The Basketball Tournament selects Bradley to host Midwest Regional

[Da Coach]

The Basketball Tournament, the highly successful summer basketball tournament that Bradley alums made the Final Four last summer, made a major announcement today-

http://bradleybraves.com/news/2017/3/29/general-tbt-2017-midwest-regional-to-play-in-peoria.aspx

Bradley University will host the Midwest Regional of the 2017 TBT.
Watch General Manager Bobby Parker and Always a Brave team member Daniel Ruffin speak at a press conference this afternoon, and confirm that Always a Brave will again enter a team in the tournament. Daniel, who suffered a serious injury in last year's semifinal game and had surgery last August, says he is recovering well and plans to play again this summer.-

https://www.facebook.com/thetournament/videos/1294345893947378/

The dates are July 15 & 16, 2017, and the games will be held at the Renaissance Coliseum-

https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/847167244278910977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetournament.com%2Ffront

Peoria was the first Regional site announced. Philadelphia will host the Northeast Regional July 8 & 9, and Las Vegas will host the West Regional July 15 & 16. This will be the 4th year for the tournament, which had a $500,000 top prize in year one, $1 million in year two, and a top prize in year three of $2 million. The prize this year will again be $2 million to the winning team. Applications for teams entering the tournament begin April 1st. They will use the same fan-voting system to qualify teams that enter for bids to join the tournament. The Always a Brave team will get an automatic bid for winning last year's Midwest Regional.
More info on how the tournament works-

http://thetournament.com/about

The TBT also signed a multi-year TV deal with ESPN to broadcast all the games on the ESPN networks-

https://www.thetournament.com/news/tbt-and-espn-announce-multiyear-deal

Will Zach Andrews be joining the Always a Brave team this year?-

http://thetournament.com/news/tbt-podcast-zach-andrews-bobby-parker

https://www.facebook.com/thetournament/

https://twitter.com/thetournament

[BRADLEY FAN 49]

The Basketball Tournament

Just heard The Basketball Tournament that the B.U. past players played in last year regionals will be hosted by Bradley in July.

[Serbiansniper34]

I believe this is the fourth year with the prize money as follows:

1st year: $500,000
2nd year: $1,000,000
3rd year: $2,000,000
4th year: $2,000,000

[tornado]

and everyone is returning - maybe even a new player or two to help depth

http://bradleybraves.com/news/2017/3/29/general-tbt-2017-midwest-regional-to-play-in-peoria.aspx

[Da Coach]

Yes, thanks for the correction- 2017 will be the 4th year- the above post was corrected.

[Da Coach]

Peoria was the first Regional site announced. Philadelphia will host the Northeast Regional July 8 & 9, and Las Vegas will host the West Regional July 15 & 16.

The final regional will be the Southeast regional in Charlotte on July 8 & 9.

[houstonbrave]

Getting Zach would be great. Any chance of getting Andrew Warren ? We could always stretch the definition to "should have been a brave" and try to get Corey Hawkins.

[Da Coach]

Getting Zach would be great. Any chance of getting Andrew Warren ? We could always stretch the definition to "should have been a brave" and try to get Corey Hawkins.

Those would be great additions. I would like to see Taylor Brown on the team, too. I feel we lost to Colorado in that semifinal game because we lacked depth, especially when Daniel Ruffin went out. And Warren would provide some nice additional shooting, something you can never have enough of.

[Dub]

Can anyone confirm if Guyton has agreed to serve again as coach? I thought he was really good last year, and prior to that I had not really been a fan.

[Da Coach]

Can anyone confirm if Guyton has agreed to serve again as coach? I thought he was really good last year, and prior to that I had not really been a fan.

Yes, I meant to post that. It was announced that A.J. Guyton will coach the team again this year, and Chuck Buescher will help as well.

[Dubl R 1]

Chris Roberts? Walt?

Even David Collins looked pretty good in the scrimmages.


Zach is needed for sure tho.

[Dubl R 1]

Danny Granger?..lol i mean if we are sticking to the team name, why not?

Anthony Parker?


lol i'm dreaming, but its fun to think about

[Da Coach]

Danny Granger?..lol i mean if we are sticking to the team name, why not?

Anthony Parker?


lol i'm dreaming, but its fun to think about

I know you're kidding, but Anthony Parker will be 42 years old by July, though when he was in Peoria a few months ago he looked like he was in great shape and could probably play a little. But I think we need to stick with some younger guys.

Last year's Always a Brave team had an average age of over 30. I think Sam Maniscalco was the only member who was not at least 30, and he was 27. I think they need to add some younger guys to this year's team.

That's why I'd go for someone like Taylor Brown, Andrew Warren, and Walt Lemon. Those guys were initially reported to be potential team members last year, but never did join the team.

[tornado]

We just haven't churned out any solid pro-capable players in the past several years so unless we wanna add non-Bradley guys, we kinda have to go with the older ones.
It would be nice if we could get Shaun Livingston or Brett Bisping or even Alec Peters as extra players, but right now it seems like the goal is to keep it a Bradley alumni team

[Da Coach]

Just what I was thinking. The last All-MVC caliber player at Bradley was Walt Lemon, a Jim Les recruit from 7 years ago. As these current Always a Brave guys get older, they are going to need some younger players to add to the mix, and I don't really see any great candidates other than Taylor Brown (also a JL recruit) and Walt.