Less than a week away!

The Mad Ants are less than a week away from our home opener on Nov. 21st! Very exciting and busy week to say the least. We had our media day yesterday at the Coliseum, which is where all the local media comes out to interview players/coaches to give their viewers/readers a preview of the season. Here are some highlights from media day:

Wane-TV's Ross Kinsey Interview with Hot Rod Wilmont, Walker Russell Jr and Coach Joey Meyer. *arrow over at the bottom of the screen to scroll through to each interview

(Mad Ants Trivia: I went to high school with Ross Kinsey at Angola High School. While Ross was a star on the High School Basketball team, I was cut from the 7th grade squad.)

Indiana Newscenter - Dean Pantazi's Media Day Highlights

Journal Gazette - Steve Warden blogs on his thoughts on what the final Mad Ants roster will look like come Sunday.

Here is my prediction for our opening night starting lineup-

PG - Walker Russell JR

SG - Chris Kramer

SF - Rod Wilmont

PF Darnell Lazare

C - Chris Hunter

But what do I know? Want to see the actual line-up? Come out to the game on Sunday! Tip-off is at 5pm.

Training Camp Roster - Keys to Success

So I have not blogged in a while, DEAL WITH IT!!!!! Just kidding, I appreciate any loyal readers I have left. I will not make excuses for my lack of blogging, but I will say Jeff Potter has been doing a great job over at his blog. So make sure to check that out. Plus he actually knows what he is talking about as I am just randomly guessing.

I just want to quickly touch on the Keys to the Mad Ants success this season:

(please keep in mind I was cut from my 7th grade basketball team and have very little actual knowledge on the intricacies of professional basketball)

1.) Chris Hunter - Chris had an all-star year with us in the 08-09 season. He spent last year with the Golden State Warriors and is now back in the Mad Ants training camp. Why is he not in the NBA? I honestly really don't know. He had some great games last year with the Warriors. In a close game against the Lakers he scored 22 points and had 7 rebounds. Apparently Chris was suffering from a sore knee this summer, and that is what kept him out of NBA summer league and training camp rosters. The key is how long can we honestly hope to keep Chris on the roster? You know an NBA team will come calling sooner or later. The NBA Development League is really such a strange dynamic as you really root for these guys to make it to the NBA, but at the same time you know a huge hole will be left when he goes. Last year Chris did not make it through the first week of training camp, I will give him until mid-December before he is a GATORADE NBA Call-up.

2.) Walker Russell JR - Another all-star from the 08-09 season. Will Walker be able to recapture what he had two years ago when he led the league in assists and broke the all-time assist record for a season? I think so, he has been in town and working hard in the gym a month or more prior to training camp. He is a step ahead of many guys in the D-League at this point in the season. I also think it helps that Chris Hunter is back, who was a prime receiver of those assists in the Mad Ants 2nd season.

3.) Rod Wilmont - Rod has basically been in a self-created training camp all summer in Fort Wayne. He is giving it his all to make this a break-out year for him. From what I hear around the water cooler, Hot Rod has improved leaps and bounds of where he was at last year ( which was still very good!). I really look for him to grab some peoples attention this year and help lead the Mad Ants to the promised land.

These are not all the keys to success, but my lunch break is about to be over so I better wrap it up! Please come on out to the following events we have coming up in the next 72 hours:

Nov. 12th MEET THE TEAM PARTY at Crazy Pinz at 7pm. Free Food Free Bowling, plus the Mad Ants players will be there mingling and signing autographs.

Nov. 13th MAD ANTS VS ERIE BAYHAWKS pre-season game at CONCORDIA SEMINARY GYMNASIUM 7pm Tip-off Admission is free with a can-good or $5 at the door.

Training Camp

Well we are less than a week out from the NBA D-League draft on Nov. 1st. With that said, it looks like we already have a pretty strong training camp roster. The players I am about to list are all "probable" and are based on my sleuth-like abilities to spy on the basketball side of the office, as well as some other sources.

Here are who it looks like will be returning:

Walker Russell Jr - PG -D-League Season Assist Leader

Rod Wilmont - SG/SF - has worked on his game all summer working out with Asst Coach Gansey. People that know about basketball say he has brought his game to another level

Anthony Kent - PF/C - Our big man from Ball State. He was playing hurt most of last year, plus he has came to town early to get into game shape ahead of training camp. Always a plus!

Carlos English PG - Carlos was our backup point guard who really provided a spark off the bench at the end of last season. He has arrived in town early to get ready for the season as well.


Allocated Players:

This is via Twitter from both players personal accounts but it looks like Billy Rush and Chris Kramer will both be attending Mad Ants training camp. Both would be allocated to us by getting waived from the Milwaukee Bucks pre-season camp. If the news on Kramer becomes official I am sure you will be hearing about it, as it would be huge news here in Fort Wayne and especially Huntington!

The rest of the training camp will be made up of draft picks and any other returning players that trickle in. Stay tuned for anymore news.

Two IU Players tryout for Mad Ants

(Tijan Jobe)

Two IU players were at the Mad Ants open tryouts today at the Concordia Seminary.

Big man Tijan Jobe was there along with DeAndre Thomas. Both advanced to day two of the tryout which will finish up on Sunday. It is open to he public and will start up at 12pm tomorrow. Day 2 is almost entirely made up of 5 on 5 scrimmages , with the
20 remaining players (starting from 86) will vie for a spot on the Mad Ants training camp roster.

The Mad Ants have a history of finding some great players at open tryouts (ex: Ron Howard) so come check out who the next potential Mad Ants star will be!

Potential Mad Ants Training Camp Players

The NBA D-League has a new player allocation rule this season. It allows each D-League team the right to allocate three players who were waived from their NBA affiliates training camp/preseason rosters. It is not three players per NBA affiliate but three players TOTAL. The players waived by the NBA team must also of course sign a contract with the NBA D-League.

In the Mad Ants case, it means we can pick three players from the pool of guys waived by the Pacers, Bucks, and Pistons.

The Milwaukee Bucks made their first three preseason cuts with the following players:


Tory Jackson - Tory is probably the most well known of the three to Fort Wayne as he was the starting point guard for Notre Dame last season. Last year Jackson averaged 9.6 pts, 5.3 asst, and shot 35% from 3-point range for the Fighting Irish. From what I hear around the water cooler, there is a good chance we will see him in training camp for the Mad Ants. (Keep in mind that a lot can change in the month of October as guys may get offers to go overseas)

Billy Rush - Rush is a 6'7 shooting guard/small forward out of Robert Morris. I don't know much about Mr. Rush (hey I am a sales guy who got cut from his 7th grade basketball team!) but apparently he can dunk!



