J.D. Crabtree: Alas poor Cookie, we were infinite jesters!
As I alluded to in the final moments of our last piece, we are here to dissect and celebrate The Basketball Tournament. And here is one last synopsis of TBT before we begin:
A 5-on-5, winner take all basketball tournament with a grand prize of $2 million with an open-application, single-elimination format consisting of 64 teams every summer.
Also for the readers, it is vital to scroll through the Teams to best understand this contest. Click on rosters. Dive into bios. Maybe even throw a Twitter follow or two towards the George Mason alumni. If you do this you will see that we have a decent range of athletes uniting for this moneyball pursuit. The general makeup of teams is dudes playing overseas and fellas who called it quits after a few G League stints. Also each team has a “GM” such as this guy. Feels like that’s just a way to take group pics for his personal Instagram. À chacun son goût.
Before we get into previews, predictions, and prejudice, did anything surprise you in the initial research stage? Like the fact that the TBT even exists.
Carter Pearson: I was a bit surprised by the existence of the TBT, more for the economics of the whole thing. This is a league of players who aren’t good enough for the NBA, or even for high level European play, and there is enough interest to secure a TV deal that funds all of the logistics (gym, insurance, etc.) and the prize money. This speaks to the popularity of basketball as a TV draw. People would rather watch a team of washed up D1 players than mid season baseball.
In person, it also speaks to the draw of regional college teams, and why it is ridiculous to think the G-League will ever overtake college basketball, even if the best 50 players every year start going to the G.
The G League regions are each anchored in or near college towns, and played in high school gyms. Didn’t get a chance to see Aaron Craft in person at OSU? Come out and watch him and Jon Diebler and David Lighty punk teams from the area before going on to the finals.
People are tribalistic, and I’m not sure that there is a better distillation of that than filling a gym during summer in Ohio (literally the only time of year when you should go outdoors there), to watch a team of Ohio State stars (to their fanbase) vs a team of guys who used to play at Dayton.
The biggest negative to TBT right now is the presence of Overseas Elite. First, they are not a team of mustache twirling Frenchmen and burly Serbs, but rather a team of dudes who went to middling D1 schools and now play in Europe. Second, they have won 4 times in a row. NBA ratings crest when there is a dynasty — people like to see and root against greatness. That doesn’t work when DeAndre Kane is the best player on the dynasty. For TBT to truly take off, it needs to be won by one of the college all-star squads. That will generate the most fan interest, and just be more fun than watching some mercenaries.
But, the team that I have my eye on is not a college squad. It is the #8 seeded, Jackson TN UnderDawgs. I like so many things about them: they are from Tennessee. They use weird casing in their name. They were seeded last and won their region. I’m sure the seedings were very scientific, so this seems like a UVA level upset. They also have no one I have ever heard of on their team. They have 3 guys from Lambuth University and a 5’8” point guard who did not go to college and looks like Wee-Bey from The Wire. They are the people’s champs.
Who do you have your eye on? I’m fully expecting 350 words on either Aaron Craft or Chris Lofton. Surprise me?
JD: Love the hot Ohio takes. Shots fired Ohio subscribers! Prove to us you do other things in July!
Can I just say how much I support their submission branding: “ANYONE IN THE WORLD CAN APPLY”. These are the heroes we never knew we needed.
I have my eye on Bobby Brown from Overseas Elite. I keep stumbling upon his merch line, BBSix, on Instagram and now want his tagline “What Yo 1s Look Like?” to reach Old Town Road levels of success. I’m also watching Overseas Elite play the Hilltop Dawgs (UMBC Alumni) right this second. Trying to figure out how many of these Dawgs were on the team that upset #1 UVA two years ago. UMBC are giant-killers so they could shock the world again. TBT kind of needs that, apparently the Elite have won over $9 million bucks over the past five years.
But who am I really rooting for out there?
There are a lot of crab-darlings in this impressive field. There’s Best Virginia, Team Freddette, and the aforementioned George Mason Alumni, but one team has stolen my heart and turned me towards superfandom. Carter, may I introduce you to We Are D3. This if from their GM, Mike Rejniak:
“The “We Are D3” TBT team is exactly that. We are a team that is comprised solely of former Division 3 basketball greats that have come together to represent the division.We come from all over the country and from various walks of life. Just because we weren’t playing on scholarship at a bigger school doesn’t mean that we can’t hoop too! We want to bring pride and awareness to how great D3 basketball is. The TBT is the perfect platform for us to showcase our talents and give voice to the underdog.”
I guess we are seeing TBT GMs double as hypeboys. Also GMing the D3 squad is an interesting hobby. Who am I kidding though, you and I would love that role.
We Are D3 has assembled the basketball avengers from some of the finest programs from the lowest tier of collegiate basketball: Franklin & Marshall, Amherst, Muskingham, Bates, Springfield, Babson, MIT, Bowdoin. Must I go on?
Can you imagine the look on the Syracuse alums faces if they upset them in the first round? Hopefully playing Middlebury twice a year and other NESCAC foes has prepared them for this ultimate test.
They have already been eliminated but I was also pulling for the Southern Gentlemen at the start. Looks like they politely opened to many backdoors for the other teams….right, dude?!
Alright so when you look at the bracket, are you seeing any power squads that can dethrone the Elite? We need some Cassius Winston > Zion magic. Sorry, had to. And if the Elite win again, does the governing body have to break them up?
