By Eric Poe/sports editor
SE Campus’ version of March Madness will begin March 3 with its annual basketball tournament.
Intramural coordinator Shahzad Nazir said beginner-level players should be aware of the intensity of basketball.
“It’s just the nature of the game,” he said. “It’s a competitive environment. It can get way too competitive. We try to encourage anyone to come out and have fun, but it might be a sticky situation for beginners.”
Instructional aide Ian Ussery, who assists with SE intramurals, said the competitiveness increases as the basketball tournament goes on.
“Sometimes it’s a good thing, and sometimes it’s a bad thing,” he said.
Ussery said the tournament’s unpredictability is part of the appeal.
“Every year, it’s different,” he said. “There is more of a turnover with the turnout. It’s fun watching them and seeing how they fare year to year. And with new players you never know what you’re going to get.”
The tournament will be three-on-three, coed and half-court style. The prize for the winners will be gym bags and watches.
Each team is allowed a maximum of one substitute on its bench.
The games will be 25 minutes of high-paced basketball, so the substitute will definitely be needed, Nazir said.
“Depending on the amount of teams, we’ll have single elimination like March Madness, double [elimination] if there’s not too many teams,” he said.
The tournament has room for 10 teams, and Nazir hopes to have at least six or eight, which he said is how many participated last year.
“Hopefully, some of them will play again,” he said. “But most of our intramurals have a lot of participants because a lot of the players are there for extra credit, so we should have enough.”
SE student Tobi Adalumo said he will play in the tournament even though he doesn’t play too often.
“I’m not a big basketball guy, but I do like to play,” he said. “It’s just for fun. Plus, I’ll get some conditioning in.”
Nazir said his secondary goal for the tournament besides promoting fitness is to set up a competition with the other campuses.
“Hopefully, we can get together a district tournament,” he said. “TR had three-on-three last semester, but there’s no money in the budget since they have to rent a gym, so it might not happen, unfortunately. It may end up just our campus.”
