Let the college b-ball practices begin!!!!!!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

12 hours and counting! Ah, the start of practice is a beautiful thing. Can't wait to get the season up and running. Thankfully, my Mizzou Tigers are in the preseason NIT, so they'll get an earlier start on the season than most teams.

In case everyone didn't know, 'Midnight Madness' is no longer held at 12:00 AM anymore. A rule change by the NCAA this year now allows practice to begin at 7:00 PM on the Friday closest to October 15th.

Extremely excited to get this thing started!

[panerd]

Eh. Lifelong Tiger fan, will always cheer them on no matter how I feel about the administration. But I have to say I get less and less excited every year as we get deeper and deeper into Quin's tenure. He is just an awful coach. (I really think Pinkel will come around, but I wouldn't mind showing Alden the door either. Unfortunatly a $1000 donor doesn't really have a whole lot of pull around these parts)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Aw, panerd. It's a clean slate, a new season. Might as well be optimistic at this point. Plenty of time during the season to complain and be grumpy.

FWIW.....I'm guessing you haven't seen Mizzou's non-conference schedule. Very similar to a Dolly Madison bakery. No reason the Tigers shouldn't get 10-11 wins before conference play starts.

[GreenMonster]

Uconn opens at Pepperdine, which is kinda odd. Then we play in the shootout starting with Arkansas. After that we pick up six very easy wins (Army, Texas Southern, Umass, Morehead State, Stoney Brooke, Quinnipiac).. Then onto the Big East slate, I can't wait this year with the new look Big East.

[MrBug708]

I've never understood the thrill of midnight madness. I guess it's just a way a school tries to hype interest in basketball with a fan base that needs a little prodding?

[Radii]

I've never understood the thrill of midnight madness. I guess it's just a way a school tries to hype interest in basketball with a fan base that needs a little prodding?


the big schools do it to(those that don't have a fan base that needs prodding). I always thought it was a great way to celebrate the start of basketball season.

[TargetPractice6]

It's a huge deal here.

This is the first year Madness is in Rupp Arena. All 23,000 tickets were dispursed within 48 hours of them becoming available.

[sterlingice]

Never really liked late night- only went to one and found it boring. Watching basketball is great but watching late night was just dumb- lots of high school-esque skits and a really sloppy basketball game.

It's weird this year. In the past, it was held roughly from 8pm-midnight (since the next day was technically the first day you could practice). This year's goes 6pm-10pm and I'm not sure how they're doing that since I thought tomorrow was the first day you could practice.

SI

[TargetPractice6]

Never really liked late night- only went to one and found it boring. Watching basketball is great but watching late night was just dumb- lots of high school-esque skits and a really sloppy basketball game.

It's weird this year. In the past, it was held roughly from 8pm-midnight (since the next day was technically the first day you could practice). This year's goes 6pm-10pm and I'm not sure how they're doing that since I thought tomorrow was the first day you could practice.

SIThe NCAA relaxed their rules a bit and moved the time teams could start their practice up a few hours.

[kruseman]

It's a huge deal here.

This is the first year Madness is in Rupp Arena. All 23,000 tickets were dispursed within 48 hours of them becoming available.


My team plays Kentucky to open the season. SDSU Jackrabbits. I would love to see it!!(even though it won't be close)

This is their 2nd year in D1 and they open with Kentucky and Illinois - not bad competition....

[sterlingice]

It's a huge deal here.

This is the first year Madness is in Rupp Arena. All 23,000 tickets were dispursed within 48 hours of them becoming available.
Tick... ets? At Allen Fieldhouse, they just have people in the seats, first come, first serve and then everyone else just kindof crowds around the walkways and stuff, as much as they'll allow it.

This year, they're worried they won't fill up because some brain child thought this was a good weekend to do Fall Break so there haven't been classes the last 2 days and a lot of people go home for the 4-day weekend.

SI

[the_meanstrosity]

sterlingice,

Don't worry SI...this Midnight Madness will be a near sellout although I know a number of people who are headed to the bars to watch it on ESPNU. I'm debating going tonight, but I just know I'll be sitting in line and stuck in the nose bleeds as usual.

[sterlingice]

I've gone to one and that's plenty for me. As I said above, I find the proceedings kindof dumb where you have to get there an hour or more beforehand and park a mile away just to get awful seats in the nosebleed section for a half-assed bunch of skits. I thought I read somewhere that Channel 6 is showing a replay of it, so maybe I'll check it out then.

Speaking of which, I declined a shot at being on there earlier this week when they were trying to get comments from Boardwalk residents about the fire- glad we have a little local station like that and I'd love to support them, but last thing I want is to be that moron on tv going "hyuk, so I ran outside and saw a fer' burnin' ".

SI

[MrBug708]

UCLA did it in the past, but Harrick never really liked it. Guess the man was entitled to do what he wanted to do as he won UCLA an NC. Lavin was never popular enough to pull it off and Howland doesnt need it. :)

[cody8200]

Indiana's is always great. First come, first serve and you can always get good seats. 2 dollar entrance fee or two can goods. I'll definetely be there. IU fans dont need this thing to get people interested, we ALWAYS sell out. However, I have always found it great and exciting to see all the new players together and just generally being allowed to see them months before their first game.

[BishopMVP]

[/b]Uconn opens at Pepperdine, which is kinda odd. Then we play in the shootout starting with Arkansas. After that we pick up six very easy wins (Army, Texas Southern, Umass, Morehead State, Stoney Brooke, Quinnipiac)We beat you 61-59 last year. And now we got rid of Lappas while adding a real coach and 3 good players to offset only one lost player. So even if Marcus Williams gets bailed out of jail and added back onto the team, I wouldn't count on an easy win.

[chinaski]

"I know I'm supposed to be there. I know I'm supposed to lead by example. I know that and I'm not shoving it aside, you know, like it don't mean anything. I know it's important. I do, I honestly do. But we're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice? We're talking about practice, man? We're talking about practice. We're talking about practice. We ain't talking about the game. We're talking about practice, man. When you come in the arena and you see me play... you see me play, don't you? But we're talking about practice, man. We're not even talking about the game. The actual game. When it matters. We're talking about practice."

[TargetPractice6]

Tick... ets? At Allen Fieldhouse, they just have people in the seats, first come, first serve and then everyone else just kindof crowds around the walkways and stuff, as much as they'll allow it.

This year, they're worried they won't fill up because some brain child thought this was a good weekend to do Fall Break so there haven't been classes the last 2 days and a lot of people go home for the 4-day weekend.

SIhttp://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news;_ylt=AsUMaugpc00UTdoonDvn1NrevbYF?slug=ap-kentucky-bigbluemadness-rdp&prov=ap&type=lgns

Kentucky began distributing the free tickets for Big Blue Madness on Oct. 1, and about 20,000 tickets were claimed during the first 35 minutes of availability. It took a little more than 48 hours to distribute the rest of the tickets, athletic department spokesman Scott Stricklin said.