More Coach News and the Mad Ants develop "dirty players" ?

Well, the Mad Ants coaching news has been making the rounds of the Fort Wayne media. I recommend you checking out this one at the news sentinel.

The Mad Ants also received a mention in Sports Illustrated online this week. This article talks about former Mad Ant Dahntay Jones and his defense on Kobe Bryant during the ongoing Western Conference Finals. Many are labeling him a "dirty player" for tripping Kobe during game 4. I'll admit that the tripping incident looked pretty blatant. I don't think he went into the play thinking, "Let's see how I can hurt Kobe." It was more of an act of desperation after Kobe gets by him to try to stop him and he did it without thinking.

Still pretty cool that one season you can be playing for the Mad Ants and the next season you are guarding the best basketball player on the planet (All players who are not Shawn Bradley anyways).

Not to give the TinCaps too much publicity in a Mad Ants blog but I'll be attending another game tonight to celebrate a friends birthday. Looking forward to it and hopefully we don't get rained on this time!

-Garrett

Rain Delay

Make sure to wish Heidi Busch a happy birthday today, she turns the big 25 today. If you don't know who Heidi is, she works in the Mad Ants office. For her birthday, she wanted to go to the Tin Caps day game at the new Parkview stadium downtown. It was a fun time...for the half inning of baseball we got to see. We walked in, bought some lovely burritos from the concession stand, and about 10 minutes later it was raining Ants and Bayhawks. After waiting about ten minutes for the rain to let up, we decide to head back to the office. I guess that is one plus to working for a basketball team, you don't have to worry about rain delays (hopefully!).

Well the news on the new Head Coach has slowly leaked out. Although I can't make any official comment on the subject, I can direct you to the following links at the Journal Gazette and Ridiculous Upside.

Official press conference forthcoming!

At least it's not Monday

Well, I am finally starting to wrap my brain around the fact that today is Tuesday and not Monday. I think it's something all us working schlubs have to deal with after a long holiday weekend.

After all my talk about wakeboarding I never quite made it out. It may have had something to do with the water still being a little cold (although tolerable). My plan is to go this weekend weather/friends permitting.

It looks like this is the week where the Mad Ants will be making the big announcement about who will be the new Head Coach of the Mad Ants. I would look for a press conference to take place sometime this week (probably on Thursday).

I also just found out that Mad Ants player Coleman Collins is blogging as well. You can read his most recent blog about his time in Paris. He had mentioned after the last Mad Ants home game, his desire to visit Paris in the off-season, so I am glad he made it happen.

So I broke my blogging streak over the weekend and missed a couple days. As I received ZERO angry emails about it, I am not going to make any apologies.

Stay tuned this week for the big Coaching news and another superb blog tommorrow.

Good Day,

Garrett

Saturday...Saturday

What a game last night with the Macic and Cavs! Of course I missed the biggest moment of th game when Lebron buried the three pointer for the win with one second left. After Hedo got the Magic up by 2, I flipped stations intending to come back for the final play. Apparently I found something that I liked because I forgot to change it back in time for Lebron's big shot. What a huge moment in the series, I think one of the announcers said that only 7% of teams who lost the first two games of a series have come back to win. Pretty exciting stuff thus far!

Well I have been enjoing a nice day at the lake so far, did a little kayaking earlier. I plan on doing that quite a bit over the summer as it is fun and a nice workout. Now the big test will be going wakeboarding as the water is still a little chilly. The other test will be getting two people to go with me early in the morning...

Well the grill is starting and this blog is getting more boring by the second, so like Nick the Greek said to Johnny Moss, "I have to let you go". Talk about obscure qoutes to end a blog...

Heading to the Lake

Much like about 64% of the population of Fort Wayne this weekend, I will be heading to the Lake. So the blog updates will most likely be brief. For some reason I don't feel safe taking my computer out on the boat (especially as I do not have a laptop).

The Mad Ants Head Coach search is apparently down to four, for more information check out this article at News Sentinel with all the details. Feel free to post and let me know who you would like to see be the new Mad Ants Coach.

Well I am off for a quick run and workout and then on the road to the Lake. Have a great weekend everybody!

