At schools like Kansas, Duke and Arizona, Midnight Madness has been a rite of passage for college students. Teams debut and scrimmage, and schools gather around to mark the start of another season of college basketball.
According to NCAA rules, basketball squads can’t begin practicing until Saturday, Oct. 13th. Midnight Madness is thus considered their first practice, and at basketball-centered schools nationwide, it has become a frenzy of an event, characterized by giveaways, contests and celebrity appearances.
Georgetown’s version, which debuted in the fall of 1999 to mark the beginning of the Craig Esherick era, has been better known for misspelled T-shirts (“Midinght Madness”) and missed dunks than for anything resembling “frenzy.”
This year, however, attendance was strong. After the doors to the event opened at 10:30 p.m., there was a student rush to the front. Those who got into the lobby of McDonough at around 10:50 were greeted with slammed doors and told that the event inside had reached capacity. Minutes later, DPS officers began letting students file in until no one remained outside. Many attendees had to stand in the aisles or behind the basket.
The arriving crowd was greeted by a faculty-student basketball game, starring such faculty luminaries as Father Pat Conroy, history professor John McNeill and government professor Scott Taylor.
“While we were playing, my impression was that the crowd was mostly filing in rather than noticing or focusing on a game taking place, though when I faked that one guy out of his jock strap there was an appreciative roar from the crowd,” Conroy said.
The students featured sophomore class GUSA representative Emily Sun, as well as juniors Matthew Baudler and Andrew Dailey. With some poor-passing and a missed layup from Taylor, the faculty fell into an early deficit against the students. However, some teamwork and a dramatic buzzer-beater from McNeill gave the faculty victory.
In addition to the faculty vs. students game, the evening featured a shooting contest pitting all four undergraduate grades against each other, a pizza box stacking contest where an entire section of the crowd received a free pan pizza and a Slam Dunk and Three-Point Contest between members of the men’s and women’s Basketball teams. Music for the event was provided by WPCG 95.5 FM, a local hip-hop outlet. Bubba Sparxxx, the hot new rap artist, performed with fellow rapper and producer Timbaland just after 12 a.m. to warm up the crowd for the appearance of the teams.
However, Bubba Sparxxx’s late appearance and the muffled audio during the rap performance left the McDonough crowd less than excited by the southern rapper.
Then, with the lights dimmed and glowing necklaces speckling the bleachers, the players took to the court shortly after Midnight. From the roar of the packed-to-capacity gym, it became clear that the fans had come to see the basketball teams. The entrances began with the women’s team and their dancing head coach, Patrick Knapp. While the appearance of the men’s team was certainly the main event, the women’s squad received a solid ovation.
The men’s team paraded out in a similar fashion, highlighted by the appearance of this year’s star players, sophomore forward Michael Sweetney and senior guard Kevin Braswell. However, while Sweetney developed his game this summer as a member of USA Basketball’s national team, he was left to sit during the skills showcase.
A three-point contest pitted women’s team guard Leslie Walker against men’s team guard Braswell. Braswell won convincingly. Afterwards, junior center Wesley Wilson and sophomore forward Omari Faulkner participated in what was billed as a slam dunk contest, but seemed more like a two-man layup line with a few dunks.
Despite the transfer of star shooting guard Demetrius Hunter, the men’s team is ranked within the Top 20 of all major preseason polls following their Sweet Sixteen appearance last season. They have been ranked as high as No. 2 within the Big East Conference.
After the Hoyas finished their exhibitions, they huddled together and then left the court somewhat anticlimactically, leaving the crowd to shuffle out quietly. While the event seemed very commercialized, with free CDs and advertisements abound, the night was still a promise of good things to come from Hoya fans and players alike.
“I thought Midnight Madness was an unprecedented success and should serve as a catalyst for a dramatic increase in student attendance at both home and away games during the year,” said Scott Minto (COL ‘02), Hoya Blue chairman. “I hope that experiencing the excitement of a filled-to-capacity McDonough proves to students how much intensity can be generated when students come out and create a typical college basketball atmosphere.”
