Tied at halftime of their Second Round NIT match-up with Illinois, my Kent State Golden Flashes fizzled to a 17-point blow-out loss. They finished the remaining 20 minutes in such a way that I almost want to remove the word “my” in the previous sentence. It was the wrong way six scholarship seniors would have liked to end their careers. This article is my final opinion of this senior class. I will point to their last three games as the justification for my anger. While Ohio was out beating Georgetown soundly, Kent was squeaking out a win against Tulsa in the First Round of the NIT. It was a game that was played at home against Conference USA's fifth-best team. That is not the type of postseason win that the Kent fan base should be satisfied with. Kent has severely underachieved in its past two seasons. First, the 20-win season streak ended. Now, the 23-win regular season was wasted with two quick exits in the MAC tournament and NIT respectively. This was a good, but not great,

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland Kent, OHIO -- Of the guards left in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, would you believe that Xavier’s Jordan Crawford is pacing them all in points scored? The sophomore from Detroit has tallied 16 more points than Duke’s Kyle Singler, 15 more than Michigan State’s Durrell Summers, and even 22 more than Ohio State’s point-forward Evan Turner. In fact, only center Omar Samhan of St. Mary’s has more points after two tournament games. The infamous dunk “over” (more accurate preposition would be “next to”) LeBron James in a basketball camp last summer was Crawford’s coming out event. The video went viral and made the Indiana University transfer/collegiate free agent a B-List celebrity. But after a spectacular A-10 season, this tournament has been the cherry on top of his full-fledged party. Two days after dispatching of (11) seed Minnesota, Crawford dropped another 28 points on Pittsburgh, as “X” hung on to a 71-68 Second-Round win. The highlight of the v

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland Cleveland--LeBron James has been in the NBA for seven years already. The amazement of how time has flown is only trumped by the admiration for his accomplishments in those years. LeBron’s body of work, all with the Cavaliers, is enough to warrant his number being raised to the rafters of Quicken Loans Arena someday. This is true if he signs with another team this summer, and doubly true if he stays. LeBron has been a 6-time All-Star, the NBA Scoring Champion, league MVP, carried his team to an NBA Finals appearance, and is the youngest basketball player to score 15,000 career points. He could call it quits right now and that number 23 would be a lock for retirement as well. Things definitely get interesting this offseason, even if he stays in Cleveland. Should LeBron sign a long-term deal with the Cavs--which I honestly believe he will--the staff of the Q will need to clear the way for two new banners. One will be sandwiched between Larry Nance

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland Kent, OHIO--I wanted to break this story yesterday, but the Ohio Bobcats just had to go and steal the headlines. On Thursday, I watched a career end right before my eyes. It was sad that it had to end in Goodyear, Arizona and not in a meaningful Major League game. The worst part is that this player has no clue it is over. The Cleveland Indians starting rotation is not official as we enter the weekend of first big roster cuts. Yet, one thing is certain. Left-hander Jeremy Sowers will not even be considered for a spot. Jake Westbrook, Fausto Carmona, Justin Masterson, Aaron Laffey, and David Huff look like the five the Tribe will go with. Manager Manny Acta does have some things to ponder. Carlos Carrasco, who made five forgettable starts with the big club last season, is reminding every fan why he was given that opportunity. His 3.86 Spring Training ERA is nearly three times better than it was in the Majors last year. Many fans would like to see

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland Kent, OHIO -- Everyone knows that the NCAA Tournament is a guard showcase. Teams, led by a star in the backcourt, negate the seeds in front of the school names. Last night, the Georgetown Hoyas found out that the task of beating an underdog gets exponentially harder when the team has two shining guards. There are (14) seeds that have won First-Round games before. Never like this. No double-digit seed maintains a steady double-digit lead. Not against a good coach like John Thompson III. Not against a team that was one week removed from the Big East Tournament finals. Ohio never bought into any of that. I am still in amazement at the domination; Georgetown was never in this game. Ohio even pushed the Hoyas deficit to 19 at one point. This was not a buzzer-beater like Murray State over Vanderbilt earlier in the day. This was methodical. The Ohio Bobcats have become master surgeons in the way they operate offensively. Any spot on the floor that