The Erie BayHawks will try to do a better job on the glass in tonight’s game at Maine. The BayHawks allowed 25 offensive rebounds in their last game that ended in an 106-84 loss against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
The Erie BayHawks haven’t played a game in a week. That’s been a good thing for D.J. Kennedy.
In last Friday night’s 109-100 win at Fort Wayne, Kennedy took a hard fall on his back on a drive to the basket with 7 minutes, 26 seconds left in the third quarter. Going up for a layup, Kennedy got fouled by JaJuan Johnson, who was trying to block the shot.
Go to the 1:32.04 mark of the replay to see the foul.
Kennedy said earlier this week he expects to play tonight at 7:30 at Canton, but said he could have played had Erie played earlier this week. Erie (1-0) will play the Charge (0-3) again in a back-to-back Saturday in its home opener.
“I would have just prepared myself to play,” Kennedy said. “I wouldn’t have known until I really got out there if I could play, but if I can’t be effective, I’m not going to risk it.”
Point guard Nick Covington scored 27 points in leading the Erie BayHawks to a 109-100 win tonight at Fort Wayne to open the 2012-13 D-League season. D.J. Kennedy added 21 points and 10 rebounds.
The BayHawks don’t play again until next Friday at Canton.
Spots look slim right now. We’ve got a lot of situations going on. It’s hard to call it. People have to come ready to play.” — Tirrell Baines before training camp.
On my pre-snap look at the Erie BayHawks’ training camp roster before their first practice Saturday, I saw more than 17 players competing for 10 spots.
With the way the training roster was put together, you could pencil in certain guys to make the final 10-man roster for their season opener Nov. 23 at Fort Wayne.
Then rookie D.J. Kennedy sparked Erie to the D-League playoffs last season./Erie Times-News
The D-League is the testing board for the NBA.
Whether it’s bringing in the international goaltending rule, a 3-minute overtime or having top four seeds pick their first-round playoff opponents, the D-League has always experimented.
However, D-League has gone traditional for its upcoming draft next month – sort of.
Instead of having a lottery to determine a draft order, the league is basing it on last year’s records, meaning the playoff teams will pick after the teams that didn’t make the playoffs.
Eight of the 16 teams make the playoffs.
Now the NBA has a draft lottery, but it’s for the teams that don’t make the playoffs. What the D-League did in the past was have a lottery for every team regardless.
I understood the theory of it, though.
Since the rosters can drastically change from year to year, it gave everyone a fair shot to get the top picks in the draft.
On the other hand, it’s more logical to let the worst team from a season ago pick first.
That’s how the NFL does it.
Forward Sharrod Ford averaged 15.7 points and 10.4 rebounds in 2010-11 with Sutor Montegranaro in Italy.
The Erie BayHawks thought they had got the big man they had been scouting for a minute.
They’ll instead have to keep the player they needed to get the player they wanted.
Earlier today, a trade that sent forward Sharrod Ford to the expansion Canton Charge for forward Frank Hassell on Monday was voided because Hassell failed a team physical due to some problems with his right knee.
At Tuesday’s practice in Erie, Hassell said his knee had swollen as he had ice on it. Out of Old Dominion, Hassell said the ice was just a precaution. Turns out it was enough to stop the trade.
So Hassell, 23, returned to Canton where he was a fan favorite and Ford, 30, is with the BayHawks, who were looking to add size.
The BayHawks have been lacking size since 7-footer Chris Daniels left to play overseas in South Korea last month
When Erie got Ford out of the D-League player pool, coach Jay Larranaga had every intention of trading him because several D-League teams including Canton were interested in him.
Now they’ll play Thursday night at Fort Wayne with him. Ford, who has played overseas most of his pro career after playing at Clemson, was with the Phoenix Suns in 2005-06.
The Erie BayHawks added 6-7 guard Devin Green out of Hampton University to their roster today through the D-League’s allocation rule.
The rule allows D-League teams to acquire up to three players waived from training camps of their NBA affiliates. The New York Knicks, who are Erie’s hybrid affiliate, waived Green, 29, from their training camp this month.
Green played 29 games for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2005-06. He averaged 0.9 points a game for the Lakers.
Green, who has also played overseas in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Puerto Rico, China and Bulgaria, is scheduled to play for Erie in tonight’s game at 7 against Fort Wayne at Tullio Arena.
Donald Sloan hit the game winner in the scrimmage.
Just got back from Geneva, Ohio where the Erie BayHawks beat the expansion Canton Charge in an exhibition game at the SPIRE Institute.
First off, the SPIRE Institute is a magnificent facility. Took a tour with the BayHawks there before the scrimmage. Very nice facility.
Now let’s talk hoops.
Erie won, 105-103, but Erie coach Jay Larranaga said, “We got a lot of work to do” afterward.
It’ll be interesting if the BayHawks show improvement in their defense in terms of defending dribble penetration in Saturday’s three-team scrimmage with the Charge and Fort Wayne at Penn State Behrend’s Junker Center.
As far as Wednesday goes, the game was close throughout but three guys came to the front when the game was on the line for the BayHawks.
1. Donald Sloan – Hit the game-winner with 19 seconds left after breaking the defense down with the dribble. This guy can get in the lane, has a nice runner and is automatic from the line.
Here’s a look at who the Erie BayHawks chose in Thursday night’s 2011 D-League Draft. Training camp begins Nov. 10 in Erie.
1st round: (7th overall) SG Cory Higgins (6-5, 190, Colorado). Avg. 16.1 points his senior season at Colorado in 2010-11. He’s the son of former NBA player and the president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Bobcats, Rod Higgins.
Better late than never.
The Fort Wayne Mad Ants have won four straight games after beating the Erie BayHawks on Wednesday night, 90-86. They are now 5-3 against Erie with two game remaining against the BayHawks at Tullio Arena.
Fort Wayne plays at Erie Friday night at 7 and Sunday afternoon at 2.
