2023 The Basketball Tournament

[Da Coach]

The $1 Million winner-take-all 2023 The Basketball Tournament has posted their field of 64 teams, along with their locations, brackets, and dates for this years summer tournament.
It appears that for the first time, there are no teams with any connection to Peoria or to Bradley-

https://thetournament.com/tbt/teams/

There are also no locations anywhere near Peoria.
The regional locations are Wichita, Syracuse, Louisville, West Virginia, Lubbock, Dayton, and Xavier.
And the Finals are in Philadelphia.

https://thetournament.com/tbt/

I reviewed the rosters for all 64 teams, and there are no former Bradley players on any of the teams.
There are also no players who appear to even have any connection to Peoria on any team.
I did see a few players who were recruited by Bradley at one time (Remy Abell, Dwight Buycks)
And, I could only identify 4 players who ever even played in the MVC in their college careers.
Drew Friberg of last year's Belmont team is on The Nerd Team.
Isiaih Mosley, formerly of Missouri State and last year's Missouri team, is on Show Me Squad (MIzzou alumni).
And a couple former Wichita State players (Connor Frankamp, Markis McDuffie) are on AfterShocks (Wichita State alumni).

I don't see any reason for me to pay any attention to this year's tournament.
And, there seems to be very little with this year's field that will draw the attention of any Bradley fans.

[Dub]

Thanks for taking a look and providing this summary… I miss our good Always a Brave teams.

[yoda]

You missed a few-
ISU’s Deontae Hawkins, Bradley’s Josh Cunningham, InSU’s Jordan Barnes & Tobias Howard, & Drake’s Nick McGlynn, Michael Finke, a few others from Belmont & several other of the Wichita State guys, the big guy from WIU, a Quincy kid, and Homer Drew & LaPhonso Ellis are coaches

[Da Coach]

...a few others from Belmont & several other of the Wichita State guys, the big guy from WIU, a Quincy kid, and Homer Drew & LaPhonso Ellis are coaches

None of those ever played in the MVC. If anyone likes to follow pre-MVC Belmont, or post-MVC Wichita State players, they might be interested.

[yoda]

there are no former Bradley players
And, I could only identify 4 players who ever even played in the MVC

I don't care about watching any but there are several guys who played in the MVC- more than a dozen,
Mosley, Hawkins, Cunningham, Barnes, Howard, McGlynn & Drew Friberg is a Belmont guy who I think may have played against Bradley- https://thetournament.com/tbt/players/drew-friberg/

and I seem to recall the WSU names Clevin Hannah, Darral Willis, Garrett Stutz, JR Simon, Zach Bush in addition to McDuffie & Frankamp
all played in the MVC- in fact, they played against Bradley in MVC play

https://goshockers.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2016-17/bradley/boxscore/3828

[yoda]

there's also other summer games going on involving BU guys-

Finland just played two friendly games warming up to the FIBA 2023 World Cup
Ville had 13 pts on 4-7 from beyond the arc in a 79-70 win against Estonia- https://www.basket.fi/basketball-fin...ason_id=126573

they also beat Latvia 79-66, no stats avail

The South Sudan team is warming up for the World Cup by playing in an African tourney-
Koch Bar has been pretty consistently putting up double-doubles in their games- https://www.fiba.basketball/afrocan/...#|tab=boxscore

and an article on former BU Brave Sean Houpt- https://www.wcia.com/sports/danville...-transferring/

Unfortunately the Hoops_TBT team was assigned as an alternate in TBT, and isn't scheduled, but Terry Nolan, Danya Kingsby & Zach Andrews were all on Hoops_TBT

past Brave Jamir Price has transferred again and lands at Minnesota State-Moorhead- https://www.msumdragons.com/news/202...mir-price.aspx

past Brave Chudier Bile will play for Portland in the G-League this year- https://www.blazersedge.com/2023/6/8...on-draft-picks

[yoda]

Finland ..also beat Latvia 79-66, no stats avail

Ville only played 13 min, and scores 3 pts, 3 reb, 2 steals.

[Da Coach]

Eight first round of games in the 2023 The Basketball Tournament were played today (Wed. 7/19)-
Bracket & scores- https://thetournament.com/tbt/bracket/
Schedule- https://thetournament.com/tbt/2023-schedule/
Teams- https://thetournament.com/tbt/teams/

The 1st and 2nd round games are all on ESPN+, with a few on ESPN2 and ESPNU

[Da Coach]

The Basketball Tournament is now down to the Final Four. I have not been watching, though I have followed their Twitter reports, and there have been a lot of exciting games. The two semifinal games are Wednesday night, August 2, at 7 pm and 9 pm. The Championship game will be Thursday, Aug. 3, at 7 pm.
The final 4 teams in the semifinals are:
First semifinal-
Herd That (Marshall University alumni) vs. Team Heartfire

Herd That stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/130103?
Team Heartfire stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/130099?

Second semifinal-
Friday Beers vs. Bleed Green

Friday Beers stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/153008?
Bleed Green stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/150972?

[Da Coach]

The Basketball Tournament is now down to the Final Four. I have not been watching, though I have followed their Twitter reports, and there have been a lot of exciting games. The two semifinal games are Wednesday night, August 2, at 7 pm and 9 pm. The Championship game will be Thursday, Aug. 3, at 7 pm.
The final 4 teams in the semifinals are:
First semifinal-
Herd That (Marshall University alumni) vs. Team Heartfire

Herd That stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/130103?
Team Heartfire stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/130099?

Second semifinal-
Friday Beers vs. Bleed Green

Friday Beers stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/153008?
Bleed Green stats- https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniusspor...n/team/150972?

Team Heartfire defeated Herd That 73-68 to advance to tonight's Championship game of The Basketball Tournament. And Bleed Green defeated Friday Beers in the other semifinal to play for the championship tonight.
Box scores and recaps-

https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniussports.com/TBTA/en/match/2284319/summary

https://hosted.dcd.shared.geniussports.com/TBTA/en/match/2284320/summary

Team Heartfire is currently playing Bleed Green in Philadelphia for the title on ESPN.

One of the top players for Bleed Green is Kai Huntsberry, who was a grad-transfer from University of Mary a year ago who was recruited aggressively by Bradley and visited the BU campus, but he ended up committing to North Texas. He helped lead UNT to the Championship of the 2023 NIT with a 12.3 ppg average.

There are a couple other familiar names. Friday Beers has Daishon Knight, a former player from Illinois State, and Coty Clark, who was recruited by Geno Ford out of Lawson State CC in 2012, but ended up at Arkansas.

[Da Coach]

Team Heartfire beats Bleed Green 78-73 to win the 2023 Tournament.
Video of Team Heartfire players when they check their bank accounts and see their shares of the million dollars deposited-
https://twitter.com/thetournament/st...70275971174407
https://twitter.com/thetournament/st...70995470548992