Written by Brian McPeek

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Opening freaking day.  One of my favorite days of the year, and the lead topic of this Monday's Weekend Wrap from Brian McPeek, who hits on the opener, the '08 Indians, and the wounds left from the '07 team.  Peeker also hits on the first Final Four ever with four #1 seeds, how he sees it all playing out, Davidson's majestic run, and the Cavs win over Philly and what it does for their playoff positioning.

Road to Redemption

October 21, 2007 is still fresh in our minds. If you care to think back to that ugly Sunday night, you can still taste the bitterness that came with the Indians 11-2 loss to the Red sox in Game 7 of the ALCS. You can still see Joel Skinner stopping Kenny Lofton at 3B with the run that would have tied the game and changed the momentum and you can see Casey Blake grounding into a double play on the next pitch to let Boston of the hook and propel them to a World Series championship.

You can still feel the pain.

Time has helped take a little bit of the edge off but Monday afternoon at about 3:10pm delivers the real medication. The 2008 season gets underway with Cy Young winner CC Sabathia delivering the first pitch of the season against Mark Beuhrle and the Chicago White Sox.

Hopes and expectations are high and why not? This Indians team returns everyone who made a substantial contribution to last year’s squad. Not only that, but they’re a year more experienced. There can be no more excuses about a lack of playoff experience or not understanding how they must approach each of the 162 games during the season.

Along with being playoff tested it’s not unreasonable to expect some personal growth from a few members of the club. Ryan Garko, Franklin Gutierrez, Jensen Lewis, Rafael Perez and Asdrubal Cabrera all gained invaluable experience last season. Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner did not perform up to expectations and a return to their pre-2007 numbers would be a huge shoot shot in the arm for the Tribe.

There are concerns.

Joe Borowski’s tightrope act all season in the closer role was either the finest Houdini-act of the last 50 major league seasons or a non-repeatable feat of extremely good fortune depending upon whom you talk to. Rafael Betancourt and Rafael Perez each had years that will be difficult to duplicate. The Indians and their fans are banking that those three relievers can all come close to reaching the level of performance and results they achieved last season. The seasons that those relievers as well as Sizemore and Hafner put together will go a long way in determining what kind of October Tribe fans enjoy.

Enjoying October would be terrific. Enjoying November would be something we’d all remember for the rest of our lives.

Play ball.

Finally Four

For the first time in NCAA Tournament history all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four in San Antonio next weekend.

North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA will get together next Saturday and one of those historically strong powers will emerge Monday night as the national champion. Memphis faces UCLA and North Carolina takes on Kansas Saturday night on what’s always one of the best nights of the year for college hoops fans.

The Memphis-UCLA match up is going to be a fun one to watch. Memphis likes to run and play an athletic, up-tempo style of basketball while UCLA will seek to control the tempo with their stifling defense while pounding the ball into Kevin Love on their offensive end.

The other ballgame is big time college hoops in a nutshell. North Carolina and All-American Tyler Hansbrough face off against Bill Self and his Kansas Jayhawks. Self is the man who replaced Carolina coach Roy Williams when Williams left Kansas or the UNC job a few years back.

Not much drama in this past weekend’s games. That’s not to say there wasn’t a surprise or two. Davidson, a small school from North Carolina, pasted Wisconsin to earn an Elite 8 berth and then came within a last second three point shot of shocking Kansas and advancing to the Final Four.

Davidson is a team that you couldn’t help but root for.

Undersized in every regard except in heart and desire, the Wildcats were led to the precipice of a shocking Final Four berth by a slight, undersized sharpshooter named Stephen Curry. Curry shot Davidson to wins over Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin and did so in a breathtaking variety of ways. Long range, hair trigger 3-pointers, driving, twisting layups and soft floaters in the lane from Curry (son of former Cavalier Dell Curry) had fans, viewers and opponents both amazed and stunned.

Curry and Davidson symbolize what this tournament has come to mean. On any given night (or any given 3 game period) the little guys can compete and win against the guys with the higher pedigrees and nicer athletic centers. So important was the NCAA appearance to Davidson that it’s alumni and administration paid for any Davidson student to travel to and attend the ballgames in Detroit this past weekend. You’re not likely to see that kind of gesture coming out of Memphis.

But when it’s all said and done, it’ll be one of those big basketball factories that take home the big prize a week from Monday night.

Looking For A Bucket

Heading into Sunday night’s game against Philadelphia, the Cavs were taking on water and in need of some healthy bodies to help bale them out.

Enter Delonte West and LeBron James.

James and West rescued the Cavs from themselves Sunday evening against the 76ers and, at least for the moment, stemmed a losing tide that was threatening to knock them out of the 4^th seed in the Eastern Conference. West played his best game as a Cavalier scoring 18 points, including a couple of huge 3-pointers down the stretch, grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing out 11 assists.

James again rose to the occasion by going 26, 9 and 9. Remember a year ago this time when folks were wondering when James would assert himself at end-game situations and start winning games down the stretch? No more wondering. LBJ now dominates the late game situations on both ends of the court and is one of the best ‘go to’ guys in the game.

Every year LeBron picks out and works on a part of his game to bring it up to his lofty standards. This year it appears James was looking to concentrate on his defense and those moments in a game where it’s in the balance.

Big win for the cavs Sunday evening. Not only did it stop a losing streak but it came against a team that was pushing them for that 4^th seed. Time will tell if this is the game that propels the Cavs forward over the next month. But losing it would have been disastrous.