Full Court Fest attracted students and fans from all over to Strawberry Stadium to get a preview of the men’s and women’s basketball teams for the upcoming season. The fans were treated with cash and prizes at the event.
Nikisun Shrestha/The Lion's Roar
The ninth annual Full Court Fest was held last week at the University Center to mark the beginning of the new basketball season. The event was also an opportunity for the fans to connect with the players and to get prizes.
“It’s an introduction to basketball season to introduce our men and women basketball team,” said Lindsey Cramer, Coordinator of Student Marketing and Promotions. “This is an event where our students and athletes come together. We market it out to students by giving out free T-shirts and food and giving out large prizes, so they can interact with our basketball players.”
The event was held on Wednesday, Nov. 9. The players were happy to see a healthy turnout and stressed the importance of fans coming to support them during the games.
“When you try to change the culture of the program, it’s very important that you get the fans involved,” said guard and forward Davon Hayes. “It was a good turnout. I heard some of the players say it’s been the best turnout since they’ve been here. So, it’s good to get the fans put here.”
Taylin Underwood, a guard for the women’s basketball team, was also happy with the outcome of the event.
“I think it’s very important to get the fans pumped up about coming and enjoying watching us play, watch us win,” said Underwood. “Compared to last year, I think this was a lot better. I think interacting with the students would be a lot helpful.”
Head Coach of the women’s basketball team, Errol Gauff, expects the fans to keep coming out in large numbers throughout the season.
“Our students, that’s who the teams represent,” said Gauff. “Win, lose, draw, our team’s gonna play hard to represent them. So it’s great that they came out as a sign of support. Come on, have fun at the games, cheer, laugh, get excited like you did tonight.”
The event featured an around the world shooting contest where the winners won a 32 inch smart TV. A co-ed scrimmage between the men’s and women’s basketball team was also held.
A student shootout for Pelican’s tickets was organized to attract the fans to the event. The head coaches of the basketball teams played a shoot out to hand out cash prizes to the attendees of the event as well. However, the dance contest got the fans cheering the most. The winner of the contest was given Beats by Dre headphones.
Even though all of these attractions are present in the event, the organizers want to make more additions to the event and hope the students respond to these changes by attending future events.
“I would like to add special effects, like turn the lights off, add lights and smoke and things like that,” said Cramer. “I would like to make it more dramatic. I would also like to bring in a special guest, maybe an artist or somebody famous and to make it bigger and better. Hopefully, we can strive to have more students to come out and the bigger we make this event, the better the prizes and the games are going to be for all.”
Full Court Fest provided the audience an opportunity to compete in a Dance off where the winner was provided Beats By Dre headphone.
Nikisun Shrestha/The Lion's Roar
