RealGM

This is where you can discuss CBA basketball. I know that it is a ways into the season, but better late than never.

The Miners recently dropped their home opener to Albany, which is pretty surprising in my opinion. (considering Albany has been towards the bottom of the league a lot) Darryl Showtime Hill and JJ Sullinger were two of the six players that scored in double figures for the Patroons.

In other news, the CBA dominated the interleague challenge with the ABA, accumulating a 16-2 record with an average margin of victory of over 28 points. (recognizing that these were high scoring contests) They also took 105.5 out of a possible 120 quarter points. I guess we know which league is better, huh? cbahoopsonline.com

The Lawton Fort Sill Calvary won the CBA championship. Player Shawn Daniels really put the team on his back for the victory.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/sport ... ref=sports

Any thoughts on the future of the CBA?

If the CBA wants to exist in this economic climate they'd need to seriously hack expenses and develop a cluster league. Maybe play games on the weekends and practice at night. Just make it a part time deal. All teams located within a 8 hour drive.

The same can be said about the USBL. Their heads are in the clouds. Selling non-sense.

I'm pretty sure that the USBL is gone for good. They should've adopted the IBL model for cost cutting. They had the right idea but minimizing the amount of teams in the league so that they could produce a legitimate season where teams that start still compete by year's end. However, this seriously worked against them when the Patroons ceased play for a year. It disrupted the playoff schedule and probably lost them a lot of fans. (from the few they had to begin with)

The CBA is a bit too spread out, but I do like their markets. They are going after small, target areas with little college basketball. This is good for business imo because there are some fans in less developed regions of the country. You see them when you look at NDSU getting seeded in the tournament. The entire state looked like it was in attendance. The problem with this league is its failure to move into the 21st century. They rarely update their website and publicity is virtually nonexistent. In a climate where the internet has taken over, they could certainly stream some of their games online in order to promote. Or advertise in some way through an online medium. What was good about the old CBA was it had a word of mouth marketing campaign going on. The best players outside the NBA would play there and it was interesting to watch some of these guys play. The D League and Europe have taken what could have been a promising league. There is still some talent- don't get me wrong. But, by and large, it has been upended by new entrants/trends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continenta ... ssociation

The CBA appears defunct. If I ran the show I'd encourage the Albany Patroons to join the PBL and form an alliance with that league against the poorly run IBL and ABA.

A lot of this probably isn't possible, but I'd try to I'd take the CBA name and leverage it into building a new league that is more or less centered around Oklahoma with say Indianapolis and DFW being the regional "hubs". THe CBA name is still a lot better known and respected than most of the other minor league names. I'd have to drop the financial requirments (team salaries, ect.) way down to start (IBL level as a minimum?) to allow competitive games with the teams I'd target.

I'd probably try to build a league with three divisions that are regional clusters ---one around Chicago, one around Detroit, and one around DFW.

I'd try to recruit the Holland Blast and Southeast Texas Mustangs ownership to help get this going. With Holland on board, I'd raid the IBL East to form the core of the North.

IBL East
Holland Blast (on hiatus? Left IBL and looking to start own league at last report.)
Kankakee County Soldiers
Southern Illinois Truth
+
IBL Independent
Grand Rapids Flight (on hiatus apparently)
+
IBL future returnees
Elgin Racers (on hiatus apparently)
Gary Steelheads (on hiatus apparently)

I'd also raid the ABA for teams that pay a lot of their games and fit the footprint, so:
+
Cleveland Rockers
Chicago Steam
Kentucky Bisons
KC Spartan (possibly)
Southeast Texas Mustangs
Texas Fuel
Houston Takers
Texas City Rangers (possibly)

I'd definitely consider inviting the ownership of defunct/on hiatus teams like the CBA's Indiana Alley Cats & E. Kentucky Miners, UBL's Akron Cougars, the IBL's Dayton Jets and Colorado Crossover to restart.

I'd offer Interleague play in the north with the PBL and in the south with Mac Claire's old league, the UBL & his new one, the URBL (although the talent may be a bit lopsided).

Something like this should be sustainable with very short travel.


Central Division
Kankakee County Soldiers
Chicago Steam
Elgin Racers
Southern Illinois Truth
Gary Steelheads
Indiana Alley Cats

Eastern Division
E. Kentucky Miners
Kentucky Bisons
Holland Blast
Grand Rapids Flight
Dayton Jets
Akron Cougars
Cleveland Rockers

Southern Division
KC Spartans (possibly)
Colorado Crossover
Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry (i'd insist they again go by the Oklahoma Cavalry as it is a better brand)
Southeast Texas Mustangs
Texas Fuel
Houston Takers
Texas City Rangers (possibly)