Gunshots! Dancing! Georgetown's Midnight Madness Recap and Tyrone Johnson Interview

Special thanks to the HHC for the recap below:

What was life before Georgetown Midnight Madness? Although Georgetown MM is a recent phenomenon, I really have to think about when I did not revolve my schedule around spending that special evening at McDonough Arena. After last year’s difficult season, I have especially looked forward to the start of the basketball season. Once again JT III invited Lou Canellis and Bill Raftery to cover the event on ESPNU for our third consecutive season. Our new revamped Hoya Communications Committee did extensive coverage of the event. John Hawkes once again coordinated our official HHC Blogs, while I worked to do the Facebook coverage. Ali Filipowicz had our new HHC Twitter efforts up and running giving us minute by minute updates. I will work with Talking Hoyas Podcast before the start of the season to discuss Midnight Madness, the Open Practice on October 24th, and the upcoming season. The Podcast will help educate Hoya BB fans as to need to increase our HHC membership to support JT III & our basketball program.
 
You can find additional Hoya Hoop Club Midnight Madness Coverage here:

Hoya Hoop Club Blog: http://guhoyas.cstv.com/genrel/101809aab.html
Hoya Hoop Club Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hoya-Hoop-Club/108495557266?ref=ts

Hoya Hoop Club Twitter: http://twitter.com/HoyaHoopClub

As Friday and Midnight Madness approached I knew the projected weather forecast of rain would make the evening more difficult, but would not deter the Hoya faithful. I fought through the ever worsening Northern Virginia traffic spending time at my medical center offices in Reston, and Falls Church. The traffic at Tyson’s Corner is just terrible any time it rains. As my brother and I headed down Connecticut Avenue, I was worried about missing some of the preliminary festivities. As the guard waived me into the parking lot off of Canal Road, I realized my fears were unwarranted. There was a hard core group of students dancing to the DJ and getting their Georgetown Jordan Brand T-shirts. However, many had gone back to their dorms avoiding the heavy rain and cold temperatures. My brother and I were luckily able to enter the gym early as the preliminary activities were soon moved inside to see the 2008-09 highlight videos.

I got a chance to have a nice chat with Coach JT III as we watched the late arriving crowd begin to fill in. Our section of the balcony soon filled with our new communications group of Blogmaster John Hawkes, Ali Filipowicz, and other HHC Board members Kurt Mulbauer, Rich McHugh, Events Chair Karen Schneider, and the infamous LicHoya! We even had out of town guests like former Hoya star quarterback Bruce Simmons.

Veteran Verizon Center announcer Chris Paul got the crowd going showing ESPNU and the nation some Hoya Love! We were treated to some great dancing performances by Groove Theory, the GU Step Team, and the Hoya Cheerleaders. There was a shooting contest between the freshman and the sophomores. The freshman lost and had to do push-ups. A few students were invited from the stands to participate in a free throw shooting contest which was not a pretty sight, as not a single shot was made. It has been often rumored that free throw shooting is affected by the water in Georgetown.

The Men’s and Women’s Basketball team put on quite a dancing show. Even Nikita Mescheriakov looked like he has been rehearsing since last year! The highlight of the performance was JT III’s tribute to Michael Jackson as he put on the Glove and directed the Hoyas in a choreographed Thriller Dance. As coach mentioned to Bill Raftery on ESPNU, dancing and defense are very similar.

As usual Midnight Madness is a first look at the incoming freshman: Hollis Thompson from Los Angeles, Vee Sanford from Kentucky, Jerrelle Benimon from Virginia, and walk-on Stephen Stepka from Fairfax, VA. All of the freshmen showed great athleticism. Hollis Thompson looked very smooth and versatile, while Vee Sanford showed some hops and explosiveness. Sanford was even singled out by JT III to do some solo dance steps.

As I left McDonough Arena I thought about all of the great basketball events I had seen there. The debut of Patrick Ewing. The Kenner League debuts of Michael Graham and Reggie Williams come to mind as well as the legendary debut of Allen Iverson. I remember the appearance of Dikembe Mutombo at Midnight Madness as well as his Kenner League MVP performances. The unveiling of the NBA jerseys of Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert had been great moments, along with this year’s uveiling of DaJuan Summers Detroit Pistons jersey. However, my favorite sight at McDonough is the Final Four Banners along with the 1984 NCAA Championship Banner. After all, at Georgetown it is always about the team first! I remember when the 2007 banner was unveiled, the noise level in McDonough was as loud as I can ever remember. When the team went through practice drills at Midnight Madness it reminds us of all the hard work our team goes through. Our student-athletes are truly special. If you are an active Hoya Hoop Club member please consider coming to the team’s open practice next Saturday October 24th. You can find more information as well as how to RSVP through the official guhoyas.com website. If you are not a current member please consider joining and supporting our team and Georgetown! The HHC communications group will continue to bring you coverage during the year with the Open Practice being our next event. Georgetown Midnight Madness 2009 was truly a Thriller!
We are Georgetown! Hoya Saxa!

Dr. Thomas A. Wong
Hoya Hoop Club Vice-President and Communications Director
Proud Member of Generation Ewing

Tremendous appearance by the South East Asian dance club that had the cool name I cannot remember. Vishnu Rules