Always a Brave team in FINAL FOUR of The Basketball Tournament

[Da Coach]

We'll start a new thread to keep this at the top of the board-

Former Bradley players and staff members will team together to enter The Basketball Tournament this summer and attempt to win the winner-takes-all top prize this year of $2,000,000. This is the same tournament that Zach Andrews played in last year and made it all the way to the championship game.

https://m.facebook.com/AlwaysABrave/

The team's name is Always A Brave and the General Manager is Bobby Parker and the Coach is Rick Karius, with Chuck Buescher also helping with coaching-

https://www.thetournament.com/teams/always-brave-bradley-alumni

Players they mentioned are: Tony Bennett, Taylor Brown, Sam Maniscalco, Patrick O'Bryant, Jeremy Crouch, Daniel Ruffin, Matt Salley, Marcellus Sommerville, Andrew Warren, and Walt Lemon.

In order to get into the tournament, they need to get into the top 12 in fan votes for their region.
So Bradley fans can help by going to this site and voting-

https://www.thetournament.com/teams/always-brave-bradley-alumni

Some fans will also share in the prize money! But it requires that fans register here, then vote-

https://www.thetournament.com/create-account?type=fan&teamid=35391

And you can vote more than once!

[Da Coach]

It looks like after you register and vote the first time, the vote button disappears from the team page, so you can only vote once.
So help get the team into the tournament. Please register and vote!

If you register other family members under different email addresses, they could all vote as well.

Their announcement this morning has helped their vote totals. When I first went to the Always a Brave team page at 7:30 AM, they had only 4 votes. But now there are already 16 votes, and it keeps climbing-
Always A Brave team page-

https://www.thetournament.com/teams/always-brave-bradley-alumni

Here is a list of all the teams currently registered

http://www.thetournament.com/teams

[Bobby Parker]

According to the contest rules, fans may vote up to four times, but they can accumulate more points by enlisting other fans fans to vote. The organizers are pretty strict about not stuffing the ballot box, so play by the rules and have some fun with Always A Brave. The $$$ would be great, but it's about getting these guys together for a little fun this summer.

[Da Coach]

The top 12 teams from each of the 4 regions get into the tournament.
The Always A Brave team is in the Midwest Region-
Midwest rankings:

https://www.thetournament.com/teams?region=midwest

And among the fans who have registered and voted, I see a lot of people I think I know, and who are members of this board (only first names and last initial show up, so it's a bit hard to tell who everyone is). So keep it up, Always A Brave is not very far from moving into the top 12!

[lightsout]

We are up to 58 votes as of 10:30am!

[Da Coach]

Anyone who has not yet registered and voted for the former Bradley players' team Always a Brave, please do so. It is easy, free, and takes only a couple minutes.
Go here to register and vote-

https://www.thetournament.com/create-account?type=fan

Congratulations Bradley fans! Keep up the great work!

[Da Coach]

One more suggestion- since you can only vote once per registration, have everyone in your family, at work, or that you know use their email to register and add a vote for Always a Brave.
Looks like they might make it into the top 12 by the end of today!

https://www.thetournament.com/teams?region=midwest

We'll try to post some more info on each of the 9 members of the team and what they have been doing since they left Bradley-
Players:
Tony Bennett- last played in 2006
Taylor Brown- 2012
Jeremy Crouch- 2008
Walt Lemon- 2014
Sam Maniscalco- 2011
Patrick O'Bryant- 2006
Daniel Ruffin- 2008
Matt Salley- 2008
Marcellus Sommerville- 2006

Coaches:
Rick Karius
Chuck Buescher

General Manager:
Bobby Parker

[Da Coach]

Always a Brave is now in 12th place in the Midwest Region- they will need to mainitain top 12, in order to get into the tournament.

https://www.thetournament.com/teams

They will need to keep getting votes, since new teams can register for a couple more months, and all teams will continue to keep getting votes.

