Your 2009 Michigan State Midnight Madness bullet points:
- First Midnight Madness sellout in the history of the program. Tom Izzo can check that off his bucket list. The place was legitimately filled to the rafters. My son and I showed up 10 minutes before the doors opened and had to sit in the upper deck, despite not stopping for autographs. People were lined up around the block. (The good news is I had an excellent vantage point from which to take the photo above.)
- Tom Izzo's arrival was via Indy Car, looking ahead to the location of next year's Final Four. The ladies donned cowboy hats, since the women's Final Four will be held in San Antonio.
- Beyond that, the program was fairly conventional. The focus really was on savoring the 2009 tournament run--and particularly the Final Four in Detroit--one more time. Izzo emphasized how proud he is that MSU has been involved in the three highest-attended basketball games in history.
- The Green-and-White scrimmage will be next Saturday.
- With Korie Lucious on the sidelines tonight, Mike Kebler started at point guard for the White team and the players basically shared responsibility for bringing the ball up the floor. I'll be interested to see what the arrangement is next Saturday, assuming Lucious still isn't up to game/scrimmage speed. Seems like we sort of need a back-up back-up plan, given that the regular season starts four weeks from now.
- The scrimmage was even less intense than these sorts of scrimmages generally are, so not much to report on the players.
- Except this: Delvon Roe looks very, very healthy.