The Revelations of TBT
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Until this year, I’ve always had passing interest in the Basketball Tournament. In recent years, there’s been a few things I really liked: for instance, the first round is a frenzy that evokes the NCAA’s first weekend and the Elam Ending flat out rules. There were other opportunities for me to get hooked. Last year, there was even an all-Kansas alumni team—but let us speak no more of that, though the team that beat Self Made, Sideline Cancer, was in the final last night and is the darling of the tournament—and when I was a contributing writer at Grantland, the website fielded a team that also had a spectacular flame-out. Despite the presence of these rooting interests—albeit once that were dashed quickly—TBT didn’t quite stick with me, for whatever reason.
Enter 2020, and the widespread suspension of American sport changed the stakes. From where I’m standing, TBT rose to the level of attention—throughout the tournament, there were tons of spectacular finishes, extremely stylish play (Mike Daum, go off king!) and plenty of personalities to root for, especially in the “small but deadly” guard department. (Sideline Cancer guard Marcus Keene averaged 30 a game at Central Michigan, and he is 5’9’’). Perennial champion Overseas Elite took a stacked roster and added Joe Johnson, and yet this still happened:
You’re not gonna see something like that in the NBA. Amazing stuff. Add in the fact that you’ve got future voice of the Jayhawks Fran Fraschilla already working at midseason form, the 2020 TBT has been a memorable tournament, a successfully executed hoops showcase in the time of COVID. The NBA could learn a lot from it, but they probably won’t.
Last night’s final featured Marquette alums against Sideline Cancer, and it was electric. The two teams entered the Elam ending phase tied at 70-70, making it a headlong dash to the target score of 78. Sideline Cancer—somehow still in the game against a deeper Marquette, who had double-teamed Marcus Keene all game—took an early lead. But then Diener happened:
Diener’s presence in this game, and in the tournament, was pretty amazing. Marquette was incredibly deep—last night, they came out with a stifling defensive scheme, and a reserve of players who could replace the starters and keep the pressure high. Their roster features Jamil Wilson and Dwight Buycks, two dudes who have meaningful NBA reps in the past five years. Diener only came into the game to pass, run a specific in-bounds play that no one could stop all tournament, and stand in the corner. He’s 38. And yet, when the kick-out came to him, there was no doubt about it.
Outside of the pretty-solid-quality play, and a Cinderella story in the form of Sideline Cancer’s run to runner-up, the 2020 Basketball Tournament was revelatory in a few ways. For one, it showed just how deep the national hoops talent pool is. Although the tournament didn’t really involve top-tier American pros who play in Europe (you’ll notice that someone like Keith Langford isn’t playing TBT) there was more than enough basketball prowess out there for NBA fans to work with. Watching TBT have success gives me hope for college basketball, in particular; in a period of time where we’re re-thinking everything, some of TBT’s lessons will surely make their way to college. The Elam ending has to happen in some form, and I’m kind of liking the idea of quarters, something women’s college hoops already has.
Most of all, TBT elevated basketball players. Almost all of the tournament’s participants will never sniff the NBA, and yet there was plenty of sizzling hoops and athletic play. The NBA’s 450 has never looked more elite, and I’ll look at college basketball’s relatively complex play design differently after a couple weeks of watching TBT.
I’m generally not superstitious, but when it comes to TBT, I’m gonna be on my Larry Brown: I hope a Jayhawk team never participates in it, ever again. But TBT gave me a lot to think about, in terms of how college can be innovated and gain more of a foothold with NBA fans. The game’s administrators will need to go outside of the box to find success, and TBT just laid the blueprint at their feet.
Now, let’s get Mike Daum that NBA contract.