Midnight Madness is the official start of the college basketball season. The NCAA permits practice to begin on the second Saturday of October each year. Thus, teams hold their first official practice session at exactly 12:00am on Saturday. The session is open to the public, and at basketball crazed universities, usually attracts an energetic crowd. On college campuses across the nation, this phenomenon has come to be known as "Midnight Madness."
Due to the celebratory nature of the open practice, it is is, largely, ceremonial in nature. Very little that actually resembles quality basketball practice takes place at these events. Thus, Midnight Madness typically resembles a glorified pep rally - although a pep rally replete with dunk competitions and a quasi scrimmage - more than it does an actual basketball practice.
Despite the pomp and circumstance, Midnight Madness gives the hard core college basketball fan get his/her first glimpse of the new season's edition of his/her favorite team. While the fans may not be able to gain many insights into how their their teams will actually perform during the season, Midnight Madness is great for building an atmosphere of crazed excitement amongst said fans.
Midnight Madness is tonight.
From Chapel Hill to Bloomington, from Lexington to Tuscon, wild eyed college students and college basketball fans will pile into arenas on campuses across America in order to catch that first glimpse of the teams they love. The truth is: although Midnight Madness can probably be described as "much ado about nothing," it's a lot of fun for the fans.
College basketball season is officially on.
Friday, October 12, 2007
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