AUGUSTA -- Jon Jennings expected the meeting to last maybe five minutes. While exploring locations for a potential franchise in the NBA Developmental League, Jennings came to Augusta and met with Governor John Baldacci. That five minute turned into two hours.

"He gave me an unbelievable tutorial on Maine high school basketball," Jennings told Augusta Kiwanis Club members at a luncheon Thursday. "That is when I knew I'd found a home."

When Jennings left that meeting with Baldacci, the governor asked Jennings to promise if the franchise did come to Maine, it would play a game in Augusta.

Jennings returned to Augusta on Thursday to announce he was fulfilling that promise.

The Maine Red Claws will play the first game in the history of the franchise on Nov. 23 at the Augusta Civic Center when they host a preseason game against the Springfield Armor.

"The reason we are not called the 'Portland Red Claws' is because we feel we are Maine's team," said Jennings, the president and general manager of the Red Claws. "We are the Maine Red Claws and we want to make sure we get around the state."

Tickets will go on sale at 8 a.m. today at the Augusta Civic Center box office. The game will start at 7 p.m. Before the game, the Red Claws will host a clinic from 3:30-4:40 p.m. followed by an autograph session with the players from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Both events are open to anyone with a ticket to the game.

The Red Claws, who are affiliated with the Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA, will open their regular season Nov. 27 in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Red Claws' home opener is scheduled for Dec. 4 against the Springfield Armor.

Jennings, a former assistant coach with the Boston Celtics, said the team has generated a lot of interest. The Red Claws will play at the renovated Portland Expo and have sold about 1,250 season tickets.

When talking about why he wanted to play a game in Augusta, and possibly at other Maine locations in the future, Jennings recalled stories told to him by former Celtics coach K.C. Jones.

It wasn't unusual, Jones told Jennings, for former Celtics coach Red Auerbach and his players in to hop in a caravan of cars and drive up Interstate 95 to put on clinics and play exhibition games.

"What Red was doing was trying to build a fan base for the Celtics," Jennings said. "That is what we want to do. We want to go around the state."

Scott Martin -- 621-5618

smartin@centralmaine.com