PHILADELPHIA — The Basketball Tournaments starts Saturday with regional play in Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina. Boeheim’s Army, a team composed of SU basketball alumni, plays at 6 p.m. in the northeast region’s preliminary round home of Philadelphia University. As the region’s No. 3 seed, the former Orange take on 14-seed DuBois Dream, a team of players hailing from the DuBois, Pennsylvania area. As the seeding shows, DuBois Dream is a clear underdog.

Here’s what else you need to know for this weekend’s action:

What is The Basketball Tournament?

TBT is a 64-team, single-elimination tournament. The games are five-on-five. Anyone older than 18 is eligible, and most teams are made up of guys who played for the same college program or grew up in the same city. It is broadcast and streamed by ESPN. The winning team takes home a prize of $2 million.

Teams enter through a variety of avenues. Nine teams in each of the four regions are chosen strictly by fan voting. Boeheim’s Army was one of the top vote-getters in the northeast region. Six more are at-large teams, meaning they met certain requirements, including the minimum of 100 fans and seven players. The final team in each region competed in a play-in tournament, called TBT Jamboree.

Meet the squad

New members of Boeheim’s Army include Trevor Cooney, John Gillon, Scoop Jardine and DaShonte Riley. Altogether, the roster includes eight current pros. Also playing are current SU assistant Eric Devendorf, C.J. Fair, Rick Jackson, Donte Greene, James Southerland and Brandon Triche. However, Southerland is unavailable this weekend because he’s out west participating in the NBA summer league play, and Greene won’t be in Philadelphia until Sunday. Boeheim’s Army will play then if it wins Saturday.

The team is coached by former SU big man Ryan Blackwell and managed Kevin Belbey, a former student manager for SU and a graduate of both the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and SU’s College of Law.

Joe Bloss | Senior Staff Writer

Throwback at TBT

This the third TBT entry for Boeheim’s Army in TBT’s four-year existence. Last year, it advanced the Super 16, after going one step further the year before and losing in the regional championship game. 2016’s loss came at the hand’s of The Untouchables, a team of mostly Pitt alumni. In 2015, Boeheim’s Army was a top seed but fell in a close matchup to City of Gods, a team that had five players with NBA experience.

Former players not joining the Army this year include Hakim Warrick and Demetris Nichols.

Counting chickens before they hatch

It’ll take a two wins from each team to get there, but should top seeds prevail, Boeheim’s Army would meet SuperNova, a team of Villanova alumni in the Super 16. SuperNova’s roster is made up of multiple players from Villanova’s 2009 Final Four team, including Scottie Reynolds and Reggie Redding. The matchup would be clash of a storied Big East rivalry.

If Boeheim’s Army wins Saturday, it will play the winner of City of Gods and Gaelnation, a team of Iona alumni.

Published on July 8, 2017 at 5:00 pm

Contact: jtbloss@syr.edu | @jtbloss