Hoops
needs to bring the Madness back
Daniel
Frias
The
college basketball season is upon us. It's
time for hoops fans all across the nation
to root for their favorite college teams
or support their perspective school's basketball
team. Which for students at Cal State Long
Beach would be the 49ers.
Both
the 49ers men's and women's basketball team
will play exhibition games this month. The
women's team headed by first-year head coach
Mary Hegarty will play its first exhibition
game Saturday at The Pyramid while the men's
team under second year head coach Larry
Reynolds will face Cal State San Bernardino,
the team Reynolds used to coach, next Wednesday.
Of
course hoops fans don't have to wait until
next week to see their team play. The school
just held its annual Fan Fest celebration
this past Sunday at the Pyramid where both
teams were introduced and scrimmaged for
the public.
It
seems that Fan Fest was a big hit, but real
hoops fans and CSULB students, along with
the men's basketball players would have
preferred midnight-madness-a nation wide
college event held on the midnight of the
first day of practice allowed by the NCAA,
which this year was Oct. 18.
The
Midnight Madness event begins at midnight
with an introduction of the team, a three-point
contest, a dunk contest and then a scrimmage.
The once popular event has dwindled and
faded away at most campuses including CSULB.
Many Cal States have stopped hosting this
event for different reasons. The usual response
is they don't know why they don't host it,
they just don't.
Coach
Reynolds explains that several schools,
including LBSU, don't host this event because
they are basically commuter schools and
it's difficult to get students to come back
once they leave, especially at midnight.
I
would not disagree, but I have spoken with
several students who have wondered what
happened to the event and said they would
attend if the school had one. In fact there
was several students trying to bring the
event back to campus this year after a three
year hiatus.
Associated
Students Inc. president Danny Vivian (one-third
of the university's triple entente, he,
President Maxson and Armando Contreres)
was heading the campaign to bring the event
back. But was unable to convince coaches
and athletic administrators to put on the
event citing that they didn't have enough
time to plan it this year.
The
last time the school had a midnight madness
event senior forward on the LBSU men's basketball
team Kevin Roberts was a freshman and there
were several incidents that occurred with
event goers after the event was over. It's
unclear what those events were, I couldn't
find out what really happened but my sources
lead me to believe they were incidents of
violence.
But
if violence was the case, how come the Long
Beach step show is held every year at The
Pyramid when that show has ended in violence
the past several years?
After
speaking with CSULB coaches, players, students
and athletic officials, they seem willing
and optimistic about bringing back Midnight
Madness. For the school's sake and ours
let's hope they do.
Daniel
Frias is a print journalism major at Cal
State Long Beach
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