'King of the Court' draws 44 teams for 3-on-3 tournament

The shouts of enthused basketball fanatics could be heard from the parking lot at The School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation Saturday afternoon. The noise wasn't just the usual weekend pickup games in the HYPER gym, but the sound of the King of The Court Basketball tournament, hosted by the Business Career Entertainment Club.\n"The tournament was organized to provide members with hands on experience working sporting events," said senior BCEC member Matthew Kesten, who planned the event.\nKesten said he came up with the idea during the summer while working for a sports agency.\nThe main event was a three-on-three competition with 44 teams participating.\nBCEC members also organized a three-point and a half-court shot contest. Winners of the two competitions each received a Playstation 2 video game and a white King of the Court T-shirt, similar to the red version of the shirt worn by all the BCEC members working the event. Ben Labhart, Shon Nelson and Robbie Starkey, playing as the Office Prophets, won the tournament. They received 10 Playstation 2 games, a white T-shirt and free Chipotle for a month. All participants were also entered into a raffle consisting of donated prizes such as shirts and video games. Raffle prizes were given away periodically throughout the day.\nKesten, along with seniors Jon Levey, BCEC president, and Emily Finkelstein, BCEC co-sports director, planned the event for approximately four months. Preparation included publicity and marketing campaigns, setting up registration tables at dorms, placing flyers around campus, as well as buying an ad on the Facebook. \n"We put together the event from the banner to getting sponsors to making the bracket used for the tournament," Finkelstein said. "We hosted meetings throughout the year in the business school and formed subcommittees for things like the registration table and raffle prizes." \nFinkelstein, a sports marketing and management major with a minor in business, plans to go into a field involving organizing sporting events.\n"The event was a great way for students in the club to get hands on experience planning sporting events," Kinelstein said. "They get experience on how to deal with sponsors, delegate responsibility and form sub-committees."\nSenior Josh Rieders participated in the event and had only high praise to offer for the competition.\n"This is the best tournament at IU, period," Rieders said. "It's run by students, for students." \nRieders said he enjoyed the competitive nature of the tournament, but thinks students realized it was all in good spirit, which was apparent from the upbeat nature in the gym during the competition.\n"Everyone is just here to have a good time," Rieders said. "It's not cutthroat," \nHowever, the students participating in the tournament had more to enjoy than just the sporting event. In the lobby outside the basketball gymnasium, tables were set up offering free Domino's pizza to all the athletes along with free Red Bull and Monster Energy drinks. Spaah! offered free chair massages and EA Sports hosted a video game tournament. \nThe tournaments took place on half of the courts in the gymnasium, but Kesten said he hopes to change that for future events.\n"Next year, we hope to have more teams, more sponsors and get the entire court," Kesten said.