Keith "Tiny" Gallon - Gallon was the Bucks 2nd Round Draft pick this year so this is a little bit of a suprise to see him cut so early. He played one season for Okalahoma before declaring for the draft. He is a 6'9 power forward This article has a quote from Bucks GM John Hammond:

“We wanted to do what’s right for the organization and for the player,” said general manager John Hammond, who wanted to give Gallon a chance to join another NBA team instead of waiting until the end of camp.

So I am not sure if we will see Gallon in Fort Wayne this year, but I would say with his size if he is available you have to at least give him a shot!

Well there is my first stab of the 2010-11 season at giving you some actual basketball analysis as opposed to my typical volleyball/pro wrestling stories. I will update as the Bucks/Pacers/Pistons make their cuts. Have a great week/weekend!

Mad Ants Win!

Okay, my subject line may be a little misleading, the Mad Ants basketball team did not win (the season has not even started yet people!) but the office volleyball team did beat the Fort Wayne TinCaps volleyball team last night in a friendly game.

We played over at the courts by River City Bar & Grill, and it was a great time. Jeff Potter was even there to video some of this momentous event and hopefully he will be posting it sometime soon. A big thank you to Abby Naas for helping us set this up and all the TinCaps staff for coming out and playing. We are talking about making this a bi-monthly tradition and rotating sports. The Mad Ants would like to thank Jeff Potter, Asst Coach Steve Gansey, Volunteer Assistant Coach Dave Fox, and Intern Audrey (I am not even going to try to speell your last name) for coming out and showing their support. Not to mention for providing their witty commentary for the video.

For all you Chris Kramer fans, he suited up last night for the Milwaukee Bucks in their first preseason game. He managed to score 2 points, pull in 2 boards, and block a shot.

There is still a very good chance we could see Chris Kramer in a Mad Ants uniform this season, we will most likely know for sure by the end of this month.

There should be much more news coming soon as far as the Mad Ants roster is concerned. Open tryouts is on October 16th & 17th and we have a history of finding some quality players out of that (ex: Ron Howard, DeWitt Scott).

Until next time Mad Ants fans!

Chris Kramer to the Mad Ants?

Before the recent emergence of IPFW Fort Wayne had typically been a two-horse college basketball town with IU & Purdue. High School students had to really weigh their college options...IU or Purdue? Up until this point the Mad Ants have only been able to put one half of that equation on the court in a Mad Ants uniform. Now it looks like Purdue's hard nosed guard Chris Kramer is seriously considering the Mad Ants in his basketball future.

You can check out the Journal Gazette article here

Here is a direct quote from Chris Kramer out of the article:

“I’m excited for a chance to go to training camp. With the Bucks, they really don’t have any spots available for guaranteed money. Their 15-man (roster) is full, so it’s just a chance to go up there and hopefully have a good camp and put yourself in an even better position than you were when you stepped in to go to camp. Go down to play with the Mad Ants and hopefully play well again and make the dream come true and play in the NBA.”

The Mad Ants have had two IU players on the roster (Earl Calloway and Rod Wilmont), but have yet to put a Purdue player on the court. Not only is Chris Kramer a Purdue Alum but he is also a local of Huntington, IN.

I am a little biased toward IU but I think it would be great for the Mad Ants to have a player like Chris Kramer on the roster. It is an opportunity for us to tap into more of the Purdue fan-base and an opportunity for Chris to work his way onto to an NBA roster.

Obviously there are no guarantees Chris will end up on the Mad Ants roster, but it sure would be nice!

Mad Ants Prospects

Do you hate when you read someone's blog and they just point you towards another blog for real actual content? Well you may want to stop reading now. Ridiculous Scott has a great article about Notre Dame 4 year point guard Tory Jackson who is trying to make a go of the NBA this year.

There has been talk of a new allocation rule that will allow D-League teams to have the rights to players who are cut from their affiliates training camp/preseason roster. So if Tory Jackson does not make the Milwaukee Bucks final roster the Mad Ants could potentially have his rights. I do not know if this rule is officially set in stone yet but I have heard it is being at least considered.

I think this would be a nice step in the right direction for the D-League. It would also clear up some of the fuzzy allocation rules we currently have. Last year Erie received the rights to Rob Kurz because he played high school in that area, even though he played his college ball at Notre Dame. We then had to trade our first pick for Rob last year to acquire him.

The Mad Ants volleyball team will have its big season ending tournament one week from today. I am going to attempt to get a team picture (hopefully with a championship "trophy")!

Photographic Proof

Jeff Potter just forwarded me an email with some pictures from Sean Sonderleiter's new team in Germany. Here he is with his old Mad Ants teammate and fellow Ratiopharm Ulm teammate Coleman Collins. Apparently the overseas training camp is much longer than the U.S. so it will be a while before I can give updates

I can give you some updates on the Mad Ants Volleyball Squad though. We went a mediocre 2-2 last night. We won both games in the first match and were swept by a very solid team in the second match. The team consisted of me, Sarah Wladecki, Heidi Busch, Asst Coach Steven Gansey and his significant other Krystal (with a K!). Steven Gansey shocked everyone by his volleyball prowess, he was attacking the net with a VENGEANCE! If basketball does not work out for him, he may have a solid backup in Volleyball.

I think I was able to pin down why we lost last the second match last night. It was the curse of the Garrett Headband. I always wear a Mad Ants headband at the games, you know to try to give off that crazy headband vibe, and I forgot to wear it for the first 2 games (which we won). I was sitting at our table between games when I stood up and yelled "My Headband!". I proceeded to get it out of my car and wear it for match 2 where we were trounced. Coincidence? We shall see next week.

Keep your eyes open for a fun video we are putting together in-house. It is going to promote 5 Great reasons to buy Mad Ants season tickets. I will be posting it on the blog when we get it finished.

Have a great weekend!

-Garrett

Mad Ants Abroad

Sean Sonderleiter officially has left for Germany as of this past week. He had been back in Fort Wayne for a few weeks doing work outs with Mad Ants Assistant Coach Steve Gansey to prepare for the trip. He will be playing on the same team as Mad Ants Alumni Coleman Collins. I am sure Coleman will be a great tour guide to help Sean get accustomed to the new team/country.

