Midnight Madness...Just Not For The Eagles

Well, AU hoops fans, tonight is the official start of the college basketball season. The actual games don't start for a few weeks yet, but this weekend teams can officially begin to practice. Accompanying this is the event that so many college students and fans spend the first half of the fall semester eagerly awaiting (especially when there's no football) - Midnight Madness. It was with a heavy heart that I spent my night watching ESPN's 4 straight hours of coverage of Midnight Madness at powerhouses such as Duke, Kansas, Connecticut, Washington, Kentucky, Georgeclown, and oddly enough North Dakota State.

It wasn't that our Eagles were not on ESPN tonight that was depressing. Only 9 teams total were featured, eight of them in Andy Katz's pre-season top 25 (and when AU makes that list, hell will actually freeze over and everyone there will get a complimentary AU red and blue ice cream cone). No, it's that we must wait nearly another month for our own version of this tradition, American Madness, on November 11th.

Why must we wait so long to finally see our Eagles take to the court? Well, technically we don't, as there are exhibition games on both November 3rd and 8th, and as sure as a Garrison Carr three-pointer I will be at both. Plus, we should feel lucky to have such an event at all, as according to the archives of student newspaper The Eagle, Midnight Madness at AU was discontinued after the 2000 season for an indeterminate reason (not having a winning season for a decade will do that), and only re-instated last year as American Madness (a tournament appearance will do that). Nevertheless, I'm excited to see what's been cooked up for American Madness this year. Last year was exciting, but pretty basic, seeing as it was the first time in a decade they even bothered.

Definitely come down to check out American Madness if you are able, it should be a really good time and a great way to show support for a young team. Hopefully over the next year someone in the athletics department will come to the realization that the rest of the college basketball world starts the Madness in October. In the mean time, check out this 2008-09 highlight video to get sufficiently pumped up:

Go Eagles,
Josh