Non-Logo Content: Walberg Resigns at Pepperdine

The Vance Walberg experiment has ended at Pepperdine. Walberg, the coach that jumped from high school to city college to Division I basketball, resigned today citing personal and family reasons for leaving.

It was a short, ugly tenure for Walberg, his 14-35 record speaks for itself and his final game as head coach was one of the worst Division I games I have ever watched. Gonzaga, who in fairness is hitting their stride and with Josh Heytvelt finally healthy might be good enough to beat anyone in the country, made Walberg’s Waves look downright silly in front of Pepperdine’s largest crowd of the season and the largest student crowd that I have seen in the threes years I’ve been going to their games.

It’s disappointing to see the experiment end this way. Walberg’s attack-attack-skip-attack-attack style of play – a style that emphasizes quick drives to the basket followed by a pass to outside shooters if the layup isn’t there - was supposed to, at the very least, make the Waves an interesting team to watch. As the originator of this style that has been partially implemented by many teams on all levels across the country including John Calipari at Memphis, Walberg was called on by Pepperdine to bring his style whole-heartedly to the Waves and take a team that had become dull and predictable under Paul Westphal and turn it into something exciting and completely crazy.

Unfortunately, the cupboard was left so bare by Westphal except for returning freshman Michael Gerrity and raw talent Kingsley Costain, Walberg never had the horses to make it work. Gerrity, a talented, gritty point guard, quickly transferred to Charlotte before the 2006-2007 season leaving just Costain to shoulder the load of a demanding style of play. He played admirably in a forgettable 8-23 season, but when he was mysteriously kicked out of school just before this season started, Pepperdine was left with a young, largely anonymous group of players that currently aren’t deep enough to make the system work. And except for occasional games against lower level teams like Division III Hope International earlier this month, we never got to see AASAA in all its glory.

Assistant coach Eric Bridgeland takes over for Walberg on an interim basis. If Pepperdine wants to continue working with and developing the AASAA style of play, Bridgeland is a good choice to take over for Walberg permanently. As a coach at Division III Puget Sound, his teams played a similar (if not the same) up-tempo style and were wildly successful. As Pepperdine’s recruiting coordinator, he has worked for two seasons to put together a team that eventually, with more experience and even more athletes on board, could make the system work. Their top three scorers are talented, athletic freshman. Crawford High School (San Diego) teammates Tyrone Shelley and Malcolm Thomas lead the way with 15.6 and 13.6 points per game respectively while Australian forward Daniel Johnson is chipping in 9.7 ppg.

I am of the opinion that this is the direction Pepperdine should take the program. It is unfair to these freshman and the recruits coming in next year that they recruited specifically to play this style to suddenly bring in someone that will totally change what they are doing. It’s a better option than completely throwing away the last two seasons and starting over, as tempting as that seems. It can’t get much worse than 14-35, but if they dump AASAA after just two seasons, I fear that it will get worse.

But I fully expect Pepperdine to go after a replacement with a bigger name than Bridgeland to make some, please excuse me, waves. They took a lot of heat for making such a bold decision to go after a gimmicky city college coach with no Divison I experience in Walberg and I have to think that they are wrongly excited to show the Pepperdine community that they are taking the losing very seriously and want to correct a mistake in judgement, whether it really is the right move or not.

This is Malibu after all, image is everything. Firestone Fieldhouse is not immune.

Cal State Northridge vs. Utah Valley State

I just posted my first Big West Conference Report for the college basketball blog Storming The Floor. After seeing Cal State Northridge handle Utah Valley State, I had to name the Matadors the Team of the First Month...

Team of the First Month: Cal State Northridge
UC Santa Barbara was picked to win the Big West by the media and they have lived up to the billing by going 9-1 in the first month. No surprise there. Cal State Northridge didn't get a lot of preseason love but the Matadors have taken care of business against lesser opponents. Led by senior forward Calvin Chitwood (13.3 ppg, 7.5 rpg) and senior guard Jonathan Heard (12.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and complemented by junior three point specialist Deon Tresvant (11.4 ppg) and junior rebounding force Tremaine Townesend (10.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg), Northridge has only been beaten by Duquesne and Gonzaga. Both were thumpings and their biggest win so far was against Cleveland State, so it's hard to get too excited. But it's better than expected and better than any other non-Gaucho Big West squads.

Here are a handful of pictures from the game...


Welcome to the Matadome, all 1,600 seats of it. What a dump. It's an embarrassment of a Division I facility. But it is home to the hardest working cheerleaders in the NCAA...



Seriously, I've never seen cheerleaders lead more cheers. They performed during every single timeout and did a solid job. Not bad for what is essentially a glorified community college. Oh yeah...don't forget the basketball...



Too bad the students have forgotten. Despite a good team, students don't turn out that for games in any meaningful way and the ones that do sit on their hands. The loudest group of students was a bunch of deaf kids. Seriously.

Now, about that logo. It's a solid logo when you just quickly glance at it or see it in a much smaller form. But now that I've found a larger version and really looked at it, it's a bit rough. What is with the big thick black line on the nose and chin? I suppose it's supposed to be a shadow, but it's really unnecessary. And how big can one man's hands be?

Team: Cal State Northridge Matadors
Conference: Big West
Location: Northridge, California
Arena: The Matadome

UCSB Beats UNLV In Last Second - PICTURES ADDED!

Wow, what an incredible game. That's my video of James Powell's three pointer with .4 seconds left that gave UCSB the victory over UNLV.

