Boeheim’s Army, the Syracuse alumni team, will face Team Brotherly Love in The Basketball Tournament’s regional final tomorrow at 2 p.m. for a spot in the eight-team final for a $2 million prize. Brotherly Love knocked off Armored Athletes, 90-82, in one semifinal, while BA defeated Gael Nation 84-74 behind Eric Devendorf’s 20 points Saturday afternoon. 

Before tip-off at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena, Team Brotherly Love assistant coach Danny Holdsman answered some questions from the The Daily Orange about Boeheim’s Army’s next opponent.

The Daily Orange: What is something that everyone should know about Team Brotherly Love? What’s allowed this roster to click so far?

Danny Holdsman: These guys have been together well before I got involved with the team. I think the core group of guys are going on, I want to say, their fifth or sixth summer together coached and organized by Tony Paris, who’s a workout guy in the Philly area. It’s guys who either grew up or played college ball in the area. A couple Drexel guys — Frantz Massenat, Samme Givens, Shannon started his career there, Samme’s brother. Ramone Moore, Semaj Inge played at Temple. Michael Ringgold and Novar Gadson played together at Rider. Wayne Marshall played at Temple, predated Rumon and Samaj.

And then the new addition to the roster this year is Maurice Watson Jr., who finished his college career at Creighton, but is another guy from the Philly area. The main connect between everyone is Philadelphia in some aspect — be that growing up, playing college ball there, or both — and led by Tony Paris, who grew up in Brooklyn but has moved to the Philly area and kind of worked his basketball career there. And then this year, I got involved with them. So long story short, that’s Team Brotherly Love.

D.O.: Out of those players you named, who’s one to keep an eye on and who’s an underdog that has the potential to break out?

D.H.: I was talking to a friend earlier today, and I said that Frantz Massenat and Novar Gadson are the two best players you’ve never heard of. Just in the sense that the guys played mid-major college basketball, haven’t spent any time in the NBA but have been quietly killing it overseas for years and have shown that in TBT, at least over the past two years — the Talladega Knights and now this team. Samme Givens is another one of those guys that has been consistently lighting it up.

The underdog guy I would probably have to say it’s between Shannon Givens and Maurice Watson Jr., two of our smaller guards off the bench. Both have the ability to be spark plugs and haven’t really broken out yet in the tournament compared to what I’ve seen them do. I think those two guys could have big games.

D.O.: What’s the key to stopping Boeheim’s Army tomorrow? Was there anything you noticed over the past two days that work particularly well?

D.H.: Devendorf is the engine that makes the team move, that gets the crowd involved. So I think you have to get out to a quick start to limit the crowd and along with that comes stopping Devendorf from getting going like he did today against Gael Nation. I think clearly Jordan Crawford’s a great scorer, he’s going to take a lot so you have to try to not let him make a lot. And then other than that, it’s just finding ways to get good shots in that 2-3.

D.O.: Any mention of prior losses or connections with Boeheim’s Army leading up to tomorrow’s game? 

D.H.: I would say two things on that point. I think the thing they’re most looking forward to — and myself included — is the opportunity to play a game in an atmosphere like that with those kinds of stakes. To kind of come in and play the enemy in a hostile crowd and try to pull off the win. And then the second thing I would say on that is we spent some time getting ready for this week scrimmaging and playing with some different guys, and a couple of them were from Team Foe, the other Philly TBT team in the past who actually, I want to say it was a quarterfinal game a few years back, had a big lead on Boeheim’s Army and blew that away. So when they kind of talked and realized we were in the same region, I think those guys were kind of looking forward to us getting the chance to play Boeheim’s as well and kind of get revenge for their part.

D.O.: Is there anything that hasn’t clicked over the past couple days for Team Brotherly Love that needs to tomorrow? 

D.H.: I think we need to do our best to limit turnovers, which we didn’t do well game one against Playing for Jimmy V. I think we had 20 turnovers in that game. I don’t know the stats off the top of my head from today, but I’m sure it was less turnovers. So, I think just continuing to do that. 

And then the second thing would just be make free throws. We shot pretty poorly in both of the first two games, so just guys got to be able to put in the free ones if you’re going to win a game like tomorrow. So hopefully we can turn that around.

Published on July 28, 2019 at 12:01 am

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew