Courtesy cincinnati.com
Got a chance to check out Musketeer Madness this past Saturday with two of my chums. Was definitely a good time, though ya can’t really garner much from a team scrimmage.
The best part of the Madness is not so much the event itself but the anticipation it produces for the damn season to finally almost be underway. After not being in the beautiful Cintas Center for so long it feels like reconnecting with an old friend.
The highlights of the event for me were Brad Redford making 20 threes in one minute and learning a member of the women’s team has the name Special Jennings. The dunk contest thankfully didn’t last too long, but did show the great hops of one Mark Lyons. Was nice to see Aaron Williams there as one of the judges as well.
As most of you no doubt know, we now have banners hanging from the rafters that acknowledge past accomplishments instead of them hanging on the wall above the student section. Said wall is now painted blue. Although I am hoping that is not the finished product. I love the blue, but the wall looks barren without the banners. Hopefully a couple X’s will find their way over to the wall. My vote would be for a large running man logo. But that’s just me.
I was a bit surprised Chris Mack didn’t give a short speech to address the fans. (The lower bowl was about full to capacity, so I’m assuming that would be about 5,000 fans in attendance) Although I must say it is a nice contrast to Kentucky’s midnight madness where John Calipari looked like a dictator addressing his masses. Then again, I’m always ready to hate on UK.
All in all though, I would rate the event a success. It fueled my appetite for Xavier basketball that much more and I reckon that’s the goal of Musketeer Madness to begin with. Put on a good show and get the fans amped for the upcoming season.
