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Warhawks plan special tip-off event

WHITEWATER — The college basketball season ends with March Madness.

This season, the UW-Whitewater basketball teams will start their seasons with Midnight Madness.

The Warhawk teams will be introduced to students and fans with a Midnight Madness night Thursday.

Included in the planned events are contests, giveaways and a show from the Milwaukee Bucks Rim Rocker Dunk Team.

Doors at the Kachel Gymnasium in the Williams Center open at 8:30 p.m., with activities set to begin at 9.

Admission is $1 for students with a valid ID, $2 without an ID and free for children 12 and younger. The event is set up to entertain fans, along with introducing the men’s and women’s teams and to build excitement for the upcoming season.

Change set for 2011

football schedule

WIAC football teams will begin playing one other conference team twice a season—once as a nonconference game—starting in 2011 to reduce costs.

WIAC commissioner Gary Karner said the game will “reduce the number of long-distance trips, particularly those involving air travel” in the nonconference part of the season.

“The current economic climate combined with limited opportunities we have for scheduling other Division III institutions located in the upper Midwest … leaves us with few viable alternatives.”

If economic conditions change, the nonconference game against a WIAC opponent can be more easily changed than a game against a non-WIAC school, Karner said.

The conference already has moved back starting times for some games to eliminate the need for overnight stays for visiting teams.

Whitewater, for example, bussed to Menomonie on Saturday morning for its 3 p.m. game against the Blue Devils. In the past, Warhawk football teams would have traveled to Stout on Friday night.