Have suggestions on Gophers' "Midnight Madness" event?

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Gopher Warrior

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What would you want to see? I thought the flow of things was kind of off the last couple of years... certainly a lot of people want to get to the scrimmage and see the guys play... and a brief dunk contest probably has to happen... what else? Quick talent show? Mo Walker and Red Panda on unicycles flipping dishes from their feet to their heads?

Bigger question for me is WHEN to have it... I'm too ignorant on the timing of traffic flows to know if this would just be a huge mess.. but...

- First allowable day of practice for the Gophers will be Friday, September 27.

- Many teams, including the Gophers, have had "Madness" events on the first allowable day of practice. With more preseason practice time allowed to teams this season and going forward, I expect we'll see a more expansive variety of times chosen by schools (spanning a couple of weeks, probably).

- Could Saturday, September 28 work and would it be wise?

Iowa comes to play the Gophers at 2:30pm CT in what I think is a nationally-televised game. Could you.. open doors to Williams Arena at 5:30pm/6pm.. but say the deal starts at 7pm or so?

I see positives & negatives... makes for a very long day for fans, but.. game ends around 6pm.. football fans start leaving (OK, so probably a lot of the fans leave before 6pm), while basketball fans head to campus and parking spots free up.

Other football fans decide to stick around. They grab a bite to eat, drink some more beer, or stroll right into Williams Arena for the 7pm start.

I just like the idea of potentially pulling in "football fans" who are curious about Pitino... they're on campus anyway.. maybe you get a number of people to check things out who otherwise wouldn't come.

Have some silent auction or old gear sales (i.e., old football and other sport uniforms for sale at Williams Arena from 6pm-8pm or something similar) to add some interest for some..

If the football team loses, people can say, 'OK, that sucked... basketball season is here though!".. if the football team wins, you can have Hageman show up during the dunk contest.. he can ball, so see if he wants to do a dunk where the ball is in one hand and Floyd is in the other?

Anyway, I'm ready for college basketball games to begin.
 


Most Gopher fans want to see a good long intra-squad game. Bring in a band beforehand to make it a party for the students, get three guys that can slam dunk - have the obligatory dunk contest. And then have a 40 minute game.
 

I want to see Vincent Grier come back for the alumni game.
 

bga1 said:
Most Gopher fans want to see a good long intra-squad game. Bring in a band beforehand to make it a party for the students, get three guys that can slam dunk - have the obligatory dunk contest. And then have a 40 minute game.
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skip the 2 ball game and let the women have their own event.
 


bga1 said:
Most Gopher fans want to see a good long intra-squad game. Bring in a band beforehand to make it a party for the students, get three guys that can slam dunk - have the obligatory dunk contest. And then have a 40 minute game.
Click to expand...

That would be the highlight. Assistant Coaches each have a team. Coach Pitino, Parski1, and I will be the referees. Station19 would be the supervisor of officials and the replay official, Wren and Gopher Warrior will be the play by play announcers, pantherhawk will be the ESPN critical reporter, Chris Monter will interview students on what it means to them, and GopherLady will interview everyone after the game and report those interviews on her Strib Blog.

AND....Maturi will be absent. He will be supervising the Rowing Team workouts.
 

Dr.Don said:
That would be the highlight. Assistant Coaches each have a team. Coach Pitino, Parski1, and I will be the referees. Station19 would be the supervisor of officials and the replay official, Wren and Gopher Warrior will be the play by play announcers, pantherhawk will be the ESPN critical reporter, Chris Monter will interview students on what it means to them, and GopherLady will interview everyone after the game and report those interviews on her Strib Blog.

AND....Maturi will be absent. He will be supervising the Rowing Team workouts.
Click to expand...

GW wouldn't get a chance to say anything with Wren with him.
 





bga1 said:
Most Gopher fans want to see a good long intra-squad game. Bring in a band beforehand to make it a party for the students, get three guys that can slam dunk - have the obligatory dunk contest. And then have a 40 minute game.
Click to expand...

I'm with bga1, especially with the last part. Have a 40 minute scrimmage a week or so after practice officially started.

Likewise, a week or so later, have a real practice open only to season ticket holders as a premium add-on/thank you for our continued support.

Go Gophers!!
 


Suggestion for the Midnite Madness lineups:

Put the New Maroon 5 on one team. Smith, Buckles (persid), King, Mathieu and McNeil. To balance it out add Mo, since he looks new and Buggs since he will be new to competition this year. Play 2 12 minute running time halves (40 minutes too much for a 1st practice on the Big Stage). Have a 20 minute halftime with Rick Pitino flying up on Saturday after his own midnite show in Louisville the night before. Rick can then introduce Little Richard (see previous post) to sing a couple of old standards with a look toward the new future with Richard.

Matchups look like this:

OLD GOLD vs. New Maroon 5

PG Mav vs Mathieu
SG Dre vs Smith
SF Austin vs King
PF Oto vs Buckles
C Elliot vs MO

Bench

G Shell vs McNeil
F Wally vs Buggs
 




AO54 said:
skip the 2 ball game and let the women have their own event.
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Don't they do that already?

If not, heck yeah, I'd be kind of annoyed if I trekked down to the U to watch midnight madness and had to spend half my time watching the women play. No disrespect to family members of the team, but I'm just not interested any more than I'd be interested in watching the men's gymnastic team at midnight madness.
 

I do think that pairing it with the Gophers-Iowa football game would increase attendance. Especially if there were some sort of post-football game festivities. Open up the alumni center, and/or have some sort of concert in the plaza or something.

