Ed. Note: this column originally ran on October 15, 2010.  We received such a positive response from it that we’re running it again this year, and quite possibly every year until changes are made. 

Blasphemer.  Defiler.  Hater.

These are the words you’re going to use to describe us after you read this column.  In fact, you may already be using them simply by scanning the title.  What’s wrong with this joint, you might say?  Isn’t Midnight Madness day a ritualistic celebration of the return of college hoops — a singularly original basketball-only event that juices up the masses of fans from coast to coast yearning for the shortened fall days where the lonely bounce of an orange ball in a far-away gym represents that all is right with the world again?

To this we respond: well, yeah… it was.

Charlie Brown Represents a Bygone Era of Midnight Madnesses

Forgive us for going all Charlie Brown Christmas on you, as we’re definitely going to sound like our dad when we say these things, but the “good old days” of Midnight Madness were simply better.  What was once a localized phenomenon driven by student interest and an excuse to go crazy on a random Tuesday night has become an over-the-top, over-produced, over-compensated can-you-top-this Lady Gaga show filled with indoor fireworks, race cars, people dangling from the rafters and the rest of it.

This isn’t a Kanye concert or Cirque du Soleil, folks; it’s a basketball practice.

Give us Lefty Driesell and his car headlights illuminating a track at 12:01 am or hell, even Dick Vitale losing his mind after drinking so much coffee that his very DNA was jittery.  Give us a countdown clock that actually counts down to something and a student body that’s had enough down time to get, shall we say, socially lubricated.  Give us a grand introduction without all the peripherals followed by a high-wire dunk contest and a spirited scrimmage.  Give us hope that we’re going to be in for a special year as we leave the arena at 1:30 am on a cool fall night, because hope always wears a little better with a group of buddies heading back to the dorms in the wee hours of the morning.

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BEHOLD, friends, as the countdown clock approaches the all-zero for the first time this year, signifying the moment that we can at least say that practices are in session and our game has returned. The rocket has been moved to the launching pad and we’re about to light this candle, and just as launching a rocket into outer space is a process with many stages, so is getting a college basketball season off the ground. There’s Midnight Madness, or what might be more accurately called the First Official Day of Practice (FODP). The first exhibitions. The first official games. The ESPN 24-hour Marathon is considered a season-starting event. Our game, as we all know, has many Opening Days. That’s been a point of criticism from many sources in the past, including us. Let’s worry about that later. For now, let’s just prepare ourselves to enjoy the ride.

We’re going to be watching coverage and keeping track of the events around the country all evening, so feel free to tweet @rushthecourt and/or contact us at rushthecourt@yahoo.com if you have some great photos, videos or simply anecdotes and rumors to share.

Just like we provided last year, here is a list of last season’s NCAA Tournament teams and their status as far as holding FODP festivities:

Event on October 14th:

• Alabama State — Late Night Madness at Dunn-Oliver Acadome.
• Connecticut — UConn Basketball First Night. Prima noctis! Doors open and autograph session at 6 PM, and showtime with the defending champions begins at 7 PM.
• Duke — Countdown to Craziness. Scrimmage, dunk contest, live performances among other activities. And you know what? They got Raftery.

• Read the rest of this entry »

