Jackson's Five: On the Indians, hoops and the lockout

Quick and random thoughts from different corners of the sports world...

I was more than ready to go to sleep Tuesday night following a long night of reading, researching, watching LeBron dunk and utilizing my multi-TV setup to stay up on playoff hockey (I can't name a single player, but it's still great TV), both basketball games and about six baseball games. No, I don't get out much, but thanks for asking. Anyway, the Indians-A's game was 1-0 and my eyes were closing and what I know about baseball was telling me that it was going to continue to be one of those fast-moving but still boring baseball games that would probably end 1-0. It happens, especially with good pitchers in a big park and 3,000 people in the stands. But for whatever reason I didn't immediately fall asleep, and the Indians scraped together a couple hits and tied the game.

So I stayed up, and the Indians scraped together more than a couple hits in the ninth inning, and before long I was wide awake and on Twitter writing that "The Indians may never lose again." I'm not sure I mean that, but they never think they're out of a game. And I'll still buy the thought that they still have much tougher competition to navigate, but even my tired eyes this morning saw that their 20-8 record is the best in baseball and, no, that's not a misprint. The pitching has been excellent, the hitting has been clutch and the fundamentals are solid. A few people even showed up last weekend at Progressive Field. The AL Central is miserable, the Indians are hot and there's going to be meaningful baseball played in Cleveland well into the summer. I'd recommend jumping on the bandwagon now.

Seats on the Miami Heat bandwagon are filling up fast. Well, no seats in Miami actually fill up until late in the first quarter at earliest, but the team most of Northeast Ohio is rooting against has unquestionably been the most impressive team in the NBA Playoffs to this point. Now, history has told us -- yes, specifically us here in Northeast Ohio -- that winning at this point means next to nothing, but the Heat are playing big-time defense and their best players are answering the call. Boston looks frazzled and old; basically the exact opposite of how it looked at this time a year ago. I'm very interested to see if Shaq can get up and down the court and more interested to see if he's ready to hand out some playoff-type fouls -- he's the only guy in wine and gold who would a year ago -- but if Boston doesn't get well in a hurry, the Heat are only going to get stronger and more confident. The Celtics are just 1-7 all-time when starting a series down 0-2. Um, go Bulls?

Anyone else tired of Courtroom Football? The NFL is back in court again, and dates are already being set well into the future for more court dates. And here I used to think parts of rookie minicamp were boring. I'm thinking lots of different folks are turned off by the lockout -- the draft brought the usual excitement, but not much beforehand and it died quickly -- and the false alarm last week, when the doors were essentially opened for one day. Word is Wednesday could bring another ruling that temporarily favors the owners and ensures at least another month of closed doors. If that's the case, normal offseason programs would be cut considerably if not missed entirely and the entire NFL calendar will be thrown off its normal course. Nobody missed much of anything official in March and April, but late May and early June are a different story. I still say they'll get this thing settled long before September and all will quickly be forgotten once we get real football back, but another four weeks or so and it will be fair to start seeing September right around the corner.

A couple quick college basketball/NBA Draft notes. The deadline for underclassmen who declared without hiring an agent to withdraw and go back to school is this Sunday. Michigan's Darius Morris has made it official that he's staying in the draft, taking the Wolverines from a potential top-15 team and legit second-best team in the Big Ten to the Land of the Uncertain -- which happens to be the exact same land in which Morris' draft stock probably resides. Bottom line, he should have stayed. As for a couple Ohio State guys who are hoping to be drafted because their eligibility is up, I believe my colleague Sam Amico has been searching high and low for Jon Diebler and David Lighty, guys one would think would be making themselves easy for NBA scouts and GMs to find right now. I have made a couple calls and requests myself. No dice. Both would seem to be system players and maybe they think a team or two already has them in the plans, but it's baffling as to why they wouldn't have played at Portsmouth or signed up for this weekend's big workout in New Jersey. We'll keep trying to track them down.

Taking your Kentucky Derby picks between now and Friday morning, here or via Twitter @FSOhioZJackson. And remember, if the Indians can be 20-8 and Peyton Hillis can be on the cover of Madden, then any horse can win the Derby.