Summer is¬†just around the corner, which means it is time long days and short nights, beach weekends and The Basketball Tournament, a two million-dollar pick-up basketball competition that gives former pros and amateurs alike the chance to compete. The Tournament has grown rapidly in the short amount of time since it was launched in 2014 and for the third consecutive year, a team of Syracuse alumni and friends will enter the single-elimination tournament under the name Boeheim’s Army.
Thursday, Boeheim’s Army officially became eligible to enter the tournament after picking up their seventh player, the minimum number of players required to be on the roster to enter. The team of ‘Cuse alum added DaShonte Riley, who you may remember played for the Orange during his freshman season in 2009-10 before getting hurt and eventually transferring to Eastern Michigan to finish up his college career.
.@Cuse_MBB fans will ❤️ this news: @BoeheimsArmy is eligible for #TBT2017! https://t.co/DK6rsnUd85 pic.twitter.com/VJVLdeqMNi
— TBT (@thetournament) May 25, 2017
Riley is set to bring something pretty unique to the Basketball Tournament. He is seven-feet tall. A big man was something that Boeheim’s Army was lacking with Donte Greene being the only true power forward or center¬†that the team had on the roster. Greene and Riley will be joined by Eric Devendorf, Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine, C.J. Fair, and Rick Jackson.
Syracuse alumni and former Syracuse Basketball manager Kevin Belby is the team’s General Manager. As the one responsible for organizing the team, he is set to take home the largest prize — a total of one million dollars — if Boeheim’s Army lifts the trophy. The remaining one million will be split between the players, the fan who recruits the most support for the team, and the team’s head coach, former Orange forward Ryan Blackwell. Blackwell is now the head basketball coach at Liverpool High School in Central New York.
The tournament field will be revealed on June 6 and the seeding for the tournament is based on fan support. You can vote for Boeheim’s Army, which has been the overall number one seed in the past, on the Basketball Tournament’s website. As of this moment, Boeheim’s Army stands at fifth in fan support.
So, in short, if you find yourself suffering from a little bit of Syracuse basketball withdrawal this summer, check out the Basketball Tournament, which last year reached a partnership with ESPN. The semi-finals and championship game will in fact be on national television.
