Midnight Madness

COLLEGE PARK -- Talk about making up for lost time. After its first practice was delayed five days, the University of Maryland basketball team took to the floor at 12:01 a.m. yesterday and left for the day around 9 last night.The Terrapins slept, ate and rested between the three sessions, which began with Midnight Madness before 2,500 at Cole Field House and ended with the second of two more serious, two-hour workouts last night."They played hard," Maryland coach Gary Williams said after the middle session.

Alexandria, Va. Holiday Boat Parade Enjoy a parade of brightly lit sailboats and powerboats at the 12th Annual Alexandria Holiday Boat Parade of Lights. Some 50 decorated vessels will sail from Washington to Alexandria, Va., to showcase their creativity and Christmas spirit while a panel of judges will award prizes in dozens of categories. The morning of the parade, families can enjoy a sightseeing tour at the Potomac Riverboat Company, historical tours and also enjoy shopping at the many designer boutiques in town.

COLLEGE PARK -- The return of college basketball called out to Maryland's most avid fans like a siren early this morning.Or was that Dick Vitale?Seven months after the Terrapins were eliminated by Connecticut from the NCAA tournament, they reacquainted themselves with 12,000 basketball zealots at Cole Field House for Midnight Madness.It was a fitting touch for the Terps to launch the 1995-96 season with Vitale, ESPN's ebullient voice of the college game, who was on hand for the season-opening festivities.

I came down with a nasty case of retriever fever after watching UMBC's promotional video for Midnight Madness. To make matters worse, this obnoxious pop song has been stuck in my head for the past hour or so. Enjoy.

THE NEXT THREE DAYS are filled with holiday magic.Tomorrow night, it's the shopping adventure of the season. The Greater Severna Park Chamber of Commerce calls it Midnight Madness, although I expect to be deep into my "long winter's nap" by that hour.However, from 6 p.m. to 9: 30 p.m., shoppers in Park Plaza and Severna Park Village will think they've become part of a colorized version of "It's a Wonderful Life."Thanks to the efforts of the chamber, shoppers will be able to wish each other "happy holidays" as they stroll from store to store in the company of clowns, Santa Bear and Frosty the Snowman.

As excitement mounts for the oncoming college basketball season, beginning with Midnight Madness at 12:01 tomorrow at College Park, it's a good time to reflect on a man who helped lay the groundwork for some of this.He's Frank McGuire, who died Tuesday at 80.McGuire probably did more than anyone to popularize basketball in the Atlantic Coast Conference. For a number of years now, there has been no greater basketball conference in the country, no bigger hotbed for the sport than the ACC, in which the University of Maryland plays.

A bearded Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins played the jolly old man himself last night as he handed out candy canes to the young and old who came out for the fifth annual Midnight Madness in downtown Annapolis."

For the second year in a row, Severna Park shops and stores will stay open until midnight tonight to try to pump up holiday sales.Most of the businesses in the Severna Park Village Shopping Center and Park Plaza are taking part in "Midnight Madness," said Linda Zahn, executive director of the Greater Severna Park Chamber of Commerce."

For hundreds of parents throughout Howard County, "Midnight Madness" takes place tonight. These parents will stay up until midnight or set their alarms. They will be at their computers at 11:59:59, password memorized, hands poised over their keyboards, ready to type. And at the stroke of midnight, they will log on to the Department of Recreation and Parks Web site (www.co.ho.md.us/RAP/RAP_HomePage.htm) and start enrolling their kids in summer camps. One of those parents will be Michelle Johnson of Ellicott City, who hopes to get her sons, Kyle, 10, and Alex, 8, into several summer camps.

Ellicott City's Historic District will celebrate its 30th annual Midnight Madness on Friday evening, rain, show or shine. Hospitality Weekend is planned for Saturday and next Sunday. Refreshments, shopping promotions, dining and holiday entertainment will be offered until midnight Friday and through the rest of the weekend. Free trolley service will be available. Santa will arrive by firetruck at the B&O Railroad Station Museum at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Musical performances by wandering costumed madrigal singers from Long Reach and River Hill high schools, the Centennial High School jazz ensemble, vocalist Tessa Truax and her band, As If It's Tragic, and bagpiper Jack Groves.

Lefty Driesell had already promised that Maryland would become the "UCLA of the East" when he was hired away from Davidson two years before. Now, with a talented team led by Tom McMillen and Len Elmore about to become eligible for varsity as sophomores, Driesell was looking for a way to pump up his players going into the 1971-72 college basketball season. "I said, 'Let's start practice before everyone else and we're going to be the last team to practice. We're going to play for the national championship," Driesell recalled in a telephone interview this week.

