Quite a Bracket
ONE GAME FOR $500,000: That's the June 28 culmination of The Basketball Tournament, a 32-team, five-on-five hoops showdown that was the brainchild of TV producer Jon Mugar. The tourney opened June 6 in Philadelphia, and its sizable, winner-takes-all pot drew a Where Are They Now--worthy cast out of the woodwork (a handful of teams played at least in part for a charity). The final, to be held at Boston University and streamed on ESPN3, pit the Notre Dame Fighting Alumni, a team of ex-Irish players, against Team Barstool, which has four ex-NBAers in its lineup and two Barstool bloggers as its bench mob. Here's our breakdown of the last four rounds of TBT. (For more information, visit thetournament.com).
[The following text appears within a diagram. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual diagram.]
ILLINOIS HOOPVILLE WARRIORS
TYGTAL
+ Marshall Henderson: "I'd strap on a bomb and go to Afghanistan to play." Um, correction: "I should have said [bomb] vest."
HITTAS
BIG APPLE BASKETBALL
+ Luke Bonner, brother of Spurs forward Matt: "I'm insulted that my parents chose to go to San Antonio rather than this."
TEAM BARSTOOL
PUBB CHAMPIONS TOUR
+ The Princeton alums of PUBB were within a buzzer-beating three of upsetting Barstool's pro mercenaries.
REP YOUR CITY
DMV'S FINEST
+ Ex-Hoyas (Austin Freeman, Chris Wright) and ex-Terps (Terrell Stoglin) teamed up on DMV.
ILLINOIS HOOPVILLE WARRIORS
BIG APPLE BASKETBALL
+ Ex-Jayhawk guard Russell Robinson took (and made) a game-winning trey.
TEAM BARSTOOL
DMV'S FINEST
+ Near brawl after DMV's coach, former Maryland guard John Auslander, took offense to a garbage-time, alley-oop jam by former Dukie Dahntay Jones.
BIG APPLE BASKETBALL
TEAM BARSTOOL
+ Barstool recruited Justin Bieber, but they settled for the curly, red 'fro of ex-Florida forward Matt Walsh.
THE CITI TEAM
PHILLY PATRIOTS
+ Former Virginia star Sean Singletary's failure to show sank the Pats.
SIDELINE CANCER
NOTRE DAME FIGHTING ALUMNI
+ The Irish are led by Ryan Ayers, now a pro in Finland.
NORTH BROAD STREET BULLIES
SCONNIE LEGENDS
+ At 41, forward Jeff Nordgaard of Wisconsin--Green Bay was the oldest in the field.
PEACEPLAYERS INTERNATIONAL
TEAM ROBY
+ ROBY reunited a chunk of 'Nova's 2009 Final Four team, but only five players showed up.
THE CITI TEAM
NOTRE DAME FIGHTING ALUMNI
+ ND's Rob Kurz was a matchup problem as a 6'9" stretch four.
NORTH BROAD STREET BULLIES
PEACEPLAYERS INTERNATIONAL
+ Peaceplayers leaned on guard David Hawkins (Temple) and forward Terence Morris (Maryland).
NOTRE DAME FIGHTING ALUMNI
PEACEPLAYERS INTERNATIONAL
+ Irony alert: The Peaceplayers had four technical fouls.
NOTRE DAME FIGHTING ALUMNI
TEAM BARSTOOL
Barstool's Jones, 33, last appeared in the NBA in 2013, and leads TBT with 87 points in four games—can he be stopped in the final?
THEY SAID IT
"Eat some more ice cream."
Lucy Li
The 11-year-old California girl who conducted her post-first-round U.S. Women's Open press conference while eating a pop when asked what she planned to do with the rest of the day. The sixth-grader shot 78--78 and missed the cut by seven shots.
PHOTO
JOHN MUMMERT/USGA (LI)
DIAGRAM