1. Coaches with pretty impressive pedigrees cannot seem to stop talking about conference realignment these days.  Yet with as much power and influence as these guys have at their respective universities, they wield very little leverage in the big-picture chess match being played by various college chancellors, presidents, and boards of directors.  Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun and Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski provided opposing viewpoints on the matter Wednesday, with the four-time national champion coming out strongly in favor of further expansion of the ACC from 14 to 16 teams, and the three-time national champion unequivocally stating that his preference is for the Huskies to stick with the Big East.  You have to believe that if John Swofford’s league eventually makes another move, one of the first inquiries will in fact be to the folks in Storrs, but maybe by that time both Calhoun and K will be in rocking chairs somewhere.
2. Sticking with Connecticut, remember that Michael Bradley kid — you know, the one who UConn took a scholarship from to give it to a basketball phenom who likely will be there for one year?  Yeah, that kid.  He came out on the record Wednesday stating that he has since been given a financial aid package and that he was only one of several players who stepped forward for the good of the team when it became apparent that prep phenom Andre Drummond was prepared to enroll.  Even UConn president Susan Herbst got into the act, saying that Bradley has been “taken care of.”  The company line was apparently in full effect in Storrs on this day, but there’s one thing we absolutely want to see happen here — five years down the road when Drummond is off to the NBA and Bradley has moved on to whatever great things also await him, we truly hope that he receives a registered letter from his former teammate containing a certified check for the full amount of any student loan (plus interest) he might have taken out to make this happen.  Drummond says that he and Bradley have a “great relationship” and are “really cool” with each other — well,  if so, he’ll do the right thing and eventually pay the walk-on back in spades.
3. This is a baseball story more than a college basketball story, but we don’t care.  TBS/TNT’s Ernie Johnson has entertained us for years as the host of still the very best sports show on television, Inside the NBA.  Last year with Turner Sports’ nascent involvement with the NCAA Tournament, Johnson played host for some of the studio coverage along with his good buddies Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and an assortment of others.  He’s also a huge baseball guy, calling games for TBS as his father (whom he lost in August at the age of 87) had before him.  In a normal year, he’d be doing the MLB playoffs right now before setting off to another hilarious NBA season in the studio with The Jet and Chuck — but this isn’t a normal year.  Rather, Johnson, his wife and family have been keeping vigil with their eldest adopted son, Michael (one of four adopted children they have), who is suffering from muscular dystrophy and pneumonia in an Atlanta hospital.  It’s a tragic story, but one that really shows just how good a guy Johnson is — we encourage everyone to read it.
4. Because of that NBA lockout thing, college basketball fans from all over the country are getting a rare opportunity to see some of their former (but not too former) stars in action on their school’s hardwood again as players seek ways to fill their time when they otherwise would have been in training camps.  Syracuse will hold a scrimmage on Friday night at the Carrier Dome featuring two teams of ‘Orange Legends,’ and they’re really not kidding with that name — tentative rosters include Carmelo Anthony, John Wallace, Hakim Warrick, Wes Johnson and Gerry McNamara — or, in other words, most of the best SU players of the last 15 years.  We’ll definitely be tuning into the ESPNU special on Friday night for a taste of this.
5. Is it just us, or did LSU head coach Trent Johnson get a little too brazen in his dodgeball attack on a Tiger cheerleader in this video taken Tuesday at the Maravich Maniacs dodgeball tournament in Baton Rouge?  Start at the 1:00 mark — the dude does not hold back!

1. ESPN: two (and a half) ACC schools will be represented during ESPNU’s coverage of college basketball’s Midnight Madness on October 14. Coverage starts at 9 PM EDT. ESPNU will cover eleven schools’ official season kickoff, including Duke, North Carolina, (future ACC member) Syracuse and defending national champion Connecticut. Stuart Scott will be holding down the fort at the Dean Dome, while Lou Canellis and announcing legend Bill Raftery will be at Cameron Indoor Stadium. My one disappointment is Raftery won’t be joined by rap aficionado and Duke alumnus Jay Bilas, which would truly make for must-see TV.
2. The Collegiate Times: Virginia Tech‘s student newspaper takes an in-depth look at the university’s dynamic duo of compliance, Tim Parker and Bert Locklin. The Hokie journalists also manage to throw in a couple of warranted jabs at conference rivals Miami and North Carolina for their respective compliance struggles. The article is a great look at the men behind the curtain who normally only make the news when there’s been a major violation.
3. Palmetto Sports: Clemson has an official visit scheduled with point guard Adonis Filer of Chicago.  According to Rivals.com, the 6’3″ Filer is a top 150 player who already has offers from Baylor and Oregon State, but definitely hasn’t made a decision. He noted his final decision “will come down to where I feel comfortable and the amount of playing time I’m going to be looking at my first year.” My guess is Filer would see a good bit of playing time right away with the Tigers.
4. Washington Post – Terrapins Insider: Maryland basketball legend and subject of ESPN’s 30 for 30 “Without Bias” (a must-watch for any hoops fan), Len Bias is being inducted into the Washington Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame along with Maryland announcer Johnny Holliday on November 9. Bias’ tragic cocaine overdose, immediately following being taken second overall in the NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, forced the country to come to terms with the drug’s rampant use amongst athletes in the mid-to-late 1980s.
5. Winston Salem Journal: Wake Forest baseball player Kevin Jordan is back in practice. In one of the most amazing stories you’ll ever hear about in sports, Demon Deacon coach Tom Walter donated a kidney to Jordan last year. On seeing Jordan back in action, Walter exclaimed: “This is the best day of my coaching career […] I mean by far. Just to see him back out here doing what he loves to do.” This stands in stark contrast with all of the cut-throat recruiting, oversigning and general dishonesty so often reported in college sports.

