In consideration of all the Rambler fans who are seniors (citizens, not students), Loyola should have an "Early Bird" Midnight Madness, beginning at 4:00 p.m., where instead of free pizza and pop, they'd have free rice pudding and coffee.

With the NCAA moving up the start of the practice season last year, Midnight Madness in my opinion lost a lot of its luster. It used to be that midnight on the Friday closest to the 15th of October you were allowed to start practice. Then the time got changed where you could actually start before midnight. Loyola rarely had midnight madness under the old rules (with the midnight start time). I remember in 97' the clock was timed to go off at midnight and the team came out at midnight. That was exciting. I still have my keychain from 97', and it said "The year of the Ramblers"....that turned out not to be the case. MM is not as exciting when the team has been practicing for weeks. Also it is not happening at midnight. The purpose of "midnight madness" no longer applies. Midnight Madness used to be televised by ESPN, do they even do that anymore?

Now the event itself is great for students, but for alums I believe a Maroon and Gold game is more appropriate to judge talent and see the team. I just would drop the name midnight madness, unless it was moved to midnight of the date 6 weeks prior to the first game (Oct. 3rd) this year.

The name is irrelevant. We do Shocker Madness and personally I don't care what the time or date is. It's about getting a first look at the guys, especially the new guys, and having a little fun. This year, we did ours last Thursday. I believe it all started around 6pm and I was unable to make it because of class, but we had a good 5k or so there for the slam dunk and 3pt contests as well as mens and womens scrimmages. If I hadn't had class I would have been there like I am every other year.

And honestly, I think fans get a better glimpse of what's to come if it's not done as the first practice. The new guys are maybe a little more comfortable with what they're doing on both ends and have a better familiarity with the rest of the team to make things a little smoother.

But that's me.

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Joe Henricksen @joehoopsreport

Loyola with Simeon foursome of senior Isaiah Moss and juniors Zach Norvell, Ben Coupet & Josh Thomas on campus for Ramblers Midnight Madness

Meanwhile, in East Lansing, Coach Tom Izzo was revving up the MSU fans for their November 21 contest against the Ramblers.

I got some of the dunk contest on video for those who weren't there last night:

http://thecatchandshoot.com/loyolas-montel-james-and-donte-ingram-show-off-dunking-skills-at-midnight-madness/

Isaiah Moss is a 3 star recruit and Zach Norvell is a 4 star recruit. Yesterday, I saw Donte Ingram go over and chat it up with his former teammates. Here's to hoping Donte likes it here and convinces some of his friends to consider Loyola.

I'd be more than happy if half of our roster was made up of former Simeon players.

Me too. Simeon, Whitney Young, etc.

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