United States Basketball League (2001)
Tombstone
Born: 2001 – USBL expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 2001
First Game: April 27, 2001 (W 112-109 vs. Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs)
Last Game: June 29, 2001 (L 109-106 vs. Dodge City Legend at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)
USBL Championships: None
Arena
Show Place Arena
Opened: 1993
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: Brett Vickers
Trophy Case
USBL Rookie of the Year
- 2001: George Evans
USBL Coach of the Year
- 2001: Robert Parish
Background
The Maryland Mustangs were an obscure United States Basketball League team that played for one season at the Show Place Arena in Prince Georges County during the spring of 2001.
The Mustangs excelled on the court, winning the USBL’s Northern Division with a 19-11 record in their expansion season. The team was coached by Boston Celtics legend Robert Parish in his first – and only – professional head coaching gig. Parish won the USBL’s Coach of the Year honors for the Mustangs’ first year excellence.
Also taking home end-of-season hardware was 30-year old rookie George Evans. Evans had an unusual profile for a pro basketball player. He was a Persian Gulf war veteran who entered college at George Mason University in Virginia at the age of 26. At George Mason, he won the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year award three times, a feat equaled only by Pro Basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson (Naval Academy). The Mustangs made Evans the #1 pick of the 2001 USBL college draft, not long after his 30th birthday. Evans 21.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game for the Mustangs in 2001 and took home USBL Rookie of the Year honors.
Another notable player to suit up for the Mustangs was former Syracuse University star and NBA veteran Lawrence Moten, who finished college as the Big East Conference’s all-time leading scorer in 1995.
On June 29th, 2001 the Mustangs travelled to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for the USBL’s Postseason Festival. They lost a single-game elimination to the Dodge City Legend of Kansas that day to end their season. The team went out of business sometime thereafter and did not return for the 2002 season.
The United States Basketball League closed down after 22 seasons in 2007.
Links
“All Systems Go For Mustangs’ Inaugural Season“, Jeff Seidel, The Washington Post, April 26, 2001
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