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Hey, I have some good basketball-related news...

Ohio Guy

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Aug 28, 2001
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I know most of you know my brother Andy passed away from ALS this past summer. I can't remember if I mentioned our efforts to create Hoops4ALS to raise ALS awareness through basketball. Andy and I reached out to people also impacted by ALS and formed our Hoops4ALS committee back in the fall of 2021.

We've had some fits and starts getting things going - we learned way more about the politics and backroom deals that go into scheduling college basketball games than we wanted to - but our first official Hoops4ALS game is the Duke vs Pitt game this coming Tuesday. Both teams will be wearing Hoops4ALS shooting shirts. Both coaching staffs will be wearing Hoops4ALS pins (pins vs actual printed or stitched on logos for coaches was way more of a contentious point than I thought it'd be). There is an in-house video that will play. We're recognizing some local ALS patients and researchers during a TV timeout and the TV commentators are going to give us a shout out during the game.

And then we get to do it all over again when the teams play at Duke on January 20.

This is just the beginning. We're talking with other programs and coaches to get something going. The IU women's program is definitely one we're talking with/targeting. A few other programs are interested in exploring things too. We have a pretty lofty goal of eventually hosting our own early season men's and women's double header games...we'll get there eventually. While Andy's name is on this specifically, he's definitely all over these efforts. I know he'd be proud to see us pull off January 9 and January 20.

We also just launched the fundraising portion of our efforts this morning. ALS TDI has been pretty big in getting this off the ground and we're happy that any money raised will go to toward their work to discover and develop ALS effective treatments. No pressure, but if anyone is inclined to donate, I'd be forever grateful. Just thought I'd share some good news I'm excited about - thanks for indulging me.
 
I know most of you know my brother Andy passed away from ALS this past summer. I can't remember if I mentioned our efforts to create Hoops4ALS to raise ALS awareness through basketball. Andy and I reached out to people also impacted by ALS and formed our Hoops4ALS committee back in the fall of 2021.

We've had some fits and starts getting things going - we learned way more about the politics and backroom deals that go into scheduling college basketball games than we wanted to - but our first official Hoops4ALS game is the Duke vs Pitt game this coming Tuesday. Both teams will be wearing Hoops4ALS shooting shirts. Both coaching staffs will be wearing Hoops4ALS pins (pins vs actual printed or stitched on logos for coaches was way more of a contentious point than I thought it'd be). There is an in-house video that will play. We're recognizing some local ALS patients and researchers during a TV timeout and the TV commentators are going to give us a shout out during the game.

And then we get to do it all over again when the teams play at Duke on January 20.

This is just the beginning. We're talking with other programs and coaches to get something going. The IU women's program is definitely one we're talking with/targeting. A few other programs are interested in exploring things too. We have a pretty lofty goal of eventually hosting our own early season men's and women's double header games...we'll get there eventually. While Andy's name is on this specifically, he's definitely all over these efforts. I know he'd be proud to see us pull off January 9 and January 20.

We also just launched the fundraising portion of our efforts this morning. ALS TDI has been pretty big in getting this off the ground and we're happy that any money raised will go to toward their work to discover and develop ALS effective treatments. No pressure, but if anyone is inclined to donate, I'd be forever grateful. Just thought I'd share some good news I'm excited about - thanks for indulging me.
That’s great and I have no doubt you will be successful going forward.
 
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I know most of you know my brother Andy passed away from ALS this past summer. I can't remember if I mentioned our efforts to create Hoops4ALS to raise ALS awareness through basketball. Andy and I reached out to people also impacted by ALS and formed our Hoops4ALS committee back in the fall of 2021.

We've had some fits and starts getting things going - we learned way more about the politics and backroom deals that go into scheduling college basketball games than we wanted to - but our first official Hoops4ALS game is the Duke vs Pitt game this coming Tuesday. Both teams will be wearing Hoops4ALS shooting shirts. Both coaching staffs will be wearing Hoops4ALS pins (pins vs actual printed or stitched on logos for coaches was way more of a contentious point than I thought it'd be). There is an in-house video that will play. We're recognizing some local ALS patients and researchers during a TV timeout and the TV commentators are going to give us a shout out during the game.

And then we get to do it all over again when the teams play at Duke on January 20.

This is just the beginning. We're talking with other programs and coaches to get something going. The IU women's program is definitely one we're talking with/targeting. A few other programs are interested in exploring things too. We have a pretty lofty goal of eventually hosting our own early season men's and women's double header games...we'll get there eventually. While Andy's name is on this specifically, he's definitely all over these efforts. I know he'd be proud to see us pull off January 9 and January 20.

