Photo supplied by the Central Illinois Drive of the new Premier Basketball League.

BLOOMINGTON — Already the home of minor league hockey and indoor football teams, U.S. Cellular Coliseum will host home games for a new minor league basketball team, starting in January.

One of ten teams in the new Premier Basketball League, the Central Illinois Drive will play 10 regular-season games, one exhibition game and any playoff contests they qualify for during their inaugural season, at U.S. Cellular Coliseum, 101 S. Madison St., Bloomington.  
The PBL will consist of two divisions, including the East Division and Midwest Division. Each team will have 12-man rosters with a $130,000 salary cap and play a 20-game schedule from January until the playoffs end in mid-April.
Peoria native A.J. Guyton, who played three years with Chicago Bulls and several years in Europe after playing collegiately at Indiana University, was named the head coach of the Central Illinois Drive.
Despite having little coaching experience, Guyton who served as an assistant coach for the Illinois Central College Men’s Basketball team in 2010-2011, has learned a lot about coaching from the coaches he’s played for, including Bobby Knight, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
“My playing experience and my learning from the coaches that I’ve played for — that’s something you can’t teach,” said Guyton. “I think they understood that when they hired me. Although I haven’t coached a lot, the people I’ve played for — they’re phenomenal coaches.”
Guyton’s younger brother, Daniel Ruffin, who helped Bradley University reach the Sweet Sixteen in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, was the first player to sign with the Central Illinois Drive.
A longtime friend of Guyton and Ruffin, Shaun Livingston who was 4th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, expressed interested in playing for the Central Illinois Drive, if the NBA owners and NBA players fail to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement and 2011-2012 NBA season is canceled.
Guyton, Ruffin and Livingston all played basketball for Peoria Central High School.
 “A.J. has been a great friend of mine ever since I was a little kid,” said Livingston during an October 14 press conference at U.S. Cellular Coliseum. “I grew up with his little brother Danny who’s going to be playing with the Drive.
“They asked me initially to come here — and the goal was to get me to play with the team. I’d love to play. That would be a great opportunity to come home and play in front of the hometown fans. But it’s an opportunity that I think I have to put on hold right now until the NBA works itself out.”
If and when the NBA 2011-2012 begins, Livingston will play for the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I’ll be back with the Milwaukee Bucks if the season starts sometime,” said Livingston.
In six NBA seasons, Livingston has averaged 7.1 points, 3.8 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game. He has played for the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Bobcats.
Although he might not play for the Central Illinois Drive, Livingston has agreed to support the team “anyway I can.”
“The doors will be open to Shaun to workout with our team anytime he feels the need to, not only to help himself, but to help our players understand the professional game, and definitely Shaun has agreed to that,” said Guyton.
Earlier this month, the PBL held its national tryouts and combine for the 2012 season in Chicago. Central Illinois Drive coaches and administrators invited 18 players from the combine to the team’s training camp.
“We’ve got 18 players that we’ve identified that we feel comfortable about that we’re going to bring into camp,” said Jim Morris, principal owner of the Central Illinois Drive. “We’re going to have several open camps in the Central Illinois area. We’re going to do one in Peoria and I think we’re going to do one here in Bloomington, and it’s going to be an open invite.
“We’re going to have one or two players from those open invites to come out to our combine and challenge for a position on our basketball team, so we encourage any level of player to look in doing that with us when it’s announced.”
Although the schedule for the inaugural PBL season has not been determined, U.S. Cellular Coliseum has started to sell season tickets.
Season ticket prices range from $99-$390. Single game tickets start at $10.
According to Morris, U.S. Cellular Coliseum has already sold several thousand tickets for Central Illinois Drive home games.
“I think it’s going to be awesome,” said Morris. “I think people are going to want to see this caliber of basketball.”
To learn more about the Central Illinois Drive and the PBL, visit www.thepbl.com.