Ryan Ayers has signed a deal with a team in Finland. You can read the story here.

Ron Howard has signed to play in Israel for the Netanya team. This is a big time European league and Ron will be facing some tough competition.

Now for a more important update, the Mad Ants volleyball team! We went 3-1 last night and faced some stiff competition from Monnier Remodeling (our favorite team to play) and a team whose name I don't recall. The highlight of the night for me was watching Kyle Thoms get BLOCKED by former Mad Ants intern Camron's Dad Bernie at the net. It was a rude awakening for Mr. Thoms.

This year our roster consists of Mad Ants staffers: Me, Heidi Busch, Sarah Wladecki, Kyle Thoms, and Jeff Johnson. We have also brought in ringers who are Emily and Crystal who are the girlfriends of "Hot" Rod Wilmont and Asst Coach Steve Gansey respectively. I will post a team picture ASAP. Do not worry, I am still rocking the Mad Ants sweatband.

Last night Coach Gansey supported the team by showing up. He kept me mentally motivated by peppering me with names of famous wrestlers from the 1990's. I then would come up with their finishing move. I was a perfect 100%. One that did give me trouble was Golddust but I managed to eventually come up with "Curtain Call" (an inverted DDT for those playing at home). He also threw Sable at me, but I do not believe she ever had a finishing move other than perhaps finishing husband Marc Mero's career!

Other big news, the Mad Ants schedule is out! We will be starting at home on Nov. 21st and have 15 weekend dates this year (Fri/Sat/Sun). We are playing on Christmas Day, which I think could turn into a big tradition for us. Great way to get the whole family together, as I know my family is often looking for something to do Christmas evening.

If you are looking at season tickets or a group night, feel free to give me a call at 260-469-4667 x 107 to see some specific options.

Have a great weekend!

-Garrett

Mad Ant Departures

In a classic NBA D-League bad news/good news situation the Mad Ants will be losing two key players next year to the overseas market. Rob Kurz will be going to play in Spain, while Sean Sonderleiter will be going to play in Germany. I am a little surprised by Rob leaving as I thought he really deserved to be on an NBA roster. He is just a guy with an incredibly high basketball IQ that would be a great role player on most NBA teams. He may have been a little frustrated by not getting a call-up until the very tail end of the season last year. I wish Rob the best of luck and hope has a great time and Europe and makes some money!

I am very happy for Sean. This is a guy who two years ago was picked in the 10th round in the D-League draft. For those who are not experts on the draft, I would guess about 20% of the players in the draft make it onto the teams roster. So it was a long shot for Sean to even make it to the Mad Ants, let alone have the amazing season he had last year. He has done so much work to put himself in this position overseas, and he really deserves it.

Of course, to get the true scoop on this news, you can check out Ridiculous Upside who broke the story.

LeBron to the Mad Ants?!?!

According to this ESPN writer, we are in the running. It's in the third paragraph.

Honestly I have no idea where LeBron will announce he is going tonight. It seems like a slap in the face to Cleveland if he is holding a huge press conference event on ESPN to announce he is going to Miami. If I was a betting man, I would bet he his staying with the Cavs. Nothing beats home and an NBA max contract!

On to stuff you don't care about: What a glorious 4th of July weekend that was! I took two vacation days and was up on the crystal blue waters of Crooked Lake. Managed to visit two sandbars/fish without a license (don't worry I did not catch a thing)and see a ton of friends and family. I even won a game of croquet!

I also had the honor of being the Mad Ant in the 4th of July Parade in Angola (one of my hometowns) and boy was it hot! I think it topped out around 94 degrees that day. If you ever see a mascot on a hot day, don't bother saying "I bet it's hot in there!" BECAUSE IT IS and he/she is keenly aware of that fact. I bet I heard that forty times. Be original people, it was getting to the point I would have rather had someone attack me and try to rip my mascot head off than hear another "MAN-O-MAN I bet it's warm in there (chuckle chuckle)." It was a great parade though and thousand from the community came out for it. I also had the pleasure of meeting Marlin Stutzman (republican candidate for House Seat) and my old high school history teacher Mr. Olson (who is a Democrat City Councilman), all as the Mad Ant!

A plethora of Mad Ants will be playing in the Vegas Summer League coming up next week. To stay updated on all the action I would recommend checking out Ridiculous Upside or NBA.com

Oliver Lafayette is currently playing with the Celtics at the Orlando Summer League and has done a very nice job so far. I think he is making a good case for sticking with the Celtics for next season.

Remember the Madame Ants Dance Team Tryouts are coming up next week on July 17th at the Concordia Seminary gymnasium. If you are interested, check out the Mad Ants website with all the details. Madame Ants Laura and Ana were just on 98.9 the Bear with Turner and Jerrdog this morning (Mad Ants PA Announcer) promoting the tryout. Some very amusing comments...Turner brought up that he thinks VP of Sales & Marketing Jeff Johnson has a "hot sister" randomly.

I will end this blog by letting you know the first session of Mad Ants volleyball is coming to a close next Thursday with the league tournament. Our goal is to bring the first ever championship to the Mad Ants (volleyball or otherwise!). We will wear the t-shirts we win in proud glory (or some of us will probably take the $15 off the next session). I will let you know how it goes. Until next time...

Acme Bar & Grill "Where Sports Teams Meet"!

The Mad Ant Volleyball squad redeemed themselves in a dominating fashion with a 4-0 victory last night. The second team we played was so bad, that Kyle and Heidi felt the need to keep commenting on much fun the other team was having just to make them feel better about their atrocious play. Due to an overflow of teams, we had to play this match at the Plex Courts as opposed to the courts at River City Bar & Grill. The Plex does not have the same type of atmosphere, as they are missing two key items: Music & Buckets of Beer. Still 4-0 is 4-0 and we had a good time.

After the volleyball match Kyle, Heidi and I headed to the Acme Bar & Grill to watch Game Seven of the NBA Finals. We were hoping to see Mad Ant point guard and current Celtic capture an NBA ring, but it was not meant to be. We did not manage to spot Oliver on the bench, which is usually the most exciting part of the game for us. He must have been too busy hamming it up with Christina Aguilera and Jack Nicholson.