We also just launched the fundraising portion of our efforts this morning. ALS TDI has been pretty big in getting this off the ground and we're happy that any money raised will go to toward their work to discover and develop ALS effective treatments. No pressure, but if anyone is inclined to donate, I'd be forever grateful. Just thought I'd share some good news I'm excited about - thanks for indulging me.
Wow. Nicely done! Good luck and best wishes.
 
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I know most of you know my brother Andy passed away from ALS this past summer. I can't remember if I mentioned our efforts to create Hoops4ALS to raise ALS awareness through basketball. Andy and I reached out to people also impacted by ALS and formed our Hoops4ALS committee back in the fall of 2021.

We've had some fits and starts getting things going - we learned way more about the politics and backroom deals that go into scheduling college basketball games than we wanted to - but our first official Hoops4ALS game is the Duke vs Pitt game this coming Tuesday. Both teams will be wearing Hoops4ALS shooting shirts. Both coaching staffs will be wearing Hoops4ALS pins (pins vs actual printed or stitched on logos for coaches was way more of a contentious point than I thought it'd be). There is an in-house video that will play. We're recognizing some local ALS patients and researchers during a TV timeout and the TV commentators are going to give us a shout out during the game.

And then we get to do it all over again when the teams play at Duke on January 20.

This is just the beginning. We're talking with other programs and coaches to get something going. The IU women's program is definitely one we're talking with/targeting. A few other programs are interested in exploring things too. We have a pretty lofty goal of eventually hosting our own early season men's and women's double header games...we'll get there eventually. While Andy's name is on this specifically, he's definitely all over these efforts. I know he'd be proud to see us pull off January 9 and January 20.

We also just launched the fundraising portion of our efforts this morning. ALS TDI has been pretty big in getting this off the ground and we're happy that any money raised will go to toward their work to discover and develop ALS effective treatments. No pressure, but if anyone is inclined to donate, I'd be forever grateful. Just thought I'd share some good news I'm excited about - thanks for indulging me.
Amazing!!! Great job!!!
 
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I know most of you know my brother Andy passed away from ALS this past summer. I can't remember if I mentioned our efforts to create Hoops4ALS to raise ALS awareness through basketball. Andy and I reached out to people also impacted by ALS and formed our Hoops4ALS committee back in the fall of 2021.

We've had some fits and starts getting things going - we learned way more about the politics and backroom deals that go into scheduling college basketball games than we wanted to - but our first official Hoops4ALS game is the Duke vs Pitt game this coming Tuesday. Both teams will be wearing Hoops4ALS shooting shirts. Both coaching staffs will be wearing Hoops4ALS pins (pins vs actual printed or stitched on logos for coaches was way more of a contentious point than I thought it'd be). There is an in-house video that will play. We're recognizing some local ALS patients and researchers during a TV timeout and the TV commentators are going to give us a shout out during the game.

And then we get to do it all over again when the teams play at Duke on January 20.

This is just the beginning. We're talking with other programs and coaches to get something going. The IU women's program is definitely one we're talking with/targeting. A few other programs are interested in exploring things too. We have a pretty lofty goal of eventually hosting our own early season men's and women's double header games...we'll get there eventually. While Andy's name is on this specifically, he's definitely all over these efforts. I know he'd be proud to see us pull off January 9 and January 20.

We also just launched the fundraising portion of our efforts this morning. ALS TDI has been pretty big in getting this off the ground and we're happy that any money raised will go to toward their work to discover and develop ALS effective treatments. No pressure, but if anyone is inclined to donate, I'd be forever grateful. Just thought I'd share some good news I'm excited about - thanks for indulging me.
I tried to donate Bitcoin, but it wouldn’t let me. So, you got shitty fiat dollars. Congrats and good luck on the first game.
 
I know most of you know my brother Andy passed away from ALS this past summer. I can't remember if I mentioned our efforts to create Hoops4ALS to raise ALS awareness through basketball. Andy and I reached out to people also impacted by ALS and formed our Hoops4ALS committee back in the fall of 2021.

We've had some fits and starts getting things going - we learned way more about the politics and backroom deals that go into scheduling college basketball games than we wanted to - but our first official Hoops4ALS game is the Duke vs Pitt game this coming Tuesday. Both teams will be wearing Hoops4ALS shooting shirts. Both coaching staffs will be wearing Hoops4ALS pins (pins vs actual printed or stitched on logos for coaches was way more of a contentious point than I thought it'd be). There is an in-house video that will play. We're recognizing some local ALS patients and researchers during a TV timeout and the TV commentators are going to give us a shout out during the game.

And then we get to do it all over again when the teams play at Duke on January 20.

This is just the beginning. We're talking with other programs and coaches to get something going. The IU women's program is definitely one we're talking with/targeting. A few other programs are interested in exploring things too. We have a pretty lofty goal of eventually hosting our own early season men's and women's double header games...we'll get there eventually. While Andy's name is on this specifically, he's definitely all over these efforts. I know he'd be proud to see us pull off January 9 and January 20.

