It may not be the NBA playoffs that are coming to NIU, but a basketball tournament, sponsored by NIU’s Special Physical Education Teaching-Research Clinic, will be just as important for about 60 mentally retarded athletes.

The clinic is sponsored by the Physical Education Department. Several NIU physical education students and graduate students, who are members of the Physical Education Majors Club, will volunteer as officials and timers for the Feb. 22 tournament, Research Clinic Director Garth Tymeson said.

“The tournament is fun. It’s a good time for the athletes,” Special Physical Education Professor John Dlabal said. The athletes will travel field-trip style with coaches and cheerleaders to Anderson Hall for the event, which lasts from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In addition to “a good time,” the tournament helps the athletes understand the importance of camaraderie, physical fitness components, and knowledge of basketball skills and rules, Dlabal said.

The athletes, who are part of either their school team or a team from a retarded individuals’ center, usually spend two months in practice with their basketball teams in preparation for the tournament, Dlabal said.

The 12 teams invited to participate are part of a league organized by special and adapted physical education teachers. The teams are from areas including Rockford, Dixon, Aurora, and Chicago.

Dlabal said one team from Westchester will have only six players because many parents felt awkward about letting their children travel to such an event. Of the 12 teams invited, only eight are known to definitely participate.

The athletes will compete against each other in “A” and “B” divisions, depending on their Intelligence Quotients (IQ), for fairness of the games, Dlabal said.

There will be three games taking place simultaneously with three new games beginning every hour. By the end of the tournament, a winning team will be decided in both the “A” and “B” divisions.

This is the fifth year the Special Physical Education Teaching-Research Clinic is sponsoring the basketball tournament, Dlabal said.