The 10 Best Moments from 'Midnight Madness' Celebrations Around the Country

The games themselves mark the true start of the 2014-15 college basketball season, but at this point we've gone long enough without hoops action that any glimpse of what's in store is welcomed with open arms.

Midnight Madness definitely did the trick.

Since practices officially began Oct. 3, schools throughout the country have been holding events that are heavy on flair and light on actual basketball. Meant to hype up the fanbase for the season ahead, some schools go a little overboard trying to make their Midnight Madness celebrations stand out.

This leads to highlight-reel dunks, high jinks and hilarious getups, as you'll see in our ranking of the best Midnight Madness moments.

Tubby Smith Takes a Tumble

Landing Tubby Smith as its basketball coach last season was a huge get for Texas Tech, and though the Red Raiders only went 14-18 there were signs of progress that should carry over to this season and beyond.

Tech ratcheted up its Midnight Madness game this year, known as "Showtime." With a Hollywood theme, players and coaches dressed up as iconic TV and film characters, with Smith donning a leather jacket to portray Shaft. That meant the 63-year-old former NCAA championship coach got to ride a motorcycle onto the court at United Supermarkets Arena...which probably worked better in rehearsal than when done for the 5,500 fans in attendance.

As the video above shows, Smith got most of the way across the court before skidding out and crashing. He was fine, more concerned with whether he'd scratched the playing surface.

Coaches Playing Dress-Up

USA TODAY Sports

Tubby Smith wasn't the only coach who got to put on some fly threads as part of his team's Midnight Madness celebrations. Dress-up is a big part of some schools' events, and the more outlandish the better.

Just ask former NBA star Dan Majerle, who's beginning his second season coaching Division I newcomer Grand Canyon. Majerle went disco, dressing as John Travolta's character from Saturday Night Fever.

And during "Late Night in the Phog," Kansas' event, coach Bill Self (above) paid homage to one-and-done Jayhawks great Andrew Wiggins' jacket choice during the 2014 NBA draft.

Kentucky's Newest Superfan

Oh, Drake.

The notoriously good-team-favoring superfan, who occasionally devotes time to his actual career as a hip-hop singer, was the guest of honor at Kentucky's Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena last Friday. First spotted publicly backing the Wildcats during last year's Final Four (while hanging out with Johnny Manziel), Drake served as the emcee for the event and also participated in some drills while suited up in the same head-to-toe blue warmup suit that the players wear.

His involvement didn't end there, though, as Drake stuck around to sit in on film sessions and everything else that someone who lives vicariously through a team—but unless they're famous would never be allowed to—would want to do.

No word on whether Kentucky's previously most notable superfan, actress Ashley Judd, has challenged Drake to a game of Around the World.

Dunk Dynasty

No self-respecting Midnight Madness celebration is worth its salt if it doesn't feature a dunk contest. As much a staple as highlight videos and overinflated hope, watching players show off what kind of jams they've cooked up (but will likely never be able to unleash in an actual game) is what these events are all about.

There were tons of great dunks across the country during this year's events. But nobody put together a set of slams like Mercer's Ike Nwamu.

(Continue reading below after you've watched the above video and have picked your jaw off the floor.)

Nwamu, a 6'5" junior, averaged 8.3 points and 2.9 rebounds last season for the Bears. He had 11 points in the second-round upset of Duke in last year's NCAA tournament and is Mercer's top returning player as it moves from the Atlantic Sun Conference into the Southern Conference.

Fresno's Long-Distance Legend

Yeah, but I bet he couldn't do it blindfolded.

Fresno State's "Red and White Hoops Night" didn't look that well attended, judging by video of the event. That might be because it was held on a Tuesday, or because not much is expected of the Bulldogs this season since they were picked to finish seventh in the Mountain West Conference after going 21-18 last year. Or some combination of both.

But those who did choose to visit the Save Mart Center saw a rather rare feat, if they were watching closely.

Cezar Guerrero, a 6'1" junior guard, drained five half-court shots. In a row. It was during a red-vs.-white competition that was timed, and his team won 5-2.

Guerrero was third on the team in scoring last season, at 13.1 points per game, while shooting a respectable 34.5 percent from three-point range. He attempted and made more threes than anyone else on the Bulldogs in 2013-14, twice making five in a game.

But not in a row, and certainly not from half court.

Musical Madness

Basketball and basketball-related things just aren't enough to draw fans to a Midnight Madness event, especially in areas where the entertainment options are many. For some schools, you've got to add some major motivation to get the casual fan to come out and attend a glorified intrasquad game.

Music is a great motivator, as some schools proved this year.

Memphis packed the house at the FedEx Forum for its Memphis Madness, which ended up having very little basketball activity whatsoever. Instead, it featured a 30-minute performance by hip-hop artist Rick Ross (see above).

St. John's went the musical route as well, as rapper French Montana highlighted an event that was attended by several high-profile recruiting targets.

Taking (More Than a Little) off the Top

If New Mexico struggles this season, one of the excuses the Lobos might turn to is how their coach was sapped of his power source during Midnight Madness.

Craig Neal, whose floppy gray mop (parted down the middle, mind you) made him look like an '80s sitcom character last season, took to a makeshift barber's chair during New Mexico's "Lobo Howl" event last Friday. Roughly 7,000 people in the Pit watched Neal, who had grown the hair out super long and had it in multiple pigtails that evening, get the cut so that he could donate to Locks of Love.

Locks of Love is a charity that makes wigs from human hair for people with medical hair loss. The donation was to help support one of New Mexico's top players, senior guard Hugh Greenwood, whose mother is dealing with her second bout of breast cancer.

Getting Down to Karaoke Weight

A well-chronicled offseason storyline for North Carolina's basketball team was the change in weights of some of its frontcourt players, with junior forward Brice Johnson packing on the pounds to get stronger and sophomore center Kennedy Meeks dropping nearly 50 pounds to improve his conditioning.

Apparently, Meeks' weight loss didn't have any effect on his eagerness to please the Tar Heels' fans, though. The packed house at the Dean Smith Center found this out during the annual "Late Night with Roy" celebration Oct. 3, during which Meeks belted out the best lip-synced rendition of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" seen since Star Search went off the air.

Bonus points for doing some rolling around on the big North Carolina state logo on the court, Meeks.

Bruce Pearl Controls the Universe

Auburn probably has no shot to contend for the SEC title this year, and it might take a couple of years for Bruce Pearl to get the Tigers' program turned around enough to get back to the NCAA tournament.

But boy does that guy know how to make his team relevant and get noticed.

After getting hired by Auburn in March, he dove into a mosh pit of fans. He's done numerous other publicity stunts since then, trying to get the word out about his team and make games at Auburn Arena a great environment for fans and a rough one for opponents.

The latest stunt? Crashing a marketing lecture to school students on the concept of branding, as well as to lure them to the Tigers' upcoming Midnight Madness event Oct. 30. By the way, it's called "Pearl Jam," because what else would it have been named?

Banner Time

Jessica Hill/Associated Press

Midnight Madness isn't always about pumping up the crowd with hope for what lies ahead. A lot of it has to do with reminding the fanbase about what's already been accomplished, and there's no better way to do this than show off some championship hardware or maybe unveil some new banners.

Connecticut did this in spades during its "First Night" event last week, with both the men's and women's teams bringing out their NCAA title trophies and hanging new banners from the rafters at Gampel Pavilion.

No matter what happens for the Huskies this season, they can always look up for inspiration about what has happened. No doubt some UConn players did that last year, probably not long after UConn was crushed by Louisville in the regular-season finale. A month later, they were cutting down the nets for the title.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.