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!