Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 19

- Byron Eaton

Eaton went undrafted out of Oklahoma State because he didn't have NBA talent. He joined the D-League and was assigned to the Tulsa 66ers, but he plaayed in only 2 games, totalling 1 point, 1 assists and 5 turnovers. Tulsa then released him in December. The fact that he's 5'10 and 260lbs might be why:





- Ndudi Ebi

Former Timberwolves draft pick Ebi spent last year in Italy's SerieA, but this year downgraded to LegaDue, the division below. (Why LegaDue is not called SerieB, I do not know.) The obvious benefit there is to Ebi's numbers, and he's responded with averages of 16.1 points, 13.4 rebounds, 3.1 steals, 1.4 blocks and 1.3 assists per game. He leads Rimini in rebounds (with no one else having more than 4.5), steals and blocks, and is second in points only to Carlton Myers.

Carlton Myers used to be one of the best scorers in Italy, averaging over 20ppg in SerieA for about 26 years. Myers has played all but 7 games of his 19 year career in Italy and turns 39 in late March, so he's a long way out of his prime, but even at this ripe old age he is scoring a very efficient 17 ppg at a decent standard of basketball. This is not comparable to his best, though, for Carlton Myers once scored 87 points in a SerieA game. This occurred as recently as 1995, and here's a, uh, really awkward video of some of it.



But it's not as awkward as this picture of Carlton Myers naked.

Carlton Myers is pretty much an Italian, despite the name, being born to an Italian mother and spending basically his whole life there. However, he was born in London, as was Ndudi Ebi. Rimini also boast another Englishman, Mike Bernard, a former South Florida bench player and English international. Because of this trio, Basket Crabs Rimini are my favourite Italian second division. Also factoring into that decision is the fact that their name is Crabs Rimini.



- Corsley Edwards

Former Sacramento Kings draft pick Corsley Edwards is in China....or he was, until he broke his finger this week and returned home. On the season, Edwards is averaging 29.3 points, 8.3 points and 2.7 assists in 39 minutes per game, shooting 55% from the field, 69% from three point range (somehow) and 78% from the line. Included in there was a 50 point outing and a 47 point outing, and in 15 games he never scored less than 20. Pretty good, Corsley. Pretty good.



- John Edwards

John Edwards spent two years in the NBA. He signed as an undrafted free agent out of Kent State with the Pacers in 2004, played spot minutes in 25 games, and then the Hawks signed him to an inexplicable two year, $2.08 million contract in the summer of 2005. After one year with Atlanta - in which he totalled 70 points, 48 rebounds and 76 fouls - the Hawks traded him back to the Pacers as filler in the Al Harrington deal. The Pacers then waived him, and after a training camp contract with the Timberwolves in 2007, that was it for John Edwards in the NBA.

Edwards has spent two of the last three years in the D-League, seemingly aware that the knock on him is his "rawness." Last year for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Edwards averaged 9.3 and 6.9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game, fairly sedate numbers for a centre-starved league. Those numbers are particularly sedate when you consider that Edwards is now 28 years old. You can't be raw forever.

He did not initially return to the D-League this year, instead signing with Kolossos Rhodes in Greek's AI League. In theory, he was going to provide an NBA calibre frontcourt along with recent Heat draft pick, Robert Ntoziep. In practice, though, he was not very good. Edwards played only 36 minutes on the entire season, totalling 12 points, 5 rebounds and 8 fouls. Kolossos then waived him and signed David Monds as his replacement.

This was only the second time in his career that John Edwards has signed outside of America, and after his release he returned to what he knows best, joining the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League. In 5 games Edwards is averaging 7.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.0 fouls and 1.8 turnovers per game. He's the same player that he ever was. And therein lies the problem.



- Chuck Eidson

After being sufficiently badass enough to win the Eurocup single handedly (kind of) for Lietuvos Rytas last season, Eidson went where the money was and signed for Maccabi Tel-Aviv. In the Israeli league he is averaging 10.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists, alongside 13.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in the Euroleague. Maccabi fans kind of hate him at times, but then again, Maccabi fans kind of hate everything at times.