UPDATE 10/28: Here are a handful of pictures from the game. I love the Thunderdome, it's so warm with all of the wood and when there are a ton of people in the gym like there were on Tuesday night, it's a great place to see a game. Click on the images to bigify...





It was a great game as UCSB came from 12 points down two different times setting up the Powell heroics. I wish I would've let the video keep running and captured the storming the court scene, but here are a couple pictures that hopefully illustrate the aftermath. There are times that I wish my camera did a better job at capturing quick motion, but then I wouldn't get these strange, watercolor-like images that almost capture the joy and the craziness better than higher quality pictures could...





Back tomorrow with, *gasp*, an actual logo review. Say it ain't so!

ABA Franchise Scorecard

First of all, sorry for the layoff. I've been away from the computer quite a bit over the last two weeks and just haven't been had the energy or willpower to post on any of my blogs. Don't worry, though, I'll be back in full force shortly. Just need a refuel.

Anyway, longtime readers have heard me criticize the ABA quite a bit on this blog, all of it warranted. The ABA is, at best, a big joke. At worst it is a massive scam perpetrated by Joe Newman that people continue to buy into and nobody in their right minds can figure out why.

I finally went to my first ABA game two weeks ago and it was worse than I expected (to read my review of the game, head here). There was nothing professional about the Los Angeles Push vs. Long Beach Breakers game and I knew that night that it wasn't going to last long for the Push. And surprise, surprise, the Push have announced that they have suspended operations only six games into the season.

They aren't the first ABA team to have done so. In fact, below is a ABA Franchise scorecard posted on the excellent ABA message board on OurSportsCentral by BreakersFan. Even though I know and everybody knows what a fraud the ABA is, it's still stunning to see just how poorly the ABA is doing this season, worse than ever before. My comments are in bold following the team name...

48 Teams were included in the 2007-08 ABA schedule announced in August. Since then, 3 more teams have been added to the schedule for a total of 51 teams scheduled for games in 07-08.

As of the minute, 29 of the 51 teams remaining playing, as far as we know. The scorecard:

29 Remain active:
Atlanta Vision - Have not played yet
Bahama Pro-Show - Have not played yet
Beijing Aoshen Olympian - Tentatively have scheduled teams to fly to Singapore to play them. Most likely will never happen.
Boston Blizzard
Chicago Throwbacks
Corning Bulldogs
First State Fusion
Georgia Gwizzlies
Halifax Rainmen - Had a big crowd for their opener
Houston Takers - Actually made a long road trip
Jersey Express
Long Beach Breakers
Manchester Millrats - Had solid opener
Maywood Buzz - Home opener on Friday, fingers crossed
Minnesota Ripknees - Was out, in, out, in...Almost all games against teams that either don't exist anymore or haven't made their road trips
Montreal Royal
Orange County Gladiators - Home opener on Saturday against a team that no longer exists
Orlando Aces - Have not played yet
Quebec Kebekwa
San Diego Wildcats
South Chi-Land Infernos - Have not played yet
St Louis Stunners - Haven't made any of their road trips
Strong Island Sound
Syracuse Raging Bullz - Have canceled their next few games, appear to be folding
Texas Tycoons
Vermont Frost Heaves - Most successful ABA team
West Palm Beach Imperials - Randomly appeared on standings after apparently folding earlier. Have not played yet
West Texas Whirlwinds
Westchester Phantoms

22 Departed:
XXX Anderson Champions
XXX Arkansas Fantastics
XXX Buffalo Silverbacks
XXX Cicero Cometas USA
XXX Detroit Panthers
XXX Flint Tropics
XXX Henderson All-Starz
XXX Jacksonville Jam
XXX Los Angeles Push
XXX Mississippi Miracles
XXX Monterrey Poisen
XXX Pacific Rim Rockers
XXX Peoria Kings
XXX Quad City Riverhawks
XXX Reno Sharpshooters
XXX Rochester Fire
XXX Rock River Fury
XXX Rome Legion
XXX Sacramento Heatwave
XXX San Francisco Rumble
XXX Tucson
XXX Virginia Ballerz

With the schedule so messed up and the instability such that teams can't even make road trips, even the best run clubs have virtually no chance of making it. I don't think that this league, in this form, will make it until January 1st. You will probably see a handful of teams (Vermont, Manchester, Quebec, Halifax - basically the Northeast teams) break off and do their own thing and the rest will probably fold.

And I hope that this will end Joe Newman's reign of terror on minor league basketball. But it seems like every time one team dies, two crappier franchises spring up in it's place. There are so many suckers with $10,000 to burn out there, Joe could keep this going for years and years and years. It may never end.

From the SLP Archives: Seattle Supersonics

First of all, thanks to Mike for pointing out the Casper Ghosts, I will get to that this weekend. But today, because of the disheartening news that Clay Bennett has filed his intention to move the Seattle Sonics to OKC, I bring you my rant about the sale of the team from July 18th of last year.

I really dislike Bennett and his hostage taking tactics he has used since taking over, but the person who deserves ALL of the blame is that snake in the grass Howard "Mr. Starbucks" Schultz. Screw him for ever selling to outside interests. He can take his coffee and shove it you know where. I mean it when I say in this that if I ever ran into him in person again - I used to quite often at Salumi - I will give him a piece of my mind.

In the meantime, these idiot Sonics owners will never get even a dollar out of me and I wish that the people of Seattle would stay away from the Key in droves. Buying tickets will not save this team, it's not about you, it's all about that big corporate suite money.