-Garrett

mixed tapes

So I recently purchased a new car (new to me) and it had this brand new invention in it that I was not accustomed to called the CD player. For the last couple years I have been driving a stellar 97' Stanford Tree green Tauras with a tape player. I probably listened to the same best of Jimmy Buffett tape about 104 times. While I was at my parents house this past weekend I picked up some of the old mix cds that I had made in high school/early college to listen to in the car. Wow, it is pretty amazing how much your musical tastes can change. In one CD I have songs from Prince, Andrew WK, and Eminem. I have always been a pretty eclectic taste when it came to music ( I have no idea if I just used the word eclectic) correctly. Nothing like going to "Little Red Corvette" to "White America" and then back to a little "Margaritaville". I guess I was never in to making themed CDs.

I want to talk some Mad Ants for you but I really don't have much news. It's all up to the big guy to make the big reveal of the new Head Coach in the coming weeks. I can tell you that from what I have heard in the office, regardless of who Jeff picks our fans should be very happy and confident in the Mad Ants chances next season.

The biggest news I have in regards to the Mad Ants is the return of the "Mad Ants Office Podcast!!!!" tomorrow. It should be up by tomorrow afternoon. I have no idea what we will talk about (that's probably not a good incentive for you to listen) but it will be entertaining. You can find the podcast on the main page of the Mad Ants website.

Have a good Memorial Day Weekend!

The Blog Goes ON

Okay, first things first, what you call came to find out. Yes I worked out today, I couldn't force myself to get out of bed this morning but I made it to the Y after work. Two more workout days and then a nice relaxing weekend at the lake.

RealClearSports recently created the list of the top ten weirdest mascots. The Mad Ant made it to the fifth spot. I think this a real honor and great recognition for the team. The Mad Ant is such a great recognizable icon for the team. Just today the Mad Ant participated in a JDRV walk at Hickory Elementary School. The students at this school helped to raise over $4200 dollars towards Juvenile Diabetes research. Great Job Hickory Center!

My second favorite mascot on the list is easily the Standford Tree . It is also the favorite mascot of tree huging hippies everywhere!

I will be going for my first wakeboarding session of the summer this weekend. I love wakeboarding but never seem to get much better it summer after summer. I think I started a few years too late, or maybe it's because I have the athletic ability of Shawn Bradley.

Well, I have to finish watching Homicide Life on the Streets Season 1, so I am going to wrap up this blog. Tune in tomorrow for more mindless drivel!

NBA Draft

Just finished watching the NBA Lottery Selection, congratulations to the Clippers for getting the first pick. The Clippers have a strong starting lineup on paper, I know they were hampered by injuries this past season. Hopefully they can turn things around with this pick.

It was interesting hearing David Stern's comments about the Nuggets/WWE date situation. He basically threw the Nuggets under the bus, which it sounds like is what they deserve given the situation. Nonetheless, the NBA wins date smackdowns!

Oh how could I forget about what you all came to my blog to read about. The fact that yes I worked out this morning. I even managed to go for a short run after work. Now I just need to maintain it the rest of the week.

Okay enough blogging for one night, feel free to shoot me any topics or questions you would want me to blog about. My email address is garrett.martz@fortwaynehoops.com .

Good Day,

Garrett

Day 2

Well I have completed one of my two goals for the day. For those who tuned back in to see if I really worked out this morning (I heard their was paparazzi at the Central Branch YMCA at six am waiting).....I didn't make it. So hopefully you are the type of person who does not like to see others succeed or better themselves. Because then you were able to get a little joy out of my failure. My new goal is to workout for the next four mornings in a row (normally I take Wednesday off). I'll keep you updated on my progress, maybe I'll even encourage a few people to start working out (or pretending like they are going to start working out). The goal I did complete for today? THIS BLOG! Which I almost forgot to do until about twenty minutes ago. This is going to be a long month...

I really do recommend working out in the morning, it gives you energy the rest of the day. It also helps you to fall asleep at a normal time at night. Or it may cause me to fall asleep at 7:30 pm and not wake up until Wednesday morning. But hey, at least tomorrow is Tuesday, not like there is anything on TV.....(an alarm just went off in David Stern's office)

Okay but seriously, it's the NBA Conference Finals! The playoffs have been great so far with some great stories. The Bulls/Celtics series was amazing, and the Rockets taking the Lakers to a game seven without Yao or McGrady!!!

Part of me wants to believe that the Magic have a shot against the Cavs, part of me thinks it will be over in four games. There is just no stopping Lebron, and the rest of the team seems to have really come together as well. So I will pick the Cavs in a 4-1 series.

The Nuggets have been exciting to watch this post-season as well. How about former Mad Ant Dahntay Jones throwing down two ESPN Highlight dunks in one week??? I was a big fan of Chris Anderson a few years back before his two year suspension, and am glad to see him doing so well now. Chauncey has really brought that team together.

