Homecoming Isn't Just For Football

With the weather starting to cool down and the leaves falling off the trees that only means one thing, winter is right around the corner. Most people have no enjoyment with this season but when winter comes that means basketball season is here. On Friday October 14^th ISU held Hoopfest for the 2011 homecoming. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go watch a scrimmage with the guys team and the girls team, but boy was I glad that I went. They started off the night with introducing the whole girls and guys basketball team. The girls coach gave a nice typical preseason speech while the men’s coach put together a very corny but entertaining speech stating the goals for the upcoming season.

The First event of the night was the three point shootout. For this event it was teams of two, one girl one guy. Katie Broadway and Trey Blue led off the night with 16 three balls in the first round. Broadway/Blue advanced to the champion ship along with Katie Winge and John Wilkins advanced to the championship round. In the finals Broadway and Blue combined for 15 shots, but Winge and Wilkins just barely beat them with a last second shot by Wilkins to make their total 16 and the champions of the three point shootout.

The second event of the night was the dunk contest, this was the definitely the best part of the night. The junior Tyler Brown was stealing the show; from 360 dunks to between the legs he was doing it all. Brown and Jackie Carmichael were the two that advanced to the finals. Through the first round of the championship they both had a perfect score of 40, but it was Carmichael’s second dunk of Reggie the Redbird that created the separation. Carmichael beat out Brown by one point for the dunk contest champion.

After the dunk contest they held the women’s scrimmage. The red team defeated the black team 25-21. Alexis Jenkins was the leading scorer with 8 points followed by Jamie Russell who had seven points. The last event was the men’s scrimmage. The White team outscored the Red by two points with a final score 36-34. Carmichael led all the scorers with 11 points. Anthony Cousin scored the second most with 9 points.

So walking out of Hoopfest I was certainly glad that I went, and now I’m even more excited for basketball season to start.