Apparently the Acme Bar is the place where all the sports teams in Fort Wayne like to get together for big sporting events. Upon entrance we sit down at a booth, only to realize that world famous Komets WOWO broadcaster Bob Chase and his wife are sitting at the bar. As the game goes on a big group of Tin Caps employees come in after their home game had wrapped up. Appropriately they sat right under the huge mural of Parkview Field on Acme's wall. So at that point we had visits to the Acme by the Komets, Mad Ants, and Tin Caps. Not to leave the college sports realm out, National Champion Head Coach of St. Francis basketball Jeff Rekeweg walks in with his wife to catch the end of the game. I kept looking around after that waiting for Gene Keady or Rod Woodson to walk in the door.

As for the game itself, it was low scoring but exciting at the same time. Although we were all secretly hoping Oliver would rip off his suit to reveal a Celtics jersey underneath and take the floor. Still a good time and glad I got to visit the revitalized Acme Bar "Where Sports Neighbors Meet".

Have a great weekend Charlie Brown!

Guess this is a monthly subscription

So my blog has tanked again! I don't know what my problem is, but I cannot manage to update this blog regularly. Even my Mom doesn't check it anymore, as she just told me this past weekend.

Here is a brief update:

AOL Fanhouse had a nice article on Oliver Lafayette and his time with the Celtics in the NBA Finals. We are all really rooting for Oliver to get an NBA ring! Pretty crazy stuff.

The Jimmy Buffett concert was great, had a great time with a big group of friends. Assistant Coach Extraordinaire Steve Gansey even made an appearance, as unbeknown to me he is a certified Parrot Head. It was strange having the concert in May but the weather ended up cooperating.

The Mad Ants Volleyball team is a very sad 8-8 right now. Due to a flu bug we were forced to forfeit one week losing all four games. This past Thursday we only came away with one win, and put up three losses. This was the worst week we have had when we were fully equipped with all six teammates. We were simply outplayed! Very frustrating but gets us motivated for next week.

Mad Ants staffers Sarah and Heidi joined me last night at the Mad Anthony's Charity Golf Dinner which featured IU Head Coach Tom Crean and WOWO Legend Bob Chase receiving Mad Anthony Red Jackets. A great event for a great cause. We even had the pleasure of meeting Coach Crean and chatting with him for a minute. He was very knowledgeable about the Mad Ants and said he wanted to try to make it to a game in the future. Very nice guy and a great speaker as well.

Well that's it, short and sweet! Jeff Potter has been updating his blog like a madman if you need more of a blog fix. Until next time, keep it realer than real deal holyfield.

Month Hiatus

Okay, I know no one reads this blog anymore, but Sarah has forced me to BLOG!!!!!! She think she is so cool at these marketing meetings. One of her topics is always "Okay Blogs" *turns head and looks directly at me* "ummm......what do I blog about? The season is over.."

Well good news folks...the Mad Ants season may be over but the MAD ANTS VOLLEYBALL season has just begun!!! We kicked off our first match last night at the beach courts of the River City Bar. Please welcome new Mad Ants Volleyball teammate Emily to the team. Emily is the girlfriend of Rod Wilmont, which allows us to welcome the new Mad Ants Volleyball male cheerleader Rod Wilmont to the team. Rod was not able to play on our team as we already have three guys, but I am sure he will sub for us in the future.

Rod actually was able to sub last night for the opposing team in our first match as they were short on players. Although Rod put in a solid effort, he should stick to basketball as the Mad Ants won that match 2-0. I will say he did not have much to work with, as the rest of his team just plain stunk.

The next match was a close one as we had to go to volleyball overtime and won 20-18. So the Mad Ants are 4-0 to start the season and Rod Wilmont in a subbing capacity is 0-2.

Great news, I finally can bump/pass the ball. For some reason I could not stop my self from moving my arms when I bumped, which would cause the ball to go way too high or off in a wild direction. Last night it just clicked and did a solid job of bumping it by just keeping my arms steady.

As for Mad Ants news.... we are all rooting for the Boston Celtics as we want to see Mad Ants alumni Oliver Lafayette get a NBA championship ring! That would be so crazy if it goes down, they have a tough road ahead but hey who thought they would beat the Cavs?

Heading to Jimmy Buffett concert tomorrow in Indy, so I will recap that when I get back. FINS UP!

Nice article on O

Here is a good article on Oliver Lafayette's call-up to the Celticsc courtesy of WEEI Sports Radio Network. Apparently Oliver and Glen "Don't call me Big Baby" Davis are childhood friends and it was a happy reunion.

Oliver Lafayette a Celtic

Oliver Lafayette made his debut as a Boston Celtic tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks! Oliver is a guy who was really under the radar as far as the "call-up" rankings go, which often left me scratching my head. He put up big numbers all year and finished the season with a HUGE month. This and the added bonus of having Danny Ainge watch him play in several games vs Maine gave him this opportunity. It looks like he made the most of that tonight in playing 21 minutes and getting 7 pts 4 rebs and 2 assists. Check out one of those assists here:



I bet Erie is kicking themselves for cutting O before the season now! I hope he keeps this up and gets some more action in the playoffs.

Call-ups Call-ups WE GOT CALL-UPS

So by now if you are still checking this blog, you are either very stubborn/patient or are my Mom. Regardless, you have probably already heard the good news about Rob Kurz being called up to the Chicago Bulls. Rob is very deserving of this and I have always thought he was the "Do everything" guy on the team and would make a great role player for an NBA squad. He is a great shooter who also does everything else well. He will grab rebounds, get a few blocks and does not make many bad decisions on the court. Rob is also a down to earth, nice guy and the entire Mad Ants office is beyond happy for him. There are now two former Mad Ants on the Bulls in Rob and Joe Alexander. The Bulls look poised to make the playoffs as an 8 seed, so hopefully Rob will get a chance to see some action.

The more recent and not quite official news is that another Mad Ant player from this season may or may not be getting a call-up to the NBA. Because I like my job and don't want Jeff Potter or Dan Reed yelling at me, I am just going to link to the story on Ridiculous Upside. I will comment more once the official press release goes out.

Taylor's Turn

Well I have been slacking on my blogging again. I don't know what makes it so hard to keep this updated regularly. I mean the team has won six out of our last seven games but for some reason I still don't update! What a jerk! Well, the good news is you can read Potter's blog where he has actually been keeping up with everything.

