Blue Conference

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The Blue Conference is the Eastern Conference in the ABA. The league also has a Red Conference and a White Conference. The colors were chosen to represent the colors in the leagues' well-known red, white and blue ball.

1 2005-2006 Season
2 Division Changes
3 2006-2007 Season
4 External links

[edit] 2005-2006 Season

[edit] Roger Brown Division

The Roger Brown Division is a divisions in the Blue Conference (the east) in the ABA. All divisions in the league beginning in 2005 were named after a former American Basketball Association (ABA) outstanding player. The Roger Brown division included the Harlem Strong Dogs, the Strong Island Sound, the Montreal Matrix, the Newark Express and the Boston Frenzy during the 2005-2006 season. The division was named after the former American Basketball Association player, Roger Brown. Newark and Harlem were the two strongest teams in the first half, but Harlem broke ahead for first place. Newark fell to Long Island and Montreal late in the season, but was able to catch up to Montreal once again. The Boston Frenzy, which was the only team that wasn't an expansion franchise this year only won two games. Despite their poor record, the Frenzy still got into the playoffs as a wildcard team because of the number of games they had played. Every team in this division made the playoffs this year, although only Newark got a bye week the first round (because the Tacoma Navigators, their first round opponent forfeited the game). Newark lost their playoff game to the 2005-2006 Champions, the Rochester Razorsharks. Long Island won their first two playoffs games against Harlem and then Indiana, but lost to the SoCal Legends in the semi-finals in Rochester. Montreal lost their first playoff game in their innagural season to the Maryland Nighthawks.

[edit] Final Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Win/Loss
Harlem Strong Dogs	19	13	.594
Strong Island Sound	16	14	.533
Montreal Matrix	15	16	.484
Newark Express	14	16	.467
Boston Frenzy	2	21	.087

All teams in the Roger Brown division made it to the playoffs. Boston lost in their wild card game and Newark advanced from their wild card game because of a forfeit and Montreal won their wild card game to advance.

[edit] Connie Hawkins Division

The Connie Hawkins Division was one of the divisions in the Blue Conference (the east) in the American Basketball Association (ABA). It included the Rochester Razorsharks, the Maryland Nighthawks, the Buffalo Rapids and the Baltimore Pearls. It previously included the NEPA Breakers and the Niagara Daredevils, but both teams folded during the 2005-2006 season. Connie Hawkins, the division's namesake, is a former ABA and NBA player and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Buffalo, Maryland and Rochester made it to the playoffs this season. Maryland was the only franchise that was not an expansion team (including NEPA and Niagara). The Maryland Nighthawks were an expansion team the previous season, originally intended to play as the Hershey Nighthawks somewhere in the Harrisburg region, but before they began moving were moved to Maryland. This year the Nighthawks were moved again, but within the state to Montgomery County. They saw a lot of success from the team who had all-stars: Randy Gill, Lawrence Moten and Ray Cunningham. Moten announced that he was ending his professional basketball career at the end of the Nighthawks season, after their second round playoff loss to the SoCal Legends. The Baltimore Pearls had a rough season, winning only two of their games and being forced to move into the division as a result of the loss of teams in their original division to the south. The Buffalo Rapids started out their season, looking like they would be a tough regional opponent to the Rochester Razorsharks, but struggled later in the season. Although Buffalo was able to get into the playoffs, they suffered a two-point defeat against the Atlanta Vision. Although Buffalo had a mediocre record, they had many close games against their opponents with stellar players such as Brad Buddenborg and all-star Tim Winn. The ABA champions, the Rochester Razorsharks, with some losses early and with the undefeated Indiana Alleycats were an outstanding team that was overlooked. They were able to pull into first place in the league standings at the end of the season with a number of outstanding players including all-star, championship MVP and league MVP, Chris Carrawell. The Razorsharks beat the SoCal Legends 117-114, after trailing most of the game in front of a loud recordbreaking crowd of 6,377 at Blue Cross Arena.

