“Madness” returns to GCSU
Midnight Madness marks the first time that collegiate basketball programs can officially hold team practice. As do many other universities, the GCSU Athletic Department annually holds the event to give its students an opportunity to build excitement about the upcoming season. Men’s and women’s basketball are two of the most popular sports at GCSU, and as a result, hundreds of students and faculty members were in attendance when the doors opened at ten.
The excitement in the Centennial Center escalated when both the men’s and women’s teams held the first event, the three-point competition. For the women, sophomore guard Mandi Dudish and junior guard Daniela Nopuente put on impressive shows in the finals, which resulted in a tie after one round. Following the second round, Dudish emerged victorious by a single basket. The men’s final featured two sharpshooting guards in senior Shaun Keaton and junior Jake Rios. Keaton went on to drain eight consecutive three-pointers, and prevailed despite excellent shooting by Rios.
The next event featured was the five-minute drunken game, a part of Alcohol Awareness Week on campus. For this contest, former GCSU basketball players, both men’s and women’s, donned “drunk” goggles and played five-on-five with the Thundercats. As a result of the vision impairment, the former Bobcats looked like five-year-old pee-wee players, shooting bricks and airballs while the Thundercats cruised to an 11-0 win in a sidesplitting game.
After routines by the Sassy Cats and the GCSU cheerleaders, anticipation grew among those present as preparations were made for the dunk contest. In the contest, each player had one minute to execute as many dunks as possible, with as much style as possible. Guest judges for the event were Thunder, the GCSU mascot, Ryan Greene, SGA president and Preston Sellers, Sports Editor for the Colonnade. This year’s competitors included two freshmen, Marvin Harris and Michael Ross, and two sophomores, Josh Hurst and Reece Wiedeman. In the end, Hurst prevailed as a result of two stylistic slams that prompted judges to award “10′s” before his round was over.
“The skills competitions were the best part,” senior Zack Wilkinson said. “The dunk contest was fun and watching Keaton nail all of those threes was amazing. It’s gotten me excited about this season, especially since this is one of our only major sports at GCSU.”
As midnight hit, the women’s team began its warm-ups for the inter-squad exhibition game. Guest coaches for the blue and white teams were GCSU Athletic Director Jud Damon and former GCSU Athletic Director, Stan Aldridge. The game was fast-paced and featured good shooting by both sides, especially around the perimeter.
It was a good preview of what the formula will be for the women’s team in the upcoming season.
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“This year, our team is more suited for playing up and down the floor,” Head Coach John Carrick said. “We’re three deep at point guard, which means we can run. It means we’re going to be quicker, faster. We’ll play more pressure defense and more full court press.”
As the clock continued into the early morning hours, the men’s team took the floor as many eagerly looked on in anticipation. As with the women’s game, the men’s game featured lots of guard play, including the same type of run-and-gun offense utilized by the women’s team.
“We have the best group of guards in the conference,” stated Keaton. “We’re going to score a lot of points, shoot a lot of threes and it’s going to be a fast offense.”
Men’s head coach Terry Sellers also believes that his team has excellent guards.
“Each year it depends on personnel,” he said. “This year we’re experienced at the guard position. We’re going to run a lot, have a lot of perimeter shooting, a lot of threes and let our guards work. We need to play full court press more often and create turnovers.”
“This is one of the hardest-working groups I’ve had during preseason,” he added.
The men’s season opens Nov. 15 in Alabama at the Tusculum Tournament, while the women open at home on Nov. 21 against Fort Valley State University.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 17 2008. Filed under Sports.
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