Usually I'd think of a team featuring Mike Martin, Darius Defoe and Damaja Stewart as pretty big. But, compared to a lot of the other squads here, they were tiny.

The guys were escorted into a hut behind the court, where they were given their kits and handed various consent forms to sign.

There were a few games before Midnight Madness were due on court - so the guys got to sit, watch and evaluate the level of competition.

Well, it didn't take long for one guy to prove that the French could bring the highlights as he threw down a vicious, cock-back, one hander right in some dude's grill. The place went nuts.

For most of the day, the weather hadn't been too bad. But shortly before Midnight Madness's game was due to start, the heavens opened.

At any other tournament, this would have spelt disaster - but at Quai 54 they have a back up plan. Just a few hundred yards away was a decent sports hall with glass backboards and a nice, springy floor. So the hundreds of ballers and spectators pulled their hoods up and made their way to the indoor venue.

The atmosphere at the sports hall was pretty amazing. The crowd seemed a lot bigger when crammed into the bleachers, and the combination of rain and body heat meant it was hot and humid as hell in the gym.

Midnight Madness faced X-Men in their first game (a name I remembered from the Quai 54 DVD).

Point guard Perry Lawson was confident: "It's not a problem...it's definitely not a problem," he said.

"We didn't come here to lose! I say semi-finals at least".

But right from the outset it was clear that getting the W would be tough.