Some people are just plain delusional. As of last week, countless souls had set up camps amongst the cold, industrial infrastructures of various towns and cities across the country. In these modern-day Hoovervilles, they willingly lived like animals, completely devoid of basic human necessities, like showers . . . and dignity.
As if the unjustifiable lack of overall decency wasn’t enough to find their actions morally and logically questionable, they also did so without a rationalization that the average American would understand. From afar, it was insanity . . . and from within, it was a mess.
This is the world we live in.
This is college basketball in 2011.
Oh, wait, you thought I was talking about Occupy Wall Street?
No, sorry. I stopped caring about the antics of hipster nation right around the time they stole my personality. I was apathetically arrogant first; they need to stop trying to make it their “thing.” And by the way, the fact that there is an Urban Outfitters in every city and college town in the country kind of contradicts the whole movement. Just saying.
Also, anyone that has a brain (or has seen “Inside Job”) knows that Wall Street screwed us. So, while the whole movement is completely lacking anything remotely resembling a leadership structure, and will most likely accomplish nothing . . . I support it. I guess.
Anyway, back to my original point. Last week, while the occupiers were lacing up their Chuck Taylors and picketing in every major financial district in the country, college towns across America were inhabited by a completely different group of squatters.
Hardcore college basketball fans are a special breed, and they’ve been inexplicably living like subordinates in order to prove it, long before the 99 percent made it hip.
Every year, on Oct. 14th, at 7 p.m., college basketball programs are officially allowed to hold a full team practice. In typical fashion for American sports, most schools tend to turn that seamlessly trivial date into the living representation of pomp and circumstance.
It has morphed from a practice into an ESPN-sponsored nationwide event. It is an all-out, star-studded Hollywood-style show geared toward potential recruits and fans. As a result, the respective fanbases around the country camp out like their Occupy brethren for the mere chance at tickets.
The tradition, which originally hinged around the former start time of midnight (hence the moniker “Midnight Madness”), started in 1971 when University of Maryland coach Lefty Driesell held a practice at 12:03 a.m. It was a novel concept, and featured mostly conditioning, but there were still 3,000 fans in attendance. Driesell would continue this tradition throughout his tenure with the Terps, but to mostly limited fanfare.
However, in 1982, it truly caught on nationwide. Not surprisingly, it was in the basketball Mecca of Lexington, Ky. that the “Midnight Madness” we know today was truly born. In fact, one doesn’t need to leave the city of Lexington in order to fully grasp the trajectory of the event over the last 30 years.
Overall, the University of Kentucky basketball program is no stranger to the spotlight. As a result of being the winningest program of all time, it tends to shine bright at UK. However, “Big Blue Madness” is one instance where they do everything but rip the thing off its hinges and place it firmly on Rupp Arena. It is completely over-the-top, and an absolutely unreasonable use of university resources.
It is also, in a word . . . amazing.
This year, the school set a date on which fans would be allowed to get in line and set up their camps. So, not surprisingly, Wildcat fans set up camp elsewhere on campus prior to that official date. Essentially, they camped out and waited for the opportunity to camp out.
The reward for their insanity? An impressive hybrid of basketball talent and program resources that cost over $200,000.
What was once simply a chance to introduce the new team to the school and the fans has morphed into a sports oriented circus, and it is by no means limited to the state of Kentucky.
Midnight Madness events at Syracuse University, the University of North Carolina, Duke University, the University of Kansas and every other major program across the country all rival Kentucky’s in its absurdity. Instead of simply shuttle runs and lay up lines, they feature dunk contests and skits. In place of boosters and administrators, there are rappers and NBA stars.
However, while many people might say this display of excess embodies all that is wrong with sports today, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Sure, the inaugural practices are a way to make a statement about the program and the abundant resources at their disposal. But, in a world in which fans have become nothing more than their value at the ticket office, Midnight Madness events unabashedly cater to them.
This is why thousands of students and alumni alike camped out across the nation in the early days of October. Unlike those occupying Wall Street, they had a clear purpose for their seemingly irrational disregard for basic comforts.
They were waiting for the privilege to take in the last great fan-oriented event.
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Very good article, but in my opinion there is no Midnight Madness that compares to UK’s. Nothing from the other big programs even comes close. WE ARE THE NEEDLE!