Wow! What a bummer. If you haven't heard yet, Howard Schultz has sold the Seattle Sonics and Storm to an Oklahoma City group led by Clayton Bennett for $350 million, a profit of $90 million for Schultz after figuring in the losses that he has claimed. The team will definitely play the 2006-2007 season in Seattle, but after that they are not contractually obligated to stay in town if they can get out of their Key Arena lease, which probably wouldn't be a problem.

For all Sonics and Storm fans this comes as no big surprise and a big shock all at the same time. Schultz has been complaining for the last two years about Key Arena and all of the money that he has lost and has been frustrated by the lack of interest that the city, the state and all of it's residents have expressed about publicly subsidizing yet another sports stadium in Seattle. It isn't a surprise to see Schultz sell out.

But I don't think anybody could have anticipated that he would sell to a group who, despite everything that they say about wanting to stay in Seattle, are so obviously focused on bringing a team to Oklahoma City permanently. The New Orleans Hornets are scheduled to play once again in OKC for the 2006-2007 season and George Shinn wants to relocate them there for good. But you have to think that the purchase of the Sonics by a major player in bringing the Hornets to town in the first place, is an indication that the Hornets will be staying in New Orleans and the Sonics will be taking over in 2007.

It's a disgusting move by a man, Howard Schultz, who claims to be a community leader and owes so much of his success and the success of his other company, Starbucks, to Seattle and the State of Washington. It is a sale obviously aimed to put pressure on the city to build a new arena, or else. In today's press conference, Shultz said that the OKC group "has a better chance to succeed in negotiations with local government" failing to add what he really wanted to say: "because if they don't, it will be the city's fault that the Sonics are gone for good."

I'm rooting for the city and state not to cave. As much as I love the Sonics, hell I worked part-time for the Sonics and Storm for two and a half years, I don't ever support public funding for stadiums, anywhere. At least not a majority of funding unless the facility will be open to the public most of the time. And I don't mean open to the public to buy expensive basketball or concert tickets, I mean open to everybody to use equally, like a community center. I didn't think that Safeco Field should have been funded and I still think Qwest Field is a joke.

Seattle has so many other pressing capital fund projects that need funding. The city needs a new viaduct before it collapses, a new 520 bridge before it sinks and, for god sakes, to finish an actual rapid transit system. I know that it isn't necessarily the same money that would fund these projects but it doesn't matter, you can't be whining about no funding for some projects and then brag about your brand new, publicly financed basketball arena. Nobody will buy it. Key Arena is not a threat to life and limb, it does not need to be replaced. The viaduct and the 520 are. Fix them now, screw the arena.

If the OKC group really wants to stay in Seattle like they say, they will see what an advantage it is for them to put forward the majority of the funding for a new arena and run it themselves keeping all of the profits. But you know as well as I do that isn't going to happen when their hometown is ready and willing to have it's own team permanently.

Howard Schultz should have been able to see that advantage too, but when public funding is possible, nobody is willing to put up their own money. He has forced the city and state into an impossible position, either they buckle and give up more than ever or they lose the team. Damn you Howard Schultz, I hope whenever you show your face in public someone lights into you for this. I know that if I ever see you at Salumi, you will get an ear full. Unfortunately, I live in California, so I won't get the opportunity any time soon.

As far as the logo goes, this is a logo blog after all, I have always thought it was garbage. I am happy they ditched the red and went back to the original colors, but this logo is so lackluster it's unacceptable. They had an opportunity to go back to the great skyline in a basketball logo and didn't and I never forgave them for that. And they have never been the Sonics to me, they never should have dropped the Super from their name. The Sonics can move anywhere they want if you ask me, but the Supersonics will live on no matter what happens.

Hawaii Hurricanes - UPDATE!

The ABA keeps on chugging away adding teams all willy-nilly and hoping that at least a handful of them make it beyond the first week of the season. The latest sucker to join the party is Honolulu's Andrew Moss, the new owner of the ABA's most far-flung and travel budget busting basketball team. Yeah, good luck with that. I wonder how many teams will actually make the trip out to Honolulu when most of them struggle to get to their game at the middle school gymnasium down the street.

Hawaii has hosted ABA basketball once before. The Hawaii Mega Force lasted all of two games during the 2005 seasons. The players were never paid and the owner, Orrys Williams, was banned from the league by Joe Newman himself (although I'm sure he would be reinstated and championed by Joe if he would just cough up some cash).

The Mega Force left doom and gloom and destruction on the face of paradise's professional basketball scene, so in an attempt to distance themselves from that destruction and to put a happy face on the return of basketball, Moss decided to go with a positive team name that would brighten everybody's day. A team name that suggests good times ahead and great things to come. A team name that...Oh who am I kidding, they called the damn team the f-ing Hawaii Hurricanes. You know, a big, destructive, killer storm that rips through an island leaving nothing but a mess behind it. Or, as I like to call it, the perfect metaphor.

And to top it off, they designed a logo showing a big ABA basketball ready to brutalize the islands. I mean seriously, if this team tanks and leaves a slew of unpaid bills, ripped off ticket holders and conned investors in it's wake like it is destined to do, when his day in court comes, all Moss will have to do is point to the logo and say "we warned you!" Personally, I think all ABA teams should change their name to Hurricanes. It just works so well.

You know why I know the Hawaii Hurricanes won't survive? Because according to their logo, they will be playing with a ball that has all sorts of hard angles and points. Dribbling that ball is going to be one hell of an adventure. Nobody is going to pay to see that.


UPDATE - 10/16 - Hey Hawaii...don't make me say I told you so. From the Honolulu Advertiser...

