You can't call it Midnight Madness anymore, but you have to call it an event.
Duke sports promotions director Mike Sobb yesterday announced the finalized plans for the event formerly known as Midnight Madness, now a copyrighted name. The midnight practice, scheduled for Oct. 15, will feature the raising of two banners from the 1998-99 men's basketball season and the return of former Duke star Jay Bilas as the program's emcee.
"We're excited about [the midnight practice]," Sobb said. "We've done it in years past (1997) and it's a great way to create enthusiasm around a very young team."
The raising of the 1999 Final Four banner and the 1999 year-end national No. 1 ranking banner will be the highlight of the event, which will include the final stages of a student tryout, the unveiling of the poster for the 1999-2000 squad and the actual team practice itself.
The midnight practice festivities will begin at 9 p.m. with food and a band outside of Cameron on the brick plaza, which is currently in the final stages of construction. Additionally, outdoor hoops will be set up in the plaza for free-throw competitions during the pre-practice party from 9-11 p.m.
And for those whose talk equals their luck, GTE and University Ford will be sponsoring a pair of long-range shooting competitions. The randomly selected participant in the GTE shootout will be firing for $10,000, while the similarly selected University Ford participant will be pulling the trigger with a new Ford Focus on the line.
And somewhere among the hype and hoopla, an intersquad scrimmage will be held to expose the freshmen to the Cameron environment and help evaluate the remaining students in the open tryout.
"The students are always a great part about basketball here," Sobb said. "It's a great chance for Coach K to get up and get involved, to get the [freshmen] going right from the start and experience what Cameron is all about. It's something special we have that other schools don't have."
As usual, students will be admitted on a wristband system. The line will form the morning of Friday, Oct. 15, and will be monitored by DSG line monitors.
Tickets remain available to the general public at $5 each with all proceeds going to the Coaches versus Cancer Foundation.
Notes: Sobb also said that the women's Final Four banner will be raised during the team's Nov. 4 exhibition against the U.S. National Team. The banner will be blue with white lettering to differentiate it from the men's banners. All details on the promotion of the women's game will be forthcoming, Sobb said.
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