Freshmen Excited for First Big Blue Madness

To dance, or not to dance? It’s a question every Kentucky Wildcat men’s basketball player has asked himself prior to Friday night’s Big Blue Madness celebration.

The answers vary. The excitement for the night does not.

“I think I might dance,” freshman guard De’Aaron Fox said on Thursday at UK’s annual Media Day. “A couple of us might dance. We’ve talked about it a little bit.”

“It’s going to be a fun experience,” freshman forward Bam Adebayo said. “I can’t wait to get out there and just show them who I am and have fun.

“I might (dance); I might not.”

Sophomore Jonny David created a poll on Twitter on Friday asking the Big Blue Nation if fellow sophomore Isaac Humphries should dance upon his introduction. The results, as of this writing, were a resounding yes. Humphries, however, appeared to be one of the few who voted “no.”

@jdavid010 how dare you ??…????

— Isaac Humphries (@IsaacHumphries7) October 14, 2016

Friday night will mark senior forward Derek Willis’ fourth turn through the Big Blue Madness festivities. A veteran at this point, Willis should have a good idea of what he wants to do. Whether he dances or not, he certainly plans on enjoying his front-row seat watching the freshmen take the stage.

“They’ll just kind of see it for themselves,” Willis said. “It’s one of those things where you just gotta be there to understand. It’s just how funny how they’ll act. It kind of cracks me up because they’re really nervous. It’s just a thing where I’ve been there before so I know what to expect. It’s just funny.”

What once was held at midnight and marked the first official practice of the season, Big Blue Madness has evolved – like many other “midnight madness” events held around the country – into a celebration of the sport and its return from the offseason.

Fans camped for days outside Memorial Coliseum and the Joe Craft Center in late September for the free tickets, which were ultimately sold out in just 28 minutes.

Now those very fans will get to see the Kentucky basketball players compete in person for the first time this season. There will be basketball, of course, but there will also be much more than just that. There will be videos, music and an interactive light show, among other things. Really, it’s an opportunity to see the Wildcats as basketball players, and just normal kids.

 

“They don’t really get to see us outside of the court,” Fox said of the fans. “They’ll see how we really interact with each other since it’s not going to be all about basketball (Friday), but we’re still going to show them what we can do and also they’re going to see us not so serious.”

They’ll also likely see a little dancing.

“When it’s time, I’ll probably do something like that,” Monk said of whether he’ll dance or not. “But I don’t lock into it until I’m comfortable with something.”