Fun Basketball Tournament Party Set-Up

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My brother-in-law has moved in with us and my living room has turned into a man cave during sports games. With all the big college basketball tournament starting up, I joined in on the fun and planned the ultimate basketball tournament watch party and made some amazing food including my Coca-Cola Meatballs that I share my recipe for down further and I show you how to turn your table into a basketball court. We had a lot of fun and I hope you’ll get some great ideas!

For my set-up, I wanted it to have a classic basketball theme so I started by turning our table into a dining room court. I simply cleaned it well and then took 3/4” white electrical tape and made all the lines for a basketball court. I used an illustration from Google images for reference and if I messed up, it was easy to pull a little off and start over!

Electrical tape is stretchy so it wasn’t very hard to make all the curves, but I did use a plastic plate to help me get an even circle in the middle. I love that it looks like a worn out basketball court.

To go with the basketball court we made a basketball hoop to go on the wall out of old pallets. Brandon got an old pallet, took it apart, cut five of the boards down (our pallets boards were 1X4’s), and then simply nailed them into two of the extra 1X4’s that were left over. I painted a white rectangle on it for the sweet spot and then looped a basketball net onto an old embroidery hoop I had, off set it a little so that the screw mechanism on the hoop would be offset and then nailed it into the backboard. It was so easy and I love the look it added.

For food I wanted to make a whole spread of things that were easy to grab and take back to the TV that way the guys wouldn’t miss a single minute of the game. For the main dish, I made these amazing Coca-Cola Meatballs. They were so easy to make and were the first thing gone, everyone loved them! Here’s how to make them for your party:

Ingredients:
2 lbs. of Beef Meatballs (I used frozen to make party day easier prep, or you can make your own)
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 can of Coca-Cola
1/2 cup of barbecue sauce
2 tbsps. of Grape Jam

First, put the meatballs into a pan. Pour in the brown sugar, Coca-Cola, barbecue sauce, and jam and stir. It will be hard to stir at first but try to get the meatballs a little wet on each side. Turn the burner on high until the mixture starts to boil (you can see that I am pouring it into a crock-pot here, I started making them in the crock-pot but then decided to make them on the stove. I’ll give the directions for the crock-pot too).

Once boiling, stir well, reduce heat to low and cover. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes and then remove from heat. Let the meatballs sit for about 10 minutes to allow the sauce to cool off and thicken on the balls. If you find that your sauce still isn’t thickening up, you can add flour and stir it in, a tablespoon at a time.

Serve with toothpicks so it’s easy to eat! For our party, I found these great toothpicks that looked like little cheerleader pom-poms. You can also make it in the cock-pot, just dump everything in, stir and let it cook for four hours on high, then turn it off and let it sit for an hour.

I wanted to make sure we had plenty of Coca-Cola products for the meatballs and for the guest to drink so I ran out to Sam’s Club the week before our party and picked up the 28 pack of Coca-Cola and a 24 pack of Sprites. I love being able to get everything I need in one place and get the soda in bulk so I can get it all at once.

We also had fruit kabobs with grapes, cheese balls to look like little basketballs, sliders, pizza bites, sweet potato fries, and oranges that I drew lines on to look like little basketballs!

I also had cupcakes in my party colors for dessert! I stayed with blues and oranges since basketballs are orange and blue goes great with everything!

To help tie everything together I added a cute basketball garland that I made. I started with a simple string of felt circles that seem to be all over the place lately. Next, I took a sharpie and drew a straight line down the middle, and a line perpendicular to that one, using a straight-edge to make my lines pretty.

Next I made two small half-circles to finish the basketball. Luckily for me, I had the perfect sized template near-by (Ford’s paci) but you could use a cup or cut a template out of cardboard to help you make smooth lines.

I always love to have some kind of flowers or greenery on the table at parties. I slipped a wrist-band over a mason jar full of carnations for an easy, cute sports feel.

I also made some cute pom-poms to be décor and for people to cheer on their teams with. They were really easy to make from a roll of crepe paper you can find in the party section.

I loved the way they looked on the table and broke out some of my best cheer skills for the game too.

We wanted to make brackets this year so we could follow along with the basketball tournament. I printed off extra brackets and had them on the table so that everyone could fill them out and join in on the fun.

I always enjoy a little friendly competition so I’ll definitely be checking in on how mine compares to everyone else’s through the season. I thought I’d share my brackets so yall could use them too! You can download the pdf and print them here.

The guys enjoyed some basketball and I had even set-up a mini basketball hoop so they could play during the commercial breaks. It was a lot of fun and made watching the game even more fun.

Will you be having a basketball party this year or are you making a bracket? This is the first year I’ve made one so I’ll be following along all season!