"The Hawai'i Hurricanes professional basketball team has been downgraded before it even hit the Islands. After several "shady" business deals by Hurricanes owner Andrew Moss, ownership of the Hawai'i franchise was transferred to a group of investors called Pacific Rim Inc. yesterday."

Gee, what a surprise. Shady business deals from an ABA owner? The whole ABA is a shady business deal. What a joke.

Why don't people do some research before they join the league, buy season tickets or sponsorships or commit to coach or work or even play in this league. The general rule is "you are going to get screwed" and then you should be surprised if you don't.

It's to the point where I don't have any sympathy for anybody who associates themselves with the ABA. The broken promises are par for the course. Quit getting suckered.


Team: Hawaii Hurricanes
League: American Basketball Association
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Arena: Neal Blaisdell Center

Minot Skyrockets

It's getting late and I'm just about ready for bed, but before I head there, I have to share this logo. It's not everyday that I come across a minor league basketball logo that I actually like...The Minot Skyrockets of the CBL.

The biggest question I have about the Skyrockets though, is how in the world does a team start in San Jose, California and then decide to relocate to Minot, North Dakota? That seems pretty drastic.


Team: Minot Skyrockets
League: Continental Basketball Association
Location: Minot, North Dakota
Arena: Minot Municipal Auditorium
Dance Team: Rockettes - I know it's small potatoes, but I'm surprised they haven't received a cease-and-desist letter about their name yet.

Phoenix Mercury

I don't comment on actual on-the-field stuff too often, but I would like to congratulate the Phoenix Mercury for winning the 2007 WNBA Championship by defeating the Detroit Shock 108-92 yesterday. Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter are two of the league's best, most exciting young players and Penny Taylor is another outstanding Australian import that raised her game in the playoffs including scoring 30 in the final game. Plus, the old run-and-gun specialist Paul Westhead is their coach, and he's one of my all-time favorites. It was a well deserved win for a very good team.

A few years ago, I worked game days for the Seattle Storm and had an absolutely great time and came to really enjoy WNBA basketball. I recognize that it's not for everybody but I think it's a great league that deserves some respect and I'm sick of how virtually every sports blog has something snide to say whenever something happens in the WNBA. Every crummy joke that they make is so cliche. We've heard them all over the league's history. I wish they'd just give it up already and leave the WNBA be. No one's forcing you to cover it.

I challenge all the haters to go to a game and look around you and see how much fun the hordes of little girls are having. Better yet, if you have a daughter, take her and some of her friends and see how much fun they have. YOU don't have to enjoy the game, but recognize how important the league is to little girls and some other largely underrepresented groups, including people who like affordable family entertainment.

My wife is pregnant right now and if we have a girl I hope and pray that the WNBA will still be around for her to look up to the players and enjoy. Heck, I hope that the WNBA will still be around if we have a boy so that he can see that women have a place in sports other than being cheerleaders and beer girls. Marginalizing women like that isn't how I expect my children to think especially with a smart, strong, doctor mom in the house.

One thing though, can we please do something about the Mercury logo? It's really bad. Definitely not a championship caliber logo.


Team: Phoenix Mercury
League: WNBA
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Arena: US Airways Center
Mascot: Scorch
Merchandise: Get your championship gear now!

Corning Bulldogs

This was a fascinating look into how a logo is developed an illustration of what a great tool Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Community is for designers and teams alike.

The designer, cyandlux or Sean Von Felden (I assume that's his real name) started posting preliminary designs for the ABA's Corning Bulldogs logo last week. Each time he posted an updated design, the other members of the board gave him constructive criticism and with this feedback and the feedback of the owner of the team (I'm sure it was hard to please both of those inputs at the same time), in a relatively short time, it evolved into the final product shown above.

I like the logo, it's definitely one of the best logos that the ABA has ever had, but there are problems with it that even the designer admits to in his posts. Like the basketball dog tag. He didn't want that in there and neither did the other posters, but the owner really wanted a basketball in there somewhere so there you go.

He also admits that he went crazy with the outlines. One of the earlier versions of this logo was just the bulldog without wordmark or outlines or dog tag and it was the best of the bunch except for a couple of problems with the ears and nose that he ended up fixing. I think if he went with just the current bulldog without the outline, it would be an outstanding logo. But again, I think the owner wanted the outlines. What can you do?

Kudos to Sean for his solid design, which probably didn't pay too well. And also kudos to 24 year-old James Schultz, the owner of the Bulldogs for finding him, probably through the boards. I've said that if I owned a sports team and I needed a logo done on the cheap, I'd enlist the services of some of the young designers on these boards.

If history is any indication, the Bulldogs won't play out their entire season. But unlike the other ABA teams that inevitably will fold, at least the Bulldogs will have a solid logo to take to their grave.

Team: Corning Bulldogs - hopefully the find someone to redo their website as well
League: American Fraudulent Basketball Association
Location: Corning, New York - will this small town embrace this team?

2008 NBA All-Star Game

I'm not going to lie to you, I'm dead tired. I played beach volleyball tonight after playing rugby last night and I'm just about out of it. Granted it's pretty late, I should go to bed, but I've been doing so good with more regular posting that I really wanted to get something up tonight.

Thankfully, the 2008 NBA All-Star Game logo was brought to my attention. I don't really have to say much more about it other than WOW! That's a very impressive, classy, interesting, balanced and stunning logo. Easily the nicest NBA All-Star Game logo yet. It suits the city of New Orleans and the Hornets very well.

