As the basketball teams get set to head out to the Pac-10
Tournament tomorrow, there’s a growing perception that
Washington State is the team to beat. And that’s without
first-team all-conference player Thomas Kelati. After all, having
captured the title the past few years, the Cougars seem to feel
right at home at the Staples Center. In the past, they’ve
even locked up the tournament before stepping foot inside the
arena.
Before scanning this column for some April Fools’ tagline,
take a trip downtown to the Staples Center and check out the teams
for yourself. This little riddle might then start to make more
sense.
As the Pac-10 schools’ varsity programs compete under the
bright lights for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, these
institutions’ 3-on-3 teams will be playing on the street just
outside for prizes from a group of event sponsors. But these
streetballers will have received their biggest prize just by
reaching the smaller tournament.
Last month, each of the respective Pac-10 schools held 3-on-3
tournaments, with the winning team earning an all-expense paid trip
to Los Angeles this weekend to compete against each other. Granted,
this incentive may not be as appealing to UCLA students as it is
for Washington State students who only get to experience this city
through reruns of Baywatch or Beverly Hills 90210. I’m just
surprised the Cougars have been so successful here in the past
while contending with unfamiliar distractions like the sun.
“All the other teams get to travel and fly out, so that
kind of sucks,” said Anusha Kalbasi, who is part of
UCLA’s team. “But they give us a free room, so we might
as well use it.”
Meanwhile, the women’s 3-on-3 teams traveled to San Jose
last weekend for their event, and I’m not sure whether this
trip was considered a perk or punishment. But for the students that
went, it wasn’t the city so much as the wine-and-dine
atmosphere that made the brief excursion more than worthwhile.
“You almost feel like a collegiate athlete,” said
fifth-year Kelly Tiao, whose team lost to eventual champion Arizona
State in the second round. “We stay in real nice executive
rooms. We’re kind of spoiled.”
With some free apparel and a courtesy dinner at a nice
restaurant included in the package, it should come as no surprise
that between the men and women, over 60 teams showed up for
UCLA’s one-day tournament.
“In the regular IM’s, you just get a T-shirt,”
Kalbasi said. “Here, you get a little more, so it’s
more exciting.”
Each team hoped to move on to the bigger stage, which is
slightly ironic because the next level mimics more of an overblown
outdoor neighborhood pick-up game. The streets are blocked off, the
music is turned up, and about 150 fans stop to watch, not all of
them dense enough to believe it is the main event.
The glorification of this streetball competition doesn’t
end there. The eventual men’s champion will be introduced at
halftime during Saturday’s championship game of the Pac-10
Tournament.
“I was a walk-on my freshman year, but this will be
something I remember more,” Tiao said of the women’s
3-on-3 event.
Tiao and Kalbasi acknowledged that the competition is fiercer in
this event than in the regular intramural circuit. Without referees
for the early rounds of the qualifying event, I can only imagine
how many extra hard fouls were committed as visions of San Jose or
Figueroa Street danced around in players’ heads.
“It gets pretty physical,” Tiao said. “No
one’s really nice about it because everyone’s trying to
win.”
It may not be win at all costs, but winning the tournament gives
the students a glimpse of the high life at no cost. And who would
have thought that this kind of life could be found across town or
in San Jose just by playing streetball?
E-mail Finley at afinley@media.ucla.edu if you think
Washington State will really win the Pac-10 Tournament.