Some of you may have noticed that we at RTC have been pretty busy getting lately. For those of you who have been keeping up to date on everything happening at RTC we would like to thank you. For those slackers who like to procrastinate in getting ready for the season (and you know who you are), we have put together this not-so-brief but comprehensive guide to get you ready for the season.

The RTC Top 25: Hard to pick against Duke this year, as all five of our voters were in agreement that Coach K’s Blue Devils are the team to beat.

• RTC Top 25: Preseason Edition

Tweeting the Preview: Those of you who follow us on Twitter (@rushthecourt) are familiar with this feature, but for the past two weeks we have been Tweeting our rankings counting down every single Division I team in reverse order.

• Tweeting the Preview: #20-1
• Tweeting the Preview: #44-21
• Tweeting the Preview: #68-45
• Tweeting the Preview: #92-69
• Tweeting the Preview: #116-93
• Tweeting the Preview: #140-117
• Tweeting the Preview: #164-141
• Tweeting the Preview: #188-165
• Tweeting the Preview: #212-189
• Tweeting the Preview: #236-213
• Tweeting the Preview: #260-237
• Tweeting the Preview: #284-261
• Tweeting the Preview: #308-285
• Tweeting the Preview: #332-309
• Tweeting the Preview: #345-333

Preseason Bracketology: In conjunction with our run-down of the top 345 teams in Division 1 we also bring you the first of many installments of RTC Bracketology. [Ed. Note: If the seed doesn’t correlate with rankings just remember that just because a team has a higher seed doesn’t mean that they are better just that they have a better resume.]

• Preseason Bracketology: 11.02.10

RTC Conference Primers: Our countdown of every conference in Division I basketball with a breakdown of each (top players, teams, and what to watch for).

1. Big 10
2. Big East
3. Big 12
4. ACC
5. SEC
6. Pac-10
7. Atlantic 10
8. Mountain West
9. Conference USA
10. Missouri Valley
11. Colonial
12. WCC
13. Horizon
14. WAC
15. MAAC
16. Southern
17. Big West
18. Big Sky
19. MAC
20. OVC
21. Sun Belt
22. Atlantic Sun
23. Southland
24. Ivy
25. America East
26. Summit
27. Northeast
28. Patriot
29. Big South
30. MEAC
31. SWAC

Where 2010-11 Happens: Our countdown of 30 things (via YouTube) to get us even more pumped up for the upcoming season.

• It’s easiest to view all thirty clips in one place here.  And if you’re not excited about the season after watching that, well, you probably need to stick with arguing about the BCS.

