Changes

Greetings from a very cold Reno, Nevada. I am out here for the Showcase, and I thought I would take a few minutes to update my blog after what has been a very busy and tough week. We have made a lot of changes with our basketball recently, and I thought I would take a few minutes to go through my thoughts.

The first significant move I made was to trade Marvin Phillips to the Erie Bayhawks for a draft pick. This was not an easy decision on any level, but I felt it was necessary for our team to shake some things up at the time. Making this move might make Marv look like a scapegoat for our team's early season struggles, but that is not the case. He is a player who had value, and that is why I decided to make that move. Frankly, when making a move to shake things up, it does not help to make moves on the edges. You have to get to the core, and that is why Marv was the one who was ultimately moved. Undoubtedly, I wish Marv all the best. He is a great person, such a joy to have around the office, and I will miss not having his family in Fort Wayne.

The next move I made was to waive Corey Allmond. We were adding Gilbert Brown, and Corey was going to move further down the depth chart. Rather than see him on the end of the bench not playing much, I decided to let him go. Corey had some good moments for us, but this is a bottom line business, and his shooting was not where it needed to be for a player considered to be a shooter in our league. I enjoyed having Corey with our franchise, and I wish him the best with his career.

Finally, last Thursday night, I made the very difficult decision to make a change with our head coach. Joey Meyer has been a wonderful person to work with and have in our organization, but we were just not having the success we hoped to have, and I thought the best way to turn things around was to bring in a new voice. You never know why things do not click, but after watching a stretch where we won one game in our last seven I decided to make the change. As I said, Joey is a very good coach and an even better person, and I am sorry that things did not work out. I know that he will coach again, and I am sure he will have great success doing it. The entire Mad Ants organization thanks him for his efforts here and wish him the very best in the future.

So now begins the Steve Gansey era. I have elevated him to interim head coach, and he has brought some things that I thought he would -- energy, enthusiasm, and a belief that this team is good enough to turn things around. It is a very small sample size, but I like how he has coached, how he has prepared, and how he has handled himself. He is certainly a work in progress, but he has certainly shown to me that he is ready for this moment.

Assigned Player from the Bucks

Darington Hobson has joined the Mad Ants from the Milwaukee Bucks, and he will be playing for the Ants tonight against the D-Fenders tonight. Darington is a very good all-around player who was a second round draft pick for the Bucks two years ago. Before playing with the Bucks, he was a Mountain West Player of the Year, where he averaged 15, 9, and 4 his last season there. Anytime you add a talented player, it is a good thing, and we are happy to have Darington donning the yellow jerseys tonight.

LA D-Fenders

Tonight is another opportunity for the Ants to get back on track. After a loss that was more discouraging because of the listless play of the players to Erie, the team must play with some energy, urgency, and toughness if they expect to beat the D-Fenders.

Often I will write about the other team and how good they are and how we need to stop this guy or that guy. And, make no mistake, the D-Fenders are good. But every team in this league is good, and every team in this league is capable of beating the other on any given night. And, most importantly, the Mad Ants are good. The Ants need to focus on what they do and make the D-Fenders deal with them when they are playing their best and really executing on both offense and defense. If we play the best that we can play, we will end up on top more times than not. This season, we have clearly not played our best, but there is no time like the present to start the slow climb back up to the top of the standings. With one of our best rosters we have ever put together, that is the expectation.

Hope to see you tonight at what will be a great game!

Hoops Update

Quick update on the game today. The Ants will have Cam Jones back from his stint trying out for the Miami Heat. From what I heard from him, he had a great experience, but he is ready to get back with the Ants and continue his fine play with the us. Cam is one of the smartest and smoothest players you will see, and his mid range game is really highly developed for a player right out of school. As a rookie, he will have some highs and lows, but his cool demeanor will help make the swings less violent than most other young players. I am excited to see him back in the Ants uniform to watch his continued development.

Well, I am up early for another run. After a successful Chicago Marathon (successful for me at least), I have decided to slip in another marathon during the season down in Austin, Texas. I will watch the Ants play the Legends on February 17, and then I will travel over to Austin for the marathon on the 19th, and I will then fly home that night so I am home for my little sweetie's fifth birthday. I can't believe she is going to be five. This is going way too fast for me. Anyway, I ran 16 miles this past Sunday, will run 7 miles runs for the next three days with a ramp up to running 18 miles on Christmas Eve. I figured this is a good way to combat my usual difficulty with gaining weight during a season. Let's hope it works!

Futurecast Rave

Sitting here at practice, and I decided to turn on NBA D-League Center Court app. If you haven't downloaded it, I really recommend it. You can watch every game in the D-League on it, and you can also watch archived games. It really is spectacular, and I commend the league on making our games so accessible.

At practice right now, and I'm watching these young players working hard to get better. They certainly make mistakes, but they play very hard, and I think we will see a lot of growth from there during this odd NBA training camp period.

With the Iowa Energy coming to town, they will have to learn quickly. The Energy are as good as ever, and Chris Makris and Kevin Young have done a nice job reworking their roster. Hope to see you all out on Friday to see what should be a fun game.


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Chris Hunter to the Knicks

Good news for Chris Hunter as he was called up to the New York Knicks training camp today. Chris has been working hard to get back into shape after an ankle injury the first day of practice, and it is not a surprise that a team would jump on him. If Chris can stay on the court, he should be working towards some of the ridiculous money that players like DeAndre Jordan are now making ($10m per year). Chris has all the athleticism, strength, and skill a team should want in a big, and he now has to put it all together. If he can, there is no stopping him. This is the second time Chris has been called up before even playing a game for us, and I hope he never gets called up again, because it will mean that he has finally stuck in the NBA.

As for our other NBA training camp participants, I can only tell you what they tell me, but they all feel like they are playing well and giving it everything they have. It will tough for each player to make an NBA squad, but if they play aggressively and take a spot, it will impress the coaches and give them a far better chance. Would there be anything better than seeing these guys finally accomplish their life's work and make the NBA? For me, there would be nothing better. Good luck to them all!

Six Games In

Nice win for our young team last night. They lost a heartbreaker at home on Friday, immediately hopped on a bus for a six hour ride to Erie, and they then won a big game in Erie last night. When you have so many young players, they need to learn how to win, and I am hoping that last night's game will portend good things for them as we move forward in this very interesting time in the D-League. When you lose so many veterans, you lose a lot of leadership and experience. With that said, these young men are very hungry, and I am hoping that they will continue to improve and bring home victories.

Six games in, we have had some good and some bad. We started out with two nice wins against Springfield and Sioux Falls, but fell in two games where we had substantial leads, but were not able to close the games out. When you have as much talent as we had with Lazare, Jones, Russell, and Howard, you have to take as much advantage of them while they are here, and we could have been better about that. But, I believe that we are still a good team without them, and my expectations haven't lowered. It is going to be tougher without those players, but we can still win, especially with Chris Hunter returning, which should be soon.

So, all in all, not the hot start we all hoped for, but the team has shown that, if it can close out games better like they did last night, it can make a run as one of the better teams in this league.