Todd's Take

Perhaps the lasting image of Vipers coach Bob Hoffman this season will be his halfcourt chest bump of forward Trent Strickland during Rio Grande Valley’s 104-95 win over Austin on Sunday at Dodge Arena. Hoffman is easily the most animated coach in the D-League (they’ve all been to Dodge Arena at least once) but his rushing to Strickland after the player forced an Austin turnover with his hustle showed how much Hoffman wanted that game. Good times.

I’m not going to post any stats like I promised during Sunday’s live blog (see below) because the box score on the D-League’s web site is wrong. I know this because the score is different from the one that was on the scoreboard at the end of the game and the point totals for players are different than what was in the official scorebook (the players’ scores from the book are the ones used in my game story).

Anyway, the Vipers got a big win, big because they had lost four straight to Austin since beating the Toros on opening night.

NCAA Tournament thoughts

I’m not a college basketball expert by any means, although you can match wits with me and the rest of The Monitor’s sports staff by making your picks in our March Madness challenge. If you pick every game right, you win $100,000 and more importantly I’ll give you a plug on my blog. That, my friends, is priceless.

Austin coach Quin Snyder, whose biggest fan is not Missouri graduate and sunburn victim Brian Sandalow, didn’t seem to miss the college game much when I asked him if it was odd that he was coaching a D-League game on Selection Sunday. The former Duke guard and Missouri coach said he’s content with his current station in life.

“I like it here right now,” Snyder said. “I like what I’m doing. They told me that Duke got No. 2 in the West, so I got my info.”

The Iceman cometh

George Gervin was on hand for Sunday’s game, and it’s always good to see one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players (he’s No. 18). With the Iceman in town, I had to ask him what he thought of the Houston Rockets’ winning streak, which reached 22 games after they beat the Pau Gasol-less Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. Here’s what Gervin had to say:

“The Rockets are playing good basketball. They’re playing super basketball. You really have to give it to them, especially after losing Yao Ming and they’re still competiting. You would hope just as a fan of basketball they can win as many as they can. The record is 33.

“You have to give it to them, I just don’t think they can beat my boys (the San Antonio Spurs). You would hope they don’t burn out. Maybe they might get close to breaking the record and lose the first round of the playoffs to San Antone.”

Gervin let out a loud laugh after finishing the last statement, but he has a point. Rockets fans have to worry that the team is putting so much into this winning streak that they won’t have anything left for the playoffs.

One final note

Want to say good luck to Maritza, who worked game ops for the Vipers this season. Her last day was Monday as the mass exodus from the organization continues. It’s sad to see her go because she seemed to really enjoy her work and knew what she was doing.

Good news for Maritza is that a heavy hitter for another local pro organization called me this afternoon for my input on her. Our favorite mechanical bull rider should have good things in store for her moving forward. Good luck Maritza.

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