I am going to keep slacking and turn this blog over to our Carroll High School intern Taylor. She is going to talk about her top 3 Mad Ants moments this season. Say hello to Taylor everyone....


This is a count down of my top 3 Mad Ants moments this season. Here we go...

3. Finding out that I would be interning with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants has to be number three on my list. I love sports and hope to pursue a career in sports marketing, what better internship to have then this.

2. Throughout the season there were many themed nights, all the way from 50's night to the pajama party. I enjoyed these nights because it was a nice change of pace. I mostly just got really excited to wear my costumes and see what others would be wearing as well.

1. And my number one moment would have to be...having the Carroll Powder Puff Cheerleaders perform at half-time. The cheerleaders are a group of about ten guys who make up dances for our homecoming pep rally. Usually the dances are pretty good but this year it was more then amazing! Our senior class cheerleaders have had their videos all over the internet including YouTube.
I thought to myself what could possibly be better then performing at half-time for the Mad Ants? After they performed Jeff Potter loved them so much that he had asked them to come and perform for the last game of the season. Now the boys are on their way to perform for the WNBA team, the Washinton Mystics. My project turned into a huge success.
Congratulations Carroll Powder Puff Cheerleaders!

The List

(The much anticipated "Captain Hook" pictures from Disney Night. Thank you's go out to Madame Ants Kate (Peter Pan) and Brittany (Tinker Bell) for posing for the pictures)

Looking at these pictures now, I realize I should have ponied up some money for a pirate hat or wig. Otherwise, wow I am good.

Well the Mad Ants are home from a week-long road trip where they traveled to Tulsa and Albuquerque. The bad news is they did not come up with any wins on the road. The good news is we have another home game on Sunday against the Sioux Falls Skyforce. The best news is its 50's night. With this being our last theme night of the year, it brings out my "go big or go home" mentality. The problem being I have not started looking for a costume yet. I have a few ideas, we will just have to see what I come up with.

It was good to see Rob Kurz back in action after missing several games with a deep thigh bruise. With Jared Reiner and Ron Howard both gone, losing Kurz was huge. It's also great for him as he will be able to make a run at a ten-day with an NBA team as they get into play-off stretch. We have still not picked up anyone to officially replace Ron Howard (maybe it's because replacing a guy like Ron Howard would be impossible!), mostly because the D-League player pool right now is slim pickings.

For those of you who come to this blog for Mad Ants/basketball related topics, you may want to leave. For those of you who come for pro wrestling topics, pull up a chair (just don't hit me in the head with it).

I have been out of the loop on pro wrestling for several years now. I check in from time to time but it has not captured my imagination like it did in the late 80's/90's/early 2000's. After watching a few recent "Shoot interviews" (interviews with wrestlers who talk about their careers and break "character") it has started to peak my interest again. So for some reason that makes me want to give my top three favorite pro wrestling tag-teams (some credit must go to a facebook post by Ridiculous Scott in which we started talking about what tag-team John Bryant and Micahel Sweetney wouuld be similar to).

I am going to base my tag-teams on 1) Were they Main Event Status 2) Longevity 3.) Level of Competition they faced and 4.) How much I liked them!

3.) Dudley Boys

The Dudleys were a team I first saw live in ECW back in January of 1998. It was at the Tyndall Armory in downtown Indianapolis. There were probably 1,000 fans at the show and the place was packed. This was in ECW's heyday and the place was electric. This was when the Dudleys had the full entourage with Joel Gertner, Sign Guy Dudley, and Dick Dudley. BUH BUH Dudley would get on the microphone and rip the town to shreds and basically challenge any fan in the building to fight him. The heat they received was unreal. That night they took on New Jack/John Kronus/ and Spike Dudley in a six-man tag that went all over the building and ended with New Jack diving off a 25 foot balcony onto BuhBuh on a table. It had my 16 year-old imagination fully captured. The Dudleys have worked everywhere and been a top team in every promotion. They have never tried to break apart and become singles stars which is often the case with tag teams (think Shawn Michaels and the Rockers or Bret Hart in the Hart Foundation).

2.) Rock N Roll Express

I'll be honest, I was a WWF man back in the 80's and early 90's. Simply because I did not have cable and never was able to watch WCW except for some of their syndicated shows like WCW Worldwide on Saturday mornings. I state this fact because that means I missed the Rock N' Roll Expresses big run in the late mid-to late 80's. Luckily through the magic of VHS tapes, I have watched many of their big matches. They pretty much invented the formula for a successful baby-face (good guy) tag team. Compromised of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, they were to guys who were not 'roided up but simply new how to work (wrestle). Ricky Morton was doing hurrancanranas before they were cool. The forumula for their matches has been duplicated by everyone in the business. The heels (bad guys) would beat the crap out of Ricky Morton for the majority of the match. He would then miracously make the hot tag (to a huge pop from the crowd) to Robert Gibson who would come in and clean house. The big run for them was in the NWA/WCW but they had stints in the WWF/Smokey Mountain Wrestling and still team up occasionally to this day on Independent wrestling shows across the country. I worked on one such show with them back in 2000 or 2001. I remember two amusing anecdotes from this show. Ricky Morton was just about to go out for his match and talking to some of the younger guys about the tag match the younger guys had worked earlier in the show, telling them "you guys did alright, but you don't need to do all those crazy spots, you gotta pace yourself and not just do a bunch of moves for no reason." The Rock N Roll Express theme music hits and Ricky takes a long drag off his cigarette and says "Now this is how you work" and heads to the ring. My encounter with him was also amusing, during my match I was going to use the heelish tactic of throwing powder in my opponents eyes. I was preparing my baggie of baby powder as Ricky Morton walks by and asks "Hey man, can I get a line of that?" . I am taken aback and stutter "uhhh..oh no it's just baby powder" and Ricky replies with "Geezus kid, think I was serious, everybody is so uptight around here".

1.) Road Warriors

These guys were monsters their entire careers. They were babyfaces, they were heels, it did not matter, they were always over with the fans. Although not the best "wrestlers", they had some great tandem moves (Doomsday Device!) and could brawl. They were the top team in every promotion at some point. Not to mention the great catchphrase by Road Warrior Hawk "AWWWW WHAT A RUSH". They set the bar for monster tag teams in wrestling. They had memorable feuds with Demolition/Midnight Express/Nasty Boys and many more. Just the epitomy of a cool tag team that immeidiatley drew your attention. Sadly Road Warrior Hawk passed away a few years back but I believe Road Warrior Animal is still involved in the business.

