Rainmen Highlights

Here is a quick view on the season as a first year ticket holder brought in by BDP:I enjoyed every game, even the one where we got blown out by the Kebs because of our ongoing conversations with the bench. That pretty much makes the season. Sweats and Bling were on fire. The vermont game where we sucked in free throws thanks to Striquille and the rest of the team, while long, was another highlight. Beating manchester! Trash talking "Moneyball" Ferguson, you know he is remembering that against us next game. Sorry Rainmen. The double Bailey/ Crook dunk.. Pre-game at the Elephant and castle, postgame at Boston Pizza and some great new friends and fans. An excitable message board- Hilarious at times.
Having conversations with Simplice, Bryant, white chocolate and others makes for great talking points and stories. Being able to get "into your head" with white Chocolate makes me laugh. He was terrible because the crowd remembered his reactions to the last game when he cleaned us. Halifax doesn't like a bad winner.
Growing crowds and some good atmosphere.
A picture of me heckling in the paper in front of Darrell Dexter. Section 23 highlight!
Knowing Strick would make at best 1 out of 2. At Best and telling the QC bench the same thing.
The crazy trade/ free agent signings in the last 6 weeks - I guess there is no deadline.
Watching a player like Bennett in full flight, Sanders working the boards, Crook throwing down, Bailey battling, Ramey's killer passes and strong D, Silverhorn lighting a few threes, Dandridge shooting from half, SirVal getting drunk and going off against the team, Jimmy's dependability, heckling Freiburg, drinking with Freiburg and Dick and Linda from vermont, Strick with the goggles, the hand, the prayers, the talk - awesome, I hope he stays one last year, Millien, Brown, Anderson coming in for the last burst and spending time with my wife and friends at the games.
Section 23- AWESOMEChad Lucas- AWESOME- we won't heckle if you bring your four year old to our section.. I kid, I kid.. Metro News- Cheeky- well done and good reporting by Wuest.
Lastly, although the franchise has had some issues and bad PR, overall this is par for the course at this level of ball. I think overall the franchise is in good shape and if we can keep some of our players to next year, we should have a solid squad. A little less revolving door next year and some early wins shoudl stand us in good stead.

Rainmen roll...over

This was a devastating loss for the Rainmen. A win would have put them comfortably in the seat for playoff birth as a wildcard. Instead, they laid a dud for coach Berry. The crowd was pumped but the players didn't respond. It was the first game in a while that it seemed like players just quit.

I have spoken before about how hard it is to build a fanbase with a constantly changing squad. It will be tough as I imagine the turnover of players could be large again. To be honest, I would see Bailey, Crook, Jimmy and maybe Ramey, McNeal and Silverhorn coming back for another year. If Millien plays well he could move up and Bennett seems bound for greater things, while Dandridge and Hammack have seen a major reduction in minutes and will go elsewhere for time.

The offense was poor from the beginning with Bennett continuing his terrible 3 point shooting this weekend ending up 3-16 over two game. It is amazing because his points in the paint cause all kinds of problems and allow other players to scratch for boards and points. Lets get the reigns on him and get him in the paint and kicking out. Our 3 pt shooting was horrendous all weekend with Silverhorn, Jimmy and Bennett missing many. Today we shot 20%, brutal. Hammack and Dandridge look like they have lost all confidence from the Lewis era.

That being said, the Kebs hit everything it seemed like. While they were only 46%, a lot of those misses came in the 4th when the game was done. EC again got exposed defensively and we were weak inside defensively. Our inability to get him in the offence showed today. The loss of Rob is showing in the paint. Bailey had a solid game with 12-9 and a couple assists and steals. Zach played some good defense today and Millien showed his 1v1 skills. I was also surprised the jeanty only had 7 points as he added instant impact to the game as did Strick. Strick worked hard but I would rather see him get the points than draw the fouls. That shooting is ugly Striquile!

The running commentary with their bench for the fourth quarter kept us entertained as Sweatpants, Bling and Simplice were hilarious. so it looks ike Hammack, Dandridge and Tyrone are getting mostly frozen out, making us a 9 player squad right now. I don't know if that is enough to carry us to the playoffs, but hopefully. It was hard to find many positives from the games at all as jean Phillippe and Anderson killed us.

Here's to hoping another week of practise gets us right.