Very well done NBA and New Orleans, now start preparing for another major hurricane to blow through your town. Just ask the people of Las Vegas how much they enjoyed the NBA All-Star game.

Rio Grande Valley Vipers

On the other end of the D-League spectrum from the Iowa Energy is the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Thanks again to Mike for emailing me this logo.

The name Vipers isn't unique, in fact, it's pretty overused. Just off the top of my head I can name the Calgary Vipers of the Northern League and the Tennessee Valley Vipers of af2, and I know there are more. But at least it makes some sense. Snakes are quite common in the RGV and the team calls Dodge Arena home and Dodge produces the popular Viper sports car. It's not a great reason to choose a nickname, but at least there's an OK reason, albeit unofficial.

But where the name leaves something to be desired, the logo more than makes up for it. I have to applaud the Vipers management for going with something so clean, compact and simple. The Vipers nickname invites people to go crazy design-wise, whether it be the cartoon in Calgary or the unnecessary craziness of Tennesee Valley. But the RGV Viper is very life-like and comes off as a lot more intimidating. And instead of holding onto the necessary sport identifier that we see in all of these logos, it is naturally slithering around it.

I also am a fan of this logo because there's no outline of the state of Texas anywhere, and I like to pretend that the basketball is the same snarling basketball in the Energy logo and it's about to be put out of it's misery by a far superior logo.

Team: Rio Grande Valley Vipers
League: D-League or NBDL - I can't remember what they want to be called now.
Location: Hidalgo, Texas - the greater McAllen metroplex
Arena: Dodge Arena

Fort Wayne Mad Ants

Thanks to one the SLP's advance scouts, Benjamin K. Shown, for pointing me to the brand spanking new Fort Wayne Mad Ants logo.

I'm loving it! It's about time that the D-League had a team with some cojones. General "Mad" Anthony Wayne would be proud. I didn't think that I could take anymore Los Angeles D-fenders, Anaheim Arsenal, Bakersfield Jam bore-fests.

This is one of the freshest nicknames and logos released this entire year. It has some flaws - the ant in the circle is a little awkward - but I don't care, the whole package works especially when you take into consideration how cool the dunking ant on this poster is...

Now that's how you build an identity and a brand. I'd be willing to bet that merchandise will be going "Mad Fast" too!

Team: Fort Wayne Mad Ants
League: D-League
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Arena: Allen County War Memorial Coliseum

East Kentucky Miners & Indiana Ice Miners

The Sports Logo Pundit would like to welcome two of the latest teams to enter the minor league sports landscape: The East Kentucky Miners of the the Continental Basketball Association and the Indiana Ice Miners of the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League.

While it doesn't appear that anything is official, according to this article, former Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler - an Ivy League graduate for what it's worth - and his business partner are planning on relocating the Florida Pit Bulls, a failed ABA team, to Pikeville, Kentucky to become the East Kentucky Miners of the CBA. This will be the second CBA team that Fielder's ownership group operates. The Indiana Alley Cats (who it doesn't appear have paid their web hosting bill lately) joined the CBA last season.

I'd be willing to bet that you have no idea what the MAHL is. Don't worry, I didn't either. The MAHL is a startup hockey league hoping to get off the ground in the fall. The Ice Miners of Indiana, Pennsylvania join the Mon Valley Thunder and the Wooster Warriors as the first three teams to be announced for the inaugural season.

When I first heard about the MAHL, I thought that it might be either a fake or a fantasy league, something seemed fishy about it. But after doing a little bit of research it appears that it's on the up-and-up. Operated by Andrew Haines, who also either runs or ran the American Indoor Football Association and the National Profesional Basketball League (two leagues with varying success. The AIFA just completed a relatively successful first season while the NPFL tried to have a season but crowned a champion in April after only six games), the MAHL will at the very least give it a go, but I wouldn't expect a high quality product on the ice. Minor league hockey is a tough nut to crack, just ask the UHL.

Now that we know the teams, there are so many questions that come to mind...

1. "What are the odds that two of the newest professional teams have the Miners nickname?"
2. "How is it possible that they could release such similar logos simultaneously?"
3. "Which Miners logo is better?"
4. "How will global climate change affect the mining of ice? "
5. "Which team has the better chance of survival?"
6. "Is Miners the most overused nickname in all of minor league sports?"

Here are the answers...

1. 500-1
2. Lack of creativity
3. Doesn't matter, they are both ripoffs of many other logos. Maybe a slight edge to the Ice Miners because their wordmark is pretty cool.
4. It has gotten so bad in the ice mining industry that they had to retrain them to play hockey.
5. The CBA is on iffy ground, but Jay Fiedler signed some pretty hefty contracts as a football player and probably has more money to waste. Plus I still have my doubts that the MAHL will ever play a game.
6. Now it is.

Team: East Kentucky Miners - "COMING SOOON"
League: Continental Basketball Association
Location: Pikeville, Kentucky
Arena: Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center

Team: Indiana Ice Miners
League: Mid-Atlantic Hockey League
Location: Indiana, Pennsylvania
Arena: S&T Bank Arena

Hawaii Hurricanes

The ABA keeps on chugging away adding teams all willy-nilly and hoping that at least a handful of them make it beyond the first week of the season. The latest sucker to join the party is Honolulu's Andrew Moss, the new owner of the ABA's most far-flung and travel budget busting basketball team. Yeah, good luck with that. I wonder how many teams will actually make the trip out to Honolulu when most of them struggle to get to their game at the middle school gymnasium down the street.

