Kansas Alumni Hoops beats K-State in devastating fashion in TBT tournament

Look away Wildcat fans, you won’t want to relive this!
NCAA Second Round: Dayton Flyers v Kansas Jayhawks
NCAA Second Round: Dayton Flyers v Kansas Jayhawks | Jonathan Daniel/GettyImages

Every year, The Basketball Tournament (TBT) hosts a million dollar, winner takes all, event. It is an open-invitation single-elimination bracket where many alumni of different college basketball schools form a team to compete. The Kansas Jayhawks alumni team, JHX Hoops, just had an incredibly memorable win in the TBT against their rivals in the K-State alumni team, Purple Reign.

JHX Hoops consists of a lot of memorable names and KU cult legends, such as Zeke Mayo, who played for Kansas last season, as well as David McCormack, Jamari Traylor, Tyshawn Taylor, LeGerald Vick, and more! Meanwhile, the Purple Reign also controversially had a former Jayhawk on their alumni team in Cam Martin.

The TBT is best known for their “Elam Ending” where the game-clock is turned off towards the end of the game and teams must hit a “target score” in order to seal the deal and win the game. In the JHX Hoops vs Purple Reign game, the target score was 58 and the Jayhawks ended up being the team to hit that mark first to advance to the next round with a 59-57 win.

It was how JHX Hoops toppled the Purple Reign that will live on in TBT history however. The Purple Reign choked the game-winning basket away not once, not twice, not three times, but four times in the final possessions of the game, most notably on the final play of the game where they turned the ball over and LeGerald Vick hit a game-winning contested layup.

Purple Reign’s Shaun Williams was JHX Hoops secret weapon in a way

JHX Hoops struggled to make shots all game, finishing the game just 2/15 from beyond the arc, but were relentless on defense and pounded the paint, resulting in 28 free throws. When the Elam Ending target score was announced as 58, it was a tight back-and-forth game, but KU led by two. K-State then took a late lead and were ahead 57-53, needing just one more point to win.

The KU Alumni looked inches away from losing, but Purple Reign’s Shuan Williams smoked a layup for the win. Following some free throws from JHX Hoops and a nice Tyshawn Taylor layup, the game was then tied at 57 a piece. After a missed shot by K-State and a turnover by KU’s Zeke Mayo, JHX big man Billy Preston fouled Purple Reign’s Williams, giving him two free throw chances to secure the win.

Not only did Williams miss the first free throw… but he missed the second free throw as well, with the pressure clearly getting to him. Unfortunately, JHX Hoops was unable to secure the rebound and it gave Purple Reign their 4th chance at victory. This is when it happened:

LeGareld Vick scored his very first points of the game on a phenomenal steal and transition layup, leading to a bench-clearing celebration for JHX Hoops. He has been a mainstay on the KU Alumni team for TBT since 2023 and came up huge in this spot, securing JHX Hoops' spot in the next round and crushing the K-State Alumni team’s dreams at the same time.

JHX Hoops will face off with the top-seeded Heartfire, who won TBT back in 2023. The game takes place on Wednesday, July 23rd at 7:00pm EDT. Rock Chalk!