Midnight Madness!
Midnight Madness…it is the moment all basketball players and fans have been waiting for since the buzzer sounded at the end of the National Championship game on April 8.
The Madness started on a brisk autumn morning in 1970. University of Maryland Coach Lefty Driesell simply wanted his Terrapins team to finish a mile run in 6 minutes. Why at midnight you might ask? Because, if a player could not finish the mile run in the allotted time, he had to keep running the mile before the team could practice. In the previous year, there were too many players that finished after the 6-minute mark, and frankly, it messed up practice due to the amount of players still running. So Coach Driesell fixed the problem with a midnight run. Later that afternoon when the Terrapins had their first practice of the season, about 1,500 curious students came to watch at Cole Field House. The next year, Coach Driesell settled on a scrimmage at midnight, which 10,000 people attended.
Now, Midnight Madness has escalated to light shows, fan contests, dunk contests, and entertainment, all for crazed basketball fans. For many students it is the highlight of the year. Thousands of students camp out for days or wait hours in long lines just to get a good ticket to the show. Gyms reach max capacity. To add to the excitement, some coaches, such as University of Kentucky Women’s Basketball Coach Matthew Mitchell, surprise fans by breaking out in “the dougie.”
It is to the point that ESPN will be airing select NCAA Midnight Madness events. All this to hype fans and players for the season…it’s an escalating tradition. There’s no better way to kick off the basketball season than to be in a gym, packed with crazy basketball fans!
Whether your team has already celebrated late into the night or are still waiting patiently for the season to officially begin, we want you to tell us how you will kick off your season by tweeting @Noahbasketball or messaging us on Facebook! We are looking forward to seeing what your talented teams have in store for us and wish everyone a wonderful season.