After a successful 2014 campaign, The Basketball Tournament is back for another run this summer, and they plan on doing it bigger and better. If you missed out on last summer’s tournament or do not know what it is, let me explain:
The Basketball Tournament or TBT is a winner-take-all, single elimination competition for players who are 18 years or older. Last summer’s tournament brought out some fantastic players such as Josh Selby, Marshall Henderson, Philadelphia’s own Hakeem Warrick, Aquille “Crimestopper” Carr, Smush Parker, and more.
Last season’s tournament was held at Philadelphia University and Boston University, as the Notre Dame Fighting Alumni led by All-Big East players Torin Francis, Chris Thomas, and Russell Carter took home the championship by defeating Team Barstool 72-68. Team Barstool was led by Ross Burns, Dave Portnoy, Dan Katz, and Los Angeles Clipper Dahntay Jones. The Fighting Alumni went home with $500,000, and will be back this summer to defend their title.
But this summer’s tournament will be tough for the Fighting Alumni to win as the tourney field has expanded to 96 teams across the country. The four regional sites for the tournament will be Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. What also brings some excitement to the tournament is the great partnership they have with the ESPN networks. ESPNU will begin broadcasting the tournament when they get to the Super 17 in Chicago on July 23. On that day, the defending champs will make their TBT debut.
After that, whoever makes it out of Chicago will go to New York to try and win the illustrious grand prize of $1M on August 2 on ESPN at 3:00 pm ET.
Just being at the event last summer was fun, seeing great basketball being played, and witnessing a fun atmosphere as teams fought for the $500,000 grand prize. This summer, I expect the same kind of intensity as here will be 96 teams involved from all over the country. I have a feeling that we are going to see some great basketball over summer.
If you want to enter a team into the TBT, all you have to do is check out http://www.thetournament.com/ for more information.
If you missed what happened at last summer’s TBT, you are in luck. Here is a video detailing what happened at the games.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FEhZL2mw_Y]Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
