Pictures From Midnight Madness

By Trashtalk Superstar

Sports Illustrated has pictures from several schools' Midnight Madness exhibitions. As much as Midnight Madness has become a big deal on campuses across America, there's still nobody who does it better than Kentucky.

Edit:

Someone should have prevented Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan from embarrassing himself by doing the superman dance on camera. Once the white people start doing a dance, it's officially over.


Updated (10/19/07):

Bo Ryan is a great basketball coach. Wisconsin never gets the big time recruits and their style of play isn't exactly ballet on the hardwood, but Bo Ryan's teams consistently win. Drive and Dish's editorial staff has nothing but respect for Bo Ryan's coaching abilities. But Bo looks like a damn fool in that video.

Bo Ryan is a coach's coach. He spent much of his long career in total obscurity. First he was a high school coach. Then he went on to coach small college basketball at Wisconsin/Platteville, where his teams won several NCAA Division III national championships. He's paid his dues like few in his profession have. With his career accomplishments, and with the level of success he's brought to Wisconsin basketball, Bo Ryan commands respect.

That's why Bo Ryan should never have done that Soulja Boy superman dance. First, the song is terrible and represents everything that's wrong with the current state of commercial hip hop (and on a broader level, with the current state of the music industry in general). That song and its corresponding dance are the hot thing right now, but weren't hot six months ago and won't be hot six months from now. Hell, it probably won't even be hot two months from now because - as we noted above - once the white folks catch on to something, its days are numbered.

Bo Ryan is a man of stature who holds a position of authority. He's experienced. He's distinguished. He's the don of Wisconsin basketball. He should act the part. But he sure as hell shouldn't try to act young and cool. He's neither. And by attempting to latch on to the latest hot dance moves, Bo Ryan looks insecure, needy and desperate for approval.

Bo Ryan's best play is to project his authority. That's what big time college coaches do. After all, as far as all things UW basketball go, Bo Ryan is the man. Players and students should have to earn his approval. Not the other way around.

Midnight Madness Tonight

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.