New York – Former Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik will have some boosters in his former NBA team’s locker room when his Air Force Falcons face Illinois on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament.
“I think it’s terrific,” assistant coach Doug Moe said. “I was really afraid they’d get passed over after they lost to Wyoming in the first game, but that’s a great accomplishment. They deserve to be there. They had a great year.”
Moe added of the often-reserved Bzdelik: “He’s got to be in heaven. Except with Jeff, you’d never know. I hope he’s enjoying it. He deserves to enjoy it.”
Before the days of the Mountain West, guard Andre Miller played for Utah when Air Force was a Western Athletic Conference doormat and noted how difficult it used to be to win there. While complimenting Bzdelik, Miller did lose track of his old coach’s Nuggets career.
“I’m happy for him,” Miller said. “I didn’t even know it was his first year (at the academy). I thought it was his second year.”
Bzdelik actually began last season coaching the Nuggets.
Martin hurt again
Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin played nine minutes after bumping his recovering left knee on the floor early in the first quarter. He made no prediction about his ability to play Wednesday at Indiana, saying, “I didn’t finish the game, so obviously I’m in pain.”
Meanwhile, Nuggets coach George Karl said forward Eduardo Najera, who absorbed some of Martin’s minutes, had his best game since his February knee surgery.
“That’s by far his most active and bouncy,” Karl said. Najera said he is feeling less swelling in his right knee with each game.
Footnotes
Although rumors persisted before February’s trade deadline that the Nuggets and Knicks were involved in major trade talks involving Martin, Karl said Monday he did not think a deal came close to happening.
“I talked to Coach (Larry) Brown a couple of times before the trade deadline,” Karl recalled. “I’d say 90 percent of the conversation was on how he was doing, how he was hanging in there, Carolina basketball and am I going to be at Pinehurst (golf course) in September. The good things about sport.”
Karl said Denver could have pulled the trade it made for Reggie Evans, Ruben Patterson and Charles Smith two weeks earlier, but waited to see if something bigger might have developed. …
The Nuggets signed guard Howard Eisley to a second 10-day contract Monday. …
Denver forwards Carmelo Anthony and Linas Kleiza could face each other in a tune-up for the 2006 world championships, should Anthony make the final U.S. roster that will play in Japan. The Americans face Lithuania in Seoul, South Korea, as part of their preparation.