- Howard Eisley

This time last year, Eisley was working for the Nets for free as a "coaching associate", which is basically a player development coach. Having no evidence to the contrary, I am going to assume that he's still there.



- Obinna Ekezie

Former Maryland and Atlanta Hawks big man Ekezie last played in April 2007. In February 2008 he established a new online venture called ZeepTravel, with the aims of being Nigeria's primary travel portal. Here is Ekezie talking about it.






- Frank Elegar

Drexel offshoot Elegar, who made his name with a strong showing at the Portsmouth Invitational in 2008, is signed in Turkey. Playing for Bornova, The Elegarnce averages 12.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

Elegar has a teammate called Ihsan Yalcin Azizmahmutogullari. An anagram of that is oh shut up.



- Lior Eliyahu

Before Omri Casspi came Lior Eliyahu. Yahoo, an athletic Israeli forward whose rights are owned by the Houston Rockets, left his native Israel this summer and joined Caja Laboral in Spain. The side effect of that has been a dramatic decline in playing time; Eliyahu averages 17.9 minutes per game in the Euroleague, but only 12.8 minutes per game in the ACB. He averages 7.1/3.6 in the Euroleague and 4.4/1.8 in the ACB.



- Carl Elliott

George Washington product Elliott spent the first two years of his previous career with the Sioux Falls Skyforce and Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League. This summer, however, he gave it all up and moved abroad, to the basketball hotbed that is Finland. Hmmmm. I'm not up to date on the salary structure of Finnish basketball, nor am I even out of date with it, but I can't imagine it pays a whole lot better than the D-League. And the standard isn't better.

Elliott is playing for the deliciously named Honka Playboys, the team better known for producing the mighty Petteri Koponen. He is averaging 17.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game, shooting 50% from the field and 26% from three point range.



- Chris Ellis

Another Skyforce ex, Ellis started the year in Uruguay playing for a team called Union Atletica, where he paired up with former NBA player Art Long. Ellis averaged 11.7 points and 8.6 rebounds in 7 games; Long is averaging 15.4/9.9 through 14. Ellis has since moved to the Ukraine, which is about as far away from Uruguay as you can get geographically, if not alphabetically. He has played one game for his new team, Dnipro, totalling 2 points, 6 rebounds and 3 turnovers.



Finally.....

- Tyrone Ellis

Tyrone Ellis, Southern Nazarene's finest, is spending his third season with Cajasol Sevilla in Spain's ACB. He is averaging 11.3 points and not much else on the season, shooting 42% from the field and 40% from three point range. Ellis takes 6 three pointers a game, which gives you some idea of his role on the team.

Ellis holds a Georgian passport, one obtained through those hitherto unexplained means that sometimes seem to befall decent American players in Europe. [Georgia is a country, by the way. Zaza Pachulia plays for them.] Another American Georgian passport holder is Shammond Williams; both Ellis and Williams have had the common decency to at play for the national team of the country whose generous gift of a passport greatly enhanced their basketball careers. That's the way it should be, Dan Dickau.

I Just Brad Wanamaker Love To You

Three days ago, I watched some NCAA basketball. This is rare for me. Very rare, in fact. To be exact, the only games I can recall seeing before these were the Tyrus Thomas versus LaMarcus Aldridge showdown in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, and whichever game it was that Adam Morrison cried in. I don't watch the NCAA because, simply put, I can't. But we'll come to that later. For now, let's stick with the important thing here; I had the opportunity to watch three NCAA games on Saturday, and so, in an exercise designed for both personal development and CV boosting, I did. I tried as hard as I can to judge every player that I saw on the basis of this one game. Here's what I got:

- The first game was between Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. I missed the first half of the first half, and when joining the action, the first thing I saw was Luke Harangody shooting a three. It missed. Instantly, I am drawn to this guy, a slightly chubby white guy with a haircut that I thankfully saw the back of in about 1995. Now, pardon me for being judgemental, but you can't normally be a good basketball player if you have a crew cut. Just can't do it. When I see Luke Harangody, I don't think "that guy is clearly the focal point of this team's offense, and one of the highest scorers in the conference". Instead, I'm thinking this is someone from the crowd, hiding on the court, in a Karl Power-esque moment. Imagine my surprise, then, when the ticker across the bottom reports Harangody's immense scoring and rebounding averages (25.1 ppg, 13.2 rpg, ). I have since learnt my lesson and am now fully on board any Luke Harangody bandwagons that may be in progress. Although he'll need to acquire some vertical leap from somewhere.

- I admit to not watching the rest of that game as intently as I could have been, for my head felt like there was a Frenchman living in it. But here's what I noticed from every non-crew cutted player out there - Sam Young didn't do a damn thing and I was left wondering what it was he's supposed to be good at; Kyle McAlarney can shoot off screens well and has NBA threee point range already, which is fortunate for a player who shoots two and a half times as many three pointers as twos; Dejuan Blair looks like a fat Elton Brand, should shoot his free throws with a bit less arc, was impressively willing to dive on the floor, and was better than everybody else combined on the boards; Jermaine Dixon was constantly in the right place at the right time, with a jumpshot that looked as smooth as Juan Dixon's, yet which belied his 26% three point percentage; and Levance Fields was pretty good at everything.

- The second game featured Oklahoma State versus Texas A&M. I was excited for this one, because it meant that I'd finally get to see Blake Griffin, but it quickly became apparent (after I asked someone) that Griffin actually plays for Oklahoma, not Oklahoma State. There's some proof, if ever it were needed, that I still don't know anything about the NCAA. But I'm trying, dammit.

- The Aggies court was one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. It had a checkerboard effect, which never looks good on a basketball court, and a weird motif in the middle that looked like a crude drawing of Africa. The crowd, however, seemed keen, and had this weird unison thing going on - on every foul shot, they would mime an inverted vagina with their hands, hold it aloft, and fall silent. Indeed, so silent did they fall, commentator Ron Franklin had to whisper so quietly his voice changed. That was mildly entertaining, and seems to be the norm/a rarity amongst college hoops fans. (Delete as applicable.) Also, the fans in all three games didn't boo too much, which was a welcome change. They were louder, happier, and generally less presumptuous than most NBA fans, all of which were welcome changes. most welcome of all, though, were quite how many good looking ladies in ill-fitting cotton t-shirts lined the crowd of these games. That is something that I could TOTALLY get used to, and let it never be forgotten that the ill-fitting cotton t-shirt is actually a great look on a girl. Particularly the ample chested ones.

- This was the first time I have seen or heard Fran Franschilla outside of his time honoured "random interjections into ESPN's draft night coverage" role. I wish I hadn't.

- To the game itself; the commentary team made a big deal out of Derrick Rowland's 1 point, 7 rebound and 3 assist performance, consistently praising his work ethic and tenacious defense, which they considered more important than his inability to hit a cow's arse with a banjo. In fairness, Rowland was indeed running around giving it all, and had a nice weakside block and one nice assist. But the seven rebounds were more luck than judgement, and the jumpshot was one of the most broken that I've seen from a guard in a while. These things count a lot for me - it's rarely if ever advisable to be playing a man short on offense, particularly when the player in question is a guard.

- If Bryan Davis could jump off the ground, he'd be good.

- I like guards who grab lots of rebounds, and so I like Obi Muonelo. Of course, his 9.1 rebounds per game is a total warped slightly by the fact that he's playing mainly power forward, despite only being 6'5, but that's still a mighty impressive number. I particularly like guards who grab lots of rebounds but who can also drain threes, and so Obi Muonelo has made a friend for life here. I also like point guards who constantly put the ball, amusingly fat players, and players whose surnames accurately describe them. As such, Byron Eaton is also one I'm going to follow. It was also amusing to hear Fran Fraschilla consistently describe Eaton's body as being that of a "football player", and in one specific instance "Jerome Bettis", always managing to stop short of saying "a bit fat". (Eaton is listed at 5'11 and 210, even after losing 40lbs. So he must have been great fun to watch last season.)