CP: So, I have failed our audience and was unable to watch much of the tournament due to some unforeseen occurrences in my life. My Dad passed away. That really sucks to type. It really sucks to live too.
Dad was the person who taught me to love basketball, and all sports. He grew up in the YMCA, was the point guard on his high school team, and played at Springfield College, where James Naismith put up the first peach basket. He tore his ACL in 1964 and had to quit playing. Throughout his life, he was the director of the Y in my hometown, and my most demanding, and fun, basketball coach.
He coached me in AAU from when I was 9-11, and those car rides to tournaments and afternoons shooting hoops in our slightly slanted driveways are some of the best memories of my life. I remember one tournament, we were playing a team full of buzzcut boys from Ashburn, VA or somewhere. A team of Bo Ryan back cutters. We came out in the second half and I hit 3 threes really quickly. They called timeout and when we came back to the huddle I was bragging about how I was feeling it. He benched me for the rest of the quarter. I was so mad, but that was his way of telling me “this isn’t about you, it’s about all of us”. I will never forget that, and think that’s why I love watching team oriented, passing basketball, even if I like the dunks a little bit more than he did.
I still, to this day, have never beaten him in horse. He used to hit back rim and in with every single shot, regardless of where he shot from, so it would come right back to him. It was infuriating. He told me it is because he grew up without anyone rebounding for him, which I find implausible because he had two brothers. I think he was just trying to make me feel better because he was whipping my ass.
In high school, or really whenever he felt like it, he would yell “make it happen” during games when I was sluggish, and I try to “make it happen” in all walks of life now. I’m really going to miss him, as it was just two months ago he was beating me in golf, talking smack, and gambling with our friends on the majors. He was still Dad right up until the end, and I’m thankful for that, but that doesn’t mean this sucks any less.
Anyways, thanks for reading, or at least letting me type this out. It was really helpful for me.
We will be back with our regularly scheduled programming in a few weeks.
JD, Section I: Beautiful words you just put on paper Cooks. Life, like basketball, sometimes doesn’t make sense. The ball will bounce the wrong way, and we are left to ponder this new, unfamiliar path.
I had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Tom Pearson over the past 10 years of my life. I’m not one bit surprised by those stories of him benching you and teaching lessons about life through this glorious sport, even though the benching was probably more performance-based but let’s hash that out another time. Your Dad always had an aura about him that made others feel that he sincerely cared about their life path and development. And that presence is not inherent, he worked at having that trait over the years. The ultimate tip of the cap.
I’ve done some writing in the past on a basketball figure that helped steer me in the right direction, who is now no longer with us. It’s so incredibly important to a young person to have these people around in the sponge stage. They are the ultimate molders.
Thank you Tom for all the positivity and good will you brought into this world. We need so many more like you moving forward.
JD, Section II:
(I’m going to close us out on The Basketball Tournament commentary due to the aforementioned events. The timeline is off, and the predictions were never fully hashed out. But that’s life, and we all must Roll With The Changes.)
I watched most of the tournament, became attached to teams, and depending on the night cancelled plans so I could watch a random alumni team battle against an awkwardly-themed group of international ballers. It was the highlight of my summer.
At times I didn’t even know what I was cheering for, I think it was this overarching sense of hoops purpose and impact. There’s also something to be said about seeing these guys that lit up college basketball over the past decade fill it up one last time on national television. Let some of these names bring back the nostalgia feelings real quick: Travis Diener, William Buford, DeAndre Kane, Jeremy Pargo, Scotty Hopson, Coach Juan Dixon, Jordan Crawford.
It is important to note that some of our TBT darlings had short lives during our scattered coverage. The aforementioned “We Are D3” saw a heartbreaker in elam ending fashion. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of human beings try so hard at a thing. The Jackson TN Underdawgs captured the nation’s collective basketball heart as a bunch of teachers, truck drivers, and State Farm insurance agents not named Cliff Paul kept upsetting team after team. To your point I think it proves that the sport can be electric at many levels and at many points in the year.
One huge evolvement for TBT was to not have the same champion five years straight in their six year existence. That scenario can quickly deflate enthusiasm or call for the league to make some Goodell-esque ruling that pisses off the top tier teams.
Overseas Elite lost. They did not win. The final game ended it being between two alumni schools: Marquette vs. Ohio State. Or as most of us like to put it: Travis Diener vs. Arron Craft. This title matchup not only provided an electric atmosphere with two basketball-crazed fan bases, but allowed us to see a glimpse of this eternal brotherhood that basketball draws out of people. A lot of these dudes on both sides didn’t overlap during their playing days, but I’m sure they were very aware of everyone’s accomplishments when it was their turn to represent the university. It felt like some strange version of Hot Tub Time Machine but instead of Adam Sandler it was all those college heroes, existing in different times and situations at the same college, being able to play together for a chance at collective greatness. There’s a lot of pride out there. It’s cool to watch, sometimes the NBA lacks that depending on who you are watching.
With the trophy being awarded to an alumni team I believe two things are going to happen:
– More alumni teams are going to enter out of jealousy
– More super teams are going to spawn out of spite
And both of those side effects have me so god-damned pumped up about TBT’s potential. This is the NCAA tournament on steroids without the corrupt claws of the NCAA getting involved and ruining our fun. Elam endings for all!
The Mid Range tips their hat(s) to you, The Basketball Tournament. Thank you for building something that moves us all closer to eradicating the need to ever watch July MLB games.
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