The Cleveland State mens basketball team made a major investment in their program this season by putting in some major upgrades to their locker room. Among the upgrades include:

-18 New Wooden Lockers
-Flat Screen TVs and Video Cabinet
-Padded Carpets
-Dropped Ceilings
-Increased Shower and Restroom Area
-Lighting Upgrade
-Magnetic Dry Erase Board for Diagramming Plays

The program has raised $85,000 for the new rooms which is half their goal. If you would like to contribute to the program and reward the players and future players of the rising Vikings you can call Mike Dolsak at 216-871-9714 or visit this website.

I wasn’t planning on writing again until this weekend. My plan was to get through tonight’s circus in New York and then recap the week from the comfort of my couch on Sunday. But I’m far too angry to let this go. Don’t worry, I’ll keep the rant short.

On Tuesday, the Cavs continued the trend of starting off games like they are taking a siesta. They got routed by the hapless Wizards and quickly found themselves in an 18 point hole. This is a red flag. Mike Brown is not properly preparing his team for these games. Acting like these games don’t matter isn’t working!

Luckily they cranked up their defensive intensity and destroyed Washington over the next three quarters to get the win. Smiles all around and horseplay ensued. Seemed like old times! I thought they had turned a corner. Everyone did. Now they were going to go on a run, right?

Tim Belcher, a former first overall draft choice and Buckeye State native, has been selected as the new pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians. Belcher won 146 games games in his 14 years in the big leagues. He starred at Mount Vernon Nazarene College in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and was selected with the first pick in the draft by the Minnesota Twins in 1983.

The 48 year old has spent the last eight seasons in the Indians organization as special assistant of baseball operations. His new post will be a challenging one. The Indians had the 2nd worst pitching in all of baseball last season with an ERA over 5 and the team lacks a true number one pitcher after trading away CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee the past two seasons.

Former Cleveland State men's basketball players J'Nathan Bullock and Cedric Jackson will each get an opportunity to play professionally this winter in the NBA Development League after each had their rights claimed this week.

Jackson will play for the Erie Bayhawks after his rights were assigned to the team, which is affiliated with both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors, while Bullock was tabbed as a sixth round pick (96th selection) by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds in Thursday's NBA Development League Draft.

Bullock, a 6-5, 240-pound forward from Flint, Mich., earned first team All-Horizon League honors in each of his final two seasons. Bullock, who is one of three players to lead the team in scoring in four straight seasons, finished his Viking basketball career by ranking fourth in CSU history with 1,800 points. He played in a school-record 130 games, also holding records for career starts (124) and consecutive starts (106), and is the only player to score more than 1,500 points and grab more than 750 rebounds in a career.

Cleveland Browns fans may be angry with Randy Lerner and the Cleveland Browns football team but that didn’t stop them from contributing $10.9 million to help him this year.

In October, Cuyahoga County taxpayers slipped another $1.2 million to pay for the Browns Stadium.

The Browns are 1-7 this season. And a pretty putrid 1-7 from what I hear.

This year, sin tax contributors – all we purchasers of wine, alcohol and cigarettes in Cuyahoga County only – have paid $10,900,768.11 to help Lerner. It helps pay for the Browns Stadium. Lerner pays $250,000 a year to rent the place. The city pays more than $400,000 each year for taxes on the land. The stadium is tax exempt. Free for Lerner.

Thank you taxpayers. Don’t mention it Randy.

Did you catch the so-called interview Tony Grossi did with Lerner in today’s Pee Dee. Talk about consumer fraud.

The headline says: Lerner discusses GM’s firing; reaffirms support for Mangini.” Should have said, “Lerner WON’T discuss ANYTHING.”

On Monday afternoon, two grown men with nicknames met with Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner to serve as fan representatives in voicing discontent regarding the current state of the Browns organization. "Dawg Pound Mike" Mike Randall of Massillon and Tony "Mobile [Wheelchair] Dawg" Schafer were equipped with thier best Sunday, um, Bone Hat to meet with the millionaire banking CEO and professional sports team owner, who has come under fire in recent months due to the poor play of his football (not futbol) team.

Longtime Cleveland Cavaliers fans probably have fond memories of Chris Dudley, who at 6' 11'' could jump through the roof, but was one of the most challenged free throw shooters in the history of the NBA. When the former Ivy League star out of Yale's career was complete, the fourth round draft pick by the Cavaliers would play 16 seasons and grab nearly 5,500 rebounds in his career for 5 different teams.He was also a trailblazer in many ways for people who suffer from Type 1 diabetes. Dudley was the first NBA player to play with the disease and opened the doors for players such as Adam Morrison, who was selected with the third overall pick in the NBA draft 2 decades after Dudley hung up his high tops.

Dudley will tell his inspirational story to children in a new book released in time for Diabetes Awareness Month. "Chris Dreams BIG" tells his story and the press release promoting the book reads:

It's not been a good year for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West, who was arrested on September 17 in Prince George's County, Maryland. West, 26, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of carrying a dangerous weapon, two counts of carrying a handgun, two counts of transporting a handgun, one count of reckless driving, and one count of negligent driving. Each of the weapons charges carries up to three years in prison.

Initially, West had only been charged with two counts of carrying a handgun and speeding. West was arrested back in September when he was riding a three-wheel motorcycle on a highway in Upper Marlboro and cut off a police officer. He was then pulled over, and cops found two loaded handguns on him. He also had a loaded shotgun in a guitar case strapped to his back.

West has been struggling this season with off-court issues, and only made his season debut during Saturday's win over Charlotte. He scored 13 points in 24 minutes. But, the Cavs are not yet ready to start him.

Coach Mike Brown said that West, who took two leaves of absence during training camp and missed the first three regular season games, would come off the bench for the time being and that Anthony Parker would start

Panic? Who, me? OK, I might have panicked a little after the first two games of this young Cavs season. My bad. I think it was justified, but what’s more important is that the next two games were much different. The Cavaliers are now 2-2 and sit atop the Central Division, as they should. So what changed?

It has to be said that the game in Minnesota was a lucky draw for the Cavs in terms of timing. Not only are the Timberwolves young and poorly put together, they were also missing Kevin Love through injury and are breaking in a rookie PG. I’ve loved Jonny Flynn since he was a freshman at Syracuse and I think he will become a very good PG in the NBA. But a rookie is a rookie. He hasn’t quite figured out how to set his teammates up yet and was more concerned with scoring. He shot 60% and scored 17, so that’s not too bad. But he made the Wolves one dimensional and much easier to defend.

The Cavs defense was better for long stretches and the offense showed some flashes of what they can do. The starters, especially LeBron and Mo, looked great and getting 35 points off the bench was huge. They also only had 11 turnovers, which seems much more like what they did last year.