Kyle Goldcamp survived the first cuts the Erie BayHawks made Tuesday. Erie waived three players./Photo by Janet B. Kummerer/Erie Times-News

Earlier today, I went to Penn State Behrend’s Junker Center to check out the Erie BayHawks practice.

Here are a few notables:

1.Erie waived three players – guard Adrian Bowie out of Maryland, forward Kayode Ayeni out of St. Francis and power forward Joseph Kennerly II out of Central Oklahoma – today. The odds were against Kennerly III because he was one of four true big men in camp.

Erie traded a second-round pick to Idaho for Jeff Graves, drafted 7-footer Chris Daniels in the first round and Kyle Goldcamp has been with the BayHawks for the last two two seasons.

2. Goldcamp said the biggest difference between Erie coach Jay Larranaga’s system of a season ago and how the New York Knicks play is how the big men run the floor. The former Gannon star said before, bigs ran down the middle of the floor. Now the big men are being asked to run the wings to keep the middle open.

The Knicks and BayHawks are in a hybrid partnership.

3. Goldcamp and Graves, out of Kansas, went at each other again today. At age 30, Graves is more seasoned and has more talent, but what Goldcamp does is make you work. One one play, Goldcamp took Graves baseline, missed the shot, but got the rebound and put it back up. Later in practice, Graves made a beautiful drop-step baseline move, took two power dribbles and scored on a reverse.

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The BayHawks traded veteran point guard Blake Ahearn for Donald Sloan (15)./AP Photo

Several players vying to make the final 10-man roster of the Erie BayHawks made a lasting impression the team’s general manager of basketball operations – Allan Houston.

The assistant general manager of the New York Knicks came to Erie on Sunday for training camp and left Monday afternoon. Here’s a list of the players Houston named when asked who stood out to him while he was at training camp.

Donald Sloan (23 years old, 6-3, 205, Texas A&M) – “I saw it in the Pan-Am trials. Didn’t get to see much of him last year (playing for the Reno Bighorns), but he’s a real point guard. The more and more I talk to other personnel and people throughout the league, a lot of guys come into this league and they have to be combos. A lot of guys who are twos trying to be ones because of their size, but he’s a real point guard. I like his demeanor. Athletic, explosive and he sees the floor well.”

Chris Daniels (27 years old, 7-0, 265, Texas A&M Corpus Christi) – “I like Chris’ skill level.”

Cory Higgins (22 years old, 6-5, 180, Colorado) – “Cory is very efficient. Like we thought, he handles the ball well. Good mid-range shooter. Good defender. He’s probably going to have to get a little bit stronger, but that’s natural for when you come out of college.”

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Allan Houston is running Erie's b-ball show./NYK.

The 2011-12 D-League season hasn’t started yet and the Erie BayHawks have already made three roster moves.

Fortunately for the BayHawks, the D-League increased roster moves from 10 to 12 this season.

Let’s take a look at the latest one, which may give a good indication of how things are going to be for the BayHawks being in a hybrid partnership with the New York Knicks, who led by Allan Houston is running their basketball operations.

A former star guard with the Knicks, Houston is their assistant general manager.

A day after the draft, Erie traded veteran point guard Blake Ahearn and second-round pick Taj McCullough, a small forward, to Reno for point guard Donald Sloan and its seventh-round pick, veteran forward/center Joe Kennerly III.

Let’s start with the appetizer part of the trade.

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All of President Barack Obama's 2011 Final Four picks are done.

I only have one Final Four team left in my bracket – the Connecticut Huskies.

But hey, that’s one more than President Barack Obama has. He picked all the No. 1 seeds and the final one, Kansas, fell Sunday against Virginia Commonwealth in the regional final.

My other Final Four picks – Florida, Ohio State and Louisville – fell by the wayside, but at least two of them lost to teams that made it to the Final Four.

Butler upset the Gators in the regional final while Kentucky stunned the Buckeyes, who were the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament, in the regional semifinals.

As for the Cardinals, never again Rick Pitino. Never again. Losing to Morehead State right off the bat?

Come on, man.

So we got Connecticut, a third seed, and Kentucky, a fourth seed facing each other to take on the Butler-VCU winner.

Butler is an eighth seed, while VCU is an 11th seed who had to play in the play-in game to get into the field of 64.

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New Mexico Thunderbirds (14-19) at Erie BayHawks (21-9)

Saturday, 7 p.m., at Tullio Arena

On the air: WFNN-AM 1330; www.nba.com/dleague

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Erie — PF Ivan Johnson (Named to East team for Feb. 19 D-League All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Scored a game-high 37 points in Erie’s 125-100 win against New Mexico on Thursday night.) … SG Blake Ahearn (The all-time leading in free throw shooting percentage in NCAA Division I history at 94.6 percent, Ahearn is 53-of-53 from the line this season. Team’s second leading scorer at 15.6 ppg.) … PF Kyle Goldcamp (The former Gannon star established career highs in points with 19 and blocks with six in Thursday’s win).

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Here’s what TNT NBA analyst David Aldridge and University of Kansas coach Bill Self had to say about Toronto’s first-round pick, Ed Davis out of North Carolina. Davis’ father, Terry Davis, played 10 seasons in the NBA.

Kentucky has the game's most dynamic talent in freshman point guard John Wall.

Please people.

I know my bracket is done. It’s been done.

Three of my four Final Four picks have already been eliminated. Georgetown, my national champion pick, couldn’t get out of the first round, Pitt didn’t have enough to push past Xavier and Louisville lost to Cal in the first round.

Yeah, I’m certainly a risk taker, but it’s all good. My only saving grace is that Kentucky is not only still in, but now the favorite to win it all since Kansas got upset in the second round by Northern Iowa.

I have the Wildcats making it to the title game so I’ll be tuned in when they play Cornell tonight at 9:30. UK has the most talent in the tournament, but Cornell is way more experienced.

However, if one team has at least four future NBA players, it should win a game like this. Then again, I had Georgetown winning the whole darn thing so what do I know.

Georgetown center Greg Monroe was smiling then when getting called for a charge, but it was a sign of frustration. By game's end, the underdog Ohio Bobcats put the Hoyas in a state of shocking defeat.

RIIIIIIIIP! RIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

That’s the sound of (14) Ohio shredding my NCAA Tournament bracket by blasting (3) Georgetown, 97-83, just minutes ago.

Terrible. Where is my vacuum to clean up this mess?

Now I could save face and say I picked (13) Murray State to beat (4) Vanderbilt, but since I forgot to list it when I blogged my initial predictions, who’s going to believe I actually picked that upset.

Regardless, having your national championship pick go down in the first round is depresing.

Oh wait. Kansas is losing to Lehigh. I’m over the Georgetown pick. Got more March Madness to watch.

“They played harder. They scraped. Clawed. Grabbed hands. Grabbed arms. Pushed, which was expected. We expected it.” – Maine guard Billy Thomas on how the BayHawks played the Red Claws tonight.

Billy Thomas had just one point, but Maine stilll won, 81-77, Wednesday.

The BayHawks made sure Thomas didn’t erupt from 3-point range like he did Saturday night in going 6-of-8 from behind the arc en route to scoring 26 points. Thomas went 0-of-6 from the field, only had one point, but the Red Claws still won, 81-77, at Tullio Arena on Wednesday.

Thomas only attempted one 3-pointer and was 1-of-2 from the line.  Thomas, who played college ball at Kansas, had four rebounds, an assist, a steal and three turnovers in 37 minutes, 11 seconds of play.