Greg McDermott will officially begin the new era of Creighton basketball by offering fans a chance to get mad.
Rumors of a “Midnight Madness” event taking place when the Bluejays begin full team practices Friday, October 15, have been loud and clear for the past few months. And last week, McDermott told the World-Herald’s Steve Pivovar that indeed an event will take place. Now, details about Creighton’s “madness” experience are beginning to leak. And the madness certainly seems likely to make Jays fans happy.
(If you’re a long-time reader of WBR, you know how excited I am that McDermott and the folks on the Hilltop are putting this event together. Last year, I even opined about what my own Bluejay Madness event would look like.)
The past few seasons, Creighton has hosted men’s basketball team preseason scrimmages, allowing fans to purchase unsold season tickets and catch a glimpse of the year’s squad in training mode. This season, McDermott and his staff are stepping up the showmanship. According to this morning’s “Go Jays” e-mail update from associate athletic director Kevin Sarver, the event on October 15 will feature sharpshooting and high flying Bluejays. Among the plans:
- Introductions of players and coaches from both the women’s and men’s teams
- Three-point shooting contest (a bracketed-event, eight two-person teams featuring one member from the men’s team and one from the women’s squad)
- 15-minute scrimmages by both squads
- Men’s team dunk contest
- Autograph session for both teams starting at 8:30 p.m.
That’s right — Jim Flanery and the women’s team will be getting involved, too!
The event, which takes place at the Ryan Center on campus, is slated to start at 7:30 p.m.; doors will open at 7:00 p.m. Creighton will also be collecting canned food items for the Siena/Francis House that evening.
Oh, and there are rumors that you can join both Mac’s Militia and the Flanatics that evening. As if you needed more reasons to show up to what promises to be an entertaining preview of an exciting season of men’s and women’s hoops!