So many games.... So little time...

I had no idea a blog would be this much work. I'll be honest, I would just shake my head at the lack of blogging by Jeff Potter. I would always think how hard could it be to type out a few paragraphs once or twice a week. Apparently it's harder than it looks, as this blog is way over due. I apologize for the inactivity, I will try to step my game up from now on.

I would like to talk a little bit about what makes the Mad Ants office the BEST FRONT OFFICE IN THE D-League. The above picture was taken at recent Spiece tournament that the Mad Ants sponsored. It is of myself, Heidi, Sarah, the Mad Ant, and Alicia. This is the "Ops Side" of our office. Heidi is our PR and community relations people. She is the reason we are out there in the community as much as we are. She also is the contact for all the local and national press. She also does a million other things (including hanging the press backdrop in the locker room during the fourth quarter, I am her faithful assistant in this task). Alicia is responsible for why there is never a dull moment at a Mad Ants game. She makes sure every time-out, quarter break, and half-time is jam packed with entertainment. You can spot her running around at the games making sure everything is going smoothly. Her most important job is making sure I get to be the bowl-thrower for Red Panda on March 29th. If you don't know who Red Panda is, please check out this link . Sarah is our Business Manager. Sarah is the heart of the office and makes sure all the details are covered. You can also find her at the merchandise table at all of our games. Go make her day and buy a Mad Ants doll (action figure). Sarah does so much that I don't think anyone actually knows what she does. So there is a woefully inadequate recap of our awesome operations side of the office. Don't get me started on the Sales sides, we are a bunch of jerks...

The reason for my lacadaisacal (my new favorite word) blogging is due to our busy home game schedule last week. It was pretty crazy, probably the busiest week in franchise history for us. We had a great turnout for Friday and Sunday. Speaking of Friday Night, I would like to give a shout out to Arlington Elementary school. They did a fund-raiser for the Mad Ants and did an amazing job! I think they had half the school there! Plus their students did a great job with the pre-game act with their baton twirlers and cheer team. So if your orginzation is interested in doing a fund-raiser just shoot me an email. I won't use the cliche "FUNdraiser" (I just did), but it is really true in this case.

The big news coming out of the weekend was Chris Hunter getting a look from the NY Knicks. Well it turns out that another former Mad Ant apparently ended up with the spot. If you follow Ridiculous Upside this is old news, but it was the one and only Cheikh Samb. He is best known for blocking 11 shots in one game last year for the Mad Ants and getting his two front teeth knocked out in his second game us. He is also recently known for this highlight . Good luck to Cheikh and I hope he sticks with the Knicks.

Well I am going to call it a night, and promise (probably an empty one) to blog again soon. After re-reading this blog I think my parentheses count is down slighting this week. I will try to do better next week to keep my love of parentheses going!

Good Day,

-Garrett

The Boys are Back

Hello my tens and twenties of blog followers. Well, the good news is the Mad Ants are back in town and getting ready to gear up for a busy week of home games! This will be our version of "Rivalry Week" as we take on our Arch Rivals (anyone else remember that game on the original Nintendo? It was basketball but with fighting) Sioux Falls and Dakota. This will be the return of the blogger of all bloggers Mr. Boom Tho Rod Benson with Dakota.

The Piston's Affiliate night on Tuesday was a great time. The Piston's crew is so good at what they do and are very generous for making the trek down to Fort Wayne. Automotion was looking amazing as usual, Alicia was going to get me a picture with them for the blog but it did not happen. I guess running the game was more important than this blog. I know, I can't believe it either. I'll let Mr. Potter blog about the actual game. Speaking of Mr. Potter, he just left to head to Phoenix for League meetings and All-Star weekend. Best of luck to Chris Hunter and Walker Russell Jr. in the D-League All-Star game on Feb. 14th. Jeremy Richardson was the MVP last year for the game and received an immediate call-up from the Atlanta Hawks. So it is a proven showcase for these guys to earn an NBA "Gatorade" Call-up. If you are looking for more basketball content to a blog, be sure to check out Ridiculous Upside. They provide the best analysis of the NBA D-League on the net by far. Great stuff for all you basketball junkies who are left woefully unsatisfied by this blog. Mad Ants fan Ben Renz writes in-depth about the team on the site and it's a great read.