[edit] Final Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Win/Loss
Rochester Razorsharks	24	04	.857
Maryland Nighthawks	24	10	.706
Buffalo Rapids	11	16	.407
Baltimore Pearls	2	23	.080

Baltimore was the only team in the Connie Hawkins division that did not advanced to the playoffs.

[edit] Barnes-Malone Division

The Marvin Barnes Division and the Moses Malone division were merged during the season as most of the teams in these divisions folded or changed leagues. The two divisions had teams in the southeast United States. By the end of the season only three teams were left in the two merged divisions and the Atlanta Vision were the league leaders and went to the playoffs, where they lost to the Rochester Razorsharks in the quarter finals.

[edit] Final Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Win/Loss
Atlanta Vision	15	07	.682
Birmingham Magicians	06	13	.316
Mississippi Stingers	02	09	.182

The Atlanta Vision were the only team from the merged Barnes-Malone division to advance to the playoffs.

[edit] Playoffs

Blue Conference teams in black

Quarterfinals			Semifinals			Finals			ABA Championship

1	Rochester Razorsharks	126
9	Newark Express	98
			1	Rochester Razorsharks	104

			7	Atlanta Vision	85
7	Atlanta Vision	99

15	Buffalo Rapids	97
						1	Rochester Razorsharks	106

						3	San Jose Skyrockets	103
6	Pittsburgh Xplosion	115

10	Bellingham Slam	122
			10	Bellingham Slam	119

			3	San Jose Skyrockets	138
3	San Jose Skyrockets	132

18	Los Angeles Aftershock	90
									1	Rochester Razorsharks	117

									4	SoCal Legends	114
2	Indiana Alley Cats	117

11	Toledo Ice	103
			2	Indiana Alley Cats	126

			13	Strong Island Sound	128
8	Harlem Strong Dogs	107

13	'Strong Island Sound	112
						13	Strong Island Sound	110

						4	SoCal Legends	123
5	Maryland Nighthawks	145

12	Montreal Matrix	114
			5	Maryland Nighthawks	121

			4	SoCal Legends	123
4	SoCal Legends	97

14	Beijing Aoshen Olympian	95

[edit] Wild Card Round

Includes wild card games with Blue Conference teams only

Montreal Matrix (12) defeated Ohio Aviators (23) 140-83
Strong Island Sound (13) defeated Birmingham Magicians (19) 97-95
Buffalo Rapids (15) defeated Boston Frenzy (16) 133-88

[edit] Division Changes

Changes to the teams that were in the division were: Harlem moved to Florida as the Tampa Bay Strong Dogs and Boston moved to Cape Cod as the Cape Cod Frenzy. As a result of expansion teams and lost teams throughout the league there were division realignments during the offseason in 2006. The new Northern Division includes teams from the Connie Hawkins and Roger Brown divisions. Rochester and Buffalo were added to the northern division from the Connie Hawkins Division and Montreal and Boston (which became the Cape Cod Frenzy) joined from the Roger Brown division. The Northern division also had the addition of two expansion teams: Quebec City and Vermont. The new Central Division kept the remaining teams from the Connie Hawkins and Roger Brown divisions, which naturally were further south. This left Long Island, Newark, Maryland, and Baltimore. Harlem moved their franchise to Tampa Bay and has decided to sit a season out. Three expansion franchises were added to the Central Division: Wilmington, Richmond, and Brooklyn. The south saw the greatest changes as these divisions saw growth during the offseason. The Birmingham Magicians decided to sit out a season and will resume during the 2007-2008 season. Atlanta and Mississippi (who changed their name to the Miracles) remained in a division together, the Southern Division. This division saw expansion teams from Knoxville, Southern Alabama, and Tennessee introduced. The Southeast Division or Florida Division is completely expansion teams consisting of Miami, Palm Beach, Orlando and Jacksonville. Florida saw ABA teams throughout its history including the Floridians in the old ABA and the Jacksonville Wave and Florida Pit Bulls, the former who folded and the later left the league during the playoffs last season.