Chris Daniels/Photo by Rob Engelhardt/Erie Times-News

The Erie BayHawks closed out Saturday’s three-team exhibition with a convincing 57-42 win against expansion Canton at Penn State Behrend.

Center Chris Daniels had 19 points while forward Tirrell Baines added 16 as the BayHawks shot 62.2 percent from the field.

Erie won its earlier game, 43-39, against Fort Wayne, which beat Canton in the opening game, 49-41. The three games were only two quarters long. Forward D.J. Kennedy (knee) and point guard Al Nolen (foot) didn’t play for Erie.

Look for the Bayhawks to make some cuts in the next day or so. The BayHawks have until 5 p.m. on Nov. 23 to reach the 10-man roster limit. Before looking at the BayHawks, here’s a quick observation of Fort Wayne and Canton.

Fort Wayne is experienced. Has key returnees in Ron Howard and Walker Russell. Got some solid pick ups in former Michigan State forward Antonio Smith and Marvin Phillips, who was a key contributor for the Iowa Energy.

However, the biggest force the Mad Ants have – Chris Hunter – was in street clothes. The big fella was nearly unstoppable in the D-League. With him, Fort Wayne could be be scary.

Canton – The Charge didn’t finish their second scrimmage with Erie well. Got pretty good talent, but they’re young and didn’t play like a cohesive unit down the stretch against Erie.

Now to the BayHawks.

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“The Fab Five ruined the program.” – Jim Nantz of CBS said during Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game in the Big Ten semifinals, suggesting that Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, Juwan Howard and Ray Jackson are the reason hasn’t been the same since they ended their career there. Led by the Fab Five, the Wolverines were the first team to reach the NCAA title game in 1992 with five freshmen starting.

With the Fab Five, fans either loved or hated them.

Got to disagree with Mr. Nantz.

What Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson did at Michigan in the 1990s was give players the freedom to be themselves, inspired the great players of today and made it cool for the top prep players to go to the same school.

Duke, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State and other programs have benefited big time from that last one.

They took the interest in college basketball to heights it hasn’t reached since and unfortunately for them, showed how corrupt big-time college basketball can be. So I can’t wait to check out the special on the whole thing at tonight at 9 on ESPN.

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Here’s the first of three parts of the Cleveland Cavaliers introducing Chris Grant as their new general manager. Grant is replacing Danny Ferry, who officially resigned Friday.

In this first segment, Grant talked about how they’re talking to candidates (Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo seems to be atop the list) and said the Cavs have a “plan” to resign LeBron James.

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Erie BayHawks rookie Kyle Goldcamp, center, still has a chance to win the team bracket pool, but his coach, John Treloar has the inside track to taking it home. Treloar has Duke and Michigan State making it to the championship game.

John Treloar has the inside track.

Treloar picked Duke and Michigan State to meet in Monday's championship game.

Everyone has an NCAA Tournament bracket pool going. So when the Final Four rolls around, the smoke clears and you begin to see who has the best chance of winning the pool.

The team bracket commissioner – shooting guard Mike Gansey - is still holding out out hope WVU wins it all so he can brag that he was the only one to pick the Mountaineers to take home the national title. Gansey starred for the Mountaineers when they reached the Elite Eight in 2005.

However, he told before Tuesday’s practice Treloar has Duke and Michigan State meeting in the championship game. True to form, Duke will take on WVU in one national semifinal while Michigan State faces Butler in the other.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers do.

Shannon Brown has never lacked the ability to play the game. He's just found a home in Los Angeles.

They drafted Shannon Brown in the first round of the 2006 NBA Draft out of Michigan State.

He was supposed to be the big, off guard to complement LeBron James. I really thought Brown had star potential in the NBA because he’s athletic, can shoot the three and came from a college program that stresses defense.

Cleveland ended up trading him to Chicago last season. After the Bulls released Brown, he signed with Charlotte, which traded him to Los Angeles where he has become key reserve.

His second-half dunk over Chris “Birdman” Andersen gave the Lakers an emotional jolt in their Game 5 win Wednesday night.

I look at Brown’s size (6-foot-4, 211 pounds) and wonder how much he could help Cleveland against Orlando. Brown could guard Mickael Pietrus and would do a better job in defending Hedo Turkoglu than Delonte West is doing.

Just food for thought.

With speed, quickness, leadership and a much-improved jump shot, point guard Ty Lawson emerged as one of nation's best players in leading North Carolina to its fifth national championship.

Before the NCAA Tournament began, I picked Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Washington and Louisville to make it to the  Final Four and figured the Panthers would win it all.

I know. None of them even made it to Detroit. Don’t remind me.

Anyway, my Final Four prediction had a couple of disclaimers. Here’s one of them:

“As much as I think North Carolina has the most talent of any team in the country, just unsure about Ty Lawson’s injury. If he was healthy, I’d have the Tar Heels winning it all.”

Well, after missing North Carolina’s first tournament game, Lawson played through the toe injury, got healthy and led the Tar Heels to their fifth national title.

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Villanova. Michigan State. North Carolina. Connecticut.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo shared a magical moment with former Spartan All-American, Magic Johnson, following a 64-52 win against top-seeded Louisville in the Midwest Regional final to earn a spot in next week's Final Four in Detroit.

I didn’t pick any of those teams to make it to the Final Four.

Dang.

Oh well. Guess I can watch Saturday’s games without rooting for any one particular team and just enjoy the games.

Just for a quick recap, I picked Washington (What was I thinking?), Pittsburgh (Scottie Reynolds, why didn’t you give Pitt at least 1.5 seconds to win the game at the buzzer?), Louisville (What were the Cardinals thinking?) and Oklahoma (Ty Lawson, how did get so healthy so fast?).

Maybe I’ll have better luck next year.

Then again, maybe not.

After hitting the game-winning shot to beat Pittsburgh, Scottie Reynolds (center with black glove) celebrated with his Villanova teammates as the third-seeded Wildcats are headed to the Final Four after upsetting the top-seeded Panthers, 78-76, Saturday night.

As Scottie Reynolds’ game-winning shot trickled down through the nets Saturday night, my NCAA Tournament bracket was set ablaze.

Not literally, of course, but Villanova knocked out the team I picked to win the national title – Pittsburgh.

The Wildcats won, 78-76, on a driving Reynolds’ layup with 0.5 seconds remaining. Levance Fields flung a near full-court heave that had a good chance to go in, but it banged off the backboard at the buzzer.

Got to feel for the Panthers. They get past the Sweet 16, finally, and then fall to Villanova, but their style of play leaves little margin for error.

So going 21-of-29 from the free-throw line cost them the game. Villanova was nearly perfect from the charity stripe: 22-of-23.

Only two of my Final Four predictions are alive: Louisville and Oklahoma.

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