Midnight Madness is valuable to students and fans who cherish the opportunity to ring in the college basketball season. It’s fun for players who typically get to do goofy little skits, hear real cheers again, and get their first chance to show the folks at home what they can do. It is most valuable, however, to coaches trying to nail down top recruits. Midnight Madness is many things, but for better or worse, it’s an over the top kabuki pageant designed to show high schoolers that this school is the one for them, that nobody anywhere else will love the players as much as that school’s fans, that the player belongs here.

Midnight Madness is Relaxed Fun Before the Work Begins

Since this is just the way it is, we can’t help but read more significance on which recruit attends which Midnight Madness. We’re always happy to look at the hints of who will end up where, so without further ado, here are some of the highlights of Madness recruiting intrigue in the ACC.  Only four ACC schools celebrate Midnight Madness today: Maryland, which invented the damn thing; Florida State, which has the best name for it’s event no matter what anyone else says (It doesn’t get better than “The Jam With Ham.”); and Duke and North Carolina, both of whom typically host a raft of prospects.

• Duke will play host to Matt Jones (2013) and Jaquel Richmond (2014), but the bigger story is probably who won’t be there: Shabazz Muhammad, the number one prospect in the 2012 class, and the top target for the Blue Devils. Instead, Muhammad will be at Kentucky, along with targeted forward Alex Poythress, which is probably not comforting news for Duke fans.
• Florida State has the best name in “The Jam With Ham at Seminole Madness.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like there are any high profile uncommitted recruits who are going to be attending the event, which is kind of disappointing, considering that Maryland is going to be hosting Sam Cassell Jr. (2012), the son of the legendary Florida State star. The Terrapins will also be visited by Rodney Bullock (2013).
• North Carolina will happily host T. J. Warren (2013) and Nate Britt (2014). Like their rivals down Tobacco Road, the bigger story might be about who isn’t there: Kaleb Tarczewski, the 7’0″ senior who will be spending his Friday night at Kansas.
• Boston College and North Carolina State are apparently starting practice, but forgoing “madness,” per se. On the other hand, the event brings good news for both schools.  Anthony Dallier and Peter Miller (2013) will both be visiting Chestnut Hill. The good news in Raleigh comes from a canceled visit. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, the Oak Hill senior has canceled his visit to Louisville’s Midnight Madness and declared that he would be announcing his decision on Saturday. Considering that Smith-Rivera has only visited Georgetown and NC State and that his Oak Hill teammate Tyler Smith (who has already committed to the Wolfpack) accompanied him on his visit, it looks like Mark Gottfried has a pretty good chance at snagging another top recruit.

Special thanks to Jeff Borzello, whose ceaseless reporting and Tweeting is ridiculously comprehensive.

KCarpenter (269 Posts)

This entry was posted on Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 9:00 am by KCarpenter and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: acc, boston college, d'vauntes smith-rivera, duke, florida state, maryland, nc state, recruiting, shabazz muhammad, unc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.