With Trent SG Sal Banks injuring his ankle yet again, two of the top three (Dom Byrd injured, Brent McCormick) SG's in the SBA will likely sit out the year. Looking at the All Star selections, their absence becomes quite noticeable with Sherborne SG Rufus Simon becoming the first bench player to start in an SBA All Star game at only 18. Unfortunately for the SBA, a media member leaked that the final 4 selections of the expansion bids are to be St. Patrick Happies, Wells Phoenix, Haydon Hounds, and O'Connor Chiefs. With the post-All Star game reveal squandered by the news, the SBA has promised the release of 2 of the 4 teams' uniforms. The other two are to be revealed after the 1969 SBA Championship. Some of the original teams have also been rumored for tweaks in the offseason.

SBA All Star selections
*SG Ellis Holloway (Bangor) is the only active SBA player to not make it again
Team Red
PG Del Davis (Rivers End-2nd), Bobby Ellis (Sherborne-2nd)
SG Rufus Simon (Sherborne-1st), Tommie Fowler (Stratford-1st)
SF Eugene Shaw (Bangor-2nd), Geoff Owens (Trent-2nd)
PF Grant McCoy (Silver Point-2nd), Greg Johnson (Trent-2nd)
C Randal Franklin (Stratford-2nd), Pete Murphy (Rivers End-2nd)
Team White
PG Santos Garza (Bangor-1st), Jordy Jensen (Silver Point-1st)
SG Brent McCormick (Sherborne-2nd), Edgar Carroll (Rivers End-2nd)
SF Clarence Ward (Sherborne-2nd), Bob Bass (Stratford-1st)
PF ira Diaz (Rivers End-2nd), Cary Joseph (Bangor-2nd)
C Adam Lowe (Bangor-2nd), C Kenneth Tate (Sherborne-2nd)

Last edited by jxhnhvhn (4/01/2020 5:37 pm)

The Haydon Hounds currently play in the EBA ahead of their move to the SBA next August. From 1964-1969 they've won 2 EBA Championships and before that the Hounds won 6 RLBL Championships. They are to play in the recently renovated Houndtown Arena with a capacity of 4,500. Haydon's brand is heavily inspired by the polynesian folk art of the plains Manakakwans, featuring 2 hounds that form an H. Originally their colors were baby blue and gold, however recently they've preferred to use both as primary colors and navy as a secondary color.

News
With the commencement of the 1969 SBA season, the league was informed of some unfortunate news. SBA ratings dropped a considerable but recoverable amount this season (about 20%). Many have pointed to the relative mediocrity of the league with first and last place only being 7 games apart. Although some have said that expansion will only further this problem, the SBA hopes it will separate the teams a little bit.

Sherborne Whalers have easily been the biggest disappointment this season only winning 22 games after being expected to at least challenge, and possibly even win the SBA championship. Despite having only one major injury, and to a role player at that, 1969 will go down as a major failure. There have been rumors that Brent McCormick's seat as their key player may be getting hotter by the game, but the Whalers are not currently taking trade offers for the star SG with 2 years left on his contract.

The SBA also announced changes to its league magazine. Beginning in the 1970 season, the magazine will have three editions a season as opposed to four in 1968 and 1969. Those featured will be a pre-season, mid-season, and post-season edition for each team with release most likely one division at a time.

As for the 1969 SBA Championship, remarkably the Rowdies still ended up with home court advantage. Although their run has slowed, hopeful MVP candidate PF Ira Diaz will fight the other main hopeful and defending MVP SF Eugene Shaw. At PG is where these teams are probably most evenly matched. Rowdies' Del Davis, a former Bangor Farmer, and Farmers' Santos Garza, likely Rookie of the Year, will also fight for All-SBA even though the post-season is not supposed to count toward awards. The two PG's play pretty similarly too, with an argument to be made that Davis may be the a little bit better of a playmaker, while Garza is the better shooter. Unfortunately for the Farmers, SG Dom Byrd is likely to miss the whole series despite his injury being long ago in July. However, the team hasn't ruled a return out completely, but for now Bangor will start Chuck McLaughlin at SG. With SF Sylvester Carr injured in November, the Rowdies will also be guessing who will play at SG in the championship. If Carr can go, expect Edgar Carroll, and if not Grant Goodwin will take the spot. Slight advantage to Bangor at SG. At SF and PF the decisions are easy. Bangor SF Eugene Shaw will have the advantage regardless of who he plays against at his position. Same goes for Rivers End PF Ira Diaz, who shouldn't struggle much with Farmers' PF Cary Joseph. At C, you could almost make a case for Rowdies' Pete Murphy, but being the young raw talent he is, I'll take C Adam Lowe although he seems to never quite meet expectations for the red and whites. Neither team has the strongest bench, especially with the aforementioned injuries, but Bangor's championship experience and older age could give them an advantage. These teams play a pretty similar type of basketball, not to mention one that isn't likely to bring in the most fans possible, but I do think the Rowdies' may have the ambition that could be the x-factor. However, given the experience the Farmers have, I'll take Bangor, but their window is closing still being the SBA's oldest team, this may be their last shot with this core.

Also, I was wondering if any of you could help me with changing the title. I couldn't find it easily in trying to do so. Thanks.

Last edited by jxhnhvhn (4/05/2020 3:04 pm)

jxhnhvhn wrote:

Also, I was wondering if any of you could help me with changing the title. I couldn't find it easily in trying to do so. Thanks.

You have to go the original post of the thread and click edit. Change the subject line and hit submit. You want to be careful though, hit preview first to make sure it works because this board has been known to delete the content of the post. If it doesn't work, I've had better success changing the subject line on a mobile device instead. It's an ongoing issue.

If you'd like, I can just admin change it to the league name so you don't have to worry about editing it.