MVC 3-on-3 at Final Four weekend

[tornado]

Congrats to Donte! Representing the entire MVC..

https://twitter.com/bradleyumbb/status/976935254400356353

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2018/3/22/mens-basketball-donte-thomas-selected-to-play-in-inagural-3x3u-national-championship.aspx

[houstonbrave]

The wonderful 3x3 website actually lists Donte Ingram from Loyola rather than Donte Thomas. I think Donte Ingram hopes to be busy that weekend.

My bad-obviously I cant read. That was a list of the nominees as of March 7. They must not have figured Loyola would still be alive.

[Fyrebyrd]

Interesting that there is a prize pool for athletes who are still in college. Are they getting away with it because all competitors are outgoing seniors? I wonder if this will end up leading to some loophole to pay college athletes

[tornado]

the reveal show is on right now to show who is on what teams for the competition starting Friday - for $100,000 prize money

https://twitter.com/3X3UHoops

MVC Reveal starts at 3pm
Max Bielfeldt is one of the commentators

...spoiler - the four MVC players that will be revealed are:
Valpo's Tevonn Walker, UNI's Bennett Koch, Indiana State's Brenton Scott, and Bradley's Donte Thomas
http://unipanthers.com/news/2018/3/2...inal-four.aspx … #MVCHoops

[tornado]

https://twitter.com/TwitterLive/status/979085969856106497

Brenton Scott's brother Bryson Scott from the Summit League is also playing

[tornado]

Interesting that there is a prize pool for athletes who are still in college...

altho the competition is Final Four weekend and is also being held in San Antonio (on a small college campus 7 miles away)

the competition is NOT affiliated with nor sponsored in any way by the NCAA. Since the competition uses only college seniors who have exhausted all their eligibility - there's really nothing NCAA can do about it.
The prize money is put up by and the contest is sponsored by Dos Equis Beer (the World's Most Interesting Man)! (Dos Equis is a Heineken product)
ESPN is also a sponsor and will televise the competition on ESPN2, with pool play on Friday & Saturday then Championship play on Sunday.

https://www.3x3uhoops.com

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/how-the-100k-3-on-3-tourney-for-college-seniors-held-at-the-final-four-will-work/

Each win earns money ($1000 per win) for the participating teams of four players each (no coaches), then quarter-final & semi-final wins earn as well. and the overall Champion team gets $50,000.

Games begin Friday at 6pm Central Time, Saturday at 10am Central Time, then Sunday at 1pm Central Time.
Seeding and separation into pools for pool-play has just been revealed (see below)...
There will be eight pools of four teams each that will play a round-robin of 3 pool games each.
the actual game schedule is pending.

Pool 1 - Big 12, Big Sky, Colonial, SWAC
Pool 2 - ACC, Sun Belt, WAC, MEAC
Pool 3 - Big East, Mid-American, Big West, Atlantic Sun
Pool 4 - SEC, Summit, MAAC, Northeast
Pool 5 - Big Ten, CUSA, Southern, Southland
Pool 6 - A-10, Ivy, Patriot (apparently the Pac-12 has declined to participate)
Pool 7 - American, West Coast, Ohio Valley, Horizon
Pool 8 - Mountain West, Missouri Valley, Big South, America East

The MVC is in one of the only pools that does NOT have a power-conference school.

[tornado]

this year's competition in the NCAA Final Four 3-on-3
will include SIU's Armon Fletcher, Missouri State's Jarred Dixon and Loyola's Marques Townes.
..the MVC is expected to add another player - you'd think they'd add a big man....

Prize money is $100,000 with the winning team getting $50,000

https://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/salukis-fletcher-to-compete-for-mvc-in--on-/article_9264fdeb-a7f6-5a81-aa85-654246229754.html

[tornado]

the 4th player will be Phillip Fayne

[tornado]

Tough break for Loyola's Marques Townes - he just got injured and won't play in the 3 on 3 this weekend..

http://loyolaphoenix.com/2019/04/loyola-marques-townes-injury-nit/

They plan to have Nick McGlynn replace him - so it appears McGlynn is sufficiently recovered from his knee injury

[tornado]

Here's the schedule for the 3-on-3

https://twitter.com/3X3UHoops/status/1113183396795158529

MVC plays -
Friday - 2:40pm vs. WCC
Friday - 5:40pm vs. Southland
Saturday - 9:30am vs. OVC

[Da Coach]

Some great publicity for the MVC-
In the College 3-point and slam dunk contests Thursday night, the men's 3-point winner was Clayton Custer of Loyola.
Video of his final round performance-
https://twitter.com/VersaceBoyEnt2/s...81329476132864

[Da Coach]

Here are the other participants Custer beat-
David Crisp - Washington
Mike Daum - South Dakota State
Corey Davis Jr. - Houston
Fletcher Magee - Wofford
CJ Massinburg - Buffalo
Josh Perkins - Gonzaga
BJ Taylor - UCF


Pretty impressive trophy-

[Da Coach]

The competition is on ESPN now- The women's 3-point champion is Presley Hudson of Central Michigan. And she will now shoot against Custer in the Battle of Champions round.

[Da Coach]

The winner of the Battle of Champions is Presley Hudson of Central Michigan who defeated Clayton Custer 25-15.
The women have won 5 of the last 6 years, but perhaps the format favors the women a bit. The men's winner has to sit on the sidelines for over an hour while several rounds of competition by the women takes place. Then the Battle of Champions happens immediately after the women's champion is crowned. So the men's competitor doesn't get a chance to warm up or do any shooting before the Battle of Champions. Custer was clearly off, but it wouldn't have made any difference in tonight's Battle of Champions because Presley Hudson was phenomenal.


The Slam Dunk Championship is next with Missouri State star Josh Webster competing.

[Da Coach]

After several competitors had spectacular dunks and received perfect 40 point scores, Josh Webster did a rather average dunk and scored 30 points. The scoring also factors in fans tweeting in their scores, but it seems unlikely Webster will advance. Btw, he had only 1 dunk during the season.