By: TBT Staff

TBT Record 75 Players with NBA Experience and 33 Alumni Teams to Compete

BOSTON, June 21, 2023 – The Basketball Tournament (TBT) – the $1 million, winner-take-all, summer basketball event broadcast live on ESPN platforms today released the bracket for this year’s tournament. For the sixth year in a row, all games will feature TBT’s Elam Ending®.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer, TBT 2023 will feature 75 players with NBA experience and 34 college alumni teams, both of which are TBT records. The field will once again feature 64 teams squaring off in a single-elimination format and will be supported by longtime partners PUMA and Zelle.

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The field will be split into eight regions played over two weeks in July, with all eight of those regionals headlined by a prominent alumni team. 

One team from each region will advance to the quarterfinals, which will be split between Wichita, Kansas (July 25), Wheeling, West Virginia (July 30), Dayton, Ohio (July 31), and Louisville, Kentucky (July 31). Philadelphia will serve as the host for TBT’s Championship week, with the semifinals (Aug. 2) and TBT’s $1 million winner-take-all championship game (Aug. 3) being played at Drexel University’s Daskalakis Athletic Center.

“This is an outstanding field for our tenth year,” said TBT/TST founder and CEO Jon Mugar. “Last year was a record year for ticket sales and attendance by 62 percent, and this year is tracking 35 percent over that. We have eight great host partners and fans are excited to see which team can string together six wins and walk away with our million dollar prize.”

The full TBT 2023 schedule includes:

Regional Host Cities

• Lubbock, Texas. – headlined by Air Raiders (Texas Tech) – July 19-23

• Wichita, Kan. – headlined by AfterShocks (Wichita State) and Mass Street (Kansas) – July 19-23

• Cincinnati, Ohio – headlined by Zip ‘Em Up (Xavier) – July 21-24

• Syracuse, N.Y. – headlined by Boehiem’s Army (Syracuse) – July 24-28

• Wheeling, W. Va.  – headlined by Best Virginia (West Virginia) – July 25-29

• Louisville, Ky. – headlined by The Ville (Louisville) – July 25-29

• Dayton, Ohio – headlined by Red Scare (Dayton) – July 26-29

Championship Week Schedule 

• Quarterfinals – July 25 (Wichita), July 30, (Wheeling), July 31 (Dayton and Louisville) Semifinals – Aug. 2 (Philadelphia)
• $1 Million, Winner-Take-All Championship – Aug. 3 (Philadelphia) 

Highlights of this year’s tournament include: 

• Louisville & Florida’s National Championship Teams Reunite: The Ville, Louisville’s first TBT team, brings together all the key pieces of their 2013 National Championship roster. The team features Russ Smith, Peyton Siva, Wayne Blackshear, and Chane Behanan, and will be coached in part by Luke Hancock. All Louisville Regional games will be held in historic Freedom Hall, which hosted all Louisville basketball home games for 54 years until 2010. Gataverse, the Florida alumni team, reunites former NBA player Corey Brewer, Taurean Green, Lee Humphrey, and Walter Hodge, all members of Florida’s back-to-back national championship team in 2005-06. Gataverse will also play in the Louisville Regional.
• Rivalries Galore in Wichita Super Regional: The Wichita Super Regional, featuring two separate eight team events, pits together regional rivals Wichita State, Kansas, and Kansas State. AfterShocks, the Wichita State alumni team and two-time defending regional champion, will play in a regional that includes Purple & Black, the Kansas State alumni team featuring Jacob Pullen and Henry Walker, Beale Street Boys, representing AAC rival Memphis, and more. On the other side of the bracket, Mass Street, the Kansas alumni team, features a wide range of memorable former Jayhawks, like Keith Langford, Thomas Robinson, Marcus Garrett, Dedric Lawson, among others. They’ll have to bypass rival Show Me Squad, the Missouri alumni team whose roster includes Dree Gholston and Isiaih Mosley from this year’s NCAA Tournament team. Both AfterShocks and Mass Street are the top seeds in their respective side of the bracket, and would be looking at a matchup in the quarterfinals if they can survive their loaded regions.
• Former NFL Star Funchess Using TBT to Launch Basketball Career: Former 7-year NFL veteran and 2015 second round pick Devin Funchess is playing in TBT this summer to launch his pursuit of a professional basketball career. The 29-year-old Funchess, who starred on the 2015 Carolina Panthers team that made Super Bowl 50, will join NBA veteran Taj Gibson’s Team Gibson. Funchess won’t be the only well-known former NFL player in TBT. Two-time Pro Bowl participant Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie will play for his own team, Team DRC, in the Xavier Regional. It’s the second time Rodgers-Cromartie has suited up in the event.
• TBT Takes on Texas Tech: TBT will bring one of its regionals to Lubbock, Texas for the first time this summer. Air Raiders, the Texas Tech alumni team, features multiple players from their 2019 National Championship Runner-up, including Matt Mooney, Davide Moretti, Tariq Owens, and Kyler Edwards. Games will be played at Texas Tech’s United SuperMarkets Arena, which regularly ranks as one of the best attended arenas in college basketball. 
• In The Lab Gets In The Action: Popular basketball content brand In The Lab, which boasts more than 600,000 YouTube subscribers, will make its TBT debut in the Lubbock Regional. Their roster includes Devin Williams, the brand’s creator, and basketball influencer/former DIII player D’Vontay Friga, amongst several current professionals.

Tickets for all TBT game days and events are on sale now at www.thetournament.com.