NBDL Notebook
Player news, coaching changes, and NBA callups are abundant as the D-League offseason comes to a close.

Player News:

• Crawford Allocated To Patriots
Winston-Salem native will report to training camp in Fayetteville.

10.28.04 – Clifford Crawford, a guard who played collegiate ball at North Carolina State, has been allocated to the Fayetteville Patriots of the National Basketball Development League [NBDL].

Each NBDL team is allocated two players. Up to 17 players will report to training camps in each market on November 7, and a minimum of one allocation player is guaranteed a spot on each team's final roster of 10 players.

At 6-3, 190, Crawford was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Defensive Team as a senior at NC State. He finished his college career (1999-2003) as the school's eighth all-time leader in steals with 167 and 10th in all-time games played with 124.

As a senior for the Wolfpack, Crawford played in 31 games (30 starts) and averaged 9.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists. He also shot .527 from the floor (106-201) as a senior.

Crawford, 23, played for Roanoke Dazzle assistant coach Chucky Brown with the Raleigh Knights in the World Basketball Association in the summer of 2004. He began his professional career in Austria with Worthersee Piraten in 2003-04.

• Greenup Allocated To Asheville
Shaw product headed to camp with defending NBDL Champions.

10.27.04 – Anthony Greenup, who led the nation in field goal percentage as both a junior and senior at Division II Shaw (N.C.) University, has been allocated to the Asheville Altitude.

A 6-8, 225-pound forward, Greenup converted a blistering .710 percent of his field goal attempts during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons (382-of-538).

He averaged 20.9 points and 10.9 rebounds as a senior and was the only player in NCAA Division II to finish in the top 30 nationally in scoring (20.9), rebounding (10.9), blocked shots (2.8) and field goal percentage (.711).

Greenup, 23, played his prep basketball at Istrouma High School in Baton Rouge, La., and will begin his professional basketball career with the Altitude.

 

• Harrington Allocated To Riverdragons
Former Auburn star set to report to Columbus training camp.

10.26.04 – Former Auburn University guard Adam Harrington has been allocated to the Columbus Riverdragons of the NBDL.

This will be Harrington's second stop in Columbus. The 6-5, 200-pound shooting guard played in 17 games for the Riverdragons last season, averaging 26.4 minutes, 11.2 points and 1.7 rebounds.

He was waived by Columbus on March 31 to rehabilitate a nagging injury, but rebounded to play on the Indiana Pacers NBA summer league team at the 2004 Rocky Mountain Revue.

Harrington, whose last season at Auburn was 2001-02, played for both the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks during the 2002-03 NBA season.

In 19 NBA games he averaged 1.6 points and 0.4 rebounds per game. He has also played internationally in China.

Before declaring as an early entry for the 2002 NBA Draft, Harrington averaged 10.1 points and 3.5 rebounds as a junior at Auburn. He made a team-high 52 three-pointers that season (2001-02).

 

• Chase Allocated To Dazzle
Both Roanoke allocated players from Virginia Tech program.

10.19.04 – Former Virginia Tech guard Brian Chase has been allocated to the Roanoke Dazzle of the NBDL.

Chase joins former Virginia Tech teammate Terry Taylor on the Dazzle training camp roster. Taylor was allocated to Roanoke on Oct. 5.

At 5-10, 167, Chase led the Big East Conference in three-point field goal percentage as a sophomore and a junior at Virginia Tech. In 103 career collegiate games, he averaged 10.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

Chase played his prep basketball at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.

Coaching Changes:

• DeGregorio Named Assistant Coach In Fayetteville
Former Clippers assistant joins Mike Brown's Patriots staff.

10.20.04 – Jerry DeGregorio has been named assistant coach for the NBDL's Fayetteville Patriots.

DeGregorio, 42, joins NBA veteran and head coach Mike Brown to form an entirely new coaching staff in Fayetteville for the 2004-05 season. Brown replaced Jeff Capel, who accepted an assistant coaching position with the Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA in the offseason.

DeGregorio, who will assist Brown with all functions of the Patriots basketball operations, served as an assistant coach and director of player development for the Los Angeles Clippers from 2001 to 2003.

In that role he assisted in the Clippers' daily basketball operations, as well as shouldering practice and in-game coaching duties.

Prior to his assignment with the Clippers, DeGregorio was the head coach at the University of Rhode Island from 1999-2001 after working as an assistant coach at URI from 1997-99.

In 1998, Rhode Island finished 25-9 and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight. In 1999 URI finished 20-13 and won the Atlantic 10 Conference title.

DeGregorio began his coaching career at Mattatuck (Conn.) Community College as an assistant before taking over the head coaching duties in 1991-92. He led MCC to a 27-3 mark, regional and district titles, as well as a season-ending NJCAA Division II fourth-place national ranking. His team led the nation in scoring at 112 points per game that season.

He also served as head coach and athletic director for four years (1993-97) at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in New Britain, Conn., and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at St. John's University in 1988.

• Murray Named Riverdragons Assistant Coach
16-year coaching vet to join Jeff Malone's Columbus staff.

10.13.04 – Dean Murray has been named as assistant coach for the NBDL's Columbus Riverdragons.

Murray replaces Rob Werdann, who accepted a position as a scout for the New Orleans Hornets.

Murray, a veteran of both the professional and college basketball ranks, recently finished a stint as head coach of a U.S.-China Cultural and Sports Exchange Association Summer Tour Team in China that featured former NBA and NBDL players.

He is also familiar with the NBA's minor league, having worked two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach for the Charleston Lowgators and having served as a coach at the NBDL's Central Training Camp in 2001.

Previous professional stops for Murray include being the head coach of the Wilmington Waverockers of the Carolinas Basketball League (CBL) and an assistant on the staff of Neptunas Klaipeda in the Lithuanian Basketball League in 2002-03.

In addition to collegiate assistant coaching stops at North Florida, SUNY-Stony Brook, Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina, Murray has also served as an officials observer for the Big South Conference. He coached five different Big South Conference players of the year.

A player at Appalachian State University, Murray began his coaching career as head coach at Topsail High School in Hempstead, N.C.

 

NBA Call-ups:

• Five Game Officials Get The Call
Total referees promoted from NBDL to NBA stands at 11.

11.01.04 – The NBA has assigned former National Basketball Development League officials Robbie Robinson, Olandis Poole, Mark Ayotte, Eric Lewis and Tommy Nunez, Jr. to work NBA games for the 2004-05 season, increasing the number of NBDL referees being called up over the last three seasons to 11.

Robinson, Poole, Ayotte, Lewis and Nunez join Matt Boland, Zach Zarba, Ed Malloy, Tony Brown and Anthony Jordan as former NBDL game officials now calling games in the NBA. Fourteen current NBA officials are also slated to work games in the NBDL this season.

 

• Former Lowgators Assistant Takes Mavericks Position
Kelvin Upshaw is ninth NBDL coach to earn call-up.

10.07.04 – Former Charleston Lowgators assistant coach Kelvin Upshaw has been named as a player development coach for the Dallas Mavericks.

Upshaw is the ninth NBDL coach to earn a call-up to the NBA umbrella and the fifth since the close of the 2003-04 season.

Upshaw served two seasons as assistant coach of the Lowgators, helping former head coach Doug Marty guide Charleston to the NBDL postseason both years. The Charleston team was sold to a group of Southwest Florida investors and relocated to Ft. Myers last May.