Coach Rob Ridnour expected an up-tempo game when the Bellingham Slam switched from the American Basketball Association to the 18-team International Basketball League during the offseason.
IBL rules allow only seven seconds to get the ball across halfcourt, a 22- second shot clock and only one timeout per team per quarter.
“The rules of the league are geared to entertainment for the fans and not a lot of stoppages in the action,” Ridnour said in a phone interview. “Games are supposed to be done in less than two hours, and you’d think it would be up and down the court.”
But not everything is as it seems.
Even though the Slam averaged 110.5 points per game during a season-opening split at Snohomish County last weekend, Ridnour and his team were surprised by how physical play is in their new league. Bellingham will see if that remains true tonight in its 7 p.m. home opener against Tacoma at the Whatcom Pavilion on the Whatcom Community College campus.
“It was definitely a more physical game than we were expecting,” Ridnour said. “Maybe it was just the style for the Slam and Snohomish. It was just a good, pro basketball game between two good teams. I thought it was going to be a bit faster, though, which suits our style. We’ll just have to adapt a little bit.”
Ridnour, who has coached the team all of its three years, will not be the only familiar face on the Bellingham bench.
The Slam return five players from last year’s team, which went 23-11 before losing in the ABA quarterfinals for the second straight season. Included in that group of returnees are four players who have been with the team all three seasons — center Brian Dennis and guards Brandon Hartley, Jacob Stevenson and Jared Stevenson.
“It’s great having players who have been here before,” Ridnour said. “I know what to expect from them, and they know what to expect from me and my coaching philosophy.”
Three other players — guard Ryan Diggs, center Kyle Dalvit and forward Lukas Henne — played at Western Washington University, guard Charlie Van played at Whatcom Community College and guard Paul
Hafford graduated from Lynden Christian before heading to Portland State.
In fact, the only Slam player without previous Whatcom County ties is forward Erroll Knight, who should be familiar from his college playing career at Gonzaga.
“He’s kind of the draw,” Ridnour said. “He’s a very good defender. He’s definitely a very talented player, who we are excited to have on the roster.”
But Knight is far from the only talented player on the roster, Ridnour said, as seven players scored in double figures in Saturday’s win at Snohomish County. Bellingham also returns two of its top three scorers from last season — Jacob Stevenson (21.4 points per game) and Hartley (20.7) — and its leading rebounder in Dennis (11.0 per game).
“We’ve got some guys who can score,” Ridnour said. “Jacob’s capable of scoring 20 per night, and so is Hartley. We’ve got good balance.”
But does the Slam have enough to match up with the physical challenge it experienced in its first two games?
“The ABA is a tough league physically, too,” Ridnour said. “Sometimes that’s what it takes. I think we’ve got players who can play physical, too. Brian Dennis is a physical guy. He’s our leading rebounder and shot blocker and plays a lot taller than he is (6-foot-6). Jacob is a thick small forward, who also plays two guard for us. We’re not afraid to play physical.”
But Ridnour says his team must work on defense and ball movement to remain competitive over the course of the 20- game schedule that, unlike the ABA, won’t take them far from the Pacific Northwest.
“I don’t want to say we are going to win a championship the first year out, but I think we will have an opportunity,” Ridnour said. “What we have now, we know we can be competitive. We just have to work hard and improve over the course of the season. We’ve got the guys who can compete.”