Hawaii has hosted ABA basketball once before. The Hawaii Mega Force lasted all of two games during the 2005 seasons. The players were never paid and the owner, Orrys Williams, was banned from the league by Joe Newman himself (although I'm sure he would be reinstated and championed by Joe if he would just cough up some cash).

The Mega Force left doom and gloom and destruction on the face of paradise's professional basketball scene, so in an attempt to distance themselves from that destruction and to put a happy face on the return of basketball, Moss decided to go with a positive team name that would brighten everybody's day. A team name that suggests good times ahead and great things to come. A team name that...Oh who am I kidding, they called the damn team the f-ing Hawaii Hurricanes. You know, a big, destructive, killer storm that rips through an island leaving nothing but a mess behind it. Or, as I like to call it, the perfect metaphor.

And to top it off, they designed a logo showing a big ABA basketball ready to brutalize the islands. I mean seriously, if this team tanks and leaves a slew of unpaid bills, ripped off ticket holders and conned investors in it's wake like it is destined to do, when his day in court comes, all Moss will have to do is point to the logo and say "we warned you!" Personally, I think all ABA teams should change their name to Hurricanes. It just works so well.

You know why I know the Hawaii Hurricanes won't survive? Because according to their logo, they will be playing with a ball that has all sorts of hard angles and points. Dribbling that ball is going to be one hell of an adventure. Nobody is going to pay to see that.

Team: Hawaii Hurricanes
League: American Basketball Association
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Arena: Neal Blaisdell Center

Santa Barbara Breakers vs. Chico Force

Saturday night I traveled up to beautiful Santa Barbara, California to check out the area's only professional basketball team, the Santa Barbara Breakers of the IBL. Welcome to the Sports Pavilion on the campus of Santa Barbara City College...

An announced crowd of 725 (probably more like 400-500 actually in the stands) rooted the Breakers on to a 128-115 victory over the Chico Force. Former UCLA star Toby Bailey led the way for the Breakers with 35 points while Allen Purnell added 23. Tyree Jones and Larry Smith both scored 22 for the Force in the loss.

Those are the facts, now onto my impressions of my first minor league basketball game. First of all, the Sports Pavilion at SBCC is a dump. One of the dingiest, dirtiest buildings that I have ever been in. The entrance is a shambles, the ticket office is an unfinished room, the area where you go back to the bathrooms is disgusting, the seats are uncomfortable and rickety and the lighting in the gym messed up my eyes and gave me a headache. I probably won't go to another Breakers game because of the Sports Pavilion alone.

Another reason I won't be back to a Breakers game is because of false advertisement. On every single one of the team's publications (like the schedule they handed me with my ticket purchase seen above) and on all of the ticketing websites the Breakers list their ticket prices as $6, $10, $14, $18, and $25 for regular seating. When I got to the game, the ticket prices listed were $8.50, $12.50, $16.50, $20.50 and $27.50. They fail to mention that there is an extra $2.50 charge on all tickets. I know some places charge extra for day-of-game tickets but this isn't made clear anywhere and I feel like it's a bit of a shady bait-and-switch tactic on the part of the Breakers.

Also, like I predicted when I took them to task for their ticket prices in an earlier post, they were sold out of the cheap seats and I had to purchase a $12.50 ticket. Now take a look at the first picture again, do you see anyone sitting in the top corners of the bleachers? I don't. There never was anybody sitting in those seats even before the game. Even in an empty building, usually there are a few honest people that sit in their assigned seats at least until the end of the first half, but not tonight. I can't prove anything, but I don't think that the cheap tickets actually exist. Is this another bait-and-switch ploy by the Breakers?

I feel a little bit ripped off by the game play as well. The Breakers made a big deal about signing former Utah Jazz star Bryon Russell, but he has yet to play in a game. There also was no Samaki Walker or Fred Vinson or Mike Efevberha or Shantay Leggins. Heck, there wasn't even local kid Santiago Aguirre to root for. Toby Bailey (seen above pouting after scoring 35 points, sorry for the poor picture) and Billy Knight aren't bad, but what happened to the rest of this "star studded" roster?

And while the game was fast paced and high scoring it wasn't very interesting or exciting. It's basically just a bunch of guys playing pickup basketball trying to score as many points as possible for themselves. This is a big problem throughout minor league basketball and is one of the reasons that fans don't ever get invested in these smaller teams. Players are just looking to catch the attention of somebody higher up in the food chain so team play that leads to more interesting basketball goes straight out the window.

The Breakers do try to put on a show, albeit a bush league one. They have a cheers squad that does a little bit of dancing and throws t-shirts into the crowd. They have some random guy that stomps his feet and yells at the crowd during timeouts, but only in the first half for some reason. They play repetitive pump-you-up music throughout the entire game. And the players all sign autographs on the court following the final buzzer. Nothing is very imaginative or creative, they do just enough to get by.

There were only a couple positives that I could single out. There were a lot of kids at the game that were really, really excited to be there. They danced around on the floor, slapped five with the guys, even got into the huddle at one point during a timeout and yelled "BREAKERS" louder than the players did.

They also seem to be doing a fair amount of sales of their replica jersey. I saw quite a few people shell out $50 for the blue jersey with a big sweeping Santa Barbara across the chest. It's probably because it was the only piece of merchandise that wasn't completely boring. And at least the Breakers have team jerseys. Chico's jerseys were blank other than the number.

So while I wish that I could say that my Santa Barbara Breakers experience was better, I just cannot report anything more than being completely underwhelmed and a little bit angry at the team. Minor league sports has to provide to it's customers the feeling that you are getting more than what you paid for. But between the bait-and-switch tactics and the boring game play, after the game I felt like I spent far too much money on an inferior product. I sincerely doubt that I will be back.

