By Cooper Fojas
The Maryland men’s basketball team hosted its annual “Midnight Mile” season kickoff celebration at Kehoe Track & Field Complex Tuesday night.
The event, where players join students on a mile run right at midnight, gave students a chance to meet players and take pictures with Testudo. It also included free pizza, a mile-long race and raffle prizes. Winners were selected for Beats headphones, a 65-inch TV, and an all-access away trip with the team this year.
“We love interacting with the fans,” fifth-year guard Jahmir Young said. “It brings us closer as a team.”
The first Midnight Mile took place in 1971 under Hall of Fame Coach Lefty Driesell. Midnight celebrations of the upcoming basketball season have become a nationwide tradition since then.
Students are not the only ones who came out to support the team. Math professor Larry Washington, who has taught at the university since 1977, experienced his first Midnight Mile this year.
“We’re not out here to run a 4-minute mile, we’re out here to run for fun!” said Washington.
The Midnight Mile’s main goal is to excite fans for the basketball season. For some students, tip-off can not come fast enough.
“I’ve been ready since move-in day,” freshman electrical engineering major Ojasvi Sharma said. “We’re gonna have Xfinity rocking all season long.”
The Terrapins, led by second-year head coach Kevin Willard, are coming off their first 20-plus win season since 2019-20 when the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. The win over No. 3 Purdue this past season highlighted Maryland’s undefeated run at Xfinity Center versus Big Ten opponents.
Three of the Terrapins’ top four scorers from a year ago return to the starting lineup, led by Young, who averaged 15.8 points and made the All-Big Ten second team in his first season in College Park. Maryland’s recruiting class, headlined by forward DeShawn Harris-Smith, finished in the top 20 of 247Sports’s annual rankings.
When asked what aspect of the season he was looking forward to, Caelum Swanton-Rodger responded with one word: “winning.”
Maryland opens the 2023-24 campaign at Xfinity Center versus Mount St. Mary’s on Nov. 7.
Featured Image: Students run by the southeast corner of Kehoe Track in the early minutes of Oct. 18, 2023. Photo by Cooper Fojas.