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Maroon Madness a hit

By DAVID CAMPBELL
Eagle Staff Writer

You might hear Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat" at any basketball arena in America this year. But basketball is big enough at Texas A&M now that the hip-hop artist showed up in College Station in person.

A near-capacity crowd rocked Reed Arena on Friday at Maroon Madness, a fan-oriented official opening night of Aggie basketball practice for the men's and women's teams.

A change in NCAA rules meant there was no waiting for midnight this year. The only waiting was to get into the Reed Arena parking lot to see the popular Soulja Boy, who was given a No. 12 Aggie jersey and slipped into it after the sixth-ranked Aggie women were introduced inside the arena.

"When I was eight, nine or 10 there was a performer who got a lot of attention," A&M women's basketball coach Gary Blair said. "This place is rocking, and it's the same kind of thing as what we silver hairs and no hairs had when we enjoyed Elvis."

Blair did his Superman impression as part of Soulja Boy's act, drawing a huge reaction after Soulja Boy returned to the court with the Big 12 Conference regular season championship trophy.

Freshman center DeAndre Jordan, one of the nation's top recruits for the Aggie men, worked the crowd almost as well as Soulja Boy to win the slam dunk contest, which was judged by the crowd. When the 7-foot freshman from Humble Christian Life Center couldn't convert a dunk off a pass from the stands, he got an assist on the floor. Aggie coach Mark Turgeon threw the pass that allowed Jordan to finish his first dunk.

Jordan, who took off from just inside the free throw line on one dunk and leaped over B.J. Holmes on another, beat out fellow freshman Nathan Walkup to earn the title. The 6-6 forward from Deer Park played off the night's theme, slipping into shades and doing a slightly stiffer impression of Soulja Boy and hammering home a dunk.

Turgeon stood to the side as his new team played to the exuberant crowd. He took a good-natured dig at his experienced squad.

"They might be a little immature," Turgeon said. "I may have more gray hair. There's work to be done this season."