NORWICH – The City of Norwich showed signs of the hustle and bustle of Gus Macker weekend by Thursday afternoon, and the action should only build toward Sunday’s final game. Hoops will go up throughout the day today, and downtown will have come alive before Saturday’s 8 a.m. opening ceremony.

The Norwich basketball tournament that organizers expect to draw more than 10,000 visitors to the city is a tradition that is more than a decade in the making. The weekend has become more than something to watch within the 3 point line.

The three-on-three games will begin on courts set up in the middle of East Main Street at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. About 440 teams – the majority made up of 12-16 year olds – are registered to compete this year on the 25 basketball courts lined up back to back. Fifty percent of the participants hail from Chenango, Broome and Onondaga counties. The rest travel to Norwich from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts and Vermont.

Norwich Family YMCA Executive Director Jamey Mullen said the basketball tradition was born of the ideas of several local individuals who wanted to “come up with some ideas that would put Norwich on the map.”