Late Night draws crowd at KU
By Miranda Lenning – University Daily Kansan
LAWRENCE, Kan. (U-WIRE) — Few schools celebrate the start of college basketball season the way Kansas fans do. Friday night, players, fans and coaches gathered in Allen Fieldhouse for the season’s kick-off party, Late Night in the Phog.
The Dallas Mavericks mascot trotted around the court in an inflatable suit. NBA hypnotist, Tom Silver, hypnotized 10 audience members. Cheerleaders tossed dozens of T-shirts into the stands. For the first time, the women’s team scrimmaged at the event. And the basketball team members performed skits.
But nobody stole the show on Saturday night like Aaron Miles, Keith Langford, Mike Lee and Wayne Simien. When the four seniors on the men’s basketball team were introduced just after 11 p.m., the crowd jolted to an exhilarating applause. The ensuing skit resulted in the same kind of laughter.
The seniors broke out the 1988 NCAA championship trophy as a prop for their skit, which mimicked a dream sequence. In their skit, the four seniors appeared on the court at Allen Fieldhouse in tuxedos. Danny Manning, a member of the 1988 championship team, stood behind a podium and read a list of what it takes to be a champion. The four seniors vowed to do all of those things.
“You may touch the trophy,” Manning said afterwards.
Next, Simien picked up the microphone and the crowd erupted. R. Kelly’s “Step” blasted from the speakers, and the seniors began to dance. Miles took the microphone, and the rest of the team came onto the court and formed a circle. Miles called on each member of the team to dance in the middle, and the next 10 minutes looked like a scene from Saturday Night Fever — rap style — as the song changed to Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”
Before that, the junior class members put on “Late Night with the Juniors.” They made a list of the top 10 things to do, see and hear this basketball season.
“Number four, go to St. Louis for the Final Four … and stop in Columbia for an NIT game,” announced junior guard Jeff Hawkins.
J.R. Giddens, Jeremy Case and Nick Bahe used The Temptations as the theme for their skit. The three sophomores put on the only singing performance of the evening. Self said Friday was his first time to see the skits, but it was clear which two players liked the attention the most.
“I think it is pretty evident that J.R. likes the crowd, and Aaron likes the crowd for sure,” Self said.
The crowd of about 15,500 people proved that fall break did not hurt late night’s attendance. The enthusiastic fans stayed for more than three hours of entertainment, pounding their blue thunderstix the whole time. Self said he was impressed with the turnout.
“It’s a pretty special thing when you can do that without students on campus,” he said.
Women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson made her first Late Night debut shortly after 10 p.m. She received a standing ovation from the Jayhawk faithful. Henrickson spoke to the crowd, saying she had all sorts of reasons to come to the University of Kansas.
“But you just gave me 16,000 more,” she said.
She said the women’s team was creating history by playing at Late Night for the first time.
Because NCAA rules prohibited Henrickson from being involved with the scrimmage, which took place before midnight, Governor Kathleen Sebelius took Henrickson’s place on the sideline for the women’s eight-minute scrimmage. The KU alumnae said she was happy to see the women’s basketball team represented at kick off.
“It is time we have the women at late night,” Sebelius said.
Chelsea Hudson and Bethany Stanbrough, Emporia sophomores, said they had a great time watching their friend get hypnotized. Fredy Cisneros volunteered when Silver, asked for people who wanted to be hypnotized. Silver came on at the beginning of the show to ask for volunteers and came back later with 10 hypnotized audience members.
“Fredy is known for doing very stupid things,” his friends said.
Silver gave instructions. Cisneros was told to act like Jean Simmons, the lead singer of the band Kiss.
It was definitely a night that Lydia Reasons would not forget. Her boyfriend of two years proposed marriage to her early in the night. Riley Swanson, made the proposal and then held up a newspaper that read, “She said yes,” similar to what the students do when the visiting teams are introduced. He said late night was the perfect time to ask Reasons.
“We have been coming her for a lot of years,” said Swanson, who drove all the way from Hutchinson. “She is a huge KU fan.”
A five-minute video highlighting the history of Kansas basketball was shown just before midnight. The phrase “17 players, with one goal, with one destination,” opened the video. “April 2005 Dream” were the last words to appear on the video screen before the scrimmage. That set the mood for the men’s warm ups, scrimmage, and for the players, the season.
Self said the team was ready to get the season started.
“They are excited,” he said. “Things continue to get better.”
© 2004 University Daily Kansan via U-WIRE.
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