San Diego State Universities First Midnight Madness at Viejas Arena

San Diego State held its first ever midnight madness event in front of a packed house Friday night October 12th 2012. The event was open to the public, San Diego State Students and San Diego State Alumni. The event kicked off with the Aztec Marching Band followed by the three winning student homecoming commercials. The music and master of ceremonies for midnight madness was DJ Fingaz. Then the crowd saw the San Diego State Dance and Cheer squad perform. Students then competed in a free throw challenge to win tickets and a hotel stay for the 2013 Mountain West Conference Championship in Las Vegas. Now let’s get into some basketball…

The first basketball event of the night kicked off with the introduction of the San Diego State Women’s basketball team. To add some flare to the event each player was introduced and ran out to sparklers. The Women’s team scrimmaged while coach Beth Burns talked about the up coming season for the defending Mountain West Conference Champions. The women’s scrimmage was led by #54 Courtney Clemens and  #11 Ahjalee Harvey. Ahjalee Harvey won the women’s three-point shooing title. The women’s team will have a difficult schedule at UCLA, home vs. Auburn, home vs. USC, at Washington, vs. Harvard and Oklahoma Stats, and Mountain West Conference play.

Halftime on Montezuma Mesa produced one of the plays of the year and the season has yet to start. San Diego State freshman Craig Horlbeck sank a half-court shot to win a Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck. (VIDEO LINK) Horlbeck was then mobbed by the women’s basketball team and by some of the men’s team who had come out to see what the commotion was. Later on in the night San Diego State men’s basketball coach Steve Fisher called Horlbeck out of the stands and asked if he would be willing to walk on next season.

The anticipated part of the evening started when the San Diego State Men’s basketball team was introduced. To add some flare to the event each player was introduced and ran out to sparklers. Next up was the three-point shooting competition (player advancing to the next round is in red) featuring Xavier Thames vs. Chase Tapley and LaBradford Franklin vs. James Rahon. Xavier Thames has gotten a lot better at three-point shooting and was able to catch fire. Thames ended up beating the three-point favorite James Rahon in as very close three-point shooting competition. Thames then went up against the women’s victor Ahjalee Harvey and won easily.

The next event featured the San Diego State men’s basketball team in a scrimmage showcasing all 17 members of the men’s basketball team (12 scholarship athletes and 5 walk ons). The scrimmage was extremely fun to watch and was extremely fast paced. This was the first time the fans were able to see how explosive the 2012/2013 men’s basketball team will be in the upcoming season.

The scrimmage was high scoring led by the high-flying dunk squad Jamaal Franklin, Skylar Spencer, Winston Shepard, Matt Shrigley, James Johnson, JJ O’Brien, Dwayne Polee II and DeShawn Stephens. Also involved was the three-point squad James Rahon, Xavier Thames, LaBradford Franklin and Chase Tapley. The ball would go back and forth with each team constantly stealing the ball and going coast to coast for the score. The men’s team will be a high-flying quick strike style offensive and these guys will be monsters on the boards. The men’s team will have a difficult schedule USS Midway vs. Syracuse, at USC, Wooden Classic vs. UCLA, Diamond Head Classic, and an extremely difficult Mountain West Conference Schedule.

The night ended with a slam-dunk competition featuring Matt Shrigley, Dwayne Polee II, DeShawn Stephens and the favorite Jamaal Franklin. For those who would like to watch the dunk contest video please check out our write-up on the dunk contest CLICK HERE.

San Diego State had 11 recruits who were in attendance for Midnight Madness and we have a full write up with all of those recruits information. If you would like to read about SDSU commit Dakaria Allen, D’Erryl Williams, Darin Johnson, Isaac Hamilton, Bear Henderson, Daniel Hamilton, Isaiah Bailey, Marcus LoVett, Tyler Dorsey and Rex Pflueger, you may do so by CLICK HERE. D’Erryl Williams has committed to San Diego State today as a result of Midnight Madness. We will have a post up tomorrow afternoon about the commitment!