Erie's first-year coach, Jay Larranaga, has the BayHawks in playoff contention.

So far, so good for the Erie BayHawks.

With a new head coach, the Erie BayHawks are 17-9 heading into Friday’s game at Maine against the Red Claws (11-16).

Last season, Erie only won 21 games.

This season’s record is a bit skewed because the BayHawks are playing in the East Conference, which has only two teams with winning records, but they win at conference leader Iowa (19-7) on Christmas Day, 114-110 after losing to the Energy on a last-second shot on the road.

Jay Larranaga had never been a head coach in the states and his only head coaching experience was with the Irish National Team, but so far, he’s shown why Erie hired him to replace John Treloar, who left to become the Director of Player Personnel for the Phoenix Suns.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tasheed Carr is certain he's going to make Erie's final 10-man roster.

Tasheed Carr says he’s focused on just getting better every day in training camp.

Making the Erie BayHawks’ final 10-man roster is a given for him.

“I think I’ve worked hard and I think I’ve earned a spot,” Carr said after Tuesdays’ morning practice. “So right now I’m focused on every day getting better and helping out my team anyway possible and get ready for Friday.”

Now Carr was considered a leader while at St. Joe’s, but the BayHawks are using him as a 2-guard instead of a point guard. Since he can do both and shoot the ball, that makes Carr more attractive to keep on the team.

Erie must get its roster down to 10 by 5 p.m. Thursday. The BayHawks open the season Friday against Springfield at Tullio Arena.

Hard to say who the BayHawks will cut, but their new coach, Jay Larranaga, plans to make the final cuts by the end of the night and inform the players Wednesday morning who’s staying and who’s leaving.

Erie currently has 13 players now. Larranaga hasn’t made a cut since early on in training camp so you know he likes the remaining players.

Read the rest of this entry »

First-round pick Ivan Johnson gives the Erie BayHawks an inside scoring presence.

The Erie BayHawks enter their third training camp with a new coach in Jay Larranaga, who approached the 2010 D-League Draft with three main objectives:

1. Get bigs.

2. Get guards who can shoot and exude toughness

3. Get guys who aren’t coming straight out of college.

After Monday’s draft, Larranaga feels as if he accomplished those goals in the eight-round draft. That remains to be seen, but for now, let’s take a look at who he picked.

1. Ivan Johnson (6-8, 230, PF, Ca. St.-San Bernadino). He played 45 games in the D-League and averaged 13.9 points and 6.7 rebounds in 2007-08. Big guy. Inside presence, but while playing overseas in Korea this past season, he got kicked out of a pro league for swearing and delivering an obscene gesture to a referee. Now apparently it was the final game of a championship series his team lost, but you can look at this two ways. One, that’s poor sportsmanship, but two, his team was in the championship series and I’m sure he had something to do with that, too. What Erie is getting is a guy who at age 26 is likely making his last push to get in the NBA. So he should be driven.

Read the rest of this entry »