New power rankings were put up yesterday. The Jam are back at the #1 spot, edging out Idaho. I still don't think the Jam are as good as they are being touted as (is tout the right word? It's a terrible word in the first place. "Tout" Come on. Who came up with that one?). Iowa is at number three, but to me they'll be number one as long as Courtney Sims is on the team. And even without Sims, that team is solid. The Mad Ants have been sitting pretty at 12 (0-5 on the road; this fact keeps jumping out at me everywhere especially in nightmares that may or may not include my mother turning into Ragedy Anne). LA rounds off the list at 16 and there's no arguing there. Brandon Heath has been looking especially wonderful however. Keep an eye on him.
Erie (11-9) dropped what should have been an easy win to Anaheim (6-13) last night in a ridiculously low scoring game: 79 - 75 (Anaheim had 13 in the third quarter and STILL managed to pull off a W). Ronald Allen managed to miss 8 shots in just 14 minutes. Both teams shot around the 39% mark. That shouldn't happen. I would have asked for my money back after this game. Yes, Kedrick Brown grabbing 16 rebounds looks good on paper, but when there are 99 opportunites, any 6-7 forward could do this (this sounds unnecessarily mean towards Brown; he did outrebound everyone on the court). Erie got only eleven free-throw opportunities in the game, and since they made just five of those, maybe that was a good thing. Erie's Ivan Harris and Anaheim's beastly James White were really the only bright spots in this stinker. Harris dropped 17 points and White put in a game high 25 points and grabbed seven boards and sent back two Erie shots in the win (however, his 7-17 shooting is a downer). Erik Daniels managed a double-double but this kid cannot be shooting that terribly (5-17). Erie put up 16 more shots than the Arsenal, made six less turnovers, and made a nice comeback in the second-half, but couldn't make the shots down the stretch and lost a very winnable game. Anaheim snaps a five game skid and the Bayhawks are in a bad stretch. Erie Times News has a good recap of the game that isn't nearly as negative as I.
The Colorado 14ers (11-6) and Rio Grande Valley Vipers (7-14) must have felt bad for D-League fans, as the scoring was plentiful in the 14ers 129 - 110 win. It's easy to see what happened here. 62.5% shooting for Colorado. That is ridiculous. Sean Williams shot 12-14 (wow) and finished with 27 points, 16 boards, and 2 blocked shots. His five fouls and five turnovers didn't help I'm sure, but it's nice to see Sean dominating here in the D-League. Now, I don't like Sean's attitude (we all know that story), but I see him as a player who can turn it around. Now if he can do that, stop turning the damn ball over, and watch the fouls, he won't be in Colorado (come on, the 14ers have gotten enough NBAers this season - really not fair at all) all too long (however probably not with the Nets all too long). Joe Dabbert had a very similar game (but with 6 turnovers) and the 14ers big men put this one away. And oh yeah, Eddie Gill dished out 14 dimes. We'll ignore his six turnovers though. Did I mention Josh Davis' 31 points? Colorado owned Wednesday. Alpha Bangura had 26 points for the Vipers, but his name still manages to outshine all of his accomplishments on the court (he has a cool name - along with Kurt Looby). Eh, I could mention some other Viper player's solid games, but it hardly seems worth the effort. I'll just say this. STICK A HAND IN THEIR FACE. It works. It' called defense. It's chanted at games sometimes. Sometimes people come up with clever uses of the word to be obnoxious and wildly original at sporting events. It's awesome. My seventh grade Catholic school basketball coach couldn't get enough of it. I thought I'd share it with you guys. I can keep going with this. But I won't.
There were two games yesterday, but really only one winner. We've got five games tonight, and the Ants are taking on Sioux Falls for the first time since the Carl Elliott - David Bailey swap. Should be interesting... Bailey had a solid night in Tuesday's loss to Utah with 10 points, 7 boards (how!?), and 5 assists off the bench.