Fright Night Proves To Be A Crowd-Pleasing Event
10/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 14, 2006
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
The Michigan State men's basketball team tipped off the season with Fright Night at the Breslin Center on Friday, Oct. 13. Thousands of Spartan fans were treated to autographs, wild team introductions, a basketball clinic and 15-minute scrimmage.
Doors opened at 9 p.m. and the Breslin concourse quickly filled with fans who had waited in line outside despite the cold Michigan night. For over an hour, the Spartans signed balls, posters and other assorted items from their faithful fans.
The formal program began about 10:15 with performances by the Spartan band, cheerleaders and dance team. The MSU women's team performed a dance routine followed by Coach Joanne P. McCallie's entrance.
The men's team made the most of the Fright Night theme during the introductions. The four Spartan centers (Tom Herzog, Idong Ibok, Goran Suton and Drew Naymick) were dressed in Frankenstein costumes, standing behind MSU's four Final Four trophies from the Tom Izzo era. The forwards and wings (Jake Hannon, Isaiah Dahlman, Raymar Morgan, Maurice Joseph and Marquise Gray) were in complete Werewolf costume, including masks and hairy chests. Finally, the guards (DeMarcus Ducre, Bryan Tibaldi, Travis Walton and Drew Neitzel) entered the floor dressed as the villain from the "Scream" movie series. The last player to enter, Neitzel ripped off his mask and whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
The highlight of nearly every Midnight Madness event is Coach Tom Izzo's entrance. Following this year's theme, the complete Izzo family, including wife Lupe, daughter Raquel and son Steven entered the court dressed in intricate vampire outfits. As he does every season, he addressed the crowd and thanked them for their loyal support.
"It's been a great run for us, and I think this is the beginning of another great run. We have a great group of guys here, and despite the loss of three guys to the NBA we're ready for the challenge," said Izzo. "I said a long time ago `to build a national championship program it's going to take a lot of people.' We have a great staff, a great A.D., a great team, a great band and cheerleaders and great fans."
After a brief women's scrimmage, the Spartans got loose with a layup line, which quickly turned into an impromptu dunk contest. Sophomore forward Marquise Gray was the star, turning in a memorable performance that included an alley-oop pass from his brother standing in the crowd a few rows behind the Spartan bench, another dunk over Sparty and a third dunk on a pass off the backboard from Travis Walton.
Coach Izzo then conducted a brief clinic explaining a series of drills that the Spartans perform every day in practice, including three-man fast break, two-man, three-man and five-man defensive shell drills and the "war" drill, MSU's famous rebounding drill.
The evening concluded with a 15-minute scrimmage. The team was split into two even squads and featured several highlight-reel plays. Fittingly, the scrimmage ended in a 40-40 tie.
