Tag: playoffs

Guest Broadcasting Opportunities for Visiting Teams in Red Division Championship Weekend

Hey, Clarksville Phoenix, Ohio Kings and Nashville Aces fans! Want to join our broadcast crew for half of your respective ABA Central Region Red Division Championship Weekend semifinal games to tell the world about your team during our live streams? No experience needed! Simply slap one of our headsets on and join our play-by-play commentator in broadcasting the game live on YouTube for all to see! Don’t worry about all the electronics and computer stuff — we’ve got that covered.
We want YOU to add some fan flavor to our broadcasts for your fans back home! Talk about your favorite players and why you like them! Give the audience fun facts about your team and players! Tell everyone about big games or plays throughout your season! Promote your team! This is a great opportunity for someone who has been tempted to call basketball games or do some sort of sports broadcasting but needs a nudge or an opportunity and to not have to worry about equipment and how everything works. Tweens, teens, adults…any are welcome!
Some housekeeping items:
🎙 Are you interested? Great! Contact YOUR HOME TEAM to express your interest. They may have several interested people to choose from, they probably have their own professional standards that they want upheld, and they’ll want to be able to trust you to represent their organization well. When each team has chosen a representative, have them email us at ericivie@indianalyons.com to let us know!
🎙 Visiting team will get the first half of the game. Home team will get the second half of the game. In the event that one team doesn’t choose a representative, you may have the opportunity to do the entire game with us if you want! (Otherwise, we can cover it. No pressure.)
🎙 No profanity. At all. Our broadcasts are designed for all ages, including kids, to enjoy.
🎙 Be nice. Hey, we get it. Emotions are high. Some teams don’t like other teams. That’s sports for ya. But you’re here to promote your own team, not to disparage any other team, especially your team’s opponent in any given game.
🎙 Have fun and don’t worry about making mistakes! Have you heard our broadcasting crew?? They make mistakes all the time! It’s part of the experience! Our play-by-play announcer will help you through it (and he’s the champion of making mistakes!) and not leave you hanging, so don’t feel like you need to carry the load. You’re serving as a color commentator, so talk when you want to and don’t talk when you don’t want to.
🎙 We have the ability to end this experience at any time, including mid-game, should there be a repeated or egregious problem with profanity or disparaging other teams. Both are a big deal. This is supposed to be fun for everyone.
🎙 On the flip side, if things go well, and we’re groovin’ together, you might be asked back for part of the Red Division Championship Game if your team advances to it!
🎙 The chosen guest announcer for each team gets FREE admission to all the playoffs games all weekend long! 🎟🆓
Sound fun? Excellent! Contact your home team, and we hope to broadcast with you in Danville!

Free Tickets to ABA Central Region Playoffs Available

Lyons Pride, it’s been a rough season, hasn’t it? Cancelled games, a little overexuberance at one game, an unexpected home loss (ouch!), all the technical difficulties in our game videos, there was probably an alien invasion and a pterodactyl attack in there somewhere……. WHEW! It’s been a bumpy ride!
 
But you stuck with us through all of it, and we can’t thank you enough. The crowds at our last three home games were AH-MAZ-ING!!! 
 
We thought about holding a meaningless exhibition intrasquad scrimmage this weekend as a “fan appreciation game,” but then we thought, “You know what? Let’s show the Lyons Pride our sincere appreciation for them in the most meaningful games out there — the playoffs!”
 
So…no scrimmage this weekend. Instead, we will honor all of the free game tickets that are out there for both weekends of the playoffs! Yes, you can gain FREE admission to all six (6) playoff games that we’re hosting over March 16-17 and March 23-24 by getting your hands on some of those tickets! 
 
Already got some free tickets? Cool! You’re set for both weekends of the playoffs!
 
Need some free tickets? No problem. You can find them, while supplies last, at Deka Lash in Plainfield Commons, Hendricks County Parks & Recreation main office in Danville, Hendricks County Senior Center in Danville, The Locker Room Sporting Goods in Danville, McCloud Nature Park outside of North Salem (may we suggest attending Maple Syrup Days this Saturday, March 9?), and the Indianapolis Healthplex during each location’s normal business hours. And staff and residents of Woodland Terrace in Danville, get your free game tickets at your front office.
 
Come watch all the action, cheer us on when we play, and see who the ABA Central Region will be sending to the ABA Championship Weekend in Alabama! For FREE!! So go get those tickets before they run out! And THANK YOU, Lyons Pride!! We 💜💙 you!! Now let’s blow the bricks off the gym for all six games!

Lyons Roar Pre-Game Show to Debut in October on Lyons Pride +

Jim Holtsclaw (L) and Eric Ivie (R) during the 2023 ABA Final Eight. (Photo by TOPP Level Entertainment, LLC)

The defending ABA Champion Indiana Lyons are bringing even more content to their devoted Lyons Pride with a new weekly pre-game show called “The Lyons Roar” making its debut on Lyons Pride + during the last week in October, prior to the Nov. 4 season opener against the Burning River Buckets.

“The Lyons Roar” will be a weekly discussion between Eric Ivie — the Lyons’ play-by-play commentator in their game videos — and Jim Holtsclaw — the team’s color commentator — on a wide variety of topics relating to the Indiana Lyons, the American Basketball Association, and whatever else might come out of their mouths.

