Your L.A. Lightning need fans ... and players ... you got any game left?

Photo by James Quick

Los Angeles Lightning players Fred Vinson, Lamond Murray and Toby Bailey enjoy themselves on the bench during a game last season in Thousand Oaks.

Last year, the Los Angeles Lightning (team official link here) of the International Basketball League (league official site here) made its debut at the Cal Lutheran facility in Thousand Oaks.

Former UCLA standout Toby Bailey may have been the most recognizable name out there for the team that also included former Clippers Lamond Murray and Keith Closs, and 3-point specialist Fred Vinson. Then there was point guard Kamran Sufi who led the league in assists (11.6) and guard Phil Givens , who scored a franchise-record 57 points in a 140-124 win over Arizonza in the season finale.

Get a chance to make it out to any games?

Wanna join the team?

Open tryouts are scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday, as well as April 4-5, at Gilbert Sports Arena on the CLU campus. Saturday tryouts run 6-to-9 p.m.; Sundays are 6-to-8 p.m. with coach Ron Quaterman watching over them.

"We're expecting everyone back and It's going to be a lot of fun," said Lightning owner Mark Harwell. "We got our feet wet last year and now, we want to get more involved with the community in a grass-roots way. We want to give back."

The 18-game season is scheduled to start Saturday, May 2 at home against the Edmonton Energy.

Fourteen of the Lightning's games are at home, for that matter.

Kinda makes you wonder why the Lakers don't try to negotiate their schedule with the NBA pencil pushers that way.

Here's the 2009 Lightning schedule (all games at Cal Lutheran unless othewise noted):

Saturday, May 2: Edmonton Energy, 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 3: Edmonton Energy, 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 7: at Nevada Pride in Las Vegas, 7 p.m.
Friday, May 8: at Nevada Pride in Las Vegas, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 9: at Nevada Pride in Las Vegas, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 16: Kankakee (Ill.) Soldiers, 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 17: Kankakee (Ill.) Soldiers , 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 23: Seattle Mountaineers, 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 24: Seattle Mountaineers, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 30: Phoenix Red Rock Raptors, 7 p.m.
Sunday,May 31: Phoenix Red Rock Raptors, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 13: Grand Rapids (Mich.) Flight, 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 14: Grand Rapids (Mich.) Flight, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 20: Phoenix Red Rock Raptors, 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 21: Phoenix Red Rock Raptors, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 27: Nevada Pride, 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 28: Nevada Pride, 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 30: Tacoma Tide at Tacoma, Wash., 7 p.m.