Late Night in the Phog is something all the Kansas University Basketball fans are looking forward to. Like most things in KU, this also has a long tradition of more than 25 years now. It is a nice opportunity to see both Men and Women basketball teams. Meet the new players and see how prepared they look.
The event is in the late evening but people specially students start gathering very early. For 7:30 event it is not unusual to see queues starting little after noon itself.
Children playing Football, Soccer or Frisbee while parents are in the queue is a very common site.
One rarely gets to see so many people waiting in queue in Lawrence. I guess this this the only place and time.
Then people got to enter Allan Field-house at 6:30pm for 7:30pm program.
And have time to settle down, buy some snacks etc, before the program.
Program opened with Kansas University performing some good acrobatics.
And a dance by the famous Rock Chalk Dancers. Usually during basketball games too, these performances are used as fillers.
Large screens were showing all the events.
And Baby Jay and Jayhawk always keep audience of all age groups entertained.
Jayhawk even performed a dance along with Rock Chalk Dancers.
Jayhawk standout and NBA star Scot Pollard was the official host and entertained the crowd a lot.
Women Basketball team members performed dance sequences in groups of 4-4-3. Out of 12 members squad Nicollete Smith was not present for some family reasons.
Bonnie Henrickson gave a powerful speech and encouraged all people to attend the games and support the team.
It was nice to see all the returning players like Aishah Sutherland, Monica Engelman, Krysten Boogard, Carolyn Davis and Marisha Brown. It was good to see Angel Goodrich back in action in the scrimmage against practice squad. Tania Jackson also looked fit and participated in the scrimmage. It was nice to see new players on the team like Keena Mays, Brooke Jelniker, Diara Moore and Chalicia Harper aka CeCe.
There was an entertainment filler in between, which was really interesting.
The sponsors of the Program Hyvee gave some flashing light toys for all to play. They looks fabulous when the stadium was made dark.
Rock Chalk dancers again.
Then it was mens squad who took the stage for dancing
Even Coach Bill Self was dressed for the skit.
It was interesting watching these famous basketball players dancing on the floor.
Performance by KU band.
Some film clips about the Kansas Basketball program.
And finally introductions of men basketball squad.
And their scrimmage...
Both the teams look promising this season and let us see how they perform in the real games now.
