Midnight Madness is a tradition that's unique to college basketball. It brings together the fans, students and players in an environment and time that seem to make little sense yet makes all the sense in the world. It's exciting, it's a great atmosphere and it's a fun way to get students and fans excited for the upcoming season.Naturally, Syracuse has avoided it at all costs for years. But now the Orange are finally getting wise to hosting a Midnight Madness event. Well, actually, A-Little-Bit-Past-Dusk Madness.
The Syracuse University Athletics Department, Americu and TK99 are joining together to host "Early Midnight" Madness on Friday, October 19, in Manley Field House. The event is free but fans will need a ticket to attend. Manley Field House will open at 7:00 p.m. and the basketball extravaganza will begin at 8:00 p.m.
Syracuse has a storied collection of basketball and athletic announcers and personalities in their alumni who would be perfect to host an event like this. Marv Albert, Bob Costas, Mike Tirico...the list goes on and on. Naturally, the master of ceremonies for the evening will be...Bill Raftery. Ugh. The poor man's Dick Vitale (and you just know Syracuse reached out to Vitale first cause "the kids like him, don't they?") will host the events that include the men's and women's basketball teams and be sure to add plenty of strained, trying-too-hard exclamations to the proceedings.