Greg Washington ended his senior year at Hofstra in 2010-11 with a school-record 275 career shot blocks./AP Photo.

When the Rio Grande Valley Vipers made Greg Washington their final cut in training camp, he didn’t wear that as a badge of honor.

“At that point, I was at my lowest,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect next. Speaking with my agent, he said he was going to do his best to find me another team.”

Enter the Erie BayHawks.

Erie picked Washington out of the D-League player pool and he had his first practice with the BayHawks earlier today.

“Thank God I was still packed,” Washinton said. “My mindset was still as positive as anybody’s. I’m blessed to be here. I’m ready to work.”

The BayHawks are trying to get the rail thin 6-10 center ready for Friday’s game against expansion Canton at Tullio Arena. Washington has the school record for shot blocks at Hofstra with 275.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here are highlights of Iowa’s 130-117 win at Rio Grande Valley heading into Saturday’s game against the Erie BayHawks at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Rio Grande Valley has already beaten Erie twice this season.

Erie also has a game Sunday at Iowa, which lost its first game to the Vipers this season.

Would provide highlights of Erie’s 105-87 home win against the Maine Red Claws, but when trying to upload it from the YouTube’s D-League channel, it says, “The uploader has not made this video available in your country.”

Well, if it’s not available in the United States where the D-League exists, where is it available?

New Zealand?

Rio Grande Valley took the second of two games from Erie as the Vipers beat the BayHawks, 119-112, Saturday at State Farm Arena.

The Vipers were once again hot from 3-point range, going 14-of-29 from 3-point range. In Fridays 122-113 victory Friday night, Rio Grande Valley was 17-of-34 from behind the arc.

The BayHawks are back in action Thursday in their home opener against the Maine Red Claws (0-1). Game set to start at 7 p.m.

The Erie BayHawks lost their 2011-12 season opener, 122-113, Friday night against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers at State Farm Arena in Higaldo, Texas.

Here are highlights from Friday night’s game.

After leading the Iowa Energy to the 2011 D-League title, head coach Nick Nurse headed to the team he beat in the league finals – Rio Grande Valley.

The Vipers open the season tonight (8 p.m.) against the Erie BayHawks at State Farm Arena. Earlier this week, Duane Rankin caught Nurse on the phone and talked to him about why he left Iowa, being part of hybrid partnership and the change in weather.

Read the rest of this entry »

Al Nolen/Photo by Rob Engelhardt/ETN

The Erie BayHawks have reduced their roster to 11 after waiving Al Nolen and Marvin Roberts today.

The 6-foot, 1-inch Nolen, a point guard who Erie picked in the fifth round of the 2011 D-League Draft, didn’t participate in any of the scrimmages as he’s recovering from having a pin removed from the foot that he broke in his senior year at Minnesota last season.

Roberts, a 6-5 guard out of Florida International, had issues with a groin injury, but did play in the three-team scrimmage Saturday at Penn State Behrend.  He was invited to training camp after a free-agent tryout.

Now the BayHawks have one more player to cut by 5 p.m. on Nov. 23.

The interesting part about this last cut is forward D.J. Kennedy is just getting back to doing more in camp. Out of St. John’s the 6-5 Kennedy is coming off a season-ending knee injury he had in March.

Erie could make him an injury waiver and retain his rights. If Erie keeps him, that means a small forward/big guard will most likely go.

The guys that fall into the smll forward/big guard category are Chaz McCrommon, who joined the BayHawks at the end of last season, Kyle Spain, who played for Erie last season, Mychel Thompson, who was a third-round pick out of Pepperdine or Tirrell Baines, who was a fourth-round pick out of Marshall.

However, Erie may go a completely different direction to make its final cut. The BayHawks will likely make their final cut either after tonight’s practice or tomorrow morning because they’re headed to Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday for Friday’s season opener against the Vipers.

Kyle Spain and the Erie BayHawks have more work to do before the D-League playoffs begin next month.

A night in Reno.

The BayHawks resume their five-game road trip tomorrow at Reno (26-16) and follow that up with two games at Bakersfield (25-16) before rounding it up Tuesday at Fort Wayne (19-23).

Erie opened the road trip with a 133-126 loss Sunday at Iowa, which has the D-League’s best record at 32-11.

Erie (27-14) has clinched the playoffs and is right now a fourth seed. The top four seeds have home-court advantage for the first round and the top three seeds get to pick their first-round opponent.

Reno is just 1.5 games behind Erie and Bakersfield trails the BayHawks by two games. If the BayHawks lose those three, they could drop from fourth to seventh in a hurry.

Plus the Bighorns and Jam will own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the BayHawks.

And don’t think that game at Fort Wayne will be easy.

Erie is 4-1 against the Mad Ants, but they’re vying for the final playoff spot and have a former BayHawk in point guard Derek Raivio, who landed in Fort Wayne following a three-team trade last month.

Read the rest of this entry »

Against Tulsa on Saturday at Tullio Arena, Erie rookie forward Tasmin Mitchell hit a game-winning shot at the buzzer to beat the 66ers, 98-96, but the ball never actually went through the basket.

Tulsa was called for goaltending because two of its players grabbed the rim after the ball hit it.

Tomorrow, Maine comes to Erie after losing its last game on a buzzer beater, 100-97, when Springfield guard JamesOn Curry hit a straight on bank shot from 3-point range. However, they have a player who knows a little bit about hitting game-winning shots.

Newly acquired Maine guard Craig Winder hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Rio Grande Valley Vipers the 2010 D-League title. Check it out below.

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 »

Still raw, 7-footer Solomon Alabi still needs work.

He’ll be back, I think.

The Toronto Raptors recalled 7-foot-1 rookie center Solomon Alabi today after his second stint with the Erie BayHawks.

I’d bet he’ll return to the team for a third and final run later this season. NBA team can send their first and second-year players up to three times a season.

In the four games he played on his second stint, Alabi averaged 9.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. His second run was successful at times, strange in others.

The good: Alabi had a career-high 20 points and 11 rebounds against Maine on Jan. 9. Really showed moves around the basket and was aggressive.

The bad: In his three other games in his second stint with Erie against Sioux Falls, Idaho and Rio Grande Valley, Alabi totaled 18 points and 15 rebounds.

Read the rest of this entry »