Previewing the 2017 Rhody Madness
As the sole event that can directly affect the attendance numbers of the upcoming basketball season, the importance of "Rhody Madness" is nearly unfathomable. A large student crowd gathers into the Ryan Center, as well as entire families and together, they all watch the two-hour long event. Based off of the performances on the court, the crowd decides whether or not they would like to return to the venue to watch more Rhode Island men's basketball. Therefore, anyone can understand the reasoning behind "Rhody Madness" being highly anticipated.
In the past few seasons, "Rhody Madness" can be summarized in two words, "roller coaster". In the 2014-2015 season, "Rhody Madness" had an exhilarating dunk contest and a well-received performance by musical artist, Ace Hood. However, the player introductions were mediocre at best after Michaela Johnson from the Rhode Show butchered several players' names. Next, in the 2015-2016 season, "Rhody Madness" had their best musical performance when they brought Rae Sremmurd to the Ryan Center. In addition, they had an entertaining three-point contest and eventually, even Rae Sremmurd partook in the shootout. Before Sremmurd performed to end the night, there was an extremely odd dance contest by the basketball team that lost its comedic value early on. Most recently, in the 2016-2017 season, the fact that there was no musical artist already brought down the prestige of the event. Next, I was not amused in the slightest bit by the bicycle course obstacle course that they had on the court or the woman performer who tried to dribble five basketballs at one. The only interesting part of the 2016 "Rhody Madness" was the new introduction video and some of the antics during the player introductions.
Similar to most college basketball season preview events like UNC's "Late Night with Roy", Duke's "Countdown to Craziness", and Kentucky's "Big Blue Madness", dunk contests are a huge part of the festivities. In the 2017 Rhody Madness, URI needs to make the dunk contest a good one if they are going to do it again or just not do it all. A safe option is to include a three-point contest because crowds always seem to love three-point contests and even more importantly, there is less risk of injury with a contest of this likeness.
Furthermore, as observed in past seasons, more is not necessarily better. Quality is much more important than quantity at these types of events. Each performance, contest, and other occurrence within "Rhody Madness" needs to be of the utmost quality. No one wants to have their time wasted or be bored while sitting in the Ryan Center. I know that the organizers of this event can make 2017's "Rhody Madness" a legendary spectacle, they just need to plan and execute properly.
Let's hope that the 2017 "Rhody Madness" event is the best one yet!
