Josh Goldfine, TBT Staff

The final play call wasn’t necessarily designed to go to Mike Daum, the former South Dakota State star making his Sideline Cancer debut. 

But, when Marcus Keene’s pass found its way to Daum, the NCAA’s seventh all-time leading scorer knew just what to do, drilling a three-pointer to send Sideline Cancer on to Round 2 with a thrilling 78-77 victory over a pesky Defeat Diabetes squad. 

“It worked out that we had a mismatch,” said the 26-year-old Daum. “I’ll remember that shot for a long time.”

Daum spent the past two summers with House of Paign, a team comprised mostly of players from the University of Illinois, prior to joining Sideline Cancer for this year’s TBT.

Sideline Cancer is the only team to play in each TBT since the tournament’s founding in 2014. 

“I like the fact that [Sideline Cancer] is bigger than basketball,” said Daum of the organization whose goal is to bring awareness to and raise money for pancreatic cancer research.

After reaching the final game in 2020 and the quarterfinals last summer, Sideline Cancer has its sights set on that elusive first TBT title this summer.

“Coach [Charlie Parker] said that teams would be gunning for us,” said Daum. “We have a target on our back, and we need to respond.”