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SoCalHoops College News

Tonight's "Midnight Madness"
Events Around SoCal--(Oct. 11, 2002)

Saturday, October 12, 2002 at 12:01 a.m. marks the first day college teams can officially practice, which means that Friday night just prior thereto has become something of a ritual. In Kansas it's "Late Night with Roy." Elsewhere (at least until some schmuck purported to copyright the term "Midnight Madness") it's been called by the traditional name, "Midnight Madness"....But to avoid copyright lawsuits a lot of schools have changed the name to something else. Others like USC have either just said, "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" or they are paying a licensing fee and continue to call it by the name most of us know it.

Whatever term you refer to it by, several local schools (five of them in SoCal) will be holding their own versions of "Midnight Madness" tonight around SoCal. More interestingly though, more than half the local colleges and universities will not do anything special to get the season off to an official start other than holding early morning closed-door practices, deferring their public scrimmages and tip-off luncheons and dinners to a date which is closer to the actual start of the official exhibition season.

Looking around SoCal, here's what's happening tonight and what's not:

Pac-10:

UCLA--No midnight madness. UCLA will be holding its first official practice at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning at Pauley Pavilion, and it will be a closed-door session.

USC-- The Trojans will hold a "Midnight Madness" event tonight at The Lyon Center. Doors open at 11:00 p.m. Tickets are $5.00, $3.00 for students with ID.

WCC

Loyola Marymount-- The LMU Lions will hold "Madness at Midnight" tonight at Gersten Pavilion at 10:30 p.m. Both men's and women's teams will participate. LMU will also hold a "Hoops Tip-Off Dinner" on November 2, where they will raise some serious money (hopefully) and everyone will also have a fun time. Laker announcer and former LMU player Paul Sunderland will be the emcee.

Pepperdine--The Waves host "Start the Madness" at Firestone Fieldhouse tonight at 11:00 p.m. Prior to that there will be food, drinks and music at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. the event is free.

University of San Diego--Brad Holland's group will not hold midnight madness, but will begin practice tomorrow afternoon. The men's team will hold two separate practices on Saturday in the Jenny Craig Pavilon - from 8-10 am and 1-3 pm. Media are welcome to attend practices, but they are otherwise closed to the public.

Big West:

CSUN--No "Midnight Madness." At least none we could find....

Cal State Fullerton--No Midnight Madness either tonight, but there will be an open scrimmage and BBQ sponsored by the Titan Hoop Club on October 26.

UC Irvine--Will hold "Midnight Magic" tonight at the Bren Center. The festivities start at 10:30 p.m. and there will be a "pre-party" with free food to the first 500 attendees. Player intros will begin at 12:00 a.m.

Cal State Long Beach-- No Midnight Madness tonight, but the team will hold its first practice Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at the Goldmine. No word on whether it's open to the public or not. Long Beach State will hold "Fan Fest" on October 27, 2002, from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and it will feature both men's and women's teams in scrimmages as well as tributes to former players.

Cal Poly SLO--No Midnight Madness (at least nothing we could find).

UCSB-- No Midnight Madness either. Practices start tomorrow.

UC Riverside--Will actually hold a Midnight Madness for the first time ever (we think). The event will take place tonight at the Student Recreaton Center, and doors will open at 11:15 p.m. Admission is free. There will be a slam dunk contest, a three-point contest and player intros will begin at 12:01 a.m.

WAC

Fresno State--No Midnight Madness scheduled.

Mountain West Conference

San Diego State--No Midnight Madness, but SDSU really knows how to raise the dough....Forget about $5.00 tickets to watch a slam dunk contest or some dribbling and shooting. Nope, SDSU is going to do it in style, and the Aztecs will host an inaugural "Tip Off Luncheon" on October 27. Tickets are $50, a table of 10 is $400 and if you want to sit with one of the players, it will cost you another $500.