We also just launched the fundraising portion of our efforts this morning. ALS TDI has been pretty big in getting this off the ground and we're happy that any money raised will go to toward their work to discover and develop ALS effective treatments. No pressure, but if anyone is inclined to donate, I'd be forever grateful. Just thought I'd share some good news I'm excited about - thanks for indulging me.
This is awesome. Mad props for actually doing something in the world to make it better! More people should do this.

I'm going to have my kids read this post.
 
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If I was going to share this on social media, would you rather I share the donate link, the homepage link, indy star article, some combo?
 
Just updating things here. The Duke-Pitt game was pretty awesome. Seeing our logo on those players' shirts and the coaches' pullovers was surreal. Then someone sent me the video of the ESPN announcers - one of which was Jim Boeheim - talking about it was great.

Both of these moments were great to see:

ESPN plug

Jon Scheyer presser
Nice work, and the Indy Star article is great.

An in-law was recently diagnosed with this horrific disease. He's several years older than your brother was and his kids are adults now, but still tragic.

Thanks for the links, God bless, and prayers for your sister-in-law, niece and nephew.
 
Nice work, and the Indy Star article is great.

An in-law was recently diagnosed with this horrific disease. He's several years older than your brother was and his kids are adults now, but still tragic.

Thanks for the links, God bless, and prayers for your sister-in-law, niece and nephew.
Thanks man, I appreciate it. Sorry to hear about your in-law. And you're right it's such a tragic diagnosis. Not to seem overly fatalistic, but it's a death sentence right now. Hopefully we can make a dent in treatments and finding a cure.
 
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Hey everyone - we're setting up our slate of Hoops4ALS games for this coming basketball season. Stops in Columbus, Muncie, Pittsburgh, and Bloomington are all close to being finalized. Stops in a handful of other places are coming into focus.

All these games will involve pre-game events/silent auctions at local breweries. I'll share the official dates soon. If you're in or near any of those places (or if you're up for a road trip), you're all invited to come have a beer with me.
 
Hey everyone - we're setting up our slate of Hoops4ALS games for this coming basketball season. Stops in Columbus, Muncie, Pittsburgh, and Bloomington are all close to being finalized. Stops in a handful of other places are coming into focus.

All these games will involve pre-game events/silent auctions at local breweries. I'll share the official dates soon. If you're in or near any of those places (or if you're up for a road trip), you're all invited to come have a beer with me.
Let me know when you're in Bloomington.
 
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Alright - we're working on some graphics, social media posts to be released soon, but you all are the first to know about our Hoops4ALS slate of games outside of our committee. And my family. And a handful of my friends. Any way, some of you expressed interest in knowing when we'll be in Bloomington and a few other places, so here you go:

Indiana State vs Ball State in Muncie, November 16
Pitt vs Ohio State in Columbus, November 29
Maine vs Indiana Women's Basketball in Bloomington, December 1
North Carolina State vs Kansas in Lawerence December 14
Ohio State vs Minnesota in Minneapolis, January 6
Pitt vs Duke in Durham, January 7
Ball State vs Ohio in Athens, January 14
Boston College vs Pitt in Pittsburgh March 8


During these game, all the players will wear shooting shirts with our logos on them, coaches and staff will wear our pins and there will be in-game announcements and recognitions during at least one TV timeout. All these games will have a pre-game event/watch party at a local brewery. It should be confirmed in the next day or two, but we're meeting at Upland Brewery in Bloomington.

We're partnered with ALS TDI, the world's foremost research organization solely dedicated to finding treatments and cures for ALS patients, so if you're feeling generous and would like to support them (though us), feel free to do so here:


Hoops4ALS

Lastly, I'll leave you with this. As most of you know, I started this with my brother who passed away from ALS last summer. He was a basketball manager at IU and probably was the biggest IU/Bob Knight guy I've ever met. And to a person, anyone associated with IU in the late 90s absolutely loved him. Hoops4ALS isn't specifically FOR him - we're working to find a cure for ALS for everyone - but he'd be really proud of the direction we're headed.

Here's Andy during his senior night.
 
Oh yeah - there is a slight chance of working with the IU men's team. I'll keep you all posted.

I know when Zeke was around she wanted to be made aware of the Women's game we were doing. If anyone knows how to reach out to her -would you pass this info along?

Thanks!
 
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Oh yeah - there is a slight chance of working with the IU men's team. I'll keep you all posted.

I know when Zeke was around she wanted to be made aware of the Women's game we were doing. If anyone knows how to reach out to her -would you pass this info along?

Thanks!
@zeke4ahs

She's still around on the hoops board.
 
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I think I'll post this over on the free basketball board as well. Better chance she'll see it there I suppose.
The hoops board is really slow for it being the start of the season. Not sure how much engagement you can expect.
 
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