Last Night In The D-League

Alright, there were seven games on tap last night.  That's a lot for me to recap.  That said, this is going to be short and to the point (that's a Carlos English reference - you don't get it and it's not funny, but I made it.)  We've got a lot of games on tap tonight - Unfortunately, I might have to go be social.

Utah @ Colorado (in Utah)

This must have been an interesting game.  Colorado never has a real homecourt advantage anyway, but playing a home game in Utah must not have been fun.  Granted, it was 25.2 seconds and because of a Colorado statkeeper's error.  Regardless, Colorado should have had the perfect play ready to go - 25.2 seconds and the ball with over three months to prepare.  Unfortunately for them, Eddie Gill stepped out of bounds with three seconds left and Ronald Dupree made a layup to take the victory.

Colorado @ Utah

Check the box score.  Not sure what to think about it because Colorado doesn't have to win another game, so none of their starters played much.  Therefore, I'm not thinking about it.

I may be more powerful than you think: In yesterday's preview, I wrote "I'm taking Colorado in this one.  In fact, I'm taking Colorado in every one.  The jinx is on."  With this jinx, I made Colorado lose twice, in one night.

I might not be more powerful than you think: Due to the D-League deciding that it doesn't have to have full box scores, I know Morris Almond was a DNP.  I have no idea why.  This makes no sense.  Dear D-League, let's make it so we get something in the box rather than DNP.  It's absurd that this isn't already mandatory.  UPDATE: It was due to back pain - he should be good for tonight.  Why should I have to send 10 emails to find this out?

Anaheim @ Dakota

I was at this game.

Didn't keep me all that interested.  There was an ejection - which is always fun, if only to hear Scott Woodmansee play "So ya had a bad day" while Ronald Allen walks all the way across the court to the locker room while untucking his jersey and telling the Wizards bench that they know where he stays.  

Paul Mokeski is now the head coach of the Anaheim Arsenal.  I don't know when it started, but it sounds like Sam Vincent hasn't been travelling with the team for a little while now.  Mokeski and me (the title of my currently being written D-League memoirs) talked a bit before and after the game - he remembers me.

Anyway, nothing particularly exciting happened in this game.  Nick Buchert, who is referenced second to only Marat Kogut after some unofficial research, called a decent game, but missed a pretty obvious call with 3.2 seconds left in the game, when Blake Ahearn was irish-whipped into the turnbuckle.  If you're familiar with the Irish Whip, Blake would have to travel - he did, and it was called.  The crowd didn't like it.  In Nick's defense, they probably wouldn't have liked the free-throw's either, and I wouldn't have been able to mention him this lovely Saturday morning!

Blake Ahearn didn't play well in the first three quarters, played well in the fourth when Anaheim mounted a comeback.  Cedric Bozeman did not impress me like he should have.  Mo Baker had 10 points, 15 assists on five shots.  Check the box for stats.

Erie @ Fort Wayne

If I was Jeff Potter, and I wish I was, this game would tell me that Jaren Jackson's out next year.  I didn't watch the game, but how does a team get outscored 64-38 in the second half after leading 61-39 at halftime?  From 2:57 in the third to :27 in the fourth quarter, not one substition was made for Fort Wayne.  While they were missing Chris Hunter, this seems absurd, as there was obviously something wrong with the team on the floor.

Recap at the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette; highlight right here:

"That's the last thing I'm thinking of - about being evaluated or not," Jaren Jackson said. "It doesn't matter to me. What matters now it was a great night; a lot of people came out here to see these guys play with a lot of heart, and for the most part they did. There were some exciting moments."  "If I'm being evaluated, cool," he added.

Sioux Falls @ Iowa

Kane Fitzgerald executed the rare triple technical: at 3:16 in the first, he T'd up Keith Brumbaugh, Mark Tyndale and Nick Nurse.  Wow.  Need some details on that one.  In other news, you can probably attribute this loss to three Sioux Falls starters combing for eight points.  Or poor shooting and rebounding.  Or maybe Iowa's just that good.  They did clinch the Central Division.  It's too hard to single out the best Iowa player - check the box.

Bakersfield @ Idaho

It was Randy Livingston Day.  Idaho won.  I'm not writing a recap, but rather waiting for Rumble's details.  I'm sure this victory could be attributed to Idaho shooting over 60% from the field, but 68% from the charity stripe's going to have to improve - Believe that!  Joel, show em how it's done.  And if they're still bad, take them out for wine coolers.

RGV @ Austin

From Jon L in last nights comments: It’s still midway through the fourth quarter, but it looks like RGV was reallllly able to slow this one down. Squeaky’s missed all seven of his threes. amaal Thomas getting less PT and having a quieter game. Looby and Jordan haven’t done as much as you might expect, but it looks like Senseley has caused problems for the Toros again. I think he’s one of those guys who’s just a randomly bad matchup for them. As I mentioned the other day, he’s big enough to play inside but can take it out to the perimeter, too. He’s not great at either, but passable enough to cause problems. But still, Dwayne Jones with 22 points and 23 rebounds so far. Nice.

It looks like Hairston and Jones took over. From the time RGV went up 92-79 with 8:42 left, Craig Winder fouled three times, shot 1-3 from the field and 1-2 on free throws, and turned it over once. Ernest Scott missed three three pointers and two jumpers. Also, Ryan Bright had two blocks on Senseley. Hairston finished with 41 points on 26 shots and Jones had 31 points, 28 rebounds.

Tulsa @ Albuquerque

I think this game happened.