Williams Blog: YMCA CCL roster musings

Cyclone Fanatic’s coverage of the 2013 YMCA Capital City League is brought to you by our good friends at Heartland Finishes. 

A few jottings regarding last night’s YMCA Capital City League draft…

*** No Richard Amardi…

This Indian Hills Community College forward signed with Iowa State in the fall but is nowhere to be seen on a YMCA Capital City League roster this summer. Nobody can give me an answer as to why either. 

I’m not one to speculate about scholarships and what not. In fact, I hate doing that. But we know that Iowa State is one over for the 2013-14 season at this point in time. According to YMCA CCL director Derek Hannah, the following Cyclones are not participating in the league this summer: DeAndre Kane, Melvin Ejim and Richard Amardi.

Kane is still finishing up school at Marshall. Ejim is in Canada training for the World University Games. 

And Amardi?

It now appears that is where DeAndre Kane’s scholarship came from.

Stay tuned.

*** To the rest of the field, good luck guarding the Phoenix Renewable Resources roster that contains both Matt Thomas and Sherron Dorsey-Walker. The YMCA CCL is a guard’s league. If you’ve seen a game, you get it. It’s all about offense. When it comes to pure shooters, those might be the two best in the league – and they’re on the same team. Yikes.

*** 2013 YMCA CCL Rosters *** 

*** Speaking of shooters, K.J. Bluford is my pick to be a real darkhorse in the league this year. Shooting is all that this guy knows. Think of a less-polished Mike Taylor (which is kind of weird to write actually considering Taylor was anything but polished during his time in Ames). I’m telling you guys, Bluford was made for a league like this. He’ll be teaming up with another JUCO transfer, Dustin Hogue of Indian Hills on the Walnut Creek YMCA roster. 

*** Year after year, Bubu Palo has been one of the top players in this league. He went fourth in the draft but I think that he very well could have gone as high as second.

*** While I’m on the topic of sleepers, Abdel Nader could very well be one of the two or three most productive players in the league too. I’m told that he might not be at all of the games though, which would explain why he was picked 10th out of 12 Iowa State players.

That’s it for now. Games begin on June 16 and this year, Cyclone Fanatic will be covering the league on a nightly basis thanks to the sponsorship of our good friends from Heartland Finishes.