by Mikal J. Harris

DE Campus Life Editor

Unless they were able to attend the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis earlier this month, most Saluki basketball fans are unaware of the MVC 3-on-3 Tournament championship captured by a determined group of SIUC student-athletes.

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Ryan Coleman, Mario Collins, John Hamater and Daryl Ramsey may be the campus’ best-kept secret.

They all can be found at the Recreation Center on any given day spending endless hours on the basketball courts. For Coleman, Collins and Hamater, a love of basketball often can spill over into their work with the Recreation Center’s Intramural Sports Program.

But even as Final Four college basketball tournament action has a firm grip on most hoop fans, the drama of March Madness does little to quell the SIUC students’ euphoria of capturing a championship at St. Louis’ Kiel Center.

The wood floor, the size of the arena getting a chance to play at the Kiel Center where the big boys play was great, said Coleman, a senior in art and design from Peoria. I love playing basketball, and this was an opportunity to do what I love to do.

For Coleman, an avid sports enthusiast who claims to have been playing basketball since he began walking, the MVC 3-on-3 Tournament was the chance of a lifetime.

The MVC 3-on-3 Tournament is a double-elimination tournament allowing winners the opportunity to play the championship game at the Kiel Center home of the MVC basketball tournament. Preliminary 3-on-3 tournament rounds are played at St. Louis’ downtown YMCA, and games consisted of two eight-minute halves.

The 10 MVC teams besides SIUC are Bradley, Creighton, Drake, Illinois State, Indiana State, Southwest Missouri State University, Wichita State University, University of Northern Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa.

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SIUC’s 3-on-3 team members received a championship trophy, commemorative medals and assorted prizes, but all four agree the experience of being honored as champions in front of 9,288 fans during half-time of the MVC Championship game was the biggest prize of all.

But the road to that opportunity was not an easy one. The team lost its first game to Indiana State and had to win six straight March 1 to make the championship game March 2.

We took our first game lightly, Coleman said. We knew we better than the other team, and after we lost that first one it kind of tipped us off.

Collins, a senior in recreation from Chicago, sprained his ankle during that contest. Because of the challenge facing his team, he decided to continue to play and forgo treatment.

I tied it up and didn’t let anyone know about it, he said. Once I got treated for my ankle, I felt like we were ready.

Once we got to the Kiel Center it made everything sweeter.

Herman Williams, assistant director of Intramural Recreational Sports and coach of SIUC’s 3-on-3 champions, said the team’s great chemistry was the leading factor in their success. Although team members regularly had played together at the Recreation Center and in various other tournaments, Williams organized SIUC’s 3-on-3 team in less than a month.

Williams’ recruiting skills obviously were on point.

You would have thought they had been playing together for years, he said.

Ramsey, a junior in business from La Grange, is looking forward to participating in a National Basketball Association camp this summer. Although he has participated in numerous tournaments and, like Collins, was a heavily recruited basketball player in high school, he believes the opportunity he was afforded by participating in SIUC’s intramural programs was an immense benefit for him.

He believes the programs can help other students as well especially those who may not have played many sports in high school.

It gives students another chance to live out their dreams, he said.