The annual 3 v 3 basketball tournament took place on Saturday afternoon at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Recreational Eagle Center. A total of seven teams and over 30 students were participated in the tournament.  

The tournament was hoping to gain some notoriety, particularly because of the rise of the Big 3 League (BIG3) created by rapper/actor Ice Cube. BIG3 is a 3 on 3 basketball league mainly consists of former NBA players incuding players such as Allen Iverson, Mike Bibby and Chauncey Billups. The league had its inaugural season in the summer of 2017 and is expected to return this coming summer.  

The tournament adapted its rules to conform to those of the BIG3. UWL graduate student Marina Garcia, one of the two event coordinators for the Rec Center, said, “We decided to do the Big 3v3, so kind of like a mashup of the Big 3… and normal 3v3 basketball rules.”  

One of these rules included the introduction of the 4-point circle. If players had any part of any foot on this circle when they made a shot, their team was awarded four points 

Garcia did not pull this off alone as she said that “we had a couple volunteers come out and keep score, so that was really nice, for us and for them to have volunteer hours.” 

“The games have been competitive, and that has made the event really entertaining,” stated UWL junior Cole Eron, a spectator at the event. UWL junior Ben Janquart, who was a player on one of the teams in the tournament, echoed that as he said, “I was asked if I wanted to play, and it’s been real fun playing out there.  

The next competitive event that will be put on by REC sports is the “Battleship” event on April 6. The event will take place in the pool at Mitchell Hall.  According to Rec Sports, “four person teams use buckets and other tools to “attack” other canoes with water until the competing team’s canoe is sunk and/ or tipped over.” The event will be from 6:00 P.M to 10:00 P.M. Registration for this event will go out sometime later this month.