Although Jim Boeheim didn't address the crowd at Syracuse's version of Midnight Madness, he wore a big smile as the Orange faithful got their first peak at the Hall of Fame coach's new team.
''I thought it was good. It's fun to get out there and let the fans see the new players,'' Boeheim said Friday night as he prepared for his 35th season at his alma mater. ''It was a good overall night.''
The event featured the Grammy-award winning group Naughty by Nature and the Harlem Wizards performed their ''Trick Hoopz and Alley Oops'' program. It was a celebration for the men's and women's teams, who both made postseason appearances in the spring.
The Orange men won the Big East Conference regular-season crown and advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year before losing to national runner-up Butler. The women set a school record with 25 victories and reached the NIT quarterfinals.
Women's coach Quentin Hillsman was all smiles, too, after slapping hands with a young fan. The Orange women, always overshadowed by the success of the men under Boeheim, averaged just under 900 fans last season and the largest home crowd they have attracted numbered less than 5,000 for a Big East game against perennial powerhouse Connecticut.
''I love it. It's good for every athlete in our program,'' Hillsman said. ''It's showing a commitment to our program. That's the most important thing, being able to get out here and get the exposure in front of this amount of fans. Hopefully, it brings some notoriety to our program and they'll want to come out and see us.''
After the women were introduced into a darkened Carrier Dome carrying blinking orange-and-white batons, senior Erica Morrow and freshman La'Shay Taft gave the crowd something to cheer, each swishing 3s in a 5-minute scrimmage.
Then it was the men's turn. Wearing orange T-shirts with ''Un-finished Business'' emblazoned on the front, they arrived in a stretch limo. An SUV carrying the assistant coaches followed and then another limo entered with Boeheim aboard. An orange carpet was rolled out for him, and he strode onto the court that bears his name as the crowd cheered.
Boeheim wasn't dressed in a spacesuit as Michigan State coach Tom Izzo did when he addressed the crowd at the Spartans' Midnight Madness last week. There was no sellout crowd as there was last Friday at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan. for what Jayhawk fans like to call ''Late Night in the Phog,'' the evening that marks the beginning of the sport which has long defined that institution.
And where Louisville is expecting a sellout crowd of over 20,000 for a team scrimmage at its new arena next week, the 15,000 tickets that were made available for the evening inside the Carrier Dome were taken.
There isn't much of a tradition here yet. It was only the fifth time Syracuse has staged a version of Midnight Madness. Boeheim's wife, Juli, a Kentucky native, hopes to change that.
''The players want it,'' she said. ''It takes time to build it, but this is the way you do it.''
The Orange men have high expectations again this year. Last season, they went from unranked - and something of a laughingstock after losing to crosstown Division II foe Le Moyne in a preseason exhibition - to No. 1 in the nation. And they won a school-record 28 regular-season games and secured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the second under Boeheim.
A strong recruiting class has the fans hopeful this season's team can do even better despite the loss of starters Andy Rautins, Wes Johnson and Arinze Onuaku, the big center on last year's team who injured a knee in the Big East tournament and missed the Orange's run in the NCAA tournament.
Onuaku, who's rehabbing at the university, was back on this night and led the team in a rap song as Boeheim beamed.
The men's scrimmage turned into a dunkathon as just about everybody threw one down.
''This time of year you're not going to play great basketball,'' Boeheim said. ''But I thought it was entertaining for the fans, and that's what we wanted to make it. There wasn't a lot of defense.''
The fans selected sophomore guard Brandon Triche as the winner of the dunking contest as he bested favorites C.J. Fair and James Southerland despite hitting the rim with one of his tries.
Highlights from last season and messages from former Syracuse stars were played on the giant video boards that hang above the court, though Johnson's was inaudible.
Syracuse hosts Kutztown and Le Moyne in exhibition games early next month before starting the season at home against Northern Iowa on Friday, Nov. 12.
