NATCHEZ – Saturday’s &uot;Put Up or Shut Up&uot; Tournament at the Martin Gymansium was supposed to be the first 3-on-3 tournament played in this city in 10 years.

Instead, a tournament that Joe Joe Eidt and former Natchez High basketball standout Reggie Ware first talked about doing last summer ended up being no tournament at all.

&uot;I’m really disappointed,&uot; Eidt said. &uot;I was hoping we would have at least eight teams. It was a try, an effort.&uot;

&uot;We had a lot of commitments,&uot; Ware said. &uot;We had several people that said they were going to show up, but they didn’t.

&uot;We wanted to provide Natchez with a 3-on-3 tournament with an indoor atmosphere,&uot; he said.

For there to have been an actual tournament there would have had to be a minimum of eight teams.

Eidt said his goal was to have 16 teams, which meant that the tournament would go from its scheduled 9 a.m. start until the early evening.

&uot;I don’t know if it was the holiday or just people didn’t want to spend their money,&uot; Eidt said.

Instead, only two teams showed up at the Martin Gym – one from Franklin County and the other from Sibley.

Eidt said that the timing to have such a tournament could have been a little off.

&uot;Maybe we should’ve waited until the Recreation League started&uot; after the holidays, he said.

Eidt also said that the Natchez Recreation Department has mentioned trying to put on a 3-on-3 tournament in the spring.

&uot;Hopefully, they’ll have a better turnout than we did,&uot; he said.