TM

SoCal College Game Preview

UCLA v. NBC Thunder Game
Wednesday 11/19/97--(November 17, 1997)

UCLA's next game at Pauley is Wednesday night. They'll play "NBC Thunder"

Who is "NBC Thunder"?

The NBC Thunder is a group of former collegians who represent a Christian basketball camp in Washington state. They are coached by Danny Beard, a former player at Kansas State University. The roster includes many former collegians:

Dave Wilson, George Fox; Emil Shephard, Seattle Pacific (a small Christian college in Seattle); Tyrone McDaniel, Lenoir-Rhyne; Adam Leachman, Montana State; Kofi Adomako Kyei, Oregon; Nico Harrison, Montana State; Shann Ferch, Pepperdine; Nate Dunham, Whitworth, Drake Charles; Derrick Boles, Idaho State; and Greg Bartram, Penn State.

They will play at Idaho tonight, (November 17), then at Boise State on Tuesday the 18th, and then will play the Bruins on Wedesday evening, November 19 at Pauley.

If nothing else, they know how to travel.

What has the NBC Thunder accomplished so far?

Well, for starters, they've beat up on a whole bunch of teams, including Jim Harrick's Rhode Island Rams, who are rated No. 22 in the AP poll. Beat them 83-59.

And it was never even close.

They played URI last week, their 10th game in 11 days. They had already beaten Illinois, Kansas State and Washington State. According to a report in the Rhode Island Providence Journal, "They are 6-4 against college teams, and have a big, fundamentally sound squad."

One word from that description should bother you if you're a Bruin fan.

"Big."

Uh oh.

The Providence Journal quoted URI's new coach Jim Harrick after the game: "That was a very good team you saw tonight. They just beat us. If we played tomorrow night and the next night they'd beat us, too."

The NBC Thunder handled the Rams easily. URI got killed on rebounding and defense, and they weren't too good on offense either.

NBC Thunder have four players 6'-5" or taller in their starting lineup, and the height just destroyed the Rams on the boards, where NBC out-rebounded URI 45-23, including grabbing 18 offensive boards. Led by Adam Leachman, a 6'-8" forward who playd for Montana State, the Thunder had a 16-4 advantage in second-chance baskets, and scored 44 points inside the key.

And remember Bruin fans, Rhode Island is not a small team: They're actually pretty similar to the Bruins. They've got 6'-8" Luther Clay, who only had 4 points and 2 rebounds, because of a "hurt foot." Actually he's recovering from a broken foot, and didn't play much. He did pick up two fouls in only six minutes though.

NBC Thunder had previously played at Eastern Washington University on November 4, and at Washington State on November 5. The Cougars beat the the Thunder by only 5 points, 77-72, in a game in which WSU's scoring was pretty balanced, with senior Rodrigo de la Fuente and sophomore Chris Crosby with 18 points each and Daniel with 16 points. On November 8, the Thunder played Bradley, losing 57-67. Last week Eastern Illinois beat the Thunder 84-70, which was considered an impressive win for EIU since by that point the Thunder had already defeated Kansas State (85-73), had beaten Southern Illinois this last Friday (Nov. 14), by a score of 79-67, and had defeated Illinois.

Danny Beard the coach of the NBC Thunder is a Kansas State alum, who played during 1971-74 in the same Kansas State backcourt with Lon Kruger (now the coach at Illinois). He tries to give each of the college teams on the Thunder's schedule the best competition possible, in order to help make the college teams better players and people. He told the Topeka-Capitol Journal, (CJOnline), that "One of our goals is to assist the college programs who allow us to come in and play them to prepare for the regular season. We try to give them different looks for what's going to come down the road."

In the KSU game, which the Thunder won, Thunder's guard Shann Ferch -- who played for current KSU coach Tom Asbury at Pepperdine (gee it's a small world)-- scored a game- high 20 points. According to the Topeka-Capital Journal's report of the game, the NBC Thunder also took advantage of KSU's "youth and inexperience."

There's another two words that should cause you to take cover if you're a Bruin fan.

"Youth" and "Inexperience."

Uh-oh.

In the KSU game, NBC Thunder jumped to a 50-24 halftime. Like UCLA in it's first scrimmage against Silute Lithuania, the KSU youngsters could have used "Hello, my name is" tags on their jerseys. Five of the 11 Wildcats were playing in their first game for K-State. But then, they didn't have Baron Davis, or Billy Knight, or Travis Reed, or Earl Watson, or Rico Hines. Now those were memorable introductions, and even if they'd been wearing the name tags, you would surely remember them quickly.

In Thunder's game against Illinois game, played Nov. 12, NBC trailed 82-80 with less than two minutes to play. In an impressive run, and much to Lon Kruger's chagrin, NBC then scored six of the game's last seven points. In the final two minutes, Thunder's Greg Bartram drove hard into the lane against Illinois' Matt Heldman with 1:31 left, and knocked in an off-balance leaner to tie the score at 82.

Bartram then fouled Illinois player Kevin Turner, who split his free throws to put the Illini ahead by only one point. On the next possession, Jerrod Gee of Illinois fouled Thunder's Nico Harrison on a layup (which was missed), putting the Thunder guard at the line with only 46 seconds remaining. Harrison sank both foul shots, to bring NBC ahead by one. The next three shot attempts were by Illinois, and it failed to score. Brian Johnson of the Illini was forced to foul Thunder player Tyrone McDaniel on the perimeter. McDaniel made both free throws. NBC by three. With only seconds to play Matt Heldman of the Illini launched a three point field goal attempt, which missed.

So NBC also knows how to finish.

Uh-oh.

Could be a very interesting matchup.

We'll see.

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