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.
"It's not personal; It's business."
ReplyDeleteThat's what I have to keep telling myself and what I am hoping Joey Meyer, Corey Allmond and Marvin Phillips, Jr. have been telling themselves.
The Ants lose again tonight in Iowa 111-88. Ron Howard was a disaster shooting tonight- like the rest of the team on most nights.
ReplyDeleteIs there going to be any changes made now or has Jeff bailed on this season?
I have griped before about the army of coaches the Ants have on their bench and I guess I just don't see how that works. This team is poorly coached...period. Again I wasn't happy they fired Joey, but at first I was okay with the change. Now I can see that Steve just isn't a very good coach and probably was better on the bench in a committee with the others where the blame is easy to spread.
But I ask, can Steve make these guys better shooters? Christian L. was brought in to work with the "bigs" and the two Ants big men are TERRIBLE right now and borderline useless.
At the beginning of the year I was worried that this season was going to be the Ants last. The product isn't growing any fans even though the D-league is awesome despite the very poor play of the Ants on MOST nights this year. But with the announcement of the team returning to the MC, I guess that's good news.
So...next year...start from scratch and bring back NONE of this current team or coaches minus maybe Cam Jones. Hire anyone you can who has had anything to do with the Iowa Energy, a team the Ants almost never beat and are rarely ever close to, and who to me are the class of this league year after year. What is it they do that gets results because what the Ants do simply doesn't work and hasn't for five years.
Jeff needs to give us fans a reason to attend these last home games. I love going to the games, but this team getting their brains beat in every night has officially gotten old.
The team hustles for the most part- they aren't quitters and I think they are a bunch of great guys- but the coaching isn't there nor is the shooting. The shooting of this team is staggeringly bad. And with every Ants team EVER, defense is usually an issue too.
Jeff needs to get another influx of players- if only one or two- in here to give some hope to the rest of the season
Great post above....
ReplyDeleteMan, it seems like Jeff has just thrown in the towel for this season. But I think some new players are here now so that should help. Just wish we had some updates, but I guess so few people care about the Ants, Jeff figures...why bother?
Have really enjoyed the Mad Ants players @ the C3 Basketball Clinics. Makes you pull for them even more. Very gracious with their time.
ReplyDeleteGood for you. We know they are good guys. What we need now is for them to hit some shots and win some games. This horrendous losing streak MUST end tonight. The sad thing is the Ants historically don't play well in front of large crowds. But this year they haven't played well in front of ANY crowd. So let's see a turnaround tonight!
ReplyDeleteMaybe jeff is the one ego needs yo go
ReplyDelete