Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants Turnaround From Last Season

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:28 p.m. ET

Fansided, Ben Gibson/FanSided via 8 Points, 9 Seconds

After a losing season last year, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants are off to a 11-4 start in the 2016-17 season.

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants may have split their games around Christmas, but at 11-4 this season, they are in a better position than one might have expected before the season began.

Last season in the NBA Development League, the Mad Ants posted a 20-30 record as they adjusted from being an independent team to the affiliate of the Indiana Pacers. There were some growing pains for the team that had won a D-League title in 2014 and came in second the following season.

With a young group of prospects now, the Mad Ants are one of the D-League’s better teams. Last season they had four players 28 or older, but now they only have on in Julyan Stone. The youth movement may not be the only reason for success — if at all — but it signaled a change for the Mad Ants.

The results are showing, either way.

Alex Poythress leads the team with 20.1 points and 7.6 rebounds a game, followed by Travis Leslie with 16.6 and 7 rebounds a game. Trey McKinney-Jones is right behind them with 16.5 points.

Stone is the oldest, but his experience allows him to average 8.1 assists a game, 4th best in the D-League.

On top of that, Ben Bentil had 27 points and 9 rebounds in his only game with the Mad Ants before signing to play in China but will return after the season.

As we mentioned to start, the Mad Ants split their games around Christmas with a win over the Delaware 87ers and a loss to the Greensboro Swarm.

There is still plenty of season left, but the Mad Ants are off to a much better start as they were sitting at 9-7 at this point a year ago.

The Mad Ants are back in action on Wednesday as they host the Windy City Bulls at 7 p.m. on Facebook Live.