MoveWittPurpose
Madison Memorial alum Shareef Smith, the reigning league MVP, says the Mavericks’ goal this season is clear: a title.
As the Madison Mavericks basketball team scrimmages at a training facility on the city’s southeast side, co-owner and general manager Roy Boone watches and provides commentary on the players — some positive, some critical, all of it spoken quietly.
An east side hoops legend, one of the best basketball players to ever come out of Madison and a key member of the Wisconsin Badgers team that made it to the 2000 Final Four, Boone has a lot of hoops wisdom to share. But you’ve got to lean in to hear it.
“I’m not the coach, but I think like a coach. I already know where these guys should be playing, how many minutes, how many points we should get out of them,” Boone says.
The Mavericks are a minor, semi-pro team playing in the Hype Hoops League. Their season kicks off against the Chicago Rebels on April 6, at noon at the Madison College gym, 1701 Wright St. They’ll play 12 regular season games, six at home, over the next three months. And based on this scrimmage, fans can expect a high-scoring, fast-paced, competitive style of play.
“We get up and down,” says Boone, who adds that the club is trying to ramp up attendance from an average of about 150 each game last year with halftime promotions and community partnerships with organizations like Special Olympics. The team is planning a youth reading initiative for the season, too.
For many years, Boone ran a successful summer league that drew a who’s who list of Madison basketball talent, including Division I players and even NBA veteran Wesley Matthews, a Madison Memorial graduate. And it’s a testament to his influence within the Madison basketball community that so many accomplished players have tried out for or returned to play with the Mavericks, which made it to the 25-team Hype Hoops League semi-finals last summer.
The team’s roster includes former Madison high school stars like David Turner from La Follette, Shareef Smith from Memorial and Marquis Mason from East. Many of them are like Mitch Listau, a Waunakee graduate whose college career was derailed by injuries.
“I graduated from Green Bay in ’21 and I was kinda done with basketball. College hoops just wore me out,” Listau says. Mavericks’ Instagram posts started popping into his feed and late last summer, that casual interest turned into something more serious. “Tryouts went well and it just felt good to be playing basketball again. Any basketball after college is awesome. It’s a blessing to be out on the court.”
The HHL was founded by CEO Tamara Moore, a member of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame and, from 1998 to 2002, a star on the Badgers women’s basketball team. She and Boone were Badgers at the same time and have been friends ever since. She’s the one who talked Boone into starting a semi-pro team in Madison.
“Roy is quiet, but he has a big demeanor,” says Moore. “He’s been a good business partner. He’s laid back, but gets the job done.”
That job is clear this season, according to point guard and reigning league MVP Shareef Smith.
“A championship,” Smith says. “We’ve pretty much completed everything we’ve wanted to as a team other than that.”
