I’m old school. If you’re a Hoya fan, you should be too. When people talk about old school, they’re talking about the time in history when people used to carry around oversized boom boxes on their shoulders, when Michael Jackson looked like a black dude, and when the Hoyas ruled college basketball. I grew up in that time period, and I look back on it all very fondly, except for my clothing choices (why were Coca-Cola Rugby shirts so popular?). Patrick Ewing and company sort of epitomize old school basketball. They were as big in the 1980’s as UNLV or Michigan’s Fab Five was in the 1990’s, but unlike those two teams, the Hoyas never had a hot dog. None of the players on Big John’s teams of that era ever posed for the camera after doing something spectacular, and nobody ever played up for the crowds.

If you’re a new school Hoya fan, you are old school too, even if you don’t know it. How have the Hoyas been successful in the past few seasons? The Princeton offense: give and go’s, pick and roll, backdoor cuts. There’s nothing more old school than that. Look at the personnel from recent years - Darrel Owens, Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert - these guys all went out and did their jobs (or still do) without any self-gratifying gestures. Where I come from that’s how you’re supposed to do it. So, whether you were born in the early 70’s or the late 80’s, if you like Georgetown you have to be old school.

Unfortunately, the Hoyas can’t be all old school because the times they are a-changin’. Nowadays, to succeed in college basketball you have to be a bit of a schmoozer. Coaches need to be politicians, kissing hands and shaking babies to make sure that when it comes to the media, boosters, and fans everybody is happy. That brings me to my point.

Midnight madness is NEW SCHOOL. I think it is totally stupid. I understand how excited everybody is to finally get the new season underway - I am too, but there have to be better ways to show enthusiasm for your team without the shameless ego-centric theory on display at 12:00 am. I know it wouldn’t be much fun for the fans to watch the Hoyas come out in front of a raucous McDonough Gymnasium and practice backdoor layups, but at the same time, the dunk contests and individual displays are pretty pointless.

The students have been great in supporting the team in recent years, and the coaches and players want to say thank you. That’s an excellent sentiment from the team, and the fans deserve to be rewarded. I just feel as though there has to be a better way to do so than with the Showtime presentations. Maybe the fans could all give the players a wild ovation, Coach Thompson and the team captains could address the fans, and then the players could lead everybody home, out the backdoor.