Thursday, October 16, 1997
Stop the insanity! Bring back UCLA’s Midnight Madness
Fans must unite to bring back late-night drunken merriment,
worship the Wizard
Damn it, I hate when people have practical reasons for doing
something I don’t want done. Or, for that matter, not doing
something that I want done.
Tomorrow night (well, Saturday morning if you want to get all
technical), midnight will come and midnight will go, but something
won’t happen at UCLA.
No, it’s not excessive drinking with a side order of vomiting;
don’t worry, that will continue as regular as clockwork. And it’s
not the fleecing of students by the administration for a few extra
bucks (so regular, it must be Swiss clockwork).
Rather, what will not happen is that UCLA once again will not
host one of the craziest, rowdiest, most fun events in college
sports.
Once again, there will be no Midnight Madness.
In a self-absorbed way, I was stoked when I realized this. Here
was a topic I could really get into. It was going to be great: I
was going to do something good for my fellow man. I was … sob …
going to make the world, or at least our little slice of it, a
better place. In short, I was going to tear Athletic Director Pete
Dalis a new a-hole.
The other basketball powers have one: Duke, Kansas, Kentucky.
Heck, even Cal has one. Why don’t we?
Once again our school was dropping the ball when it came to
serving the needs and wishes of students. It was just like when
they stole our seats after the championship season (no, I haven’t
forgotten about that), and those fascists in the athletic
department were going to pay.
That was when I made the fatal error of actually talking to said
fascists and getting the reasoning behind the decision.
Don’t ever do that if you want to be a sports columnist.
Facts are the enemy of every ranting, raving, utterly
entertaining column.
In this case, those dreaded facts were two-fold: one, the school
didn’t want an event that would keep students (athletes and
non-athletes alike) up late on a school night, and two, they didn’t
think enough students would show up.
According to UCLA Sports Information director Bill Bennett, the
one time we did have a Midnight Madness, in 1995, it was only
because of a happy concurrence of events. That year, the first day
the NCAA allowed practice happened to fall on a weekend, and UCLA
had just won the national championship.
"The championship was the caveat," Bennett said Tuesday.
"Interest (in UCLA basketball) was high," so attendance was
guaranteed. But by who?
Bennett feels that the majority of those who attended in ’95
were high school, rather than UCLA, students.
He might be right. Thinking back on my own Midnight Madness
experiences up in Berkeley, there always were a lot of us
snot-nosed high school punks running around.
But enough of the suits and their fancy, shmancy "logic," I was
on a quest, and I wanted the Man’s opinion, so I cornered head
coach Steve Lavin in the locker room.
Unfortunately, coach Lavin’s opinion was a little less
enthusiastic than I had anticipated from a man whose enthusiasm
usually knows no bounds: not sweaty shirts, not bawling press
conferences, nothing.
"It’s a half dozen of one, six of another," Lavin said.
Translated from coach-speak, that means having Midnight Madness or
not really doesn’t matter to him one way or the other.
The benefits in recruiting, marketing and fun would be balanced
out by such parental concerns as keeping his players up late and
the danger of them catching a cold walking home in the early hours
of the morning after showering. And forget about deriving any
benefit, teaching-wise, from a midnight practice. If anything, it
would only wipe out the next day’s useful practice.
"The only reason, really, I’d do it is because the players love
it," he said.
So would the fans, coach.
For those of you who have never experienced the thrill of
several thousand students stumbling plastered into a gym at
midnight to yell, clap and whoop at their team during a first
inter-squad game, or for those of you who simply miss the fun of
laughing at physically uncoordinated participants in student
shooting concerts falling to the floor mid-shot, I say "It’s up to
you."
If you ever want Midnight Madness at UCLA, let the athletic
department know it. Make it clear that you’ll be there, rain or
shine, drunk or sober. The NCAA has done its part, changing the
rule so that the first day of practice always falls on a weekend,
taking away that excuse. Now it’s your turn to take away the
other.
* * *
Props to Jelani McCoy who was seen wearing a USC football jersey
at a local … ahem … eatery a few weeks ago. Way to show that
school spirit, big guy!
By the way, can you sign my University of Arizona basketball
jersey?
* * *
In the hysteria following Dean Smith’s departure from North
Carolina, legions of fawning reporters gushed about how he was the
greatest of all time; better than Phog Allen, better than Adolph
Rupp, better than John Wooden.
Get real.
To paraphrase former Texas Gov. Loyd Benson: "I knew John
Wooden. John Wooden was a friend of mine. And Dean Smith was no
John Wooden."
Now, admittedly, I am a little biased here, but their records
bear me out. The Wizard won 10 national championships in 27 years
at UCLA, while Smith and Carolina won two in 36 years.
Even Smith’s NCAA record 879 wins, an impressive feat, fail to
help his case when looked at in the context of how many games it
took to achieve them. His career winning percentage at Carolina was
77.6; Wooden’s was 80.8.
Had Wooden coached as long as Smith did, the record would be
his.
And Wooden was only getting better: His teams won an astounding
94.7 percent of their games and five championships over his last
five years. In comparison, Smith’s teams won 79.9 percent and one
championship in his final five seasons.
All of this is not to say that Smith was not an exceptional
coach, a wonderful coach, the winningest coach in NCAA history …
But let’s not get ridiculous here, folks.
The Wizard is still the king.
Rob Kariakin