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.