The Syracuse men’s and women’s basketball teams were introduced at Orange Madness in the Carrier Dome on Friday night, and here are the highlights of the event.

Best entrance — Brittney Sykes

Both teams, the women’s and then men’s team, were introduced individually before their respective scrimmages, and Sykes stole the show.

Amid a lot of subpar dancing and blaring introduction songs, Sykes mixed it up. The leader of the women’s team, who is recovering from an ACL and meniscus tear at the end of last season, busted a few moves before leaping onto the scorer’s table and pumping up the crowd. Her ACL didn’t look so bad and she followed her jump onto the table by getting all of her teammates into a circle for a synchronized dance.

During the men’s team introductions, Michael Gbinije tried to change things up with a dunk. But his attempt clanged off the back rim and out, handing the “entrance point” to Sykes.

Best walk-out song — Christian White, Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried”

Props to Christian White for deviating from the rap and hip hop and going with a country song. Everyone loves an outlier.

Biggest disappointment — Selfie booths 

Throughout the night, the hosts advertised the selfie booths where players, coaches and basketball alumni would be available for the fans. Once the scrimmages and dunk contest ended, fans funneled onto the football field to take seflies, but most posed a few feet away from the players and coaches and had someone else take pictures for them. Selfie booths were the new attraction that disappointingly led to few, if any, selfies at all.

Best scrimmage performance — Rakeem Christmas

No players on the men’s and women’s teams were playing particularly hard — and for good reason — but Rakeem Christmas flashed some athleticism while leading the white team to a win.

Christmas had a mid-range jump shot rim out and couldn’t convert a jump hook after an up-and-under, but was active on the boards and as a shot blocker. And twice, Christmas gathered a loose ball and took it c0ast-t0-coast before dunking in transition. It’s worth noting that no one really got in his way, but the ability to dribble from end to end and gather himself around the rim was a good sight for the Orange.

Best play — Terrence Roberts buzzer-beating dunk to win the alumni game

With the score knotted at 25-25 and time winding down in the alumni game, Terrence Roberts collected a pass and flushed a one-handed, left-handed dunk to give his team the win. Some of the best plays of the night came in the alumni game, with John Wallace throwing down a two-handed dunk and back-to-back long-range 3s, and Mookie Jones getting a hot in the second half. 

But Roberts’ clutch jam takes the cake, and that should tell you something about the men’s and women’s scrimmages.

Best moment — Nick Trivelpiece layup

With 15.5 seconds left in the men’s basketball scrimmage, 10-year old Nicholas Trivelpiece checked into the game to an ovation from the Dome crowd. Trivelpiece has been around the men’s basketball team since 2009 as a part of a program that pairs kids with pediatric brain tumors with high school and college athletes. He was around during media day on Friday afternoon, was interviewed by Trevor Cooney, made his way into the team picture and walked into the Dome with Rakeem Christmas at the start of the night. But then he got his on-court opportunity.

Trivelpiece got the inbound and dribbled down the court but had a layup rim out. Cooney gathered the ball and handed it to him, and Trivelpiece rolled in a layup right before the buzzer sounded. After it did, the team lifted Trivelpiece up and showered him with high-fives.

Published on October 17, 2014 at 11:26 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse