Scott has 3-on-3 success

By Ricky Adams/Ledger Correspondent
Published: July 19, 2008

George Scott is 33 years old and showing no signs of giving up playing the game of basketball.

Scott, who teaches speech and mass communication at Enterprise-Ozark Community College, and his three teammates recently won the Hoop It Up 3-on-3 Tournament in Louisville, Ky. and will be playing in the Hoop It Up World Championship Tournament in Hallandale, Fla., Aug. 23-34.

“I play for the love of the game,” Scott said. “I love to play basketball!”

His love for the game and his ability to still be able to play it were obvious in May when he played in the Enterprise High School alumni basketball game, and led the “veteran” team to victory against the 2006-07 Wildcat team that went 30-4.

Scott, a 1992 EHS graduate, played in the state tournament as a Wildcat before moving on to a collegiate career at the University of Southern Mississippi.
After that, he played professionally for several years in Europe for teams in Malta, Hungary and Germany.

Scott’s 3-on-3 team, Raw Pain, never practices. The other three members, Gary Stewart, Terry Delaney and Kellen Cole, all 26 years old, live in Tennessee.

Cole, of course, is the son of EOCC women’s basketball coach Charles Cole.

“I met these guys, except for Kellen, who I already knew, at a tournament in Nashville,” Scott said. “At 33, I’m the ‘veteran’ of the team. We’ve been playing together for two years but we don’t ever get to practice together; we just go play. We all play in leagues throughout the year, though.”

And play well.

Playing in the Top Gun Division of the 161-team Louisville tournament, Raw Pain lost its first game in pool play then roared back with six consecutive wins to claim the championship and move on to the August tournament.

“We faced really good competition in Louisville,” Scott noted. “As a team, the four of us have lost only two games since we began playing together. Our first
loss was in the semifinals of the world championship two years ago in Orlando.”

Hoop It Up 3-on-3 games are played to a 30-minute time limit or 20 points, whichever comes first. Baskets are worth one or two points.

Physical fitness is a must as Raw Pain players know, having played four games in one day en route to the tournament title in Louisville.

Physical fitness and prowess, however, aren’t the real keys to success.

“Three-on-three basketball is a mind game. You not only have to play well, you have to think about what you’re doing,” Scott explained.

“There are a lot of teams whose players think they can win on pure athleticism or basketball skills, but they can’t. You have to have a plan to win.”

Teams also have to have a plan to enter the tournaments.

“These tournaments cost money,” Scott explained. “Ariel Investments is the corporate title sponsor and Spalding is the co-sponsor.

“You pay to play in the tournaments, which are held in almost every major city across the country. Teams advance to the world championship by winning or finishing second in these ‘local’ events. There are qualifying tournaments in various cities every weekend until the world championship.

“There’s a Hoop It Up Web site, and there’s a lot of media exposure in tournament cities. We’d like to play in more of these tournaments for the experience,
but unlike many of the successful teams, we don’t have our own sponsor, but that’s not to say we don’t want one.”

Scott said anyone interested in becoming a sponsor or anyone desiring more information about Hoop It Up 3-On-3 Basketball can call him at 334-475-1528.