Eight is enough in the Premier Basketball League according to Halifax Rainmen owner Andre Levingston.
Levingston was unfazed on Sunday after the Buffalo Stampede showed up with just eight players for a game against the Rainmen. The Rainmen won handily, taking advantage of the Stampede’s woefully short bench in the second half.
Most of the Rainmen players agreed afterward that Buffalo’s small roster was the difference in the game.
But when asked if the PBL should institute a rule forcing teams to travel with a minimum number of players, Levingston said no, pointing out the Stampede made a number of recent roster changes and some new signings hadn’t arrived.
“If you don’t have ’em, you don’t have ’em,” he said. “If (players) are in transition and haven’t arrived with the club, there’s nothing you can do about it. All they need is five.”
The Stampede has played three of nine games with just eight players. Two of those games were this past weekend in Canada and the other was their visit to Puerto Rico.
The Rainmen carry 14 players, with two — Devon Norris and Lonnell Shuler-Jones — on the practice roster in the event of injuries or last-minute changes. Levingston said the Rainmen would “never” take a road trip shorthanded as did the Stampede, but said “we’re in a different situation.”
