Senior attempts world-record game
Senior Brandon Carter practices Monday afternoon in the Student Recreation Center. Carter said he might need to take a vacation from basketball after playing in the marathon game this weekend. Jackie Kinealy/Index
While Div. 1 athletes play 40-minute basketball games in the NCAA Midwest Regionals this weekend at the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis, one Truman State senior is playing a 6,600-minute game across the street.
Senior Brandon Carter is one of 24 men who will attempt to continuously play basketball for 110 hours to break the Guinness World Record for longest basketball game and raise money for Joplin, Mo., — where the deadliest tornado in 60 years occurred this summer.
The tip off was 5 a.m. yesterday and ends 7 p.m. Sunday at the venue is the Missouri Athletic Club in downtown St. Louis.
Carter said he and his younger brother stumbled upon the team during Winter Break while playing a pick-up game at the YMCA. Two men on the court were organizing the record-breaking game and invited the Carter brothers to join, he said.
The game is raising money through corporate sponsorships and individual donors for the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce — an organization they chose because it dispenses money to individuals and businesses in need of assistance.
Carter said he helped persuade Wells-Fargo Advisers to sponsor one of the teams and to donate $10,000 — twice the amount required for a corporate sponsorship.
He said he’s been using a half-marathon training schedule to prepare for the four-and-a-half-day game, which “is less about basketball and more about endurance.” The training has put him in the best shape of his life, he said.
Carter said he loves basketball, but he’s expecting to need a long break from the game after hearing the sounds of the ball bouncing on a gym floor for 110 hours.
The event producers, who have organized two world-record baseball games, advised him to bring something completely unrelated to basketball to occupy him during his shifts off court, Carter said. For him, it will be homework.
Steve Pona, one of the event producers, said that when he checked earlier this week, the game had raised more than $100,000 and he hoped to raise $250,000 for Joplin by the final buzzer Sunday night.
Pona said disaster relief still is greatly needed.
“They’ll be rebuilding for 10 years,” Pona said based on his observations from a visit to Joplin eight weeks ago.
Pona said the fact that the NCAA tournament is across the street is not accidental.
“We planned to do the event while basketball was in the hearts and minds of the whole country,” he said.
Pona and his co-producer Chuck Williams started planning and training for the event a year-and-a-half ago.
The money raised through the basketball game will go into the Business Recovery Fund, which the Joplin Chamber of Commerce manages, Chamber Vice President Tonya Sprenkle said.
The fund provides low-interest loans and employee training for small business owners who need assistance returning to pre-tornado functioning. It also supports Children’s Haven, a daycare center that serves tornado-affected families.
Filed Under: Featured • News • Off campus • On campus
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