I came here to chew bubble gum and kick....

I will let Jeff Potter talk about the team/games in his blog. I want to use this blog to look at some fun things the Mad Ants have done over the past several weeks.

My favorite event/partnership/program that the Mad Ants have done this year is building a great relationship with the YMCA's of Greater Fort Wayne. Every Y-Ball (YMCA's youth basketball program) participant received a free Mad Ants ticket and a chance to participate in a Mad Ants Coach/Players basketball clinic at the Jorgensen YMCA on Feb. 13th. We had well over 250 kids participate int he clinic and everyone had a great time. Here is a picture of the early session of kids at the clinic.

(YMCA Mad Ants Clinic)

We recently had YMCA Night at our Feb. 28th home game with over 400 people from the Y-Ball program coming out to the game.

Another fun night was February 20th which was "Awesome 80's Night". I always tend to go overboard on these theme nights and the 20th was no exception. Here it is....the long awaited, never duplicated....

If you don't know who I am, shame on you. Rowdy Roddy Piper was an icon of the 80's pro wrestling scene. The classic bad guy who was so bad he was cool long before Stone Cold came onto the scene. Note the authentic pro wrestling boots.

And for your enjoyment a shot of the Madame Ants in their 80's gear:


LA D-Fenders come to town tomrrow and Friday! Be there! Tip-off is at 7pm on Thursday and 7:3opm on Friday.

Thabeet Goes On

So the big story in the NBA Development League this week is that Hasheem Thabeet was assigned to the Dakota Wizards by the Memphis Grizzlies. Ridiculous Scott over at Ridiculous Upside broke the story before anyone else. Why is this a huge story? Thabeet was the second pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. He is the highest draft pick ever to be assigned to the NBA D-League.

Why is this important for the D-League? Anytime a topic involving the D-Leauge (that does not involve a Michael Jordan impersonator) comes up on ESPN's Pardon the Interuption, it's a good thing. PTI's Michael Wilbon defended sending Thabeet to the D-League. He stated he felt other past players such as Kwame Brown would have benefited from a stint in the D- League.

The D-League is essentially Triple-A baseball. Just a step below the NBA. Some people do not understand that. To have a big name like Thabeet come down, it shows what a high level this league is at, both the quality of play and the respect that NBA teams give it. Memphis has invested a lot in Thabeet and they feel the best step to improve his game is get him some playing time in a live game. This is exactly what the Development League is here for.

Why is this important for the Mad Ants? We play Dakota on Sunday (Feb. 28th). So we get to bring one of the biggest names in college basketball last year to town for our fans. Plus it also happens to be a big game as far as the Mad Ants making a run for the playoffs. We have won three of the last four games and it would be nice to kick off our home stand with a big win over Dakota.

Injury Update: Rob Kurz is questionable for tomorrow nights game. He will almost certainly be back for Tuesdays game if he misses Sunday. He took a hard knee from Mo Almond in Maine on Wednesday.

See everyone at the game tomorrow.

Always Learning

After last nights win over Erie for Awesome 80's Night I learned three things.

1.) There were not as many people watching Pro Wrestling in the mid to late 80's as you think. I mean seriously.....who does not know who Rowdy Roddy Piper is???? More explanation on this one when I have some pictures to upload from last night.



2.) Dan Dickau is realer than real deal Holyfield. He brought 17 points and 11 assists and really moved the ball around as you can tell by the Mad Ants having seven players in double figures. Dan brings a natural point guard to the team, I know many people felt was a big part of what the team was missing. The bad news (for us)/good news (for him) is that if he keeps playing like that he will be back in the NBA before you know it.

3.) If you wear a wig for 5 hours and then take it off it still feels like you have it on.

The good thing is we get to do this all again in about 9 hours! Mad Ants vs Erie BayHawks at 5pm! If we win this one, we move a notch above Erie in the standings. It's a long road to get back into the playoff race but you have to start somewhere!

Player Update

The Mad Ants has a big player announcement, we would like to welcome NBA vet Dan Dickau to the roster. Springfield had signed Dickau off the waiver wire after he entered the D-League player pool, and then traded him to us. We traded Kyle McAlarney to Springfield for Dickau. The idea behind this trade is to shore up our point guard spot and add another vet to the team.

It is a shame to see Kyle gone, as he was a definite fan favorite and very fun to watch.

Dickau will be looking to get a call-up to the NBA yet this season, so you know he will be playing hard to get that opportunity.

So come on out to the Coliseum tomorrow and welcome Dan to the team. Tip-off is at 7pm and we are taking on Rod Benson and the Reno Bighorns.

Ron Howard and Rob Kurz in All-Star game today!

Just a reminder that Ron Howard and Rob Kurz will be playing int he NBA D-League All-Star game today (Saturday) at 3pm EST. You can watch it live on NBA TV. Or can you watch it with myself and the Mad Ants staff on DVR at my apartment around 6pm after the YMCA Mad Ants Clinic today at the Jorgensen YMCA.

Here is an article from Reggie Hayes in the News Sentinel talking about the Mad Ants All-Stars.

Weekly Blog Update

Well apparently I am on a weekly blog schedule now, which is too bad because I am one heckuva blogger. Much better than Jeff Potter talking about anteaters or Jared Reiner writing about his experience with airplane exit seats.

I have been pretty busy over the last week or so with Mad Ants stuff galore. But we have not had a game since January 31st you say? You are correct, but as some of you may believe we do not hibernate in our Coliseum storage closet between games (at least I don't, I think Kyle Thoms might). We had a flurry of "appearances" and events to attend with us having NINE different appearances on Saturday alone!

This included having the Mad Ant mascot visit six YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne Y-Ball sites. These appearances are always a lot of fun. You have not experienced chaos until you drop a 6-4 ANT in the middle of 50 5-8 year olds playing basketball. The reactions vary from fleeing in fear to some of them instantly going into ATTACK mode and trying to rip off the Mad Ants antennae. The Mad Ant always manages to come out in one piece though and have a good time doing it. He even came off the bench for a couple teams and threw down some Monster dunks! Granted, it was an eight foot rim but still impressive!