Eric and Jim will have a list of topics of discussion for each episode of “The Lyons Roar,” but their conversation about each topic will be entirely unscripted. Each episode will range from 15-30 minutes in length.

“This will be a great opportunity for diehard Lyons fans to gain some insight into the team, their upcoming opponents, and what’s going on around the ABA while hopefully enjoying some halfway decent entertainment,” said Eric. “Lyons Pride + separates the devoted fans from the casual fans, so it’s the perfect format for ‘The Lyons Roar.'”

Eric joined the Indiana Lyons staff as the Director of Communications in February of 2020 and has served in that role ever since. Lyons fans are familiar with his voice, commentary, emotional outbursts and antics throughout game videos over the past two seasons.

Jim came aboard late in the 2022-23 season, joining Eric in the broadcast of an intrasquad scrimmage before the Lyons traveled to St. Louis for the ABA Final Eight tournament. Jim and Eric were both in Missouri for the entire tournament that culminated in the Lyons’ ABA championship.

After their request to record and comment on the Lyons’ Final Eight games was denied by the ABA, the pair were in the stands for both of team’s games, doing their best to emulate the noise of the Lyons Pride in an empty gym. They were also in the gym on the night of the ABA Championship.

“That’s likely to be a topic of discussion in our first episode,” Eric added. “I’m often asked what happened in Missouri that night. Jim and I were there at Ground Zero for all of it, and we have stories to tell.”

Outside of basketball, Jim and Eric are good friends and coworkers at Hendricks County Parks & Recreation, so their chemistry in their videos is genuine.

To subscribe to Lyons Pride + and watch “The Lyons Roar,” click here.

ABA Final Eight Field of Teams Now Set

All eight teams playing in the ABA Final Eight tournament in St. Louis on April 13-15, 2023 have now been determined. The league has not yet released tournament seedings, matchups, or game times.

The Burning River Buckets from the Cleveland, Ohio metropolitan area defeated the Ohio Kings from Cincinnati, Ohio in the ABA North Central Region championship game on April 2, 2023 by a score of 117-102. This is the second season of existence for the Buckets and their second consecutive North Central Region title.

To get to the championship game, the Buckets defeated the defending ABA champions, the Steel City Yellow Jackets, on the Jackets’ home court in the semifinal on April 1, 2023 by a score of 143-124.

The Buckets won both games against the Lyons this season, one in Danville and one on their home court. The Lyons did not face any of the other teams in the ABA Final Eight during the 2022-23 regular season.

The ABA Final Eight

Ride with the Indiana Lyons to the ABA Midwest Region Tournament!

Thanks to another VERY generous sponsorship by Deka Lash (Plainfield Commons), we are able to offer fans the opportunity to ride a charter bus with the players, coaches, and staff to St. Louis for the ABA Midwest Region Tournament on March 18-20, 2022!

For just $60/adult or $10/child, you can ride with us to and from St. Louis AND get free tickets to all Lyons games while we’re there!

For hotel accommodations, please contact Tyrone Brown at (317) 525-8380 or at tyronebrown@indianalyons.com.

Indiana Lyons Win Region, Advance to Final 8

The Indiana Lyons won their first and second American Basketball Association (ABA) playoff games in franchise history over the weekend and emerged as the ABA North Central Region Champions. The Lyons advance to the league’s Final Eight tournament in St. Louis in mid-April.

After finishing with a 14-4 record in the regular season and a #12 ranking in the ABA out of more than 75 teams, the Lyons earned a first-round bye in the regional tournament and faced the #22-ranked Ohio Bruins out of Columbus, Ohio on Saturday in Noblesville.

Trailing for most of the game, the Lyons mounted a furious comeback in the final two minutes of regulation, forced overtime, and then won 107-102 in the extra period.

The victory was the first postseason triumph for the Lyons in franchise history. The team has qualified for the ABA playoffs in all three years of its existence but lost its first playoff game after the 2018-19 season. The 2019-20 ABA playoffs were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the championship game, the Lyons battled the Midwest Guardians out of Westfield, Indiana who were ranked #14 in the ABA. The two teams split their regular season matchups and developed a spirited rivalry along the way.

In a back-and-forth title game, the Lyons finally took control late in the fourth quarter, fended off a late surge by the Guardians, and won the regional championship, 121-114.

ABA All-Star Nominee Gerald Campbell led the Lyons with 45 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists in the game, while Brownsburg High School graduate and ABA All-Star Nominee Kendric Lee poured in 19 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and two steals. Danville Community High School graduate Dillon Ware added 11 points, 7 rebounds, and two assists.

“We focused on perseverance this weekend,” said Lyons head coach Tyrone Brown of Avon, who also owns the team along with his wife, Deborah. “We faced all sorts of adversity this season and this weekend, and we persevered.”

As one of only eight teams remaining in the ABA playoffs, the Lyons will head to St. Louis for the Final Eight tournament April 15-18. The team will host a community celebration of their regional championship on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Danville Town Hall, with more details to be posted later this week on IndianaLyons.com and on the team’s Facebook page.

(Photo is of Kendric Lee vs. the Ohio Bruins in the North Central Region Semifinals. Credit: Antonio Toppin)