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Sunday, October 15, 2000

Midnight Madness opens Islanders' seasons
Arrow, Estes take their first good look at this year's teams at fan-friendly first practice
By Matt Young
Caller-Times

Michelle Christenson/Caller-Times

Islanders men's basketball player Damian Kirkaldy jogs on court during introductions at the opening of A&M-CC's second season of Division I Basketball.

It might have been 1:20 a.m., and his players might have been laughing and horsing around, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball coach Ronnie Arrow still had his coaching face on in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
   Midnight Madness, the annual first college basketball practice of the year, featured a 20-minute scrimmage by both the men's and women's teams.
   Although the practice is meant to be a fan-friendly workout centered on more fun than hard work, a coach is still a coach and a practice is still a practice, which is why Arrow studied his team carefully during the loosely run practice.
   "This is a fun deal, but it's the first time I've been able to see all my players playing together, so I was watching them pretty carefully," Arrow said. "There's some things out there I saw that were good, but there were some other things out there that surprised me because they weren't so good."
   A&M-Corpus Christi women's coach Sheryl Estes admitted it was hard not to evaluate her players, no matter how fun the practice was supposed to be.
   "Since it was the first time I've seen them play five-on-five, I was definitely trying to get a good look at all the players," Estes said. "It's hard to really tell too much, because they're out there having fun and playing pretty unorganized, but I was still watching."
   The estimated crowd of 650 was more entertained by the men's slam-dunk contest and the women's 3-point shootout than the scrimmages.
   Six-foot-five freshman forward Brian Hamilton won the dunk contest with a double-pump windmill slam. Returning starting point guard Mandie Vinck shot down junior college transfer Kendra Smith in the 3-point contest.
   After the crowd-pleasing practice, both teams were back on the floor Saturday afternoon for a more intense workout.
   "They get to go home, get some sleep, and they better be ready for a real practice when they get up," Arrow said.
   The afternoon practice featured much more work on fundamentals and less on showboating. It also featured fresher faces from both coaches, who appeared weary after the late-night workout.
   "It's 1:20 in the morning, and we're playing basketball, what's not to like?," Arrow said.
   When Midnight Madness finally finished at 1:30 a.m., both coaches said they were pleased with the first workout, but both looked ready for a nap.
   "Oh come on, I could stay up another 30 minutes at least," Estes said.
   Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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