro Martinez, or been able to land Roger Clemens or Curt Schilling when they were available, there's no doubt the Tribe would have had at least a couple of championships to celebrate.

It's fitting that Baerga and Hart are honored together, as Hart was part of the front office when the Indians traded Joe Carter to San Diego for Baerga, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Chris James following the 1989 season, a deal that finally jump started a long dormant franchise.

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With visions of Horseshoe Casino chips dancing in his head, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert will reportedly ask the NBA to bring the All-Star Game to Cleveland in a couple of years.

According to a report in The Beacon Journal, Gilbert will submit a proposal to have the game at Quicken Loans Arena in either 2016 or 2017.

Adam Silver, the NBA’s deputy commissioner, was in town recently looking to see if Cleveland would be a realistic host and he gave Gilbert the thumb’s up to submit a bid.

“The league is very receptive and open to it,” Gilbert told the paper. “As soon as this (weekend) is over, we’ll start talking more seriously about it. The city would be unreal. It would be a great weekend.”

Especially for the bottom line of the casino, no doubt, which would be filled with plenty of high rollers from out of town. And if those out-of-towners don’t get to see anything else about Cleveland in the middle of winter? Well, that’s the way it goes.

Seriously, though, this would obviously be a good thing for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. So much has changed in the region since the Cavs last played host to the game in 1997 and it would be nice to share that with a national audience.

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Terrell Owens has made a lot of bad decisions in his life. This is an unfortunate and incontrovertable fact. He has the mental stability of a North Korean dictator, and possesses the intelligence and wisdom of a medium-sized turnip. He once cried because someone was insulting his quarterback, insults that proved to be definitively true, and insults that were suspected to be true when Mr. Owens so emotively denied them. These qualities led Govbarney to select him with the #3 overall pick in the 1st Annual Misconduct Pool Draft.

So imagine the Govbarney's excitement as he lay awake listening to his police scanner (as all of us do these days) when he heard the LAPD were being called at 4:30 AM to remove one Terrell Owens from the porch of a yet-unknown woman. Was Mr. Owens drunk? High? About to commit a crime? In the process of a crime? Running from a crime? The drama was as thick as Bernie Kosar's lisp.

Apparently Mr. Owens has been on said woman's porch for approximately three hours, banging on her door with a yet unknown purpose. Was he longing for a lost love, or had he squandered all his NFL riches and was attempting to get this woman her double pepperoni and anchovy pie, demonstrating the commitment to excellence in customer service he demonstrated as an NFL wide receiver? We may never know.

What we do know is that knocking on someone's door in Los Angeles from 1:30 to 4:30 AM is apparently such a normal occurance that it is not an arrestable offense. The officers asked Mr. Owens to leave, and he did, peacefully, which in itself was a bit of an upset. And just like that, Govbarney's 20 point arrest, and the assured 20 point bonus for resisting arrest went poof into the morning smog of L.A. like Kayser Sose.

The pool still remains scoreless, but this situation merits watching in the near future...

Per the PD:

Just weeks after installing new leadership at the Cleveland Browns, Jimmy Haslam -- envisioned by many as an active and hands-on NFL owner -- is returning to the helm of the family business in Knoxville, Tenn.

Haslam said he misses running the nation's largest chain of truck stops and travel centers more than he expected.

The Browns, meanwhile, emphasized that Haslam remains a rabid sports fan committed to producing a winner in Cleveland.

"This is about me realizing my first love is running Pilot Flying J and wanting to return to that job," [Haslam said].

Let's be honest - this really shouldn't upset us.  So what if his first love is a truck stop and our football team is somewhere behind/below that?  I mean, he's been Owner of the Browns a couple months now, more than enough time to have a firm understanding of the job.  

So what if he's displaying wishy-washiness by first stating he will remain CEO, then resigning as CEO to spend more time with the Browns, then going back on that a little later to become CEO again (somewhat unfairly displacing the guy that he brought in to replace him)?  We don't really want the Owner running the football show in Berea anyway, right?

Really, Jimmy, the only issue is the impression that you're leaving Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi the keys to the Maserati (well, Minivan in the Browns' case) without really knowing if they can drive.

Apparently, you're assuming they can drive since the NFL told you they can drive, and why would the NFL steer you wrong?  But it seems that some fans are wary of a guy that drops the running of his billion dollar business into the hands of guys that you don't know that well.  These fans think they'll just joyride that Minivan around town until they wreck it into a McDonald's drive thru somewhere near Independence.

Kind of like Mike Holmgren did when Randy Lerner gave him the keys.

Yes, most NFL Owners leave the running of matters to their football people and spend plenty of time on their other business affairs.  But most NFL Owners have also been Owners a while and know their football people inside and out.

In the end, it really doesn't matter if you're around or not, Jimmy.  You hired your "team" - you will sink or swim with them now.  But blindly trusting these guys the way you blindly trusted the NFL when you hired Banner or when you blindly trusted Banner when he hired Lombardi... it's not what I'd expect a savvy businessman to do.  

And we've done the bad-businessman-as-Owner-of-the-Browns thing a couple times already.

Valparaiso continues to have Cleveland State's number on the basketball court.

The Crusaders' 80-72 victory Saturday afternoon at the Wolstein Center was their fourth straight over the Vikings. Valpo has won six of the last eight games against CSU.

"They didn't beat us today. We beat ourselves," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "We scored 72 points. If we score 72 on anybody, we win. We didn't play any defense. That junk I seen today was the worst I've seen in history. And I'll put that on me."

Waters said he will take the blame for the defense because they were playing the "wrong defense."

"We could've guarded this team much easier," Waters said. "We were so concerned with them shooting threes. But, what you have to do is take away their layups and make them beat you."

The Crusaders (19-6, 9-2 Horizon League) shot 55.1 percent from the field and held advantages in points in the paint (36-28) and points off turnovers (27-13).

"I felt we didn't play disciplined defense," freshman guard Bryn Forbes said, who led the Vikings with a career-high 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. "We didn't have enough energy today."

Senior guard Ryan Broekhoff led a balanced scoring attack for Valparaiso with 15 points. The Crusaders also got double-digit scoring from Kevin Van Wijk (14 points), Bobby Capobianco (13 points), Will Bogan (11 points) and Erik Buggs (11 points, eight assists).

"I thought Buggs was the reason they won today," Waters said. "I thought he did a great job of executing their offense and getting great penetration."

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Surprise! 

No, the Indians play in Goodyear, not Surprise, this is more of the surprise you are used to.

After cutting off their pursuits of Jim Thome to play into their empty designated hitter spot and reportedly deciding to not commit that spot to one person, the Indians have potentially filled the spot.

Much to the surprise of, well, everyone, the Indians signed Jason Giambi to a minor league contract. A few months ago, Giambi was in the running to become the Rockies next manager. Now he's inking a deal to compete for a spot and his contract at the major league level is not guaranteed.

Colorado wanted Giambi as a coach, but he still wanted to play, and the Indians are going to give him that chance.

The former AL MVP has carved out a second, even third career, in Colorado as a pinch hitter. He's sitting at 429 home runs for his career after hitting one last season in 60 games with a .225 average. He's still valuable though, as Giambi had a .372 on-base percentage last season, and that's mostly as a pinch hitter.

Here's the deal though. Giambi is coming in to compete for a more than part-time designated hitter role. He's going to be hitting more than once or twice every few games. After several years in Colorado where he's been a part-time player, can he adjust? 

And the Indians? Did they not cut off talks with Jim Thome because they did not want to commit a roster spot to a designated hitter? Kind of. Right now, they are not committing a spot to Giambi. They'd eventually have to if they want to keep him on their 25 man roster and have him make the team, but right now, there is no commitment. 

It's a sneaky, play-it-by-ear sort of move. Bring him in to compete, give the young guys like Chris McGuiness, Yan Gomes, and Mike McDade some sort of experienced competition. Extremely low-risk, heady type of move by the Indians. For more on how this will play out in the spring, make sure you catch my Spring Training Primer coming up in the next day.

Gyro Ball! Whether it's real or not, the signing of Daisuke Matsuzaka to a minor league contract is real. The Indians have brought in the Japanese right-hander and invited him to spring training, as reported by CBS Sports' Jon Heyman. Jordan Bastian says it is pending a physical.

The man simply known as Dice-K is now reunited with manager Terry Francona and could compete for a rotation spot, but will have to do a whole heck of a lot to win one. The import debuted at the age of 26 for the Red Sox, coming over on a huge contract with an enormous posting price. Now he's 32 and coming of several years of injuries and ugly numbers.

Last year he made 11 starts and was downright abysmal. He went 1-7 with an ugly 8.28 ERA. He gave up 11 home runs, yes, the same number of starts he made.

A very decorated professional Japanese pitcher, Dice-K has a lot of accolades, having won a World Series with Boston, two World Baseball Classic MVP trophies, and numerous games between Japan and MLB (158). He has fallen on hard times since 2009 though. He seemingly was regaining some form in 2010 but wasn't the same in terms of effectiveness even in his debut year when he won 15 games. His best year was 2008 when he went 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA.

If you are not aware, Dice-K threw a lot of pitches early in his career. He has an extensive training regime and his downfall was likely the result of the amount of work he had put in prior to arriving to the Major Leagues in 2007. There's no telling how many pitches he actually threw when he was in Japan, but it is likely that his workload was far more than it was in Boston. Even the Red Sox had him throw a lot.

He comes to the Indians now, likely looking to re-establish himself. I think more than likely, he competes for a rotation spot, but is someone who starts in Columbus with the Indians intending to perhaps use him down the road if he rebuilds himself. He can earn up to $4 million according to Heyman.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly planning to offer center Greg Oden a two-year deal with a team option for a third year sometime after the NBA trade deadline of Feb. 21.

Just great.

There is some symmetry, we suppose, to offering a three-year contract to a player that has had three microfracture knee surgeries. Three years is also how long it has been since Oden played in an NBA game - Dec. 5, 2009, to be exact.

Meaning if the Cavs are truly planning to offer him a contract, it's one of the worst ideas we've heard from one of the local teams in a long time, and that is saying a lot.

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The Cleveland Browns released defensive end Frostee Rucker on Tuesday as they begin the transition to new defensive coordinator Ray Horton’s version of the 3-4 defense.

Rucker has spent his entire NFL career as a traditional 4-3 defensive end and the Browns clearly did not think the 29-year-old veteran would be a fit in Horton’s defensive scheme.

Signed in March as a free agent to a five-year deal worth $20.5 million with a $5 million signing bonus, Rucker was brought on board to help the Browns run defense. In that regard he paid off, as the defense went from giving up an average of 147 rushing yards per game in 2011 to 118 yards per game in 2012, moving from 30th in the NFL to 19th.

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