Vipers vs Tulsa 12-19-09 Pre-Game

Tulsa Convention Center - 7:00 PM Tip

Greetings from Tulsa... for the final time this season. Yes the schedule makers in the D-League have given us two trips to Tulsa which happens to be our second closest league opponent, but they are both within the first 9 games of the season.  Very odd, but our trips to Tulsa come to an end tonight.

OK lets talk about last night... but please not for long. The effort by the Vipers last night was non-existent. RGV had an abysmal third quarter. Tulsa began the stanza on a 22-2 run, after they already led by nine at half-time, and ran their lead to 29 which put the game out of reach early in the second half.

The Vipers didn't dominate the boards, they didn't distribute the ball well, and they did NOT shoot the three well either. The Vipers were taking poor shots, contested threes, threes in transition, and were missing lay-ups. Look for the lack of effort to change tonight.

I mentioned to Coach Finch in our pre-game interview that sometimes teams who are winning, but not playing at their best need to get "punched in the mouth" in order to wake up. He agreed and said he got punched in a few other places last night, I agreed.

Once again OKC asignee Byron Mullens is listed as questionable and won't play. I have not seen him in the building. It is likely that he is in OKC getting treatment on his undisclosed injury. I am sure its no where near as gruesome as the one Carl Landry sustained last night in Dallas. OUCH. But hey that's one way to get Dirk out of game... lodge three pieces of your teeth in his elbow.

Pre-game show for tonight begins at 6:50. Tip-off will be somewhere around 7:10. Follow all the action on 104.9 JACK FM. OR don't forget to watch the game, (with the radio up of course) on NBA Futurecast

Vipers starters remain the same

C - Joey Dorsey

F - Mike Harris

F - Antonio Anderson

G - Garrett Temple

G - Jonathan Wallace.

for Tulsa here are their starters

C - Steven Hill

F - Larry Owens...(he was money last night)

F - Cecil Brown .. (two points off his career high last night)

G - Mustafa Shakur.

G - Moses Ehambe.

PS. Don't forget to stop by the Vipers pro-shop at 4500 North 10th Street in McAllen. We have a great holiday package available. Check out the details HERE

GAME PREVIEW 12/18/09 - VIPERS (6-1) vs Tulsa 66ers (4-5)

Tulsa Convention Center

Game #8 - Road Game # 5 - RGV record vs. Tulsa in 2009-10: (2-0)


Greetings from Tulsa, OK. The Vipers will try for the their 7th straight if they can get another road win in Tulsa. The last time RGV was in Tulsa they struggled in the first half, mostly due to an early and topsy-turvy travel day on the second half of a back to back. The Vipers rallied in the second two periods to knock off Tulsa 94-89. 


First lets break down the 66ers. They have made a few key changes to personnel in the last few days. Forward Keith Clark was waived due to injury earlier in the week, but just today he was re-acquired only to be shipped off to the L.A. D-Fenders for forward Deron Washington. Washington was the third overall selection in the D-League draft by LA and was averaging 9.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists for the D-Fenders before the deal.Devon Hardin was waived due to injury to make room for Washington on the roster.


Guard Zabian Dowdell was also added. Dowdell was a legit scorer and play maker at Virgina Tech and overseas in Italy. He gives Tulsa much better depth at the guard position.


Tulsa also added center Steven Hill back to their roster. He might be the reason for a new player rights rule in the D-League as well. Last season Hill was an assignment player for Oklahoma City in the 2008-09 season. He was waived by the Thunder and could not go back to the 66ers when he signed a D-League contract. He was claimed off of the waiver pool by the Utah Flash and the 66ers had to trade their best player at the time (Ronald Dupree) to Utah to get Hill back. Not only did this deplete the 66ers (who were awful last year) they didn't get to use Hill much as he ended up missing the rest of the season after January 27th. Now the league allows D-League affiliates to retain rights of players who have played or have been on the active roster of an NBA team for a certain period of time. 


One quick note, OKC assignee Byron Mullens is not expected to play tonight. He is a strong offensive player and rebounder for Tulsa do the Vipers depth in this department should shine through. 


Tulsa should be rested for this one. The Vipers will need to play string out of the gate if they are to win their seventh straight.




For the Vipers. How else can I put it, they are the hottest team in the Western Conference. The Vipers are winning at home and on the road and lately have been winning convincingly and not letting games come down to the final possession. 


Vipers Head Coach Chris Finch said at lunch today that he still doesn't know yet how good his team is. The reason? The Vipers have only played three teams in their first seven games. They will only play three different teams in their first nine. Other than their home game Monday versus Reno, the Vipers will play only Tulsa, Austin, and Albuquerque over their first 12 games. The Vipers won't play a team outside their conference until January 9th when they travel to Iowa. 


As for the game tonight expect the Vipers to try to keep the pace up and let the offense of Mike Harris, Garrett Temple, and Antonio Anderson continue to carry them. The point guard match-up is huge. Tulsa point man Mustafa Shakur must be contained and forced to make uncomfortable decisions with the ball. Expect the Vipers to give him a few different defensive looks.


The Vipers in my opinion have better personnel, however that does not always mean a victory for you especially on the road. 


Here are the Vipers starters


C - Joey Dorsey
F - Mike Harris
F- Antonio Anderson
G - Garrett Temple
G - Jonathan Wallace.