I also led a caravan of half the team consisting of Rod Wilmont, Rob Kurz, Anthony Kent, Jared Reiner and Sean Sonderletier to a basketball clinic for the Kosciusko YMCA in Warsaw on Saturday morning. The snow caused the players and I to be a little late, but Ants Assistant Coach Sanders had arrived promptly and was putting the kids to work with drills when we arrived. We had about 60 kids there and the players quickly had them running layup/shooting/passing/dribbling drills at three separate stations. My favorite part of these clinics is always the Q&A session we do at the end with the players. The normal questions came up like "Can you dunk?" and "How tall are you?" . We then had a couple gems like "How big are your feet?" and the best "Do they do these drills that we did?" directed at Coach Sanders. Coach Sanders replied that the players do these type of drills all the time. The kid then said "No, I mean can you make them do them right now?". Probably a "you had to be there type moment" but I found it very funny. The poor kid was tired and thought the players had it easy directing them through the drills but not actively participating in them. Coach told them they were going practice right after this so they had to save their strength.

The other amazing thing was the players ability to eat a full Cracker Barrel breakfast after the clinic and then practice immediately afterward. Sean Sonderleiter's catfish/macaroni and cheese biscuit sandwich concoction was pretty spectacular.

Hopefully this snow stays under control (the weather man says otherwise) and we have a nice turnout for the game tomorrow night (Feb. 9). I know the Rio Grande Valley Vipers are already in town, so the game is going down regardless of the snow situation! This is a great opportunity to come out and see Mike Harris play, a guy who has been putting up 20 and 20 games with apparent ease latley. I am pretty sure we will see him on an NBA team by the end of the season (back on an NBA team as he played briefly for the Rockets earlier in the year). It's Disney Theme night tomorrow, so be sure to dress up if you come out to the game.

This will also be the return of Ron Howard to the Mad Ants court, as he recovers from his hand injury. He is on his way to the D-League all-star game this weekend. Jamelle Cornely's knee has flared up and Ron will be replacing him on the roster. We will retain Jamelle's rights due to waiving him because of injury.

Rest

In the Mad Ants office we had three goals for Sunday night.

1.) Have a big crowd.

This was probably our biggest crowd of the year with over 5,000 in the building. We had several youth groups coming out to the game to see Santcus Real and many other groups as well. It just creates such a better environment for the game to have that type of crowd. The crowd seemed very into the game and I hope we see some repeat fans.

2.) Have a successful post-game concert

We wanted to do Youth Faith Night right and so we spent some money and brought in Santcus Real (grammy nominated group). They put on a great show and the several hundred fans that stuck around for the show seemed to have a great time. The band stuck around after the game to sign autographs and could not have been a nicer group of guys.

3.) BEAT IOWA

A tough loss for the team. As an office, we wanted the win not only for the standings but to give a good impression to all the new fans we had at the game. The game was very competitive and the Mad Ants gave it all they had. I don't think too many fans left with a bad impression from the game. Many first time fans are shocked by the quality of basketball they see , not to mention all the big name college players in the league.

So the bad news, we lost, good news is we don't have to play Iowa again! (until the playoffs that is!). There are still quite a few games to be played and the Mad Ants are still in the hunt.

The guys have a few days off and then it's back to the grindstone. You may see us out in the community here in the next few weeks as we are putting the guys to work with several appearances!

Check out Erie BayHawk Mike Gansey's new blog over at Ridiculous Upside. Mike is Mad Ants Assistant Coach Steve Gansey's brother and having quite the season over in Erie. Steve is having a good season as well in his role with the Mad Ants .....if you don't count the broken hand! (The Stop Sign really had it coming though!)

Reiner Returns

Jared Reiner will return to the Ants lineup tonight. This will be a huge help as he will have Courtney Sims and Earl Barron to deal with from the Iowa Energy squad. To make room for Reiner we have waived Kyle McAlarney due to injury. This means we retain Kyle's rights and will bring him back when he recovers.

Everything is setup and ready for the big post-game concert tonight featuring 2009 Grammy nominated Sanctus Real. The concert will be taking place following the conclusion of the Mad Ants game. We have a ton of tickets pre-sold for this game and it should be the biggest crowd of the season to date. The pressure is on the team to pull out a big win against Iowa. We are currently 0-5 against league leader Iowa this season, with this being our last regular season game. Steve Warden had a story today detailing this exact topic.

The News Sentinel had a nice background story on Milwaukee Bucks assigned player Joe Alexander. Joe showed some glimpses of what he is capable of on Thursday and I expect to see him continue to improve tonight. The rust from being sidelines for 4 months is beginning to shake off. It will be good for the home crowd to have a "dunker" on the roster.

I'LL BE BACK....AND I AM BACK

Looks like I am back to my old habits of being a lackadaisical blogger (akin to a lackadaisical "cover" when you don't hook the leg when going for a pin in pro wrestling). I don't have any excuses besides laziness. There have been plenty of things to write about. The Mad Ants being on VERSUS again last Saturday. Although the outcome of the game did not turn out well, I thought the quality of the broadcast was great, especially after the second week. Even though the Mad Ants don't play again on VERSUS for the remainder of the regular season, I encourage you to check out a game. They are on every Saturday night at 11pm EST.

A season ticket holder approached me last night with several questions about the current Mad Ants roster. We have had several changes/injuries occur and I can imagine it gets a little confusing for those playing along at home. So I thought it would be a great idea to go over where we are at with the current roster.

Oliver Lafayette: He is the starting point guard and healthy. Oliver is great because not only can he penetrate and dish, he can also shoot the three as well.

Jason Straight: Jason played with Dakota earlier in the season but later waived. We picked him up as our back-up PG with Kyle McAlarney being injured for last nights game. He had a nice outing dished out six assists in limited minutes

Kyle McAlarney: Kyle had some strained ligaments in his foot, but is feeling much better and could potentially be ready to go on Sunday.

Ron Howard: Mr. Mad Ant is sidelined with a broken finger. He should be back in approximately 3 weeks.

Rod Wilmont: Hot Rod is healthy as a horse and was a game changer in the 4th quarter last night in the win against Springfield.

Ryan Ayers: Ryan is also healthy and has really been improving over the course of the season. His corner three point shot is pretty much automatic at this point.

Rashad Anderson: Rashad was waived by Iowa and picked up by the Mad Ants earlier in the month. It was good timing as Rashad has managed to help fill in the hole that opened up when Ron Howard was injured.

Rob Kurz: Rob missed some games due to a sore back, but he is back to 100% and putting up some big numbers.

