Joey Meyer To Be Named Fort Wayne Mad Ants Head Coach

Joey Meyer, the man I named as the top candidate for the positon once the final four were announced, will reportedly take over in Fort Wayne for fired coach Jaren Jackson, according to sources close to the situation.

Simply put, Meyer was the best minor league coach available.  He's won championships, he has plenty of years of experience, he's very familiar with the D-League, and his most recent accomplishment was the development of Ramon Sessions during his time in the D-League two seasons ago.

Coach Meyer's dad, Ray, was a longtime coach of DePaul University, and once Ray stepped down, Joey took his place, coaching DePaul for 13 seasons (1984-97), including six 20 win seasons and seven NCAA Tournament appearances, being named CBS' Coach of the Year in 1987.  He had some recruiting issues though, and eventually moved out of the college game and into professional basketball.

Meyer's D-League career started with him coaching the Asheville Altitude to back-to-back championships in 2004 and 2005 before taking over as the Tulsa 66ers head coach when Asheville relocated for the following three seasons.  With Tulsa, Meyer didn't excel on the court (about a .500 record), but did develop players, the best example obviously being Sessions.

Overall, great acquisition by Jeff Potter.  The Milwaukee Bucks, one of Fort Wayne's D-League affiliates, obviously will trust Meyer, and that can only mean positive things.  Meyer can develop talent, and with the talent that could return (Ron Howard, Walker Russell, Chris Hunter, etc.), I expect a turnaround in Fort Wayne.

However, I can't speak much about Joey Meyer, as the closest I've come to him was about two years ago.