Future of Mad Ants may be seen at Noblesville’s Boys & Girls Club

By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com

Basketball fans who make their way to the Noblesville Boys and Girls Club this weekend may be seeing the future of professional hoops in Hamilton County.

The Indiana Mad Ants, the G League team for the Indiana Pacers, is hosting its annual free agent tryout at the Club on Saturday, Oct. 5. The tryout will feature 120 prospective basketball players vying for a spot on the Mad Ants, who begin play at the new Noblesville Event Center next winter.

Registration and check in for players takes place from 10 to 11 a.m., with the games starting at noon. There will be 10 teams, with 12 players on each team. Games last for four 10-minute quarters, with everyone playing two games.

“Everyone will get an equal chance to play the same amount of minutes,” said Chris Taylor, the Mad Ants’ General Manager.

While there is a registration fee for the G League hopefuls, there is no charge for spectators, including the young people who are Club members.

“I think it does present a motivating opportunity, realizing anything’s possible,” said Taylor. “A lot of the players participating maybe got their start at the Boys and Girls Club.”

Taylor said the Club has multiple gyms, which gives it the capacity to host such an event.

“We hosted the youth clinic there last season, so we have a great relationship in place,” said Taylor. “It checked all the boxes for us.”

This will be the first open tryout for the Mad Ants since the 2019-20 season. Each team across the G League can conduct tryouts that Taylor said are “really open to anybody.”

“That’s what leads to the intrigue and excitement,” said Taylor. “We’ve had a very wide range of talented players come in years past.” Those players include those that have played college basketball or overseas as a pro.

Diamond in the rough

“Maybe they’re the best in whatever league they play in,” said Taylor. “That’s the fun of it, and that’s where you can find the diamonds in the rough. It’s not restricted. Anybody’s open to come.”

Tim Bawmann, the Mad Ants team president, talked about Ron Howard as an example of a “diamond in the rough” that can come out of the tryouts. Howard played at Marquette and Valparaiso universities, was signed out of a tryout camp, and went on to win three MVP Awards in the D League (the predecessor of the G League) “and helped lead the franchise to our only championship,” said Bawmann. Howard went on to become the all-time leading scorer for the Mad Ants.

“Ron was one of those guys and we were fortunate enough to find him at a tryout camp,” said Bawmann. “He’s still with us. He does a lot of things for us in the community.”

Players must be at least 18 years old to participate; Mad Ants head coach Tom Hankins said that most are between the ages of 22 and 35.

Hankins said that since the older players have more experience, “they have a better feel of how to play.”

“Some of them, may have slowed down a little bit, but they understand how to play more and they have a better feel for the game,” said Hankins. “They pass the ball better, they just have a good understanding of what’s getting ready to happen because they’ve been through it so many times.”

Different scenarios

Hankins said that everyone at the tryout will play at least two or three games. There will also be shooting and other types of drills so the coaches can evaluate the players in different settings.

“We’ll put them in all kinds of different scenarios so we can get the best look at them,” said Hankins, who is entering his sixth year as head coach of the Mad Ants.

The coach said he’s looking for players that have “one or more G League or NBA level skill or talent. It may be size, speed, athleticism, ability to shoot the ball. It may be a combination of those things.”

Bawmann said he hopes “many people come out and watch” the tryout, noting this is the first of many public events the Mad Ants will be conducting as the first game at the Noblesville Events Center draws near. He said the team is getting closer “to the facility being done and this is a first opportunity to come see us.”