Hottest rivalry in ABA ready to continue this Friday night in Jacksonville
December 26, 2006 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
Jacksonville Slam News Release
In all sports you have all kinds of great rivalries, you have Duke vs. North Carolina in college basketball, Florida vs. Georgia in college football, the Dallas Cowboys vs. the NY Giants in the NFL, the Miami Heat vs. the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA, the NY Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball, and the list goes on and on... Now the ABA has a spawning rivalry between two expansion franchises playing in their first season in the American Basketball Association. The Jacksonville Jam and Miami Tropics match-up has been a special one this season, for it matches two of the top teams in the ABA against each other from the same division (the Southeast Division). To this point, Miami has won three of the four heated games, and is the only team to have beaten the Jacksonville Jam this season. Three of the four meetings have taken place on the Tropics home court at Southeast Nova University in South Florida, but now the action shifts north to UNF Arena with the fifth match-up taking place this Friday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05pm.
Jacksonville is ranked as the #3 team in the ABA in this week's ABA Power Ranking. Miami is ranked #8. Miami has won nine of its last ten games, and Jacksonville has won five of it last six games. All but one of the games has been close games between the two, and both teams have won on the other team's court early on. Both teams have been excellent road teams as Miami is undefeated on the road this season (5-0), while Jacksonville has compiled one of the best road records in the ABA as well (7-2). The Jam has one of the best records at home this season in the ABA with a 5-1 record, and to this point that is the main difference between the two teams, as Miami has lost three games at home early on in the ABA season and holds a 4-3 record at home.
When you look at the teams personnel, both teams are talented and deep! Miami has one of the top scorers in the ABA in Carlos Escalera (28.6 ppg). Escalera is a premiere scorer and can score both from the outside and by attacking the basket. He is also a big guard at 6'4! The Tropics also have Terence Shelman (6'7-240-Forward), Sylbrin Robinson (6'7-230-Forward), Karel Rosario (6'9-240-Center), and Angelo Reyes (6'9-260-Forward/Center) that dominates the paint for them. In the backcourt, Miami brings experience and talent with Pachi Cruz (6'2-180) and Ray Rose (6'1-175). Cruz and Rose play both ends of the court and control the game for the Tropics. Marcus Barnes (6'2-220-Guard) has been extremely valuable to Miami this season both as a starter and off the bench. Barnes just makes plays when the Tropics need it most!
For Jacksonville, the Jam has been the consummate team this season with 7 players averaging double figures led by Trey Moore (6'5-195-Guard). Moore is averaging 24.5 ppg thus far this season and the Jam combo guard is one of the most explosive offensive players in the ABA! Jam Point Guard, Anthony Lumpkin has established himself as one of the premiere point guards in the ABA and can do it on both ends of the court. Lumpkin is one of the toughest players to contain in all of the ABA. TheAnthony Haymon (6'9-245-Center/Forward) has been dominant this season at times and is one of the top rebounders in the ABA with a 13.2 average. Jerry Williams (6'7-230-Forward) is averaging 17.0 ppg and 6.5 rpg, and veteran Power Forward, DeRon Rutledge is averaging a double/double on the season for the Jam with a 16.4 ppg and 11.2 rpg average. Rutledge has battled injuries thus far this season, but has been dominant of late for Jacksonville with back to back double/double games. Both the Jam and Tropics have excellent and deep benches that bring young and talented players onto the court. Barnes and Eric Wilkins (6'4-205-Guard/Forward) lead the Tropics bench and the Jam bring the best 6th Man in the ABA off the bench in Donald Harris (6'5-215-Guard/Forward), who averages 18.5 ppg and 2.1 steals off the bench for Jacksonville. As well, the development of Mario Brown (6'9-240-Center/Forward) and Mike McCowan (6'9-235-Center/Forward) has been a key factor in the success of Jacksonville thus far this season. Both Brown and McCowan are big, strong, and developing players for the Jam with bright futures in Pro Hoops! The cement the Jam bench is veteran power forward/center, Tony Holley (6'8-265). Holley is one of the all-time leading rebounders in English Pro Basketball History and chose to come home this season to finish his playing career at home in Florida. Holley has been a powerful force all season for the Jam and his experienced leadership has helped Jacksonville become one of the top teams in the ABA.
Both teams are led by experienced head coaches. Ed Aurrichio leads the Miami Tropics and has had an outstanding coaching career finding success on both the high school and AAU levels during his career. This is Aurrichio's first professional head coaching job, but he has continued his successful ways on court this season in building the Tropics into one of the premiere teams in the American Basketball Association. Jacksonville is led by veteran professional head coach, Steve Tucker, who is considered to be one of the top professional head coaches in all of professional basketball. Tucker led the upstart Texas Tycoons to a 21-10 record two years ago in the ABA and was the head coach for the Western All-Stars in the 2005 ABA All-Star Game in Las Vegas, NV. Coach Tucker has started several expansion professional basketball franchises during his professional coaching career and his magic touch is continuing in Jacksonville with the Jam this season as he has established the Jam as one of the top teams in the ABA!
"Anytime you get the Tropics and Jam together, you're going to have one exciting basketball game, for Miami has an excellent team and we're pretty good too! Both teams are talented and have depth. I truly believe that both the Tropics and the JAM are two of the top five teams in the ABA right now. I think that will be proven as we play this thing out the rest of the season and into post-season play. If you truly want to see high caliber and exciting professional basketball at affordable prices, you should definitely get out and see the Tropics and our Jam in action this Friday night and throughout the remainder of the basketball season. It'll be something that you'll truly enjoy! states Jam head coach, Steve Tucker."
So now the stage is set for these two explosive ABA teams to match-up once again this Friday night in Jacksonville on the Jam's homecourt at the University of North Florida Arena on the UNF campus.
Join us this Friday December 29 at 7PM at the UNF Arena and be a part of the JAM! Log on to www.jaxjam.com to learn more about the excitement and buzz being created by Your Jacksonville JAM or call 904-302-5323!
Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.
American Basketball Association Stories from December 26, 2006
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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
