Indiana Mad Ants

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Indiana Mad Ants
Indiana Mad Ants logo
Conference Eastern
League NBA G League
Founded 2007
History Fort Wayne Mad Ants
2007–2023
Indiana Mad Ants
2023–present
Arena Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Location Indianapolis, Indiana
Team colors Navy blue, gold, cool gray[1][2]
              
General manager Chris Taylor[3]
Head coach Tom Hankins
Ownership Pacers Sports and Entertainment
Affiliation(s) Indiana Pacers
Championships 1 (2014)
Conference titles 2 (2014, 2015)
Division titles 2 (2014, 2018)
Website fortwayne.gleague.nba.com

The Indiana Mad Ants are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Indianapolis, and are affiliated with the Indiana Pacers. The team plays their home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Mad Ants won their first and only championship in 2014, when the G League was known as the NBA D-League. In September 2015, Pacers Sports & Entertainment (PS&E), parent company of the Indiana Pacers purchased the Mad Ants.[4]

Team history

2007–2012: early years

In April 2007, the NBA Development League (D-League) announced it was expanding to Fort Wayne for the 2007–08 season, with former AT&T President John Zeglis as the team's president and part owner.[5] The team was poised to be the first minor league basketball franchise to play in Fort Wayne since the Fort Wayne Fury were disbanded after the folding of the Continental Basketball Association in 2001. The franchise held a team-naming contest on their website where fans could vote on one of the four finalists: Lightning, Fire, Coyotes, and Mad Ants, the latter name being a tribute to the city's namesake "Mad" Anthony Wayne.[6]

At the team's inception, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants were affiliated with the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. They finished the 2007–08 season, their first in the D-League, with a 17–33 record that put them in last place in the Central Division.

The Mad Ants added the Milwaukee Bucks as their third affiliate for the 2008–09 season. They ended that season with a 19–31 record and posted three more under-.500 records in the next three years, failing to make the playoffs in their first five years of competition.

2012–2015: playoff success

The Mad Ants added the Charlotte Bobcats, now the Hornets, as their fourth NBA affiliate before in the 2012–13 season. They made the D-League playoffs for the first time in 2013, losing to the Santa Cruz Warriors in the first round after going 27–23 in the regular season.

The next year, the Mad Ants won their division with a 34–16 record and made it to the D-League Finals for the first time after beating the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the semifinal series.[7] The Mad Ants defeated the Santa Cruz Warriors 2–0 in the Finals to claim their first D-League title.[8]

In 2014, as most NBA teams began exclusively partnering with or acquiring their own D-League teams, the Mad Ants made affiliate partnerships with the rest of the teams that did not have exclusive affiliates: the Atlanta Hawks, the Chicago Bulls, the Brooklyn Nets, the Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Toronto Raptors, and the Washington Wizards. This put the Mad Ants' total number of NBA affiliates at 14 for the 2014–15 season. The Mad Ants made it to the D-League Finals again in 2015, but lost the championship series to the Santa Cruz Warriors in two games. By 2015, the Mad Ants were the only remaining independently owned team in the D-League, as the rest were owned and operated by an NBA team or a common parent organization.[9]

2015–present: Pacers ownership

In September 2015, Pacers Sports & Entertainment (PS&E) purchased the Mad Ants from owner and president John Zeglis and made the team the Indiana Pacers' one-to-one D-League affiliate, dropping the rest of the Mad Ants' partnerships. Brian Levy was named general manager by PS&E.[10]

In 2017, the Mad Ants rebranded and changed their colors to the same colors as the Pacers: navy blue, gold, cool gray and white. This was the same year that the NBA Development League was rebranded as the NBA G League following a sponsorship deal with Gatorade and the NBA.

After spending the 2020–21 season at the NBA G League single site in Orlando, Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mad Ants returned to their home court at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on November 6, 2021, playing their first home game in the venue in 608 days against the Windy City Bulls. This game also marked the start of the Mad Ants' 15th Anniversary season.

On May 8, 2023, the Indiana Pacers announced that they were moving the Mad Ants to Indianapolis for the 2023–24 G League season in preparation of construction of a new, 3,400-seat venue in Noblesville, Indiana.[11] The move will be accompanied by a new mascot as well.[12]

Season-by-season results

Indiana Mad Ants season overviews
Season Division Regular season Postseason results
Finish Wins Losses Pct.
2007–08 Central 4th 17 33 .340
2008–09 Central 5th 19 31 .380
2009–10 Eastern 5th 22 28 .440
2010–11 Eastern 3rd 24 26 .480
2011–12 Eastern 8th 14 36 .280
2012–13 Eastern 2nd 27 23 .540 Lost First Round (Santa Cruz) 0–2
2013–14 Eastern 1st 34 16 .680 Won First Round (Reno) 2–0
Won Semifinals (Sioux Falls) 2–0
Won Championship (Santa Cruz) 2–0
2014–15 Central 2nd 28 22 .560 Won First Round (Maine) 2–0
Won Semifinals (Canton) 2–0
Lost Championship (Santa Cruz) 0–2
2015–16 Central 5th 20 30 .400
2016–17 Central 2nd 30 20 .600 Lost First Round (Maine) 1–2
2017–18 Central 1st 29 21 .580 Lost Conf. Semifinal (Erie) 116–119
2018–19 Central 3rd 23 27 .460
2019–20 Central 4th 21 22 .488 Season cancelled by COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21 13th 6 9 .400
2021–22 Eastern 9th 17 17 .500
2022–23 Eastern 6th 18 14 .563 Lost Conf. Semifinal (Capital City) 87–101
Regular season record 349 375 .482 2007–present
Playoff record 11 8 .579 2007–present

Players

Current roster

Template:Indiana Mad Ants roster

Notable former players

Head coaching history

Overview of Indiana Mad Ants coaches
Head coach Term Regular season Playoffs Achievements
G W L Win% G W L Win%
Kent Davison 2007–2008 49 17 32 .347 — — — —
Jaren Jackson 2008–2009 50 19 31 .380 — — — —
Joey Meyer 2009–2012 115 51 64 .443 — — — —
Steve Gansey 2012 35 9 26 .257 — — — —
Duane Ticknor 2012–2013 50 27 23 .540 2 0 2 .000
Conner Henry 2013–2015 100 62 38 .620 12 10 2 .833 Won Championship (2013–14)
Steve Gansey 2015–2020 243 123 120 .506 4 1 3 .250
Tom Hankins 2021–present 66 35 31 .530 1 0 1 .000

NBA affiliates

Current
Former

In popular culture

See also

References

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  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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