Jared Reiner: Reiner had some issues with his back but has just been cleared by the doctors to be at 100% and ready to return to action on Sunday.

Sean Sonderleiter: Sean is of course at 100%, his long wavy hair protects him from injury and also opens up a nice post-basketball career of male modeling.

Anthony Kent: AK had a slight abdominal strain but was able to play limited minutes last night. He will have a few days to heal up for Sundays game.

Joe Alexander: Joe is our NBA assigned player from the Milwaukee Bucks. He had not played with the Bucks all year due to a hamstring injury he suffered in training camp. He has been slowly upping his minutes with the Mad Ants as he gets his wind back. He had a thunderous dunk on Thursday night that showed he has not lost any of his vaunted jumping ability.

Well that is the rundown of the roster. Mad Ants are back in action Sunday Night (Jan. 31st) at 5pm against the Iowa Energy. This is the Mad Ants last regular season shot at beating the Energy! Sunday is also Youth Faith Night and we will have Grammy nominated Sanctus Real performing after the game.

I have a good feeling about this Sunday and the rest of the season. Injuries have been really holding the team back and we now have a nice home stretch for the guys to get healthy and back on track. See you at the game.

Milwaukee Bucks Assign Joe Alexander to the Mad Ants

(Joe Alexander throwing it down)

As I predicted in a blog back in November (I am really full of myself), Joe Alexander has been assigned to the Mad Ants by the Milwaukee Bucks. Hoops fans will remember his run a few years back with West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament to the Elite 8. Joe suffered an injury in training camp and has been out all season. His time with the Mad Ants will be perfect to get back into game shape for the Bucks. Here is a clip of Joe to show what he can bring to Fort Wayne.

Joe is coming at a great time as we are currently without Jared Reiner and Ron Howard due to injury. Jared could be back fairly soon. Ron Howard is out four weeks with a fractured hand. Ron was having a great season, and we are hoping he makes a speedy recovery. Here is an article from Steve Warden in the Journal Gazette about the teams road trip.

Mad Ants are on the road tonight taking on the Austin Toros. Watch via Futrecast!

D-League Story of the Year!

Well I have been slacking, I admit that. We have had some good times and bad times while I have been away. We won a huge game against the Red Claws on Tuesday short handed, but then lost the next night in Erie. Oliver Lafayette had an amazing shooting performance in Erie on Wednesday, making something like his first 11 shots and going 6-8 from behind the arc. I think the team just ran out of gas in the 4th quarter (I apologize for the cliche). The schedule keeps getting worse for the Mad Ants as now the guys are in Sioux Falls with back-to-back games tonight and tomorrow. After Saturday the Mad Ants will have played 6 games in eight days. BRUTALITY!

The word is that Rob Kurz will be in Sioux Falls tonight to hopefully return to action. Let's hope the plane ride does not flare up the back injury. Jared Reiner is unlikely to see action this weekend but I know he wants to get back into action. We will just have to wait and see if he is healthy enough to go.

Some sad news also happened this week, as the Mad Ants released DeWitt Scott from the team. DeWitt is an IPFW grad and has been with the team for the past two seasons. He is one of the office favorites, as he is such a nice guy. He was always great at appearances at schools or with youth basketball. I have a feeling another team in the league will pick him up, and we could be seeing him on the opposite bench sometime soon. I wish him the best of luck.

The D-League Story of the Year has to be Sundiata Gaines hitting the game winning buzzer beater over Lebron and the Cavs last night. Gaines had just begun his second 10-day contract with the team. For those of you with short memories, Gaines was called up from the Utah Jazz during the D-League Showcase. He had been playing for the Idaho Stampede. Here is a clip of the big shot!



Just a tremendous story, and I am sure Sundiata is having trouble keeping a smile on his face all day today. Make sure to watch the Mad Ants tonight on FutureCast as they take on the Skyforce! Tip-off is at 8pm EST.

I will leave you with some pictures of my friends visit to a Mad Ants game a few weeks back. My friend from High School/College, Julie, was in town from Australia with her Australian boyfriend Justin and their baby Hayden. Of course they had to catch a Mad Ants game while they were in town. It is clear that even at four months, Hayden has some serious game!

(Hayden and the lovely Madame Ants)

(Hayden enjoying a visit from the Mad Ant)

Have a great weekend!

Mad Ants Win!

The Mad Ants broke the five game losing streak last night against the Erie Bayhawks. Not even Mad Ants Asst Coach Steve Gansey's brother Mike could stop us with 19 pts and 10 rebs. The game got a little scary at the end with the Bayhawks climbing back from a 13 point deficit to get within one as the 4th quarter was running low. You can find the box score here.

The Mad Ants and Erie play again at 2pm today (Sunday). This is a big game for the Ants to get back on track, as after the home game against Maine on Tuesday we have a horrendous road trip coming up. We need to start stockpiling wins in a hurry!

For those wondering, Rob Kurz is out with a back injury but I do not think it will keep him out an extended period of time. He was traveling with the team and in street clothes last night.

The Tuesday Night home game on Jan. 12th is Tropical Vacation Night, so make sure to wear your Hawaiian gear! Tip-off is at 7pm.

A touching moment in the D-League

Check out this video where Sundiata Gaines of the Idaho Stampede gets his NBA Gatorade Call-up....LITERALLY! A great moment and really what this league is all about.



By the way I found this video by visiting the best news site in the D-League, the one and only Ridiculous Upside. They have some great coverage on the D-League showcase which is going on now. The Mad Ants take on Idaho tonight minus the above mentioned Sundiata Gaines. Tip-off is at 9:15 est and as always can be watched free on Futurecast HERE. Let's hope the Mad Ants can take advantage of the timing of Gaines call-up and get the win!

70's Night Pictures

(Jared Reiner repping the 70's)

So we may have got beat pretty bad on Sunday by the Iowa Energy, but we did not let that stop us from having a good time! Here are some photos from 70's night courtesy of Mad Ants Photographer Randy Jackson:

(Madame Ants and a mysterious man practicing a dance pre-game)

(Our fearless leader Jackie Moon...I mean Jeff Potter)

(Coach Sanders getting into the 70's vibe)

(The Mad Ant looking good)

(Proving why I am the most powerful blogger in the D-League with my stunning attire)

And now because I know the real reason most of you come to my blog, I present a new feature called "Random Madame Ant Pictures":

(What is Laura doing????)