St. Thomas men’s and women’s basketball hosted “Hoops Madness” to unofficially tip off the season in front of a home crowd Wednesday night at Schoenecker Arena.
Players participated in a three-point contest, a skills challenge and a dunk showcase. Members of the teams said they hoped this event would raise fan excitement for the upcoming season.
“It was amazing,” junior guard Jade Hill said. “Feeling all the support and love from the students and our families is such a good feeling.”
The team mascot, Tommie, got fans to their feet when he rode into Schoenecker Arena on a motorcycle, keeping with the event’s theme of “Rev it Up.” Player introductions involved a light show, smoke machine, sunglasses, purple bandanas and a T-shirt toss. The coaches got in on the fun as men’s coach Johnny Tauer and women’s coach Ruth Sinn both arrived in leather jackets, alluding to the motorcycle theme.
The players jumped right into a three-point contest, and both squads offered up their best shooters. After a preliminary round, the final matchup came down to redshirt first-year forward Carter Bjerke, and the competition’s reigning champion sophomore guard Amber Scalia. When time ran out, Scalia walked away victorious.
Sinn hopes Scalia’s success from beyond the arc transfers into the season and complements Hill’s style of play.
“When you have assassins like Amber Scalia and Faith Feuerbach around her … how are you going to guard Jade?” Sinn said.
Hill and guard Ryan Dufault represented the junior class in a skills challenge — which involved dribbling and shooting — and beat out the other duos.
Shortly after the skill competition, the St. Thomas cheer team hyped up the crowd and the dance team gave the fans a performance with special guest Tommie. Fans did more than just cheer, as a few lucky students got the opportunity to compete for cash and a pizza party for the residence halls.
After a three-point contest and a landslide victory in a tricycle race, first-year student Tom Holey came away with the grand prize.
“It was pretty great. It was good to compete … and it was a lot of fun,” Holey said.
The final event of the night was the dunk contest put on by select players by the men’s team. After a few missed dunks, senior forward Courtney Brown Jr. won with a thunderous 360-degree windmill dunk.
Players and coaches alike hope this event sets the tone for the season and will result in high turnouts for home games.
“I hope everyone can make it if they can,” graduate player Angelina Hammond said, “Being able to have voices at all of our games and hopefully get as many people as we can would be phenomenal.
“We hope the students will make it a ritual to come out to games and make this one of the best atmospheres in college basketball,” Tauer said.
Both the men’s and women’s teams open their seasons in away games on Monday, Nov. 6. The men’s team will take on the California Golden Bears at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley and the women will face the Drake Bulldogs in Des Moines at the Knapp Center. The men tip off a 8 p.m. CST and the women will play at 7 p.m.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.