Are star players replaceable in college basketball? To borrow a catchphrase from Sarah Palin, "You Betcha". Two key examples of this fact will be on display tonight when the Cleveland State Vikings battle the Valparaiso Crusaders, with first place in the Horizon League on the line. 

Many wondered whether or not the VIkings would be able to keep up their winning ways after losing superstar point guard Norris Cole to the NBA after last season. CSU has looked sharp all season long, and while CSU head coach Gary Waters has refused to come out and say that the 2011-2012 squad is better than last year's team that won 27 games, most observers think the Vikings will be dancing in the NCAA Tournament in March. That is something last year's team failed to do. One of the biggest hurdles that the Vikings (20-4  10-2) will face if they realize the dream of going dancing is Valparaiso who are breathing down the neck of the Vikings in the Horizon League standings at only a 1/2 game out first place. 

Spring is fast approaching and soon horse racing season will be in full bloom. Cleveland area thoroughbred track Thistledown released its 2012 stakes schedule which will include $903,000 in purses and will be highlighted by the 78th edition of the Ohio Derby on July 7th.

If you missed the 2011 edition of the Buckeye State's biggest race you missed up and coming 3 year old Caleb's Posse who nearly earned 3 Year Old Horse of the Year Honors after capturing 2 Grade I races, including a Breeders Cup triumph, after winning in North Randall.

"Last year’s edition of the Ohio Derby will be a tough act to follow," Racing Secretary Bill Couch said in a press release today. "I'll be scanning the country for horses the caliber of Caleb's Posse, those whose owners are looking for late-summer graded events with an eye on the Breeders' Cup. I'll be looking for horses that, like 'Posse early last year, are diamonds in the rough—young promising horses on the improve. Recruiting such horses to continue the tradition of the Ohio Derby is what keeps me going."

Live Racing will return just in time for Kentucky Derby weekend on May 4th with opening day featuring a $50,000 stakes race.

On Monday, Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance that would grant the Cleveland Browns $5.8 million for repairs to Cleveland Browns Stadium. The measure passed 16-2, with one councilperson absent.

The ordinance includes accepting the donation of plans and the advancement of funds from the Browns to make the repairs, determining the method of making the public improvement of constructing cpital repairs to the stadium, and authorizes the Director of Public Works to enter into one or more public improvement contracts for the making of the improvement.

The Browns will lend Cleveland $5.8 million at 0 percent interest, and the city would repay the team with money generated from the sin tax.

In the September 2010 issue of GQ magazine, which hit the newsstands about a month after his infamous “Decision,” LeBron James was asked if he would ever come back to Cleveland and play for the Cavs. “That would be a great story,” the Chosen One responded before going on to pepper the rest of the interview with third person references, most of which either extolled LeBron’s own humility or emphasized how LeBron had spoiled everyone with LeBron’s superlative performances both on and off the court.

And now, after a tumultuous season in which James failed miserably in the NBA Finals and became the most hated player in the league, rumors are bubbling to the surface that LeBron – upset with Miami GM Pat Riley’s heavy-handed tactics in, among other things, exiling James’ knuckle-headed entourage from the Heat locker room – will sign with the Cavaliers after opting out of his contract in the summer of 2014. And what a story that will be! The Prodigal Son returning and being welcomed by tens of thousands of forgetting, forgiving and fixing-to-be-forever spoiled fans. A dry eye will be impossible to find in the ESPN studios.

CSU head coach talked about injured star guard D'Aundray Brown's status for the Thursday night against Valparaiso. Brown suffered a strained groin against Loyola on Friday. Waters said his status is day to day and explained the extent of the injury in this clip.

Cleveland State University mens basketball coach Gary Waters said throughout November and December that you shouldn't judge how his team was playing in the early months and the true barometer on the Vikings was how they played in late January and February.  This was even after CSU jumped off to an incredible start to the season that saw the team win the first 10 out of 11 contests which included an upset of then-7th ranked Vanderbilt on the road to begin the year. Now observers know what the veteran head coach was saying all along as the team has turned up their level of play up a couple notches and look to clamp down their fist by clinching the regular season Horizon League championship.

90-year-old actress Betty White filmed a video in which she congratulated the New York Giants on the Super Bowl win last night over the New England Patriots. But she says that next year, her Browns will make it to the Super Bowl.

White stars in the TV Land hit show "Hot in Cleveland", for which she recently won a best actress Screen Actors Guild award.

What do you think of her bold Browns prediction?

During the Super Bowl halftime show today in Indianapolis, which featured Madonna and other secondary acts, rapper M.I.A. flipped American audiences "the bird".

M.I.A. joined Madonna and Nicki Minaj on stage during the song "Give Me All Your Luvin", and clad in Cleopatra gear and black stiletto boots, she gave the middle-finger directly to a camera for a full second.

It's the first big Super Bowl broadcast snafu since the highly controversial 2004 incident involving Janet Jackson and her infamous "wardrobe malfunction", which saw her breast and nipple exposed during the halftime show with Justin Timberlake. That incident resulted in a $550,000 fine levied by the FCC against CBS for airing the uncensored moment.

One can't help but wonder what the FCC's, and America's, reaction will be to M.I.A.'s rude gesture.

Cleveland State (18-4, 8-2 HL) at Loyola (5-15, 0-10 HL)
Date: Friday, February 3, 2012
Time: 9:00 p.m. EST
Location: Gentile Center (5,200) - Chicago, Ill.
Radio: WHK 1420 AM (Cleveland) & WHKZ, 1440 AM (Warren) (Al Pawlowski)
TV: ESPNU (Jim Barber & Dave Kaplan)
Series: Loyola leads, 22-18
Last Mt'g: @CSU 69, LU 48 (1/7/12)
Tickets: Available at Site
Line: Vikings -10.5

The Cleveland State Vikings take the top record in the Horizon League to Chicago to face the win-less Loyola Ramblers. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU and the Vikings will try to avoid the dreaded "trap-game" as it is projected that the Gentile Center will have their biggest crowd of the season take in the game.

Following the Friday night affair, the Vikings set sail to UIC to play a Sunday afternoon showdown with UIC.

The Vikes currently own a half game lead and all eyes will be on Valparaiso, Indiana, where the Detroit Titans and Crusaders are set for battle tonight in a key conference match-up. UIC and Youngstown State, who could pull to a tie with a Valpo loss and a victory over the Flames, is another game to keep an eye on this evening.

Here is how the Loyola and CSU match-up.

Imagine composing a classical piece of music that deserves to be heard or painting a masterpiece that should be seen by the masses that gets virtually ignored. That is probably how Gary Waters's feels when he sees 3,000 of the same faces at the Wolstein Center every night for the past five spectacular seasons.

The job the Cleveland State basketball coach has done in his six seasons as head coach is nothing short of remarkable, but the Vikings still are relegated to playing in front of sparse crowds in a magnificent college arena on a nightly basis and have been relegated as second class citizens in the local media's eyes despite their on the court success.

The night I did my first lengthy piece on CSU Basketball, a program I started following as a child when Kevin Mackey energized the city with his run-and-stun teams, I thought I would see what was always possible. I thought the program would start to draw as well as any Mid-Major program in the country and we would see the Wolstein Center start to see crowds lining up to see the best value in town. After upsetting 12th ranked Butler in January of 2008 I wrote: