Pitt seniors win Ballin’ on Bigelow basketball tournament

Although it was a chilly morning, ballers started warming up on Bigelow Boulevard a little before 10 a.m.

Wearing basketball shorts matched with sweatshirts and sneakers, students stretched out their hamstrings and checked their shoelaces one last time before taking the court for Pitt’s newest basketball tournament — Ballin’ on Bigelow — Sunday afternoon.

Police cars blocked off both sides of the boulevard from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the Pitt Program Council and Pitt Recreation’s inaugural three-on-three tournament.

“We chose this event because people love basketball at Pitt,” PPC’s Recreation Director Seth Stayer said. “It is a huge draw.”

Using IMLeagues to pre-register, 41 teams of three to five students — decked out in color-coordinated t-shirts — competed for bragging rights, a medal prize and a set of free tickets to see ESPN sports commentator Stephen A. Smith speak at the William Pitt Union Oct. 25.

Before the games began, players shivered as they made their way to the sign-in table and started warming up near the makeshift courts. But by the end of the game, players with flushed faces and t-shirts drenched in sweat were scurrying around for water bottles to cool themselves off.

The tournament followed a simple single-elimination bracket — after 15 minutes of play the team with the most points advanced to the next round while the losing team was eliminated.

Six half-courts hosted 12 teams simultaneously as a DJ provided entertainment for players and drew in the attention of people passing by.

The idea for the tournament originated with Pitt Recreation, who then approached the PPC with the idea of hosting the outdoor contest. Both groups pooled their resources to close down the street and market the event to students on campus.

“Yeah it was awesome — we just wanted to play. We didn’t know we would get this far,” said senior Christopher Richards, a member of Team X, the tournament winners.

The three team members of Team X — seniors Shane Craig, Michael Leasure and Richards — were also involved in a different basketball tournament during their first year at Pitt.

“We lost that in the semifinals, so now that we are seniors it’s like our redemption tournament,” Leasure said.

Besides Ballin’ on Bigelow, local Sunday festivities included the annual Donut Dash in Schenley Plaza and the tail-end of Pitt’s Family Weekend. Families passing through campus stopped to watch students put up free throws, layups and jump shots.

“I think that it actually helped because we kind of had more of a crowd, more of a spectacle,” said Whitney Jones, who helped to organize the event through Pitt Recreation. “So I think it kind of helped having more events going on because everyone was down in the central location.”

The PPC is hopeful that after this year’s success, the tournament will be back and will start a new tradition at Pitt.

“I think there is a lot of interest to do it again,” Jones said. “There are things that we would change, that we will have to figure out what we want to do better and what we want to change a little bit next year, but yeah, I think it is something we could do on a yearly basis.”