Friday, 7 p.m. at Tullio Arena

ON THE AIR: WFNN-AM/1330; www.nba.com/dleague
PLAYERS TO WATCH
▀   Erie — PF Ivan Johnson (A 2011 D-League All-Star, Johnson leads the BayHawks in scoring at 20.7 ppg. Was named D-League co-player of the month for averaging 24.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists, shooting 61.2 percent from the field.) … SF Tasmin Mitchell (Avg. 25.4 points, seven rebounds and shot 60 percent in eight games in February). PF Kyle Goldcamp (Avg. 6.8 points and five rebounds, but in his last three games, the former Gannon standout is avg. 11 points and 9.6 rebounds.

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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.

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