Always a Brave team in FINAL FOUR of The Basketball Tournament

[tornado]

now our vote total is up to 1,349 - I have no idea how we keep going up but then so are a couple other teams, so it's good that the our total is climbing so those other guys don't pass us

The official ALWAYS A BRAVE team shirts are available...

https://the-basketball-tournament.myshopify.com/products/always-a-brave-2016-red-tshirt

[Bobby Parker]

Please keep encouraging votes. If we get to 2,000 by July 8, we will have the option to add a 12th player, The Ringer, if we advance to the Super 16. A bit of a long post, but here's the latest news on Always A Brave:

Always A Brave Adds A.J. Guyton to Staff

PEORIA, IL – Peoria basketball icon A.J. Guyton will join the Bradley University alumni team, Always A Brave, as a coach for the 2016 The Basketball Tournament.

Although the only team member without a direct connection to the Bradley Basketball program, Guyton does boast connections to several Always A Brave team members, including his half-brother, guard Daniel Ruffin and fellow coach Chuck Buescher, who was Guyton’s high school head coach. Guyton will fill the Always A Brave coaching position being vacated by Rick Karius, who is leaving Bradley this summer and will be unable to continue to serve as the alumni team coach.

A star at Peoria High School in the mid-1990’s, Guyton went on to an All-American career at Indiana University, graduating in 2000 as the fourth-leading scorer in Hoosiers history with 2,100 career points. The four-time Indiana team MVP and 2000 Big Ten Conference Player of the Year was selected in the second round of the 2000 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls and started a nine-year professional playing career with three seasons in the NBA.

Since retiring as a player, Guyton has re-ignited his presence in the Central Illinois basketball world at all levels. Notably, he is a two-time minor league coach of the year, leading the Bloomington Flex to championships in 2012 and 2013, as well as perfect, 18-0 record in 2014. He currently serves as the associate commissioner and director of basketball operations of the Midwest Professional Basketball Association and is involved in several local summer basketball camps.

Fan voting throughout the spring qualified Always A Brave for the 2016 TBT, a $2 million, winner-take-all, 5-on-5 basketball tournament preparing for its third year. The 64-team tournament will tip off with action in the West and South Regions July 9. The Bradley alumni team has been placed in the Midwest Region, which will begin play July 16 in Chicago at St. Xavier University. Although the Midwest Region bracket and schedule will not be announced until late next week, single-day tickets ($20) currently are on sale online at thetournament.com.

The Always A Brave Bradley alumni team will gather on campus the week leading up to the start of the Midwest Regional and will participate in the Hilltop Hoopin’ Summer Slam fan festival and alumni game July 11 at Bradley University.

The fan festival portion of the event will begin at 4 p.m. and admission will be free with food vendors on site, as well as family-friendly games and activities involving the entire Bradley Department of Athletics.

Admission for the men’s basketball alumni game inside Renaissance Coliseum will be $5 with proceeds benefitting the newly-created A.J. Robertson Fund for Excellence. Alumni game tickets will go on sale Monday in the Bradley Athletics Ticket Office at Renaissance Coliseum and will continue through July 11. Hilltop Hoopin’ Summer Slam will transition indoors at 7 p.m. for the alumni game, which will be open to all former Bradley Basketball players, but also will showcase the Always A Brave group in featured segment.

Always A Brave Bradley Alumni Team
Tony Bennett, 2004-06
Jeremy Crouch, 2004-08
Will Franklin, 2005-07
Phillip Gilbert, 2000-04
Walt Lemon, 2010-14 (pending NBA Summer League status)
Sam Maniscalco, 2007-11
Patrick O’Bryant, 2004-06
Daniel Ruffin, 2003-08
Matt Salley, 2006-08
Marcellus Sommerville, 2003-06
Andrew Warren, 2006-11
Coaches: Chuck Buescher and A.J. Guyton

[Da Coach]

The Basketball Tournament officials will announce the pairings and times of the Midwest Region games Friday, July 1. So tomorrow we should know who the Always a Brave team plays and the date and time.

The games will start Saturday, July 16 at the Shannon Center on the campus of St. Xavier University in Chicago. St. Xavier is located at 3700 W 103rd St, Chicago, IL.