Today in Sports Logos

Today I bring you a new feature here on The Sports Logo Pundit. In an attempt to keep up with what seems like a never ending amount of sports logo news that I am notoriously slow to react to, from here on out I will do what I can to gather that news and present it semi-daily along with the normal reviews. I really would like this to be a post-a-day blog containing up to date news, but I don't always have the time or motivation to think about and then write a full review. So we are going to this new quick wrap, linky style format for the off days. Anyway, watch for Today in Sports Logos often and if you have any tips, please don't hesitate to email me.

New ABA Team of the Day - Say goodbye to the Las Vegas Venom and hello to the Las Vegas Lights. The over/under for amount of games played next season by the Lights is currently listed at three. (OurSportsCentral)

USBL Loses Two - The new USBL season is off to a rough start. First the Boston ownership group pulled out days before the season leaving the league to field the coachless New Jersey Meteors for one game against Albany. Then today the Meteors and the Long Island Primetime folded. (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)

Sonics Gone? - The Washington State legislature decided that they would not be voting on the financing package for a new arena for the Seattle Supersonics during this session. In response, Clayton Bennett popped open the bubbly, smoked a cigar and celebrated with all of the lobbyists that he kept as far away from Olympia as possible. (Seattle PI)

Corporate Ballpark Deal of the Day - The Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League announced today that five year old Falconi Field will now be known as CONSOL Energy Park. The over /under for years until CONSOL Energy is swallowed up and renamed causing the park to also rename itself currently sits at two. (Ballpark Digest)

Santa Barbara Breakers

I'd like to congratulate the Santa Barbara Breakers of the IBL for the job that they did to kick off their inaugural season over the weekend. On Friday night, Santa Barbara's only professional sports franchise knocked off the Seattle Mountaineers 135-105 in front of a near sellout crowd of 1,800 fans at Santa Barbara City College. From the video that I saw of the game, it truly looked like that many fans were in attendance and that number wasn't inflated for effect (no word on how many of those tickets were comped though). By all accounts, it was a pretty successful debut for a city that hasn't had professional basketball since the Santa Barbara Islanders of the CBA folded in 1990.

The Breakers have done a pretty good job of getting the word out around town about the team. They held a name-the-team contest drawing a thousand entries including the victorious and debatable Breakers moniker, they held a draft party in which they claimed territorial rights over two local collegiate players, they've tried to get the area's celebrities involved as much as possible (Rob Lowe threw the inaugural tipoff and the Breakers name was chosen by a celebrity panel) and they have signed quite a few players with local ties or good name recognition like UCLA star Toby Bailey, former Laker Samaki Walker and Michael Jordan's rag doll, Bryon Russell.

But I have to take the Breakers to task on a couple of things. First of all, they decided on a team name, couldn't they give us a logo that represents that name? I'm not a big fan of the Breakers nickname, it's too generic and too obvious to be effective, but you could still do something creative with it to give the team a visual presence in the city. The name of the city over a basketball and a halo means absolutely nothing.

Secondly, the biggest draw for me to minor league sports and especially to an extremely low level, unproven, kind of sketchy commodity like the Breakers is value. I expect to be able to sit nice and close, maybe even courtside, and enjoy the game without blowing a big wad of cash. It's one of the reasons that I go to a lot of Ventura College basketball games, it's the best entertainment value in the entire county.

The Breakers offer tickets at a low $6.00 price point, and in a small community college gymnasium the seats probably aren't bad. However, they also have tickets priced at $10, $14, $18, $25 and for courtside seats $100, $150 and $200. You've got to be kidding me. $200 tickets to watch Shantay Legans and Fred Vinson? What a joke. And who wants to bet that not many of the $6 tickets are available on gameday?

Just as a comparison, on Ticketmaster right now you can purchase Los Angeles Lakers tickets for the first round of the NBA playoffs. Tickets start at $12 and go up to $2500. However, the second most expensive ticket after the $2500 seats is $250. Let's see, courtside for Santiago Aguirre or drive two hours for Kobe and the playoffs? You make the call.

I wish the Breakers all the luck in the world and I plan on taking in a game either next weekend or the weekend after. But unless I am underestimating the sheer wealth in Santa Barbara (it may seem like everybody is rich, but I know that isn't the case) this pricing structure is going to keep average fans away in the long run and the Breakers will disappear into obscurity just like Islanders 17 years ago.

Team: Santa Barbara Breakers
League: International Basketball League
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Arena: City College Sports Pavilion

BREAKING NEWS - Charlotte Bobcats Sold

CHARLOTTE, NC - Charlotte Bobcats owner Robert Johnson surprised everybody in the organization by announcing that he has sold the team to a Charlotte based group including former C&C Music Factory singer Freedom Williams, according to a source close to the team. The announcement was made at an emergency all staff meeting late Wednesday night. The official announcement will be made at a press conference that has been scheduled for 9:00 AM tomorrow.

The source within the organization also reports that the new owners will be wiping out any and all references to the current ownership group including a nickname change. It has been widely speculated that owner Robert Johnson named the team the Bobcats after himself. The new owners have already been granted permission by the NBA to change their name immediately to the Charlotte Krunk, resurrecting one of the most beloved nicknames and logos in the history of the ABA.

It is also being reported that this news is just an April Fools Day post that influential sports logo review superblog, The Sports Logo Pundit, never got around to writing on Sunday.

