By Catherine Laroche

Growing up an avid college basketball fan, it doesn’t take much to get me excited for University of Louisville basketball. However, it takes more than a red and white scrimmage.
I attended last year’s red and white scrimmage and didn’t leave with anticipation of watching the Cards in their season opener. After the first five minutes, I spent the majority of the time text messaging friends who weren’t at the game and talking to friends at the game about things irrelevant to U of L basketball. I left long before the game ended and didn’t care to read about the game the next day.
It’s nice to see how the team looks, but the red and white scrimmage is boring.  I want to see glitz, glamour and T-Will dunk over a basketball rack from the free throw line. I want to see how many 3-pointers Jerry Smith can make in a row.  I want to devote an hour of my time to U of L basketball.
I hate giving credit to the University of Kentucky, but they know how to get fans pumped for basketball season.  Wildcat fans snapped up all 23,000 free Midnight Madness tickets within the first 40 minutes of availability for the annual event.
UK fan and U of L freshman Brandon Collins was one of the thousands that piled into Rupp Arena to watch UK participate in Midnight Madness festivities that included both teams scrimmaging, the mascot repelling from the ceiling, a dunk contest and lots of special effects and indoor fireworks displays.
“It was fun,” Collins said. “I got to see all the players, the coaches and what UK is going to look like this year.”
U of L sophomore biology major and Wildcat fan Nathanael Cole has attended UK’s Midnight Madness in the past and he thinks U of L should start a Midnight Madness tradition.
“It would create so much hype for the basketball season, especially since people are saying that U of L is going to beat UK,” Cole said. “It would create so much more school spirit.”
U of L shouldn’t copy UK, but it would be nice to do something similar to Midnight Madness. Maybe include a dunk contest, a 3-point contest involving players from both the men’s and women’s teams, exciting player introductions, minimal scrimmaging and the Cardinal bird in something creative.
Tickets for the Red and White scrimmage are $5. If I’m going to pay $5 to watch U of L scrimmage, I want to at least get my money’s worth.