The good news is that we have two players who really seem to be elevating their game of late, and I almost ready to add a third. Walker Russell, Jr. has been a revelation the last few games, and I am really happy to see him playing so well. The issue for him is consistency -- can he keep playing at a high level so he will be considered an elite player and possible call up candidate in this league.
Darnell Lazare is really putting a stamp on this league in the last week or so. Darnell is as talented a post player there is when it comes to foot work, but he does suffer with being a bit small for the post. He is getting past that by nicely mixing up his mid range jumper with his ability to go to the hole and finish with either hand with little hooks.
The last player, and I am not sure he is quite playing as well as he can, but Chris Kramer is starting to make his mark on this league. I think he has the ability to be one of the best in the league with his toughness, competitiveness, and his growing offensive skill. We are starting to see some of this coming together, and we sure need it to if we are going to make this push for the playoffs.
A difficult loss, but we still remain in the playoff hunt by being only a game and a half back. Everyone needs to pick up their games and coach has to look at all possible combinations to get us out of this funk.
I guess we just hang on for the ride.
ReplyDeleteAnother loss once again same old coach same old outcome. New coach new outcome. Think about it
ReplyDeletecoach isnt the problem. lack of big inside presence and no rebounding other than phillips. thats the pproblem! but afterall this is a guards league so we shouldnt have been beaten by the other teams bigs!
ReplyDeleteSomething needs to be done with the scheduling. We get a hundred Ants games to start the season...home games I mean, and then there are huge chunks of time in between home games and then we get to March and the home games are everywhere again. I am not sure what can be done about it, but three home games in February with two of them being so close together is not going to help generate any kind of fan momentum for this team. I know scheduling is a tough business, but I would sure like to see something done to make it better. One thing I do like this year is the team doesn't finish with 8 games on the road or whatever it was last year...(an then they played their best ball of the year as well)
ReplyDeleteAnd then you have Steve Warden who went on the road with the team and posted trivial crap about Joey and socks and posted every other minute on that trip and then we go several days with no kind of update or very sketchy updates. Justin Cohn has something nearly everyday for the Komet fans. I realize the Komets are the Komets and that's the way it is, but certainly we should be getting a little more out of Steve than what we are.
Best product in the city with the fewest fans...very disappointing. I say all I say becuase I have NEVER had a bad time at an Ants game...never (except maybe that one blowout last year...that was a little tough.)
Thanks for reading and commenting! Let me see if I can hit these as best as I can, and please feel free to rip me later!
ReplyDeleteFirst, yes, I hope you do hold on for the ride, because we are only 1.5 games out of the playoffs. It should be fun, and I think these guys have one last good run in them before this season ends.
Chuck, I know you want another big, and I think you have a good point. We do not have the classic Chris Hunter type big right now, but if you look at the production from our bigs, they are more than holding their own against other bigs on other teams throughout the league. We ran into a very big Sioux Falls team with a 6'10, 300 pound player sent down from the Miami Heat that gave us fits. With that said, our group of bigs have beaten that group of bigs 3 previous times. Sometime the better team does not play best on a given night, and I think that is what happened there. With Wayne Chism starting to round back into form after his injury, I think we you will see that big play improve even more.
As for Coach Meyer, he is doing a good job, and we will not be making any changes of our coach.
Scheduling is indeed a problem for the Mad Ants. As you note, we are extremely front loaded on our home dates. We have to play over half our home games by early January -- this is a time when no one is thinking about basketball. Even worse, we have very few prime dates (Friday and Saturday), and we play many of them in this early stretch, including playing on dates when it is tough to get people to come out -- Christmas and New Year's Day.
I would obviously love to have better dates as you suggest, but the Coliseum is very busy (particularly in January), and I am working with what I am given from the Coliseum, and the league and I have to do our best with the dates given, which clearly is not good enough, as you point out. Great for the Coliseum that they are so busy, but not very good for the Ants in terms of when it can get in that building.
As for the blogging, not much I can do about that except encourage Steve, and I think he is getting better and better about that.
Finally, I want to thank you so much for your kind words about the team/product, and I agree that we need more fans. I think we have proven that we are here for the long haul and that we put forth a great product, but we can do more, and we certainly will do everything we can to keep proving that this is a fun, family friendly entertainment option for all of Fort Wayne.
Thanks for all you continued support and caring enough to visit this blog and comment!
Well said, Jeff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your faith in the coach. I am of the opinion that the league needs to be a developing ground for the coaches, and Joey is no NBA coach, but I appreciate your loyalty to him.
My frustration I think simply comes from the fact that Ants games have been few and far between lately. I am excited about the game on the 22nd and 24th.