Midnight Madness, I mean Maryland Madness, has been scheduled for Friday, Oct. 14 at 9:30 p.m. The event will be held at soon-to-be-but-not-quite-yet Gary Williams Court at Comcast Center. According to Maryland media relations, "The event will mark the 40th anniversary of the first Midnight Madness, which began on the Maryland campus when former head coach Lefty Driesell took his squad to the track at Byrd Stadium for a midnight conditioning run. " The event will feature scrimmages by the men's and women's teams.

It would be a disaster, Paul Vinette figures, to read from PowerPoint slides when he teaches his introduction to psychology class this fall at Anne Arundel Community College. Students might tolerate a droning lecture at 2 p.m. But at 2 a.m.? No, that's not a typo. Vinette will teach a psychology class from midnight to 3 a.m. Thursdays this fall. It's the latest, and perhaps most drastic, example of the steps community colleges are taking to deal with rapid increases in demand.

The College of Notre Dame basketball team - or what was left of it - got the news at practice Monday: Its season had been canceled because of a shortage of healthy players. The announcement by thletic director Michael Spinner "broke my heart," said Heather Krolicki, a senior guard. "The six of us who were there just sat in silence. Then I started to cry. "I mean, I understand why we can't play, and I agree with it. But it's still heartbreaking." School officials scrapped the Gators' season after one game - a 73-19 loss to Goucher last Wednesday - because of injuries to nearly half the team.

Shopping centers in Anne Arundel County have been festooned with holiday decorations and sale signs for weeks, but for Annapolitans, the holiday season doesn't officially begin until tonight's Grand Illumination. The traditional lighting of the holiday tree, sponsored by the Annapolis Jaycees and Homestead Gardens, begins at 6 p.m. with live music, followed by the lighting at 7 p.m. Several local groups will perform, including the Talent Machine, St. Mary's Noel choir and the Sweet Adelines.

Ellicott City's Historic District will celebrate its 30th annual Midnight Madness on Friday evening, rain, show or shine. Hospitality Weekend is planned for Saturday and next Sunday. Refreshments, shopping promotions, dining and holiday entertainment will be offered until midnight Friday and through the rest of the weekend. Free trolley service will be available. Santa will arrive by firetruck at the B&O Railroad Station Museum at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Musical performances by wandering costumed madrigal singers from Long Reach and River Hill high schools, the Centennial High School jazz ensemble, vocalist Tessa Truax and her band, As If It's Tragic, and bagpiper Jack Groves.

Champagne and toasts won't be involved, but this evening may still feel a lot like New Year's Eve for local college basketball teams, many with resolutions to make the 1998-99 season a lot better than the last one.The effort to make good begins tonight, with Midnight Madness events for the public at Towson and Coppin State, as well as at Maryland, predicted to be a Top 5 team by most. Loyola, Morgan State, Mount St. Mary's, Navy, UMBC and UMES start their practices tomorrow, without the hype.

COLLEGE PARK - The Maryland Terrapins' men's basketball team had its first official practice of the 2001-2002 season at empty Cole Field House yesterday at noon, 12 hours after kicking off the year with a raucous Midnight Madness celebration before a packed arena. "I'm a little nervous, to tell you the truth. I'm getting chills just standing here," said freshman forward Mike Grinnon, minutes before the Terps took the floor for a 20-minute scrimmage just after midnight. "This is awesome."

Not many people would decorate for the holidays using leopard print. But a newly refurbished white loveseat with deep red fabric on the back and leopard print on the seat inspired Tamara Beck to make a mostly red-and-white living room scene in her store window on Main Street in Ellicott City. "Everything else kind of came from that," said Beck, who opened Tamara's, a store of salvaged home-design items, in July. Merchants on Main Street know that their storefront windows are one of their best marketing tools, but this year the Ellicott City Restoration Foundation is making things a little more interesting by sponsoring a window-decorating contest in the historic district.

The Howard County Child Advocacy Center, 3421 Rogers Ave., Ellicott City, will celebrate its 15th anniversary at 2 p.m. tomorrow. Speakers are to include Howard County Executive James N. Robey, State's Attorney Tim McCrone, who is chairman of the center's executive committee, and other officials. The advocacy center, also known as the Listening Place, was created to address physical and sexual abuse of children. The celebration will include a tour and recognition of staff members. The Listening Place is a collaborative effort of the Howard County Police Department, the state's attorney's office, Child Protective Services, the Health Department, the STTAR Center and the Domestic Violence Center.