Last Thursday, a team of Kansas basketball alumni competed in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 64-team single-elimination basketball tournament for a grand prize of $2,000,000.
Despite the talent of the team, Sideline Cancer defeated Self Made in Wichita.
TBT is an annual competition that had its inaugural tournament in 2014. Since then, TBT has gained traction and fans, with its games being broadcast on ESPN networks.
Many of the teams that make up the field are based on alumni from specific colleges, for example, AfterShocks (Wichita State Alumni) and Best Virginia (West Virginia Alumni). Despite many teams being made up alumni, it isn’t a requirement; as a matter of fact, Overseas Elite is a squad made up of players who played their college ball all over the country.
Overseas Elite has won the past four TBT competitions dating back to 2015 (Notre Dame Fighting Alumni won in 2014 and are the only other team to have won the tournament).
Self Made, the Kansas Basketball alumni team had an impressive résumé, to say the least. All of the players enjoyed success while in college and all have also gone on to professional careers spending time on NBA rosters and playing in various overseas leagues.
The Roster:
#0 Darrell Arthur
#3 Jeremy Case
#5 Naadir Tharpe
#10 Tyshawn Taylor
#15 Elijah Johnson
#23 Mario Little
#24 Travis Releford
#33 Landen Lucas
#34 Perry Ellis
#40 Kevin Young
Even with all the accolades and talent, Self Made fell to Sideline Cancer by a score of 63-87 in Wichita at Koch Arena.
Within the first minute of the game, Perry Ellis injured his knee and would leave the court for the duration of the game. Ellis, a Wichita native tweeted his disappointment:
https://twitter.com/PElliz/status/1154574384352366593
Ellis has received support from his Self Made teammates as well as other Jayhawks, including Coach Bill Self and Ben McLemore.
Mario Little was the high scorer for Self Made, dropping 21 points, while Elijah Johnson led all players with 5 assists.
Sideline Cancer was too much to handle though and out-rebounded Self Made by a margin of 14. Self Made also struggled from the field, only shooting 41% on the night.
Even though the result may not have been favorable, it was an exciting roster that included players that had played at Kansas from 2005 through 2017. Hopefully, Self Made will make a return in next year’s TBT with another fun roster of former Jayhawks looking to make a run deep into the tournament.
You can catch the TBT championship game on August 6th at 8:00 PM CT on ESPN.