- As for other Oklahoma State players, Fran Fraschilla mentioned in commentary that James Anderson only goes left, and as far as I could see (using a one game sample size), he was correct. Every time Anderson needed to go right, he rose up for the shot instead. He also never passed, and I wasn't overwhelmed by him as a player. He's a better cricketer. Terrell Harris, meanwhile, looked decent, if a bit ordinary. And Keiton Page used all the dap that Fraschilla gave him to throw up a stinker, full of turnovers and hurried shots. Whoops.

- For Texas A&M, no one really stood out. Josh Carter would have stood out were he a freshman, and not the senior that he is. Rowland, as mentioned, tried hard but has a bovine backside problem. Donald Sloan seemed solid but unspectacular, and his name seems more fitting on a slightly corrupt oil baron. Junior Elonu was probably their most impressive player in terms of NBA prospects, as he showed decent defensive instincts and some fledgling offense. David Loubeau was impressive on offense for a skinny freshman, but I couldn't hear his name without thinking of the dyke bar in South Park. And I have no idea what Dash Harris is supposed to be good at.

We missed most of the first half of the third game, between North Carolina and North Carolina State, but the second half was entertaining. Particularly the fight in the last two seconds. I noted the following:

- People (i.e. everyone) who said that Tyler Hansbrough is going to struggle in the NBA look to be right. It's good to have touch, but it's not worth much when you can't get the shot off in the first place. See also: the demise of Michael Sweetney's career, albeit in his case it wasn't due to a lack of size, but too much of it. Ty Lawson seemed to push the ball a lot, so add him to the list. I liked everything about Danny Green. Little things players with good jumpshots = another yes. That's a fine role player right there. Deon Thompson looked rather polished, and I'm guessing Tyler Zeller is related to Notre Dame's Luke Zeller in some way. Partly because of the name, and partly because they had basically the same face. If it's not the case, that's a spooky coincidence.

- For NC State, Ben McCauley's defensive rotations had Drew Gooden-like qualities, which is never a good thing, but he seemed to have a soft touch and an enjoyable hard foul with two seconds to go. So I liked him. Courtney Fells shot extremely well.....briefly. And Brandon Costner never seemed to know what he was doing, disappearing for long stretches, and then trying to force his way back into the action with some poor shots. Wasn't overwhelmed by the State side, although the crowd's penchant for throwing up \m/ 'The Fingers Of Rock' \m/ was most welcomed.

That's all I got.

Also, I've spent a while recently trying to understand the NCAA recently, its rules, its setup, and its nuances. I've done this by asking people, and it's going rather well. I now understand, if not necessarily agree with, most of what's going on. But I still have three questions:

1: Why are some fouls 1+1, yet some are instant two shot fouls? I'm guessing it's related to team fouls, but I couldn't [be bothered to] figure it out.

2: Why is the shotclock 35 seconds? I seriously can't see a need for this.

3: How do universities afford stadiums that big?



And here, for those interested in the continued plight of an NBA fan in England, is a small rant. These games were broadcast on a channel called NASN, the North American Sports Network. NASN is a channel outside of any standard satellite package, so you have to pay extra for it. I used to do this, but decided it wasn't worth its money, and cancelled it about three years ago. However, these three games were being broadcasted free for the day, as a teaser if you will. This was because NASN was to be renamed the following day to ESPN America, as the famous conglomerate bought out NASN a few months ago. Does this mean, though, that we're now going to get ESPN's NBA games on ESPN America? Does it bollocks. And so we're still stuck with our one game a week.

It's pathetic, really. God bless the internet.