WESTON — The number of players on each team was the same, but Sunday’s inaugural Badger State Games three-on-three basketball tournament at Greenheck Field House had notable differences from the Gus Macker that recently ended its run in Wausau.
For starters, the games of the Badgerland 3v3 Championships took place inside, out of the weather. In Sunday’s case, that meant out of the very gusty winds.
That was just fine by 31-year-old Arriel Council of Stevens Point.
“This is a lot better versus outside,” Council said. “Then you got that wind messing with you, the crooked courts, the unlevel ground. You can play like you play when you practice when you play inside.”
Another big difference, said Wisconsin Sports Services associate director Adam Klinkhammer, is having trained officials working every game.
“One of the negative parts of Gus Macker is the fact that it just got really rough,” Klinkhammer said. “Having officiated games, having somebody monitoring the games, enforcing the rules of basketball … just having a person on each court to make sure that everything stays in control.”
Derrik Skains, 21, of Wausau said he likes having games officiated rather than players calling their own fouls “because otherwise you have people calling fouls on every play.”
One of those wielding a whistle Sunday was Jason Vanden Elzen, assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County, who said he’s glad to see a three-on-three tournament back in central Wisconsin.
“I’ve been a local official for going on 10 years,” he said, “so I think it’s a great way to help stay involved in basketball.”
Wausau Newman Catholic High School ended its partnership with the Gus Macker Corp. in September, citing a rise in fixed costs to operate the tournament and a decrease in the number of teams participating. That prompted officials with Wausau/Central Wisconsin Sports Authority, an agency of the Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention & Visitors Bureau, to add a basketball tournament to the Badger State Summer Games.
“When the Gus Macker left, we didn’t want to see basketball leave the community,” said Visitors Bureau Executive Director Dick Barrett. “So we partnered up with Wisconsin Sports Services and basically worked together. … I think this thing’s going to grow like crazy in the next couple years.”
A total of 34 teams competed in Sunday’s three-on-three event, with about half that number taking part in a five-on-five tourney Saturday.
Although that’s far fewer than the nearly 400 teams that played in the 2013 Macker, Barrett said organizers are happy with the turnout, especially because they had only about six weeks to pull it together. He said they also were pleased with the quality of play.
“It’s amazing some of these good players that are here,” Barrett said. “They come from all around the state. I know (Saturday), we noticed that almost three-quarters of them or more were from out of the area, which is great.”
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