Ohio's been thirsting for this for what feels like forever.
It'd been 12 years since Ohio State won the national championship before Urban Meyer led the Buckeyes to a 42-20 thumping over the Oregon Ducks in the first ever College Football Playoff National Championship game.
Cleveland sports haven't tasted title champagne since 1964, when the Browns were crowned kings of the NFL (pre-Super Bowl era). Cincinnati had the wire-to-wire Reds in 1990, but nothing since.
Meyer and the Buckeyes ended Ohio's championship drought in January, coming out of the Playoff unscathed after overcoming adversities in the form of injuries, a loss to Virginia Tech and the death of a teammate. The Cavaliers, fighting through some of the same misfortune, are four wins away from doing the same thing and bringing a championship back to Cleveland.
One could argue that LeBron James is as important to the Cavaliers as Meyer is to the Buckeyes. Sure, Meyer didn't lace up and play on Saturdays this past fall as James did, but it is pretty evident that whatever each man wants regarding their respective teams, each man gets.
Meyer sits atop of the college football coaches totem pole, rivaled only by the guy he unseated New Year's Day in the Sugar Bowl, Alabama's Nick Saban. James owns four Most Valuable Player trophies. When he left Cleveland for the Miami Heat in 2010, he teamed up with Dwyane Wade and his other buddies to win two NBA titles in four years. Meyer, who got his coaching start in Ohio at Bowling Green State University, eventually wound up at the University of Florida where he — guess what — won two BCS National Championships prior to coming home.
If James and the Cavaliers do the same thing when the NBA Finals start next Thursday, he and Meyer will be equal on the championship front.
The similarities between Ohio State's 2014 season and Cleveland's 2014-15 campaign don't end there, though.
Cavaliers starter and Big Three member Kevin Love nearly got his arm torn off by Boston's Kelly Olynyk in its first playoff series. Star point guard and other Big Three member Kyrie Irving is battling through nagging knee and foot injuries that caused him to miss time in recent playoff competition.
Love's injury could be likened to Braxton Miller's labrum tears — a star getting hurt at an inopportune time.
Even though Miller's happened before Ohio State's 2014 season began, Love's didn't happen at an ideal time either. The Cavaliers were getting hot at the right time and had to endure a speed bump just like the Buckeyes did 12 days before their season opener.
Irving and even Iman Shumpert's groin injury are similar to Ohio State's J.T. Barrett, even though neither were season ending like the quarterback's broken ankle. Irving runs the show at point guard for the Cavaliers when James isn't in the game, and Barrett blossomed into a Heisman Trophy candidate with his meticulous, yet nearly unflappable ability to orchestrate Meyer's spread offense.
In the end, it didn't matter what ails the Buckeyes or Cavaliers faced this season — as long as they had Meyer and James, respectively, they were going to get where they wanted to be (with Ohio State ultimately finishing the job).
Ohio State pushed through and won the national championship. In order to get that chance, the Buckeyes had to take down a top-ranked team from the south in Alabama.
The Cavaliers swept the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Atlanta Hawks, on Tuesday. James was magnificent, nearly averaging a triple double in the series, defiantly showing who was the best professional basketball team on that side of the United States.
Ready and waiting after dispatching Houston Wednesday night are the Golden State Warriors, led by league MVP Stephen Curry. The Warriors are like Oregon — have the best player in the country at a vital position (Heisman Trophy winner and quarterback Marcus Mariota), reside in the Pacific Northwest and win games by playing fast and scoring in copious amounts (the Warriors led the NBA in points per game in the regular season, Oregon was fourth in college football).
Before the national title game, the last time Oregon and Ohio State met on the football field was the 2010 Rose Bowl. We know how that ended.
The last time the Cavaliers played Golden State, James dropped 42 in the 110-99 win, Cleveland's 18th in 20 games. (Golden State beat Cleveland 112-94 in January, but LeBron didn't play).
Ohio State reached the peak this year. James and the Cavaliers are nearing the summit.
Deeper still, both teams have players who began playing out of their mind by season's end.
Tristan Thompson, the Cavaliers forward who didn't become a full-time starter until Love's injury, is an absolute force on the glass regardless of the opponent. Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott ran for 696 yards in post-season games against Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, snagging MVP honors in the latter two along the way.
Both players have seen their stock rise considerably, mainly Thompson, who's in a contract year and about to get paid for his stellar performances on the glass this season. He also had the best player in the world (James) say he belongs in Cleveland for the rest of his career.
If Elliott, who will be a junior in 2015, had been eligible to enter the 2015 NFL Draft he certainly would have been selected. So in a sense, he's about to get paid, too.
Meyer won a national title with a team he thought wouldn't be ready until 2015. James speaks often of the need for patience both for himself and the city ever since announcing his triumphant return to Northeast Ohio last July.
He and the Cavaliers are four tiny wins away from bringing back that ever elusive banner to a city desperate for salvation.
The Browns, Bengals and Reds have kept Ohio in the shadows of the peak of the sports world. Ohio State reached it this year. James and the Cavaliers are nearing the summit.
Meyer's magic touch played a monumental part in a slew of other athletic plights. Among them include Ohio State's wrestling team (honorary coach, team later won the national title), the Cavaliers (paid a visit to Quicken Loans Arena Jan. 19, Cavs won 10 straight), the Reds (threw out first pitch in April, Reds won that night) and Yankees (did the same in the Bronx, and the Bombers won that night, too).
Ohio State's head coach has continued to show support for Cleveland and his good friend LeBron, who's always said that if he went to college it wouldn't have been anywhere else than in Columbus. The love is there from both sides. So are the parallels to each season, complete with great players and coaches.
Cleveland just has to finish the job.
