Midnight Madness at Northeastern
BOSTON – It’s the night before a victory parade that Bostonians have long awaited. In fact, preparations at nearby Fenway Park are already noticeable if you go by there. Needless to say, attendance expectations for a special version of Midnight Madness at Northeastern probably weren’t very high in light of that, especially since college sports already plays second fiddle in this town.
But on this Homecoming Weekend at the school, a decent though late-arriving crowd composed mostly of students and alumni turned out to see the men’s and women’s basketball teams put on a special version of Midnight Madness two weeks after schools across the country marked the start of practice. The school decided to do this given the success they had last year with it being the same weekend as Homecoming, which was purely a coincidence in 2003.
The evening started around 10 PM with the annual Faculty/Staff vs. Students game. The Students included recent alumni Jamaar Walker and Derrell Keys, while the Faculty/Staff team included all coaches save for assistant Adam Ginsburg as well as athletic director Dave O’Brien. Before the game, four members of the women’s track team did a nice rendition of the national anthem. The game was won by the Faculty/Staff team, with assistant coach Kevin Harris showing he could still play as he did a little of everything, including a couple of fast break blocks of layup attempts and a few three-pointers. (After the game, he said “I had a lucky night” with a laugh.)
The halftime show featured a wonderful show of Double Dutch from the Triple D’s (Dorchester Double Dutch). They are a group of girls who range from the third grade up through high school, and they have participated in numerous competitions on all levels, including the world.
After a few contests and something from the cheerleaders and dance team, the players from both teams came onto the court. During player introductions, the biggest cheer for the newcomers was for local product Jerome Kirkland, a 5’10” guard who went to nearby John D. O’Bryant High School.
Junior Aaron Davis won the three-point competition over Jose Juan Barea in a close one. Davis, who redshirted last season due to a shoulder injury, shot the ball well all night, making seven of the first eight shots in the semifinal round. That could be a good sign for the Huskies, as he can add another dimension to this team as a guard capable of playing bigger than his size as well as being another sniper to take some defensive attention off of Barea and senior Marcus Barnes.
In the two-ball shoot, a duo of newcomers won easily, as Janon Cole and Sigrid Scherpiet beat out Kirkland and Karoline Alexander, 17-6.
The slam dunk contest was similar to that at other places nowadays – as there is not much that hasn’t been done already, there was nothing terribly original. Sophomore guard Bobby Kelly repeated as champion, winning with a 360 dunk on his last try. For good measure, after being declared the winner, he drove the baseline and threw one down reminiscent of former Celtic Dee Brown when he won the NBA’s Slam Dunk contest as a rookie.
The scrimmage that followed to end the night was nothing special, as the players were clearly in exhibition mode for the fans. Of note was sophomore Bennet Davis scoring on a couple of drives, as well as Kirkland knocking down a couple of three-pointers, the first of which shocked head coach Ron Everhart. As Kirkland launched it, Everhart could be heard saying, “No way”, before it dropped.
All in all, the school did well with the event. Soon we will see if they can continue the program’s resurgence as they try to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991.
