Friday night at the madness there were over 24,000 die-hard fans packed in the arena, trying to get a glimpse of their women’s and men’s basketball teams. The crowd went crazy when the men’s basketball coach made his appearance on stage; he even got a standing ovation.
That was all taking place in Lexington, Ky. for the University of Kentucky Big Blue Madness, but while that was taking place, back here in Northridge CSUN had its own little madness.
Matador Madness wasn’t nearly as wild as Big Blue Madness, but a half-packed Matadome and a few hundred fans were good for CSUN standards.
The event was an attempt to get CSUN excited about the new basketball season. Both the men and women had scrimmages to give the crowd a preview of what’s to come. Last season the men’s team went to the NCAA tournament, and they wanted to use the opportunity to show everyone that they’re still going to be a good team and that last year wasn’t a fluke.
“I feel like we needed this just so the fans can know what kind of team we have this year,” guard Mark Hill said. “We’re still a good team, just ‘cause we lost a lot of players, but we’re going to get back on top. We want everybody to see that.”
The highlight of the evening was watching members of the men’s team play against each other for twelve minutes. They were divided in half by different color jerseys: the red team, led by Hill, defeated the Black team, led by forward Willie Galick, 19-9.
During the game it felt like watching the first quarter of an NBA All- Star Game, with everyone trying to show off their skills, but it only led to sloppy play. Hill seemed to be enjoying himself by giving flashy assists and doing his Magic Johnson impersonation.
“It’s my senior year right now … I’m just out there having fun,” Hill said.
The women also had their scrimmage with the Black team winning 9-6.
Senior Katrina Thompson was the Shaquille O’Neal of the event. She was trying to get the crowd pumped with her dancing skills. Thompson showed a lot of leadership throughout the night. As the lone senior on the team, Thompson is ready to carry her team to success.
Men’s basketball head coach Bobby Braswell was impressed with the turnout.
“It was good to see so many students out here supporting this function,” Coach Braswell said. “It was the first time we’ve done this in a long time. We haven’t done this in probably about 10 years. I thought the response was great. Seeing so much students out here and so many fans out here was really fun.”
Both teams will use Matador Madness as momentum into their season next month.