Noblesville Boom select Ben Coupet Jr., Ahmaad Rorie in G League draft, add Ithiel Horton
The Pacers' G League affiliate open training camp on Monday at the Ascension St. Vincent Center. Before then, the G League draft was held on Saturday.
The NBA G League season begins after NBA training camps wrap up. By then, teams have a clearer sense of their rosters — and what they still need for the months ahead.
On Saturday, the G League held its annual draft and the Noblesville Boom — formerly the Indiana Mad Ants, who rebranded this offseason — made two selections.
First, they used their first-round pick to draft swingman Ben Coupet Jr. out of Chicago at No. 27. He’s 6-foot-7 and most recently played for the Windy City Bulls last season — averaging 10 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game.
Then in the second round, they took guard Ahmaad Rorie out of Tacoma, Washington. He’s 30 years old and spent last season with S. L. Benfica in Portugal.
Rorie played college basketball at Oregon (2014-15) and Montana (2016-19), then went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft.
The Boom made one other move to complete the roster, adding guard Ithiel Horton from the available player pool. A native of Vauxhall, N.J., Horton averaged 6.3 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game last season playing in the G League with Grand Rapids Gold.
He bounced around in college playing for four different universities: Delaware, Pittsburgh, UCF, and Texas.
The Boom opened training camp on Monday at Ascension St. Vincent Center — the Pacers’ sports performance facility that opened in 2017 — and they’re scheduled to host an open scrimmage at their new game facility The Arena at Innovation Mile in Noblesville on Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m.
While they are headquartered and practice at the Pacers’ facility, they will play games at this beautiful new venue in Noblesville — which is also why they changed their name. After last season, they underwent a complete rebrand with a new name, logo, fonts — and now, a new venue.
Single-game tickets went on sale Oct. 28 and now with their own home venue, rather than typically playing noon games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, they are marketing the team and hope to build a fan base.
This team was established in Fort Wayne, later moved to Indianapolis, and will now play games in Noblesville for the first time.
Tom Hankins took over as head coach in 2021. Chris Taylor is the general manager.
