Halifax Rainmen

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Halifax Rainmen

Founded	2006
League	American Basketball Association 2007-2008
Team History	Halifax Rainmen 2007-present
Arena	Halifax Metro Centre 2007-present
Based in	Halifax, Nova Scotia
Team Colors	Navy Blue, Sky Blue, White
Owner	Andre Levingston
Head Coach	Rick Lewis
Championships	0
Division Titles	0
Dancers	The Weather Girls
Mascot	Thunder

The Halifax Rainmen are a professional basketball team based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. They were formerly part of the Northeast Division of the Blue Conference in the American Basketball Association (ABA). However, on March 19^th, 2008, the team withdrew from the ABA due to the ownership's dissatisfaction with the league's management.^[1] The team plays its home games out of the 10,595 seat Halifax Metro Centre.

Andre Levingston is the team's majority owner and president. Locally based women's university basketball star Jadranka Crnogorac is listed as minority owner and vice-president of Community and Player Relations.^[2]

1 History
2 2007-2008 Season
3 Season-by-Season Record
4 Current Roster
5 Notable Former Players
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

The American Basketball Association announced on August 23^rd, 2006, that Halifax, Nova Scotia, had been granted an expansion franhise for the upcoming 2007-2008 season.^[3] A local contest was later held among fans to help name the team, and on December 19^th, 2006, the organization unveiled that they would be known as the Halifax Rainmen.

The Rainmen hosted the 2007 ABA All-Star Game ten months before the team started play. Joe Newman, the league's chairman, figured it would be an excellent way to promote Canadian expansion.

On May 30^th, 2007, the team announced their home venue, the Halifax Metro Centre, and head coach, Kevin MaBone. Mabone would later step down due to a family illness and was replaced as head coach by Rick Lewis. Shannon Hansen and Daniel Freiberg joined Lewis on the coaching staff as assistants.

The Rainmen's first two player signings were Peter Benoite and Chad Eichelberger. Benoite was a former CIS standout for the Memorial Sea-Hawks.

[edit] 2007-2008 Season

The Rainmen began their first American Basketball Association season on November 15^th, 2007, against the Boston Blizzard. The

An alternate logo used by the Halifax Rainmen.

Rainmen won 136-103 in front of 4,343 fans at the Metro Centre. However, after winning their first game, Halifax went on to lose seven straight before their next win, against the Montreal Royal.^[4]

The Rainmen ended their season with a 131-126 loss to the Atlanta Vision. Halifax finished their inaugural campaign with a record of 12 wins and 20 losses. Eric Crookshank lead the Rainmen during the season, averaging 20.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. He was also named the All-ABA first team.^[5] Crookshank and Brian Silverhorn were both chosen to represent the Rainmen at the 2008 ABA All-Star Weekend, in Vermont. Halifax lead the American Basketball Association in attendance during the year.

On March 19^th, 2008, the Rainmen announced they had withdrawn from the ABA, and would not be participating in the league play-offs. The team is currently pursuing membership in the NBA Development League. ^[6] D-League president, Dan Reed, recently visited Halifax and the Metro Centre; while he is impressed with the city, owner, and arena thus far, he has said that for travel cost and other reasons, '08-'09 expansion would be unlikely, and a more likely inaugural season would be the 2009-10 season. ^[7]

[edit] Season-by-Season Record

Halifax Rainmen Season-by-Season Record

Season

League

Games Played

Wins

Losses

Winning Percentage

Playoffs

2007-2008

ABA

.375

Withdrew from ABA before play-offs

[edit] Current Roster

Halifax Rainmen roster

v • d • e

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Nat.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	From
1.5 G	12	CAN	Benoite, Peter (C)	74 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	Memorial University
1.5 G		USA	Clark, Akeem	75 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	IUPUI
4.5 F/C	4	CAN	Clark, Jon	82 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)	255 lb (116 kg)	Rhode Island
4.5 F/C	20	USA	Crookshank, Eric	80 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	208 lb (94 kg)	Dominguez Hills
1.5 G	14	USA	Ferguson, Blandon	76 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	Illinois
1.5 G	9	USA	Green, Lantrice	72 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	Virginia Union
3.5 F	23	CAN	Oliver, Dennie	78 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	St. Francis Xavier
3.5 F	5	USA	Richard, Kadiri	79 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	Virginia Union
2.5 G/F	6	USA	Silverhorn, Brian	78 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	Georgetown
1.5 G	0	USA	Twyman, Jimmy	72 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Detroit
5.0 C	8	USA	Tyler, James	87 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m)	360 lb (163 kg)	Patterson Prep High School
1.5 G	43	CAN	Wigginton-Downey, Derico	72 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	150 lb (68 kg)	Prince Andrew High School