SPORTS DAILY: Cavs ‘crazy’ for firing Blatt, one coach says

Some NBA folk are having a little trouble processing the Cleveland Cavaliers' firing of coach David Blatt on Friday.

Oh, I don’t know. Something about the team’s record being 30-11, tops in the Eastern Conference, one year after nearly winning a championship under Blatt.

While not the zaniest or even most unexpected development in sports history, Blatt’s dismissal certainly qualified as curious. It’s not every day a coach with a record of 80-43 over one full season and half of another is told his services are no longer required because of some vague “disconnect.”

And it’s not like Blatt is being replaced by the second coming of Red Auerbach. It’s not as if Phil Jackson got tired of running the Knicks and hankered to coach LeBron James.

Blatt’s successor is former assistant coach Tyronn Lue, whose first game as an NBA head coach Saturday night resulted in a 96-83 loss to the Chicago Bulls during which fans showered the home team with boos.

Lue until now has been best known as the player Allen Iverson stepped over after splashing a 3-pointer in his face during Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals.

Among those puzzled by the Cavs’ change was Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy, who called the Cleveland front office “crazy.”

"David Blatt had injuries this year, and everything else," Van Gundy told mlive.com. "We all know nobody cares about that. You're supposed to win. He did. He did, and now he's still getting fired."

Had guards Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert been healthy at the start of the season, there’s a chance the Cavs’ record could have been even better. Is Blatt gone today if they’re 35-7?

“Insane,” Van Gundy told the website. “We’ve already had Kevin McHale go into the conference finals and get fired (by the Houston Rockets) 11 games into the season and now David Blatt. … It’s getting ridiculous. I don’t know if anybody knows what the expectations of coaches are anymore.”

In case you did not arrive at this conclusion the second you heard the news, James backed the move.

And, yes, of course LeBron had been consulted by general manager David Griffin before Blatt bought it. As commentator and former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy (Stan’s brother) said on Saturday night’s ABC telecast, “If you are the Cavaliers and you did not have any dialogue with LeBron James before this happened, you are reckless.”

Wright State starting to gain national notice

Wright State basketball has put itself on the national radar to some degree after bouncing back from a 3-7 start.

Check this out from highly regarded former USA Today columnist Mike Lopresti on NCAA.com.

Led by guard Joe Thomasson, a Thurgood Marshall High School graduate, the Raiders seem to have developed some chemistry to go along with their talent.

They have won nine of their last 10, a remarkable 180.

“Our expectation level is just rising, and we don’t know our ceiling,” Thomasson told Lopresti.

That’s kind of exciting when you think about it.

Next order of business: Sustain the momentum, secure the best possible seed for the Horizon League tournament and make a run at a rare NCAA Tournament appearance.

Stranger things have happened. Like firing a coach who’s 30-11.

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