If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

It’s almost time for college basketball, something that seems to start earlier and earlier every year. Two schools, Illinois and Kentucky, are even starting practice earlier than the other schools because they choose to take advantage of an individual workout loophole.

The NCAA cited Oct. 17 as the date programs can begin pre-season practices this year. Kentucky circumvented that starting point by manipulating another rule which allows coaches to work with their teams for two hours each week from Sept. 15 to Oct. 17. After getting permission from the NCAA, Kentucky decided to save its two hours next week and use them as part of a Madness celebration on Oct. 10.

As expected, such news has some in the coaching fraternity upset. As a result, the National Association of Basketball Coaches informed the NCAA they would support a rule outlawing these early celebrations.

Nevertheless, while most practices start on October 17th, the Illini and the Wildcats will be starting next Friday.

Back to the Hyperdunks, I’ve questioned Nike’s designs before, but I must say, I do like the looks of these shoes. Currently, there are Hyperdunk images for Texas, Oregon and Syracuse. One expects just about every major D-1 school under Nike’s sponsorship blanket will probably receive some derivative of these shoes.

Besides starting their practice early, Kentucky will also be apart of a marquee early season match up when they travel to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina on November 18th, a scant month and a half away.

Tags: Hyperdunks, Illinois Illini, Kentucky Wildcats, Midnight Madness, Nike, North Carolina Tar Heels

You Might Also Enjoy:
• Let The Madness Begin
• No More Early Madness
• The Rest of the Madness Starts Tonight