Midterm or Midnight Madness?

ELItorial
   By Kate Moran

Last weekend, while many Yale students were transfixed by the madness that has characterized postsea-son baseball, another type of madness was occurring at universities across the country. Late into the night on Fri., Oct. 14, college basketball fans gathered in gymnasiums, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. When Sat., Oct. 15—the first day the NCAA permits basketball teams to start practicing—finally arrived, the fans erupted into a frenzied celebration appropriately dubbed "Midnight Madness" by the media.

COURTESY MSU.EDU Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo revved up a happy crowd by arriving on a Harley at Midnight Madness.

This late-night basketball tradition began in 1970, when former Maryland coach Lefty Driesell had his Terps running laps at Cole Field House in the infant hours of Oct. 15. Now, more than one-third of Division I basketball programs conduct practices at midnight on that day, and at many schools the event is a spectacle on par with the Harvard-Yale football game. At the University of Connecticut (UConn), for example, over 10,000 fans turned out to watch the defending NCAA champion Huskies' first practice last week.

Clearly, the fanfare of Midnight Madness is as much for the fans as it is for the players. This frat-party-meets-pep-rally is a way to stir up school spirit as well as an attempt to fill seats for the upcoming season by getting students excited about basketball. At Michigan State, which should contend for the Final Four this year, Coach Tom Izzo fired up the fans by speeding into the first practice on a Harley-Davidson. At the University of Kentucky, Coach Tubby Smith faced a crowd of 7,000 roaring fans with Miss America, Heather Renée French, on his arm. UConn ushered in the new season by unveiling a $1 million scoreboard capable of showing live action and instant replay. At other schools, players jumped into the stands, high-fived spectators, and showed off their skills in dunking contests and intra-squad scrimmages.

Every year, Yale ignores the opportunity to rile up support for the basketball program—and Bulldog athletics in general—when it chooses not to sponsor a Midnight Madness event. Granted, Yale students are not as rabid as fans at powerhouses like Duke and Michigan State. Our university does not have players like Trajan Langdon or Mateen Cleaves, nor does it have an athletic budget that could fund a million-dollar scoreboard. Our basketball team doesn't even have a winning record—last year the men's squad finished 4-22, the worst record in Eli history. However, the fact that the Bulldog basketball team doesn't dominate the Ivies, much less the NCAAs, is all the more reason that we need an event such as Midnight Madness.

Yale has a rich athletic tradition—hell, we invented football—but today, a feeling of apathy towards sports seems to have settled into the student body as a whole. We haven't filled the Yale Bowl in more than a decade, and at many of our athletic events, rival fans outnumber Yale students. During the basketball team's glorious upset over Princeton last year, there were as many fans wearing Tiger orange as Yale blue. A spectacle such as Midnight Madness would undoubtedly breathe life into Yale's comatose fan base, and increased fan support could likewise revive flailing programs.

Midnight Madness would, moreover, help to improve the rapport between athletes and the student body as a whole. At universities where sports are popular, athletes are often campus celebrities—Wally Szczerbiak '00, Miami of Ohio's basketball stud, had his phone number removed from the campus directory because he received so many calls. At Yale, however, the "dumb jock" stigma often creates a divide between athletes and the larger student body. Any event that would allow students to show support for Yale athletics would undoubtedly help to bridge this gap.

Midnight Madness would also draw alumni back to campus for big games. It would get recruits excited about coming to Yale, especially because no other Ivy League basketball program sponsors a similar event. And it would have been particularly timely this season, because both the men's and the women's basketball teams have new coaches.

Midnight Madness could, of course, be a complete fiasco—Midnight Sadness, so to speak. Stressed by classes, absorbed by our own activities, we Yalies might ignore what really amounts to a glorified high school pep rally. But imagine—the Amphitheater filled to capacity, "Boola Boola" ricocheting from the walls, revelry on par with The Game. What could be more fun? And considering the benefits, not to give it a shot would be utter madness.

Back to Sports...