For all the extravagant and intricate planning that went into Syracuse’s Early Midnight Madness, the most memorable moment of the night was completely spontaneous.

During the men’s scrimmage, center Arinze Onuaku rose up to slam home an alley-oop. As the 6-foot-9, 258-pound Onuaku threw the ball down two-handed and swung on the rim, the hoop gave way. The glass backboard shattered, raining hundreds of tiny prisms on Onuaku and sending the players and crowd into a frenzy.

Onuaku’s demolition job was just one of many memorable moments in the roughly two hours of choreographed chaos that took place at Manley Field House Friday night. The event was in many ways a circus as much as a basketball exposition, and the crowd of 4,834 that mostly filled Manley was rarely silent.

ESPN analyst Bill Raftery was master of ceremonies, along with radio personalities Gomez and Dave from TK99. Raftery, who was in Georgetown for the Hoyas’ Midnight Madness last weekend, immediately started egging on the orange-clad crowd.

‘Now I feel like I’m at home,’ Raftery said to the crowd. ‘Jim Boeheim asked me when I came here tonight, would I compare the enthusiasm from this week to what I heard last week?’

He then proceeded to lead the crowd in a ‘Let’s Go SU’ chant.

Syracuse cheerleaders frequented the court, performing traditional, choreographed cheers as well as an acrobatic dance routine. Large video boards supplied highlights from the 2006-07 season, as well as pre-recorded addresses to the crowd from the likes of SU alumni Bob Costas and Mike Tirico, as well as former SU basketball star Carmelo Anthony.

Artificially generated smoke formed a haze inside Manley for the entire evening, while colored spotlights lit up the arena during player introductions.

Of course there was actual basketball, as first the women, and later the men scrimmaged. It was an opportunity for both teams to formally unveil their much-lauded recruiting classes to the general public.

For the women, there was guard Erica Morrow, who arrives at SU as the first McDonald’s All-American to join the women’s side. Morrow dropped six points in the scrimmage and wowed the crowd with a flashy assist, cutting into the lane with a spin move and dishing to a teammate for an easy lay up.

But the Hollywood mixed with the basketball as well. Moments before the women’s scrimmage started, cameras showed women’s head coach Quentin Hillsman as he arrived outside Manley in a white Cadillac Escalade, dressed in an all-black Gucci suit.

Minutes later, it was time for the men’s team, and Boeheim, to make their grand entrances. The first players introduced from the men’s side were the five freshmen – Jonny Flynn, Donte Greene, Rick Jackson, Scoop Jardine and Sean Williams – who played to the crowd every second, clearly relishing the hype they’ve received before the season begins.

As the players warmed up, the one man missing was Boeheim. On Raftery’s cue, Boeheim’s wife, Juli, dropped the SU coach off courtside in a red cart. Boeheim promptly removed his Syracuse warm-up jacket to reveal a referee’s uniform and orange whistle dangling from his neck.

Boeheim didn’t have to call many fouls during the men’s scrimmage. There was little defense as the two sides – the five freshmen versus returning players plus junior college transfer Kristof Ongenaet – ran up and down the court throwing up 3-pointers and attempting acrobatic dunks.

Onuaku’s dunk brought the festivities to a momentary halt just 2:24 into the scrimmage. On a fast break, Jardine tossed an alley-oop to Onuaku, who shattered the backboard.

Chaos ensued on the court from there. SU junior Eric Devendorf threw his jersey into the crowd while junior Paul Harris took it a step further, tossing his shoes into the mob of frenzied supporters. Moments later, Raftery was on the microphone, asking fans to bring Harris back his shoes so he could finish out the evening’s basketball festivities. Some players grabbed tiny pieces of what had been the backboard as mementos.

Onuaku did sustain minor cuts on his right shoulder from the falling glass, but he didn’t seem too fazed, still elated from his highlight reel slam.

‘I went to dunk the ball like I usually did, grab the hoop and swing on the rim,’ Onuaku said after the event amid a stifling crowd of autograph seekers on the court. ‘And when I was swinging on the way down, I heard the rim crack, and it came down with me.’

Harris got his shoes back to wow the crowd one last time. After finishing up just one five-minute half of the scrimmage, the men concluded the evening with a dunk contest. After efforts from Flynn, Greene and Ongenaet, Harris lined up two managers in front of the basket. Getting a running start from half court, Harris leaped over his two props, throwing the ball down one-handed.

‘We were working on it earlier, but we actually missed it,’ Harris said to Raftery over the public address system moments later. ‘I guess the energy of the crowd got me going.’

Indeed it was the energy of a crowd whose appetite for basketball and extravagance had been fulfilled. With the team’s first preseason game just a two weeks away, all that’s left now is to live up to the hype emanated from Manley on Friday.

‘This is just to start it off, get our fans into it,’ Onuaku said. ‘We’re ready for this season.’

Published on October 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm