Combine the students of Spring Arbor University with free t-shirts, games, contests, the men and women’s basketball teams, and the late hours of the evening and you get Midnight Madness.

There were 75 free Cougar Crazies t-shirts that were given out. The t-shirts are yellow with blue printing. They read, “Cougar Crazies Home Field Advantage.” They also have a big slash mark that looks like it came from an attack by a large cat. By 8:45 p.m. on Oct. 6 there were 75 people waiting in the hallway of the Spring Arbor’s field house to receive their free t-shirt.

Sophomore Elise Groholski said, “I really only went for the free shirt.”

The doors to the event were opened at 10:30 p.m. and the 75 t-shirt winners entered first with Gainey Resident Director Anna Wilkinson marking off each number that passed through the doors. The seats of the bleachers filled up until the women’s basketball team was introduced at 11:00 p.m. Just before the women’s team introductions Dominique Rhodes rapped for the waiting audience.

As the audience looked at the away bleachers and the seats where the men and women’s teams would sit there were two screens placed to the left of them that showed short individual clips of each player before they ran out onto the court.

The cheerleaders ran out onto the court to pump up the crowd for the introductions of the women’s team. As most players ran out onto the court they also did a dance of some kind.

After the intro to the women’s team there was a mini-game for the crowd. The money hunt is where four audience members are blindfolded and instructed to crawl on the gym floor in search of a $20 bill. The winner was able to keep the money and the other participants received a Scared Grounds gift card.

The men’s team was introduced following the money hunt. Each man ran out onto the court in his uniforms, but some chose to add accessories to go along with the song that played during their individual introduction. Sophomore Chris Bellamy added sunglasses and a baseball hat to his outfit to fit his “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” theme song. The team also did a choreographed dance once everyone was out on the court.

Following the men’s introductions was the dress up and shoot. In this game two men and two women are chosen from the audience and are given a basketball they have to dribble from the baseline of the court to half court, where a uniform was placed. They then had to put on the clothes, a pair of shorts, a jersey and a pair of shoes, then dribble the ball back to the basket and make a free throw and a lay-up. The two women competed against each other, while the two men competed against each other.

There was also a skills competition where two men from the audience had to compete against two of the men’s basketball players. The girl’s competition was the same as the men’s. Matt Van Pelt finished the competition in 23.6 seconds.

The Minute-to-Win-It paper dragon mini-game was played after the skills competition. Four contestants from the audience were given two rolls of streamers and they had to hold one end of each of the rolls in each hand. From there once the clock started they had to twirl their arms or hands to try and unravel the streamer roll as fast as they could.

The women’s team had a three-point shoot-out contest. Audra Norris, Alex Glenn, Angela Russell and Kate Bement were the competitors. Norris and Glenn were the final two and they had to compete against each other. Glenn beat Norris by a score of 12-11.

Following the shoot-out contest was musical chairs. Eight contestants from the audience were given the opportunity to participate. At one point, the audience cheered for one contestant who kindly gave up his seat for a girl competitor, collective “awws” had filled the stands. For this game the winner received a $25 gift card to Ichiban, a sushi restaurant in Spring Arbor and the second place contestant received a $20 gift card to Best Buy.

After the game of musical chairs a cart was placed on the court. As people walked into the doors at the beginning of the event they could take a tennis ball to use as they participated in one of the events. This was that event. Each person that had a tennis ball tried to get it into the cart to win. Only one ball made it into the cart.

The last competition of Midnight Madness was the men’s slam-dunk contest. Participating in this event was freshman Rob Hogans, freshman Caleb Byers, sophomore Matt Howe and senior Willie Pickvet. There were two rounds in which each participant had one minute to make whatever dunk they chose to show to the crowd. The crowd would vote by screaming for whomever they wanted to win. The final two were Pickvet and Byers. Byers was chosen by the fans as the winner of the slam-dunk contest.

Sophomore women’s basketball player Ashlie House said, “It [Midnight Madness] was better than last year.”