Now on to totally un-related-to-basketball commentary. You may be wondering who the picture with me is above. If so, shame on you for never seeing the best cover-band in Indiana in Dave & Rae (Rae being the one from the picture obviously). They play all over the state from Bloomington to Indianapolis to Fort Wayne. I am currently about to see them for the fourth weekend in a row. Apparently I have a tendency to get obsessed with things I like (girls beware). Wow, I am really using a lot of parentheses today, which is certainly probably (oxy-moron anyone?) a case of bad writing/blogging. I like parentheses, so learn to deal with it people. Okay back to Dave & Rae, they are great and play a wide variety of music. My streak started when I realized they were playing in Indy the night I was in town for a Pacer's game. I had just saw them the weekend before in Fort Wayne so I decided why not just keep the streak going! They then played in New Haven last week and are back in Fort Wayne tomorrow night. I let Rae know last week that I am stalking them and she seems to be cool with it. I am also campaigning to get Heidi to book them for the Coliseum concourse for a Mad Ants game this year. I love Island Vibe, the band who usually plays, but having Dave & Rae perform for a night would create a really fun atmosphere. So I guess this paragraph did relate to the Mad Ants a little bit.

Well I am going to wrap this blog up after that massive paragraph. Be sure to catch a Mad Ants game or four this coming week. You can also watch the NBA D-League All Star game at 4pm eastern time on NBA TV. I know not everyone has that channel but one place I know in town that does have it is Wrigley's Sports Bar and Grill on State.

-Garrett

Night with the Pacers

(Blog created on Feb. 3rd)

Some great things have been happening since I last blogged. It was very satisfying to beat the Dakota Wizards on Saturday (Jan 30). As Jeff notes in his blog, we did not do very well against the Wizards last year. It will be interesting to see how the rematch goes tonight. Let’s hope Rod “Boom Tho” Benson continues to be a non-factor in this game as well. The guy was a beast last season in the D-League and is capable of putting up some big numbers. I’ll be watching the game on NBA’s Futurecast and so should you.

Some friends and I went down to the Pacers/Heat game on Friday night. The Pacers dominated D-Wade and the Heat for the majority of the game and came up with a nice win. I am very optimistic about the future of the Pacers. They have a solid team, and I think we can expect to see them back in the playoffs next year. Realistically they are not too far out of the hunt this year. It was great to see former Mad Ants staffer Lindsey Clifford at the game. She is currently working in group sales for the Indiana Pacers and doing a great job.

Lindsey hooked her favorite Mad Ants blogger up at the game! She introduced me to Pacer great “Big Smooth” Sam Perkins. He was always one of my favorites, with his huge cornrows and unique three point shot. He was a big part of the 1999-00 Pacers team that went to the NBA finals and took on the Lakers. I was also able to meet the one and only Stacy Paetz. Stacy is the court-side reporter for FSN-IN and you see her on all of the televised Pacers games. Everyone in the office knows that I have a slight crush on Stacy (by slight I mean borderline stalkerish). There was a chance for me to meet her at the Pacers/Bulls preseason game at the Coliseum but it did not end up happening (due to me being a huge wimp). So Lindsey introduced me during half-time of the Pacers game and I had a brief and somewhat awkward conversation with her. Her parting words were “Thank you for your support”, so I totally blew my chance. But I did get a nice picture with her to put up on the blog. I should have asked her when she was going to do a special on the Mad Ants for a Pacers broadcast. So Stacy, if you read this come to Fort Wayne and I’ll give you “insider access” to the Mad Ants. We can discuss all the details over dinner!

Check out the Mad Ants Office Podcast on the main page of our website. It is currently listed under “news” on the home page. This was our first podcast and hopefully it was amusing. It’s something fun we are going to do every Friday afternoon at the office.

I will be back next week with another update and hopefully be talking about how we won all three road games this week!

-Garrett