So anyone who hasn't registered and voted, please help out. And keep trying to get family, friends, and others to register and vote, too!
Go here to register-

https://www.thetournament.com/create-account?type=fan

[Da Coach]

Always a Brave has climbed the rankings quickly. For those who have already voted, or who look here frequently, I apologize for the frequent updates. But we have thousands of Bradley fans who read this board each day (our online census has been running 100 people or more at a time all day today which is a lot for the off-season), and some who only check it infrequently during the off-season. So I am hoping we can encourage everyone to go to the site and register, and vote for Always a Brave to get them into the tournament-

Go here to register

https://www.thetournament.com/create-account?type=fan

Then go here to the Always a Brave team page to vote

https://www.thetournament.com/teams/always-brave-bradley-alumni

I have helped a couple people get through the registering process already, so if anyone has any questions about the registration process, or how to vote for Always a Brave, feel free to post here, or send me a Private Message, or click in the lower right at the bottom of this page on Contact Us, and we'll help.

[Da Coach]

Bradley made it into the Top 10 in the Midwest region. Great work by those who voted.

https://www.thetournament.com/teams?region=midwest

Keep trying to get others to vote to build the vote total and get the Always a Brave team into the tournament!

[battlebasset]

Voted and invited my friends. Get your kids to help you out with their 250 closest friends on Facebook

[tornado]

I got a few more votes for us this morning - now we're up to 8th in the Midwest Region!!

[Da Coach]

Dave Reynolds reports that former Braves Chris Roberts and Andrew Warren may join the team, too, but are undecided at this time.

[Da Coach]

The former Braves (Always a Brave) team could still use more votes!
Anyone who hasn't voted yet, or if you know someone who might help by voting- go here and register-

https://www.thetournament.com/create-account?type=fan

Registration takes just a minute.
Here is how to do it for those still reluctant to sign up, or who are having any problems:
Go to the above link
Enter your name (only a first name and a last initial will actually show on the fan list)
Then enter your email address
Then create a password for your account
Set your date of birth and gender
Then you can leave the team line blank or type Always a Brave
Then click on the box saying "I Have Read And Agree To The Fan Contest Rules, Privacy Policy And Terms Of Use"
Then complete the easy CAPTCHA verification step.

You will then be sent one final verification email (note that it might show up in your SPAM or PROMOTIONS file). If you have a @gmail.com account, it will probably be in the PROMOTIONS file. Click the PROMOTIONS tab at the top of your Inbox.
Open the email, and click on the button or link to complete your registration.

Then go here to the Always a Brave team site to vote-

https://www.thetournament.com/teams/always-brave-bradley-alumni

And then click on the right side where it says VOTE FOR THIS TEAM, then click the CONFIRM button.

The team is currently at 259 votes, which is 8th place in the Midwest Region

https://www.thetournament.com/teams?region=midwest

[Bobby Parker]

Thanks for sharing the steps DC. To clarify some bad info I originally shared, fans can vote for the team only once. You may vote for four teams, not vote for one team four times. You can accumulate more points, however, by sharing the info with others and having them vote for Always A Brave.

Here are some potentially interesting voting details:

As of this posting, Always A Brave remains 8th in the Midwest Region vote standings. Vote totals on June 1 will be used to determine the 12 automatic entries in each region.

200 votes were required to be eligible for the tournament, so that threshold has been surpassed. Thank you.

If we can get to 1,000 votes by June 1, the team will have the opportunity to design its own uniform. Would the fans be interested in a uniform design contest?

Voting actually continues beyond June 1 and if the team advances with two wins in the regional and has at least 2000 fan votes by July 8, the team can add a 12th player, The Ringer, for the Super 16.

I shared the original group of nine players who had committed to joining the team. There are several steps the players have to complete in order to be officially eligible for the tournament. Marcellus Sommerville and Patrick O'Bryant have completed those steps and now officially are on the roster. Here's the direct link to the Always A Brave team page: https://www.thetournament.com/teams/...bradley-alumni

Thank you to all who have voted and spread the word. Please keep sharing the news.