Edmonton Chill to surprise IBL

[CJPhillips]

Check out the Edmonton Chill lineup at www.frozenhoops.com. Big announcement today (Friday April 4, 2008) as they may be signing former Philadelphia 76ers player to contract. Team already has two proven IBL stars Antone Jarrell (scored 68 points in an IBL game) and J.R. Patrick (21.7 ppg for Eugene) along with Duke grad Sean Dockery and Georgetown bigman Lee Scruggs.

[besl]

I would expect the Chill to finish first in the West this season. Not only is their roster loaded, but they have a tremendous advantage when it comes to travel, as they have an unbalanced home/road schedule and they hit all their road games in the midwest in one swing. On top of that, they get to play all the Northwest teams (with which they'll be competing for a spot in the playoffs) at home and don't have to play any of those teams (except Tacoma) on the road.

If you study the schedule, you'll notice the IBL did some clever scheduling that puts the Chill in Tacoma the day before they'd be set to play in the conference tournament in Monroe.

[Elkhart_Fan]

Just remember that the road to the championship runs through the Elkhart Express.....

[winds55]

Just remember that the road to the championship runs through the Elkhart Express.....

As does their Midwest trip- twice.

[misenern]

They also signed Eric Crookshank of the Halifax Rainmen. He's a great player and Edmonton's roster already looks stacked.

[Elkhart_Fan]

Just remember that Portland had a "stacked" team last year, and they came in second place. While being "stacked" is great, you also need to have chemistry and people that are willing to give up their own glory for the good of the team. Actually, I think that was Portland's downfall in the championiship game last year...too many selfish players, and they definately didn't play as a unit. So, I wish Edmonton the best of luck...but as I said in an earlier post, the road to the championship runs through Elkhart and from what I've seen of Elkhart, that will be a tall task.

[misenern]

Just remember that Portland had a "stacked" team last year, and they came in second place. While being "stacked" is great, you also need to have chemistry and people that are willing to give up their own glory for the good of the team. Actually, I think that was Portland's downfall in the championiship game last year...too many selfish players, and they definately didn't play as a unit. So, I wish Edmonton the best of luck...but as I said in an earlier post, the road to the championship runs through Elkhart and from what I've seen of Elkhart, that will be a tall task.

I don't follow this league or really have any knowledge of it. I just commented on Edmonton’s signing of a player I watched this year, and noticed their roster also has a lot of former D-league guys. Will the team mesh? I don't know, it's anyone's guess.

[Elkhart_Fan]

Please don't get me wrong, I didn't mean any offense. I just wanted to point out that all too often a group of great players doesn't seemed to do as well as a group of players that play well as a unit. This is a great league. I really wasn't even a basketball fan before the Express, but definately find these games the highlight of my spring and early summer.

[bballnut]

An example might be this week-end. The LA team has NBA vets, but they lost to one of the worst teams out east. Elkhart has excellent coaching, and he knows how to put a team together. I am still going with the Express to win a third Championship. Good Luck teams out west.

[MJHankel]

Well, they didn't win the first game but they appear to be a good team and the game was very close. Great to read that they had a sell-out crowd too.

[besl]

Here's a picture of their gym at tip-off:

http://i25.tinypic.com/9sgro7.jpg

Announced crowd was 2,173, and according to the paper about 150 had to be turned away. There are only bleachers on one side of the gym, they have about 3-4 rows of floor seating behind the player benches on the near side.

[MJHankel]

I was hoping somebody would have pictures, do you have any more?

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

All the IBL uniforms I've seen seem to be...well, uniform. Same manufacturer (Wilson). Same design. I wonder if the CBA is taking notes.

[MJHankel]

My understanding is that the IBL uses "Marqui Athletics (http://www.marquiathletics.com/)" (formerly Sho-Shot) exclusively, making for a consistent uniform quallity. For instance, here is the example (http://www.iblhoopsonline.com/downloads/Gary.pdf) for the Gary uniforms. I just wish they had the names on the back.

Speaking of uniforms, I see, from that pic, that Bellingham got to keep their Baby blue color. I still don't get why the Steelheads changed so drastically.

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

My understanding is that the IBL uses "Marqui Athletics (http://www.marquiathletics.com/)" (formerly Sho-Shot) exclusively, making for a consistent uniform quallity. For instance, here is the example (http://www.iblhoopsonline.com/downloads/Gary.pdf) for the Gary uniforms. I just wish they had the names on the back.

Speaking of uniforms, I see, from that pic, that Bellingham got to keep their Baby blue color. I still don't get why the Steelheads changed so drastically.

Ahhhhhhhh. Time to get my eyes checked. I thought I saw the Wilson "W" on the back of the unis, but it was an "M" instead.