On the other hand I have always disliked the Lakers. It really started when they put the "super team" together of Shaq, Kobe, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton. It felt so good to see them lose that year in the Finals! With that being said, I am picking the Lakers in this series 4-2. The Lakers are just too stacked. When Lamar Odom can come off the bench, you know you are good.

So I have really went out on a limb with my picks thus far (BTW the alarm in David Stern's stopped going off). The perfect NBA matchup, Lakers vs Cavs, Kobe vs Lebron, Vince McMahon vs The Pepsi Center (read that article or the rest of this blog makes no sense)

Okay, so I just read about the Nuggets having a conflict with the WWE regarding game 4 of the western conference finals next Monday. How hilarious is that? How does something like that even happen? Vince McMahon is a guy who usually gets what he wants, so it will be interesting to see how this pans out. Coming from a kid who used to tape WWF Superstars at 1am every Saturday, I am rooting for the WWE in this one. Wow, I just realized how much it pains me to even call them the WWE. Darn tree hugging hippies at the World Wildlife Foundation.....

Well it's 10pm and if I really want to work out in the morning I better head to bed.

Preaching to an empty room

Admit it, you thought you saw the last of my blogging. You were wrong...dead wrong. Not only is this blog back, it's back in a way that is almost unfathomable. But guess what, it's JUST BEEN FATHOMED!!!!

I am going to do what Jeff Potter could only dream of doing, and what Ridiculous Scott makes look easy. I proclaim that from this day forward (May 17th), I will blog for 30 straight days.

Now before you get too excited, please think about what this means. For me to blog for thirty days in a row, you are going to have to read some extremely trivial and uneventful blogs. It's not like I am living the Rod Benson lifestyle of making music videos and playing professional basketball in mid-sized cities across America. The most exciting thing I did this weekend was run a 10k at the local Warbird Brewery. How do you make running and eating a burrito afterward exciting?

I mean the biggest question in my life right now is, am I really going to get up at 5:30 am tomorrow to go work out at the YMCA before going to the office. I am currently giving myself an 83% chance of doing it. Wait a second....did I just build suspense? Will you really come back to my blog to find out if I am actually sick enough to work out that early in the morning? You know, now that I think about it, you just might be.

So you get the picture, I'll be blogging everyday, so put me back into the rotation of websites to visit when you are bored at work.

Well we have some exciting stuff going on in Mad Ants land. Jeff Potter is searching for the new Head Coach of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. I would name some of the candidates for you but Jeff Potter might not like that. So instead of potentially angering the 6'9 redhead in the office who is kind enough to frequently buy the office lunch, I'll go in a different direction with my thought process.

In minor league sports I think there are two huge factors in selecting a coach. The first factor is the obvious one, will this coach get wins? I think for a sport like basketball this is a little more important, than say baseball. Fans will come out to support a team if you create a buzz with getting a huge winning streak going. It also helps the team get increased media coverage, which will also mean more fans. Okay, now you are probably thinking, "Wow! Your first factor in a coach is brilliant! You think a coach needs to get wins??" I can read your thought now, "Why is this guy not running the helm of an NBA franchise?" Bear with me. (No really, there is a bear in my room, please HELP!)

The other factor is the notoriety of the coach. Do fans know or care who this guy is? Is the Coach himself going to draw fans/attention to the games on his own merit.

So the question is, would you rather have someone of local significance/former NBA/NCAA player or a guy with a proven track record in the D-League who you have never really heard of.

After two losing seasons, my answer is the guy who gets us the most wins and gives us a chance at the playoffs. With that being said if Reggie Miller comes knocking on the door, I think you have to say yes! Now, Reggie Miller is not a candidate for the Head Coach of the Mad Ants. But I think that makes my point. Reggie is a guy with no coaching experience, but would be such a huge draw in Fort Wayne, that the franchise as a business would almost have to say yes if the price was right. So where is the line?

The Mad Ants are most likely going to choose a coach who knows the D-League and has a history of winning. He will probably won't be a guy who the average fan knows much about. Which is okay with me! I think everyone in the office is ready to see what a winning season feels looks and feels like. More importantly our fans are ready!

So be on the lookout during the next thirty days for the Mad Ants naming a new coach, and more importantly my daily blog posts!

-Garrett

PS Get your Mad Ants season tickets today! :)