|
The Frankfort Cattle Barons, reeling from a slow start in their first NABL season, take a week off after playing four games in a week and finding themselves in the NABL basement.
The Barons (1-4) have been plagued by inconsistent play all season, a factor that coach Ron Abegglen is trying to correct on the week off. The Baron slide started when they lost power forward Darius Beard to Poland. Beard was replaced by 6-8 Lance Barnes, who came to the team with a bad back and has been most disappointing in his play. Barnes had averaged 28.5 ppg and 14.5 rpg in the Irish Basketball League last year but his contributions in Frankfort have been minimal.
The Frankfort center play has also suffered with the loss of 7-6 Andy Van Volkenburgh to the ABA Indiana Legends. Backup Adam Earnhardt has been a big disappointment and Andy Van's replacement, 7-3 Jeff Ellis came to the team out of shape and unable to play. He has since left the squad.
Abegglin is using the break to rehab Franklin Paul's sprained ankle and Eric Johnson's ankle injury, which is much more severe. He is also auditioning some post players to fill in the holes at the power forward and center positions.
"I've never been in this position before(last place)", said Abegglin, who won 80% of his Division I games in a long and storied career at U. of Alaska and Weber St. "It's a real tribute to the quality of play in this league that we have struggled, even though we have a pretty good core of a team. We lost our big men right when we had a flurry of games and our lack of depth caught up with us."
The Cattle Barons return to action January 30th, facing the Kentucky Coyotes in Lexington at the Kentucky Basketball Academy. The Coyotes have haunted the Cattle Barons this year, including the controversial last second game in Frankfort.
The Cattle Barons then return home to the Capitol Complex Convention Center February 1 against the Owensboro Showboats and February 2 against Charleston. The February 3rd game originally on the schedule has been eliminated as it conflicts with the Super Bowl.
"When we scheduled the game, the Super Bowl was being played on our week off," explained Baron GM Tom Ficara. " After seeing us play against UK at home and on TV, and after seeing us play against the Frankfort-Franklin County game, I wasn't about to put us up against the Super Bowl!"
The schedule has been adapted to a 16 game grid to reflect the inability of the Evansville Orbits to get going this year. The Orbits arena had a dance floor that was not acceptable to NABL officials to play basketball on. The team remains active and will play at large AAU games this year and then join the NABL next year when they have arranged for a basketball floor.
Also, dates in March have been adapted to NABL Post-Season play as a part of the schedule revamping. On March 3rd, Frankfort will host the NABL Post Season Tournament Doubleheader. Charleston will face off against Owensboro in the first game prior to the much anticipated tilt between the Cattle Barons and the Kentucky Coyotes. It will be the first visit to Frankfort by Kentucky since the controversial last second game in Frankfort last week.
The winners of these two games will travel to Owensboro to play the Championship game at the SportsCenter on March 11th. The Tournament winner gets an automatic bid to the 97th Annual AAU Tournament in Sacramento April 10-14.
On March 14th, the NABL All Stars, coached by Frankfort Coach Ron Abegglen, will take on the College All Stars, coached by Dave Spurlock. The College All Stars will come from top programs from around the country.
On April 6th, the Kentucky Basketball Academy will host the NABL Kentucky All Stars, coached by Jerome Hoosier against the Kentucky College All Stars, coached by Pat Rafferty.
For more information: [email protected]
|