Tickets can be bought here-

https://thetournament.regfox.com/tickets

The Always a Brave team finished 7th in the Midwest fan voting-

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

[Da Coach]

The Tournament just released the design of the uniforms of all the teams in the Midwest region-

https://www.thetournament.com/news/midwest-team-uniforms-unveiled-tbt-2016

The Always a Brave design is shown at the 0:05 mark of the YouTube video-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bfQSu8ZjDY

Or here on their Twitter site-

https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/748515825619963904

They look really good-

[Da Coach]

The Tournament is selling a limited number of these uniforms to fans. They have 25 "Always a Brave" jerseys and 25 shorts for sale.
The jerseys are $60 and the shorts are $40 each. There is also a T-shirt available for $25 each-

https://the-basketball-tournament.myshopify.com/search?q=always+a+brave

A couple of the other teams' jerseys and shorts are already sold out-
Jerseys-

https://the-basketball-tournament.myshopify.com/collections/2016-team-jerseys

Shorts-

https://the-basketball-tournament.myshopify.com/collections/2016-team-shorts

[Da Coach]

Official logo for the Always a Brave team-




And T-shirts are available-

https://the-basketball-tournament.myshopify.com/products/always-a-brave-2016-red-tshirt

[lightsout]

The Always a Brave team is the #9 seed in the Midwest. We get to play the #8 seed 120 sports first round. 120 Sports has ex Purdue star Robbie Hummel and ex Creighton Bluejay Grant Gibbs.

[Da Coach]

The first of the pairings just released, and as lightsout noted, the Always a Brave team is a #9 seed and plays #8 seed 120 Sports in the first round.
The game will be Saturday, July 16 at 4:00 PM at the Shannon Center arena on the campus of St. Xavier University in Chicago. It is a tough seed, because if they can win, they would likely face the #1 seeded team, Bluegrass Boys, which includes several former Kentucky players.

https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/748924159217008640

Here is the roster for 120 Sports-

https://www.thetournament.com/teams/120-sports

Always a Brave roster-

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

[tornado]

Zach Andrews' team, TEAM 23, is the #1 seed in the WEST

Tyshon Pickett's team DMV Warriors did not make the cut

[tornado]

The Always a Brave team is the #9 seed in the Midwest. We get to play the #8 seed 120 sports first round. 120 Sports has ex Purdue star Robbie Hummel and ex Creighton Bluejay Grant Gibbs.

Northwestern's John Shurna definitely won't be available due to injury but a Chicago report also says Robbie Hummel could be doubtful due to slow recovery from shoulder surgery for dislocation & torn labrum (just 5 months ago). He told a NWI.com (Northwest Indiana) reporter he wants to get back to playing professionally this fall so he might not chance another injury this soon after surgery.
Their other player that's well known to Bradley fans is ex-Creighton Bluejay Grant Gibbs - who is coming back from playing in Holland with Landstede Zwolle, who lost to Groningen in their Finals.

[tornado]

several experts pick who they think is gonna win The Tournament

https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/750684097979228164

One of them picks Zach Andrews' Team 23
ESPN's Jeff Goodman picks the Marquette Alumni who finished just ahead of Bradley in the Midwest team voting
Two of the experts pick Team Maryland, one picks LAUNFD, one picks City of Gods from the Northeast, and one picks Armored Athlete from the Midwest.
Nobody picks the Bradley Alumni to be the team coming out of the Midwest.

[battlebasset]

Any word on radio coverage of the Chicago game(s)?

[Bobby Parker]

Midwest Regional Coverage

There is no radio coverage planned for the TBT and the ESPN family coverage will kick in during the Super 16. The tournament organizers are partnering with Whistle Sports for live video coverage on Facebook from the four regionals. Here is the link for the South and Midwest Regionals. Specific game links will become available as they go live.

https://m.facebook.com/WhistleSports/

[tornado]

for those outside Chicago, will you be tweeting updates?

[Bobby Parker]

If you are planning to go to Chicago for the TBT Midwest Regional and have not yet purchased tickets, The Bradley University Alumni Association has made arrangements with TBT for fans to purchase tickets for the July 16 TBT Midwest Regional games at a discounted price. Fans may purchase tickets for Saturday's action (all 8 regional opening-round games) online by visiting https://thetournament.ticketspice.com/midwestregional and using the promo code BRAVE25 to receive a $5 discount per ticket ($15).

As a reminder, Always A Brave plays at 4 p.m. Saturday, July 16 against 120 Sports at St. Xavier University on the south side of Chicago.