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1. It was an eventful weekend across the college basketball landscape as programs began officially practicing on Friday night with spirited Midnight Madness celebrations ranging from Duke’s banner unfurling to Michigan State’s astronaut theme to Pepperdine’s For Whom the (Keion) Bell Tolls…  in case you were busy with football and/or the MLB playoffs this weekend, be sure to check out our BGTD: Midnight Madness Edition from Friday night as well as our postmortem of highlights we posted on Sunday.  And believe it or not, we’re only twenty-one days from game action, folks.
2. Like everyone else, we were extremely sad to hear that Purdue’s Robbie Hummel had once again ruptured his ACL, an injury that will leave him on the shelf this season.  You can really feel the pain in Jeff Goodman’s article over the weekend where he discusses just how unfair it is that a great kid such as Hummel seems to have such crappy luck.  For Purdue fans, this is also devastating — the Boilermakers rallied after Hummel’s late February injury last year to sneak into the Sweet Sixteen, but even with the experience of playing without him and E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson returning, we just can’t see a Final Four run in this squad.  Hummel will have one more year to play college basketball in 2011-12, but he’ll return to a team gutted by the graduation of those two stars and although hope springs eternal, we have a feeling that these couple of years will ultimately represent unfortunate missed opportunities for Matt Painter and his program.
3. Speaking of Goodman, here’s his preseason Top 25 (keep in mind Purdue at #2 was prior to Hummel’s injury); here’s Mike DeCourcy’s at Sporting News; and here’s Gary Parrish’s over at CBS Sports.
4. Seth Davis checks in with his 10 Burning Questions to start the new season, a great read as usual.  Unfortunately, we already know the answer to the second half of #2, but he brings up a good point about Duke managing to duck much of the ubiquitous hatred last season largely because most pundits (and the public) didn’t start taking the Blue Devils seriously as a title contender until the very end of the season.
5. Friday was Midnight Madness at most places, but it was also the date of UConn and Jim Calhoun’s hearing in Indy with the NCAA Infractions Committee.  Calhoun reported that the meeting took thirteen hours, but he provided no additional details as to its substance (although a 13-hour meeting is no joke).  The NCAA is expected to make a ruling on this issue by December.  Let’s hope for Husky fans that their season is generally going well by then; otherwise, it could be a particularly cold winter in Storrs.

Last year Keion Bell sent shudders through college basketball nation when he dunked over five of his teammates at Pepperdine’s Midnight Madness.

A year older and a year wiser, Bell decided to up the ante at Friday night’s version, dunking over a preposterous seven people of varying sizes.  Some of the others weren’t half-bad either.

Next year: he plans to bring the entire student body out of the stands and dunk on them too.

We already know what you’re thinking — when can we watch the 6’3 junior guard play on television this year?  The Waves are rebuilding in a major way after a 7-24 slate last season, so as of now you only have two chances to see Keion Bell soar through the clouds (do they have clouds in Malibu?) this season.

• 11/15 – @ UCLA (Preseason NIT) – 11 pm ET (ESPNU)
• 2/16 – @ Loyola Marymount – 11 pm ET (ESPNU)

(h/t PDine)

You may have heard that a little thing called Midnight Madness went down Friday night in packed gyms across the college basketball landscape.  From Duke to Kentucky to Marquette to Kansas to Gonzaga to even little ol’ Cal Tech (ok, they celebrated Thursday, but give ’em a break, they’ve lost 300 conference games in a row), fans filed into arenas to celebrate the return of roundball.   Despite the fact that we remain on the record that MM has lost its uniqueness over the years and could stand to get back to its roots, we’ll admit that even the over-produced pyrotechnic-style monstrosities we saw on the tube enabled a few pangs of excitement in our tummy.  How can it not?  After all, bad college basketball is still college basketball, and from the perspective that the Madness is a celebration of the sport, we’re completely on board with that.

Make sure that you check out our Boom Goes the Dynamite from Friday night where we commented on all the goings-on where we could find them in real time.  Today’s postmortem will share some of the biggest highlights we noted from the evening.  If you think we missed something major, send us a tip at rushthecourt@yahoo.com or tweet at us @rushthecourt.

Duke

Duke’s Countdown to Craziness was, as expected, a celebration of the 2010 national champions, replete with the unfurling of Coach K’s fourth national championship banner and a collection of hardware at center court (starting at the 1:15 mark).

Those championship rings are HUGE!  We much prefer seeing Nolan Smith this way instead of the creepy-as-hell video he did at last year’s CTC.

Kansas State

As we referred to last night, Jacob Pullen has only trimmed the beloved beard, not shaved it, so major meltdown averted there.  As if he wasn’t already one of our favorite players in the country, Pullen further endeared himself to us by running around in the scrimmage with his jogging pants still on.  He looked like a cross between Barack Obama and somebody’s uncle out there; that is, until he started draining 28-footers with ease.  The other big news of the night was the announcement that the school will be building a new $20M practice facility, showing that the Wildcats have no designs on losing their hoops momentum of recent years.

This clip is from the introduction at Madness in Manhattan, and it features the cast of ABC comedy Modern Family all wearing Kansas State gear around the set and studio lot — Eric Stonestreet (“Cameron”) is a K-State alum.  Apologies for the smallness of the video, but if you try, you can just make out Ty Burrell’s (“Phil”) cap which says “Screw KU” on it.  Not to mention that there’s a Sofia Vergara (“Gloria”) in a t-shirt sighting at the 2:07 mark, which means we’re going to have to put John Stevens back on his calming pills.

Michigan State

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And here it is.

Look at that beautiful clock in the top right corner. We’ve been watching that thing tick and tick for almost 200 days, and now…such beautiful stillness. All zeroes.

The only thing that can match this feeling is the beginning of the NCAA Tournament, and even though that’s five months away, the days between this moment and that one will pass like a dream. So let’s enjoy this one tonight. Gyms and arenas are packed across the nation tonight to celebrate the First Official Day of Practice. We’re already checking out some local broadcasts, live streams, Twitter feeds, and live blogs, and the ESPN-U broadcast with their (we like this term) “whip-around” coverage is mere minutes away. Every one of the RTC Compounds (Western, Southern, and Eastern) are locked in and rocking. We have our satellite feeds. We have our Blue Ribbon Yearbooks beside us. We’re ready.

Join us here at 8:45 pm ET (about 15 minutes from now) and start hitting that refresh button for updated comments, and, as always, we encourage you to give us your thoughts via the comments section and Twitter. WELCOME!

8:45 PM — So many programs kicked off their festivities at 7 pm or 8 pm ET, so the first order of business is to try and get you some links up to some of the various happenings:

Dan Wolken, columnist for the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, is live blogging Memphis Madness on his live blog (we actually love the “Wolken In Memphis” title).

Kentucky’s official site is streaming live here at UKAthletics.com.

More on the way…

8:51 — Kentucky’s Enes Kanter, a big wrestling fan, entered to the music formerly used to introduce The Undertaker. He cannot practice tonight, unfortunately for all of us, since just about everyone wants to get a look at this guy. But that was one heck of an entrance.

9:01 — ESPN-U’s broadcast is underway. That aurora borealis background is kind of cool, eh? By the way, if you have such access, Maryland Madness is also live on TV on Comcast MidAtlantic.

9:08 — Wow. From Duke, Jay Williams and Lou Canellis are covered in sweat. Not surprising, considering it’s Cameron Indoor, but it can’t be fun sitting there under hot lights in a sweltering building while wearing a suit. Actually, it’s the Madness, so it’s fun no matter what. But hopefully they have designated toweler-offers (read: interns) standing just out of the shot.

9:12 — Evidently Duke’s Seth Curry took a nasty elbow to the eye and was pretty much spurting blood. This is awful, but hopefully it’s not as bad as the initial shock, and we’ll provide more details as available.

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There aren’t many beautiful brisk fall Friday nights where you’d catch us happily curled up on the couch with the remote, but this is one of them. It’s the First Official Day of Practice, and many schools across this great nation are having events to celebrate its arrival. OK, it’s not the Midnight Madness of old, but it’s Madness just the same, even if it happens a few hours early. The ESPN-U broadcast featuring several programs starts at 9:00 PM, and we’re going to have our first Boom Goes The Dynamite live blog of the season tonight, too. We’ll start at 8:45, and in addition to watching Lowell and Andy and the boys, we’ll be scouring our satellite listings for extra coverage. We’ll also be putting up photos from attendees from the various events, tweets from coaches/players/fans/whoever, any video we can scrounge, and whatever else we can find. We hope you’ll join us, and we look forward to your comments and tweets. Let’s have some fun, for our long non-college hoops national nightmare is now over.