The Kennesaw State basketball teams welcomed the new season with Owl Madness.
Kennesaw State fans were in for a treat with this year’s 2023-2024 Owl Madness as fans were introduced to the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
The exhilarating atmosphere in the Owls’ home arena was filled with black and yellow pride and electrifying, radiant energy from KSU fans, coaches and both basketball teams. The KSU marching band and cheerleaders continued this energy with chants and the Owls War Song.
This year’s Owl Madness introduced new players from the men’s and women’s basketball teams, as the skills they exhibited during the scrimmage spoke for themselves.
The men’s basketball team introduces freshman RJ Johnsen, Frankquon Sherman, Chase Clemmons, and Marcus Whitlock—along with transfer students, Junior from West Virginia University Jamel King, senior from Alabama Delaney Heard; Jusan Holt and senior from UAB Rongie Gordon.
The women’s basketball team introduces freshman Kailyn Fields, Trynce Taylor, Sophia Rueppell—along with transfer students: Layla Hood, a sophomore from Mercer, Tania Allen a junior from Panola Collegeand Morgan Dillard a junior from Southern Mississippi.
Events included a three-point shooting contest with Rueppell winning on the women’s side and sophomore Simeon Cottle winning on the men’s side. In addition, there were half-court and other shooting contests between players on the team and student contestants from the audience. A dunking contest and exciting scrimmages amongst the women’s and men’s teams exhilarated the audience and the people at home as many players and coaches live-streamed the dunks on Instagram.
To diversify the event from the previous year, the teams invited three divine-nine organizations to stroll on the court. This is important as many players from the women’s team are involved in the culture along with the Men’s Head Coach Antoine Pettway who is a member of Omega Psi Phi. The event concluded with a poster autograph session where the fans could meet the players one-on-one.
Free T-shirts were given to the first 500 fans to arrive at the arena and were also thrown to people in the stands by cheerleaders.
Stay tuned as the men and women both prepare to start their 2023-2024 seasons this November. The men will open up their season with a home game against Oakwood at the Convocation Center on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m., meanwhile, the women will open their season on Nov. 6 at Vanderbilt.
