Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Back to the Fort

It feels like it has been a while since the last Mad Ants home game, and rightfully so with the last defense of the Colony being January 17th. The Mad Ants are back on the Coliseum hardwood Thursday & Friday (Feb 2nd/3rd) battling Eastern Conference rival Maine Red Claws.

Besides having a mascot that could pass as the Mad Ant's less cool half-brother... the Red Claws also have a former Mad Ant on the roster in center Anthony Kent.


There was some bad news today, as Mad Ants point guard Tory Jackson had a nasty ankle sprain at practice. It looks like he will be out for roughly three weeks, which is a real shame as Tory had been really stepping up as the starting PG with Walker Russell JR getting called up to the Pistons. That puts recent Mad Ant and Michigan State Spartan Travis Walton as the starter and causing the Mad Ants to sign a player out of the D-League Player pool.

That player is Devan Downey who played his college ball with the South Carolina Gamecocks. Downey finished his college career in 2009-10 averaging 22.5 points to go along with 3.5 assists.
Devan played in Turkey last season and this will be his first foray into the NBA D-League. He will be thrown in the mix and will be dressing for Thursday night's game. He actually will also be arriving on Thursday as I am picking him up from the airport tomorrow morning! That is a common story in the D-League and I hope Downey is a quick study!



Ron Howard is still injured and will be missing this week's home stand. Another loss to the roster is Darington Hobson who was just recalled to the Milwaukee Bucks a few hours ago.

So obviously we will be short on players tomorrow, so if you have ever wanted to play in the D-League show up at the Coliseum tomorrow for the game and Jeff Potter may just make your dream come true! Please note that Jeff Potter's blog was last updated on January 11th... but I guess he has still not went a year between blogs like this fella...(good thing Jeff never reads my blog *sob*)


Walker Russell Jr had the best game of his short NBA career as a Detroit Piston tonight as he put up 12 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists against the New Jersey Nets in a close 99-96 loss. Walker continues to play big minutes and prove he has earned his right to be on an NBA roster. Walker's NBA Call-UP banner will be going up in the Coliseum concourse tomorrow night and be put up for every Mad Ants home game for the rest of time.

There is all your Mad Ant's news... and I managed to go an entire blog without mentioning you should come Thursday and Friday night to see our brand new Assistant Coach/NCAA National Champion/Olympic Gold Medalist Christian Laettner on the sideline.

Basically you have no reason to miss this Thursday or Friday's game so I will ANTicipate seeing each and every one of your faces there. Tip off for Thursday is 7pm and Friday is 7:30pm. Still working on my Super Hero costume for Friday but I always seem to come through...

8 comments:

  1. Is getting to use "Gamecocks" legitimately in a post the highlight of your blogging career?

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  2. Hey Garrett-

    Care to offer diehard Bucks fans a scouting report of what you saw from Darington Hobson during his time with the Ants?

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  3. What do you like about Downey's game ? Can you tell me how Coach Lattner is doing ?

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  4. Let me warn everyone that I am not a basketball expert.. as I have pointed out before I was cut from my 7th grade basketball team. So I don't really like to offer too much in the way of detailed analysis.

    With that said, I thought Darington added quite a bit to the team. He is a very athletic guard who can score and is not afraid to take big shots (he hit a game winner for us early in January). He clearly has an NBA game and I think it's just a matter of him getting some NBA minutes with the Bucks to prove what he can do on a consistent basis.

    As for Downey, before last night I had not had a chance to get to see him play. Picking him up from the airport, he seemed like a nice guy who was embracing the fact he was going to get thrown right into the mix. I know Mad Ants GM/President Jeff Potter saw a lot in him and thinks he will be a great fit for us.

    Coach Laettner is fitting in well with the team. He is really taking to his role and is focused on defense and working with the bigs. He seems very comfortable out there and the guys respect his knowledge of the game. We are very lucky to be able to add a person of his basketball pedigree to the coaching staff.

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  5. What do you have to say about the nightmare that is the Ants? They fire a coach who wasn't winning only to bring in another coach who can't win at all and is getting blown out on most nights. There has got to be some MAJOR changes in this organization next year. This current coach can not be brought back.

    The Ants need to start over next year. I say no current coaches with the exception of possible Lattener, and no former Ants either. TIme to start over new and start building a winner. Follow what Iowa does. Follow what a few of those teams in the West do. Isn't five years of losing basketball enough? This season is a trainwreck of the highest order as this team can't even win at home and they are the worst shooting bunch of players I have ever seen in this league.

    I realize diehard Ants fans are as rare as Ant victories, but fans will come if they have fun and watch some competitive basketball.

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  6. The Ants lose again tonight in Iowa 111-88. Ron Howard was a disaster shooting tonight- like the rest of the team on most nights.

    Is there going to be any changes made now or has Jeff bailed on this season?

    I have griped before about the army of coaches the Ants have on their bench and I guess I just don't see how that works. This team is poorly coached...period. Again I wasn't happy they fired Joey, but at first I was okay with the change. Now I can see that Steve just isn't a very good coach and probably was better on the bench in a committee with the others where the blame is easy to spread.

    But I ask, can Steve make these guys better shooters? Christian L. was brought in to work with the "bigs" and the two Ants big men are TERRIBLE right now and borderline useless.

    At the beginning of the year I was worried that this season was going to be the Ants last. The product isn't growing any fans even though the D-league is awesome despite the very poor play of the Ants on MOST nights this year. But with the announcement of the team returning to the MC, I guess that's good news.

    So...next year...start from scratch and bring back NONE of this current team or coaches minus maybe Cam Jones. Hire anyone you can who has had anything to do with the Iowa Energy, a team the Ants almost never beat and are rarely ever close to, and who to me are the class of this league year after year. What is it they do that gets results because what the Ants do simply doesn't work and hasn't for five years.

    Jeff needs to give us fans a reason to attend these last home games. I love going to the games, but this team getting their brains beat in every night has officially gotten old.

    The team hustles for the most part- they aren't quitters and I think they are a bunch of great guys- but the coaching isn't there nor is the shooting. The shooting of this team is staggeringly bad. And with every Ants team EVER, defense is usually an issue too.

    Jeff needs to get another influx of players- if only one or two- in here to give some hope to the rest of the season

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  7. ah, finally you found your super hero identity...mr. invisible and your sidekick jeff the non existant!!

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  8. The Ants lose again last night. Can't shoot, out coached, and out classed in the end.

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