UPDATE:


Tulsa brings out this starting line-up


C - Steven Hill
F - Larry Owens
F - Latavious Williams
G - Moses Ehambe
G - Mustafa Shakur


Mullens is not playing and I do not even see him dressed or on the bench yet. Not many other surprises in the starting line-up


Don't forget to follow all the action on 104.9 JACK FM and on NBA Futurecast. Don King is the broadcaster for Tulsa... no... not this Don King. Kinger is one of the Vet broadcasters in the league. He calls a good game and is a heck of a nice guy. He will have the call on Futurecast tonight

Vipers vs. Colorado March 12th Pre-Game

Back we are at the phenomenal Broomfield Event Center. It will be the last time the Vipers will take on the 14ers this season, and perhaps ever unless someone buys this team and does a MUCH better job of marketing it to Broomfield and the outlying communities. Crowds here are sparse to say the least and with the problems that Tim Wiens (Owner of the 14ers and Rocky Mountain Rage) is having it is unlikely that the 14ers will survive. Although the league is pretty adamant about not letting teams die. We will have to just wait and see I guess.

As for the game, the Vipers will need to get off to a much better start than they did on Tuesday when they were down 30-20 at the end of the first and shooting the ball at a 9/31 clip. That's just not gonna get it done. As I've said before the 14ers are the Mongoose to our Snake, Or is it the Snake to our Mongoose?? Either way it's bad... I don't know animals. :)

The Vipers are 1-13 against Colorado... 0-6 in Broomfield...I'd like to say they are due...but Colorado is the best team in the league. I don't think its close. But I don't think they will win the 2009 D-league Championship. They just remind me too much of Phoenix and in a one and done, a bad shooting night for Colorado could mean an early exit. I am going to try to blog during the game. But the info at each time-out will be short. 

We are the only night game in the D-League tonight. Iowa lost to Tulsa 108-107 in overtime... (wait what?) Yes the Tulsa 66ers beat one of the best teams in the D-League on their home floor earlier today. Don't know how that happened. But hey if there is one upset in the league today, why can't we have another one in Broomfield tonight?

Starters are out here they are

RIO GRANDE VALLEY VIPERS

• G- Jared Jordan
• G-Stanley Asumnu
• C- Kurt Looby
• F- Jawad Williams
• F- Trent Strickland

COLORADO 14ERS

• G - Eddie Gill
• G - Dominique Coleman
• C - Joe Dabbert
• F- Trey Gilder
• F- Josh Davis

Tip-off is coming up shortly... check out all the action on ESPN 1240-AM.. Or you can watch on Futurecast and listen to Chad Andrus who is one of the better broadcasters in the D-League...Or follow the live stats on D-League.com

Vipers versus Colorado 1-14-09 Pre-Game

Live from Dodge Arena... it's The RGV Vipers versus the Colorado 14ers. Let me just say this, if I was a fan of the Vipers, and I'm not, since I am employed by the team, I would HATE the Colorado 14ers!. They are the mongoose to our snake..Ok yeah that was a bad joke... but, they DOMINATE RGV. The Vipers are 1-9 lifetime against Colorado including two losses this season. They are good and they lead the league or are among the league leaders in every major offensive categories, they score, they go to the line, they distribute. However, they don't play defense, which may bode well tonight.

Clay Moser, not to be confused with Robert Loggia, told me they have added a new offense, one that encourages consistent ball movement and discourages stopping the ball. We will see how it works tonight.

As for Colorado, they are in second place in the division and have played great basketball, but like RGV have had a ton of changes lately. Gone are James Mays, Cheik Samb and Sonny Weems. Sean Williams is with the club from the New Jersey Nets and he along with Josh Davis, who has been incredible lately, will be Eddie Gill's go to guys tonight.

Don't forget you can follow all the action on Futurecast , or you can get the live box and play-by-play here  or check out Todd Mavreles' live game blog

Vipers vs Albuuerque Thunderbirds Pre-Game 1/2/09

Happy New Year Viper Fans.

With the new year hopefully comes a new attitude for Rio Grande Valley as they begin a very important six game stretch where they play five of their next six games against two of the worst teams in the D-League. Tonight the first of back-to-back home games against the division rival Thunderbirds. 

The Vipers knocked of ABQ back on Dec 14th  with 122-99 win at Dodge Arena. The T-birds may be 2-9 but have been playing better recently. The beat Idaho back on Dec 26th and had a couple of tight home contests with the division leading Austin Toros. 

Will Conroy continues to lead the league in scoring. He is a pesky player, probably the peskiest in the league. He is one of those players that you hate when he is on the opposing club, but you love when he is on your team. He makes good plays, scores the basketball, gets his steals and his assists. A solid player, who likes to put pressure on the refs and flop a little bit too... See what I mean about he is a player you love to hate?

The Vipers have had a couple of long and intense practices, and they needed it. They worked on pick-and roll defense and worked on getting Joey Dorsey aka Ray Lewis with a basketball...along with Jared Jordan aclimated to the offense. Lets hope it helps.. Also still no replacement for Kendall Dartez we will let you know when we hear something.

Dont forget to tune in tonight on NBA Futurecast or on ESPN 1240-AM

Here are the starters 

RGV

G- Smush Parker

G- Alpha Bangura

C- Alton Ford

F- Joey Dorsey (Houston Rockets)

F- Trent Strickland

I am going to attempt a running gamer tonight... but bear with me as I am calling the game...but I will try...

GO VIPERS