Also, as a parent of young children I cannot stress enough that GOLDY helps drive attendance and interest. Seriously. Goldy's shenanigans are stupid to many adults but the kids go to the games to see Goldy.
 

rrjackIII said:
Suggestion for the Midnite Madness lineups:

Put the New Maroon 5 on one team. Smith, Buckles (persid), King, Mathieu and McNeil. To balance it out add Mo, since he looks new and Buggs since he will be new to competition this year. Play 2 12 minute running time halves (40 minutes too much for a 1st practice on the Big Stage). Have a 20 minute halftime with Rick Pitino flying up on Saturday after his own midnite show in Louisville the night before. Rick can then introduce Little Richard (see previous post) to sing a couple of old standards with a look toward the new future with Richard.

Matchups look like this:

OLD GOLD vs. New Maroon 5

PG Mav vs Mathieu
SG Dre vs Smith
SF Austin vs King
PF Oto vs Buckles
C Elliot vs MO

Bench

G Shell vs McNeil
F Wally vs Buggs
Click to expand...

I like this idea!

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
 


How about a dunk tank for your "favorite" Gopher Hole commentators? Charge a buck a throw and we could pay off the practice facility in no time at all!
 

Dr.Don said:
That would be the highlight. Assistant Coaches each have a team. Coach Pitino, Parski1, and I will be the referees. Station19 would be the supervisor of officials and the replay official, Wren and Gopher Warrior will be the play by play announcers, pantherhawk will be the ESPN critical reporter, Chris Monter will interview students on what it Then means to them, and GopherLady will interview everyone after the game and report those interviews on her Strib Blog.

AND....Maturi will be absent. He will be supervising the Rowing Team workouts.
Click to expand...

Then he will head over to the Tiddlywinks Midnight Madness event he has organized.
 

I echo bga calling for a 40-minute scrimmage - but make it running time. Have a short halftime where something interesting happens.

My critique of Madnesses in past years is that it really dragged in spots. There's no need for it to be a long event. Other than the scrimmage, make it short, sweet and intensive. Don't have a lot of things, and move from thing to thing crisply. You don't want to lose momentum in what is essentially a pep fest. Forget a slam dunk contest per se, but have each player do a signature dunk when they're introduced. They could do a ballhandling/passing drill, but only if it's geared for entertainment and is snappy and jazzed up. How about if the pep band did a jam during that? This should be choreographed as an entertainment event. The pep band should never stop, even if it's just background percussion or muted cadences in the background.
 

My suggestion is that they don't have Midnight Madness. Don't get me wrong, I love Gopher hoops, but I'd rather this team use one of it's first official practices actually, you know, practicing. My impression is that it these events count against your NCAA mandated maximum number of practices you're allowed to have. I think it's a big waste of time and money. I'd much rather they just open a intra-squad scrimmage to the public at some point a week or so into pre-season practices.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I echo bga calling for a 40-minute scrimmage - but make it running time. Have a short halftime where something interesting happens.

My critique of Madnesses in past years is that it really dragged in spots. There's no need for it to be a long event. Other than the scrimmage, make it short, sweet and intensive. Don't have a lot of things, and move from thing to thing crisply. You don't want to lose momentum in what is essentially a pep fest. Forget a slam dunk contest per se, but have each player do a signature dunk when they're introduced. They could do a ballhandling/passing drill, but only if it's geared for entertainment and is snappy and jazzed up. How about if the pep band did a jam during that? This should be choreographed as an entertainment event. The pep band should never stop, even if it's just background percussion or muted cadences in the background.
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Keep the dunk contest, just change the format. Have the players line up and just go one after the other for maybe 5-10 minutes and do the voting at the end. Cut out most of the interviews and let the basketball do the talking.
 

Midnight Madness' time has come and gone. Unless you're Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, etc., they're pretty worthless. Time to pull the plug. I agree with AeroGopher; like the idea of a public scrimmage a week or so later, where the players actually are competing instead of dinkin' around.
 

I am excited to see what Pitino does with the event. His youth will hopefully equate to an ability to relate to what recruits in attendance want to see as well as energy and excitement to put behind the program. With the ideas he has had so far (using twitter fairly often, the blog, the practice gym, etc.) I am excited to see the Pitino brand of midnight madness.

I'd imagine he picked up some things from UL and Florida to help make the night enjoyable for fans and recruits.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Midnight Madness' time has come and gone. Unless you're Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, etc., they're pretty worthless. Time to pull the plug. I agree with AeroGopher; like the idea of a public scrimmage a week or so later, where the players actually are competing instead of dinkin' around.
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I would agree if it wasn't Homecoming that weekend. On Friday night, there is a crowd on University Ave watching the parade. Have the event at around 8:30 or 9:00 on Friday and make it an official Homecoming event. In subsequent years, put the inter squad scrimmage after the parade.
 

My suggestion is that they give away Gopher buckles during Rakeem Buckles' entrance. (Assuming he is a gopher and is playing this year of course.)
 

Take out the dunk contest and have a 3 point contest instead since Pitino wants his team to Shoot a lot of 3's. I would really like to see Malik Smith and Andre Hollins go at it.
 

I like the idea of an alumni game. I hear Steve "Sunshine" Esselink has finally put together a solid defensive game.
 

HouseOfHagen said:
I like the idea of an alumni game. I hear Steve "Sunshine" Esselink has finally put together a solid defensive game.
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It was a good idea until they did it and they all played as if they were playing on a 3 foot hoop with preschoolers. They looked afraid to give any effort. Might have to restrict it to alumni that can still move and have them play against the current gophers.
 

Maroon and Gold Maverick said:
Take out the dunk contest and have a 3 point contest instead since Pitino wants his team to Shoot a lot of 3's. I would really like to see Malik Smith and Andre Hollins go at it.
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Love the idea of a 3 pt contest, ala the old NBA all star games.

You don't have to eliminate the slam dunk contest to have a 3 pt contest.
 

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