Wednesday August 24 2011 – 4:19pm Eastern – Fort Lauderdale, Florida

I’m on vacation right now – in South-Florida – hoping to dodge Hurricane Irene.

The latest information seems to be telling folks that the path of the storm should keep ‘ol Irene off of Florida’s coast.  At most, we may get some high winds and rain starting tomorrow – lasting a day or two – but nothing much more significant.  That said, things can turn (literally and figuratively) in the blink of an eye (no pun intended (Eye of the Storm)) so I’ll simply say I’m ‘cautiously optimistic’ …

… I did go out and buy some water, flashlights, and extra batteries at Wal-Mart though!

———-

The news of Hurricane Irene has pushed a lot of the coverage of the Miami Hurricanes’ scandal off a few of the pages.  It’s still there … just not as prevalent, for now.

———-

It would be nice (okay, no really) if Canadian colleges and universities could even think about having to worry about booster scandals and violation allegations.  Given that programs and schools north of the border aren’t really privy to offering athletic scholarships, there’s rarely much ‘foul play’ going on.  I’m sure it exists somewhere – in some capacity – but nothing like what folks in the U.S. have seen.  Heck, look at Miami, Reggie Bush giving back his Heisman Trophy, and the Barry Switzer era at Oklahoma as a few fine (and recent) examples.

The closest encounter I ever had to anything ‘off-side’ came back when I was at Humber College and the rumblings started that one of the players on the men’s basketball team was not officially enrolled in school at the time the club was playing.  The stories/accusations were never proven to be true (though many believed the accuracy of the story) so the rumors quickly faded.  Thus, ’cause it can’t be confirmed, I won’t give the name of the player in question!

———-

Speaking of Humber … I’ve got to give a big shout-out to a fellow “Hawk” … Akeem Sween … who was selected by Moncton in the 3rd round of the NBL Draft on Sunday evening.  Congrats!

———-

If you’ve been searching for a full list of the draftees from Sunday, look no further:

First Round:

Oshawa – Morgan Lewis, University of Findlay
PEI- Justin Garris, Ashland University
London – Tryone Levett, Alabama State
Moncton – Darrell Wonge, Winston-Salem State
Saint John – Jerome Brown, Panola College *
Halifax – Danny Friend, Limestone College
Quebec – Tristan Martin, University of Houston *

Second Round:

Oshawa – Kevin Francis, Cleveland State
PEI – Chris Cayole, St. Michael’s College
London – Isaac Kuon, University of Windsor
Moncton – Kevin Loiselle, Maine Fort Kent University
Saint John – Sherton Sanderson, Markham, ON
Halifax – Papa Oppong, Eastern Kentucky
Quebec – Sherone Edwards, UPEI

Third Round:

Oshawa – Blain Labranche, UBC
PEI – Tyrone Mattison, Long Island University
London – Nicholas Lother, University of Winnipeg
Moncton – Akeem Sween, Humber College
Saint John – Kevin Massiah, Wisconsin
Halifax – Jerrell Thompson, Sacred Heart University
Quebec – Eugene Kotorabai, Long Island University

( * – denotes Canadians selected in the 1st round.  Rounds 2 and 3 were all Canadians (as designated by NBL rules))

———-

Want MORE news from the NBL?

How ’bout some names and logos …

You probably already know about the Halifax Rainmen, Quebec Kebs, and Saint John Mill Rats — the founding fathers of the NBL.  But London, Oshawa, and Moncton have recently named their teams as well … and the league is still awaiting final say from the folks in PEI.

Here is the LONDON LIGHTNING:

The MONCTON MIRACLES were officially named at a press conference yesterday:

And the OSHAWA POWER were unveiled last week but the logo has not been released to the public as of yet.  I have seen it though (coaches were wearing golf shirts at the NBL Draft) and I can tell you that it’s a basic “P” … grey in colour … looking somewhat similar to the Purdue logo.  If I can track down an image for the POWER … I will post it here asap.

Word is the PEI team may drop the provincial name (i.e. – PEI ____ ) and go with the city in which the club will be playing its games:  Summerside.  The SUMMERSIDE ______.

Some insiders originally speculated the east coast team could go consider going by neither the province or the city’s name … and simply refer to the team as “THE ISLAND”

———-

I’ll get back to more NBA and Team Canada stories tomorrow and in the days ahead.  Yes, I plan on blogging still … even while I’m on vacation!

… That’s assuming I survive Irene!

Thanks

E. Smith

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.