"It's a shame too," said Brandon from his home on Wednesday night. "If I would've taken a little bit of time that day instead of hanging out with the wife, the joke would have been way funnier and much better written. Now it's just lame."

Robert Johnson was too busy allowing BET to ruin hip-hop to return any of our calls about this story.

UCLA Bruins

With the games less than four hours away, let's finish up our Final Four preview with the UCLA Bruins...

Logo: The script Ucla logo is one of the most recognizable logos in all of college athletics. It's synonymous with championship basketball and you relate it to some of the greatest basketball players and teams of all time. I think that aesthetically it's fine. It's eye-catching, it has instant recognizability and it's traditional. I just have never understood why one would script out an abbreviation. Did they at one point think they would be referred to as ucla as opposed to U C L A? If not, then why is the "U" capitalized and nothing else?

Their secondary logo (left) makes a ton more sense but it doesn't have that traditional uniqueness that the script logo does.

One thing that I think is really interesting about the UCLA logo, color scheme and nickname is how all of the University of California system has kept or adopted the same scheme. All UC schools wear gold and blue, whether it be the navy of Cal Berkeley or the UCLA blue, and a few of them use a bear as their mascot including the UC-Riverside Highlanders whose logo consists of a bear in a tartan. I think it's a very smart move by the UC system to give all of their schools a common bond.

Jerseys: With all three of the previous schools I talked about how they have fairly traditional jerseys. Except for Ohio State's new look, nothing is too outlandish or wild and all three have done a good job to keep it modern but traditional. But nothing can compare to the traditional jerseys of UCLA. Other than a little higher quality stitching and an Adidas logo on the shorts, their jerseys haven't changed a bit since before Lew Alcindor wore one. You have to respect that. I can't imagine what it would be like if someone came in and tried to Nike-ize their jerseys. All hell would break loose. Thank god Adidas has their heads on straight.

Mascot: Unfortunately, I couldn't find a decent picture of Joe and Josephine Bruin but really all you have to do is imagine Albert and Alberta or Freddie and Frieda as bears.

Cheerleaders: I've tried to approach the cheerleaders section of this preview with a little bit of class. The last thing I want to do is come off as some male chauvinistic pig salivating all over racy pictures of cheerleaders. I kind of wanted to present them in a way that commented on their choice of uniform and whether or not they were stunt oriented or generally just there to be eye candy. I didn't expect to find initiation photos of the Georgetown dance team, that was a bonus.

But I knew coming into it that the UCLA cheerleaders wouldn't be able to be presented without a little bit of chauvinistic pig. It is, after all, Los Angeles, what do you expect. So without further ado, I give you everything you need to know about the UCLA cheerleaders...

To be fair, having seen these ladies perform at a couple games, I can tell you that they are actually pretty talented dancers. Sure the Song Girls across town get all the publicity for being Song Girls, but the UCLA squad tears them apart in actual athletic, dancing ability.

Overall: UCLA is all about tradition and rightfully so. Despite my complaints about the logo, I do think it is very effective, the jerseys could never be improved upon, the mascots are a little boring but decent and the cheerleaders, well, who doesn't like knee socks? Probably my favorite of the four teams both on the floor and off.

Team: UCLA Bruins
Conference: Pac-10
Location: Los Angeles, California
Arena: Pauley Pavilion (which surprisingly is a big dump)

University of Florida Gators

Logo: I guess I've never really looked very closely at the Florida Gators logo. With apologies to Clueless, It's a bit of a Monet: pretty from far away but a mess up close. The details of the logo are pretty rough, in particular the white outline around the gator.

I also don't like the circle around the gator head. I understand that it has to be there to give the logo balance but because the orange is so bright in comparison to the blue and green, the circle and the tongue end up being more of the focal point than they probably should be. My eye is drawn first to the tongue and then I have to change my focus to see the gator. That reason alone makes this logo not work for me.

Jerseys: Florida basically has the same jerseys as Georgetown. They are fairly basic in design but have the typical Nike embellishments all over the place that we have come to know and love. For what it's worth, they are pretty timid for a Nike designed jersey.

Enjoy it while you can because if the Nike website is any indication, they will join Arizona, Syracuse and previously reviewed Ohio State in wearing form fitting jerseys tops Lebron's and these ones come complete with a hideous alligator pattern. Good lord, they are horrible! The other three teams wore their jerseys throughout the postseason but Florida has yet to premier their new design. Perhaps next season? I sure hope not.

Mascots: Albert and Alberta or as I like to call them, ripoff Freddie and Frieda Falcon. They are good, traditional mascots that I'm sure are beloved by Gator fans. Personally I am partial to more mobile mascots who don't wear clothes but I guess these two will do. I can't imagine that being the mascot is too much fun, I'd be willing to bet that in the Florida humidity those costumes stink something fierce.

Cheerleaders: I am very surprised to see that the cheer squad and dance team seem to lean much more to the Ohio State side of conservative in dress that I would have expected given how bad the orange and blue looks on anybody and how ridiculously hot and humid gameday can be.

I also find it interesting that there appears to be separate cheerleading squads for sporting events and for competitions. Makes perfect sense to me and I'm surprised that more squads don't separate themselves this way.

Overall: Of the four Final Four competitors, I am the least impressed with Florida's package. The logo does nothing for me, the jerseys might go Lebron next year, the mascots are stinky and frumpy and so are the cheerleaders (not really, just kidding, it just sounded good).

Team: University of Florida Gators
League: SEC
Location: Gainesville, Florida
Arena: Stephen C. O'Connell Center