Mark Lyons with the Enemy

[arxpert]

Get Mad.

Mark Lyons with the Xavier Alumni Team "Zip Em Up" largely comprised of the core players from 2017 that knocked us out of the Sweet 16 by a bucket such a JP Macura, Trevon Bluiett, Sean O'Mara.

https://thetournament.com/teams/zip-em-up-xavier-alumni/

[KansasCityCats]

Meh. Lyons played at Xavier as well.

No animosity towards XU. It's not like they had a bunch of 7 footers flopping (ala Wisconsin). They just flat out beat us.  Not like he's representing Dook or assu.

[arxpert]

Beat us by a bucket on an amazing night by that team. Miller 0-5 in 2nd weekend games decided by "a bucket". At some point even the haters have to admit the Arizona players just didn't make any clutch shots nor stop any clutch shots (buzzer beaters) to advance to where the haters believe and perceive the promise land to be... which is 2 games away from a title and 1 game further than an Elite 8. AKA just 1 more week of media coverage (final 4)

[arxpert]

PS - JP Macura got hurt and Zip Em Up lost today while Oregon's Alumni Team looked great and advanced (vomit).

Maybe someday a forum like this with some connected members can get Arizona to load up a Proper Alumni team and make a run in this tournament. Kyle Fogg is a 3x champ and MVP of TBT. Derrick Williams, Lyons, Nick Johnson, Bibby, and Brandon Randolph have played in this event at some point. I don't think it's too difficult to get a respectable team together. The AD can care less about the real tradition of the school, but that doesn't mean some super-alums like RJ, JET, Channing etc can't booster a team.

[KansasCityCats]

Not sure what point you're making. I'm a big Miller supporter but the end of that game was sorely mismanaged bu allowing (selfish) Trier to sit on the ball and take a ridiculous shot with no time to compensate for an error.

Regardless, Arizona lost a fair game, which is why I don't have hatred towards Xavier (unlike postseason games with Dook, Wisconsin, etc).

TBT didn't exist while our talented alumni were finished with their pro careers. A few guys have success on an individual basis because they don't make it in the league. Guys like Randolph don't have an allegiance towards Arizona. Perhaps a team will form after Lloyd builds up an alumni base in Tucson. Personally, I don't care because it doesn't help Arizona's program to compete in a street-ball league. It's a nice bonus for former players (if you win); that's it.

[arxpert]

Get Mad Again.

It's really not a street ball tournament. It's for $1,000,000 with many teams playing with a charitable cause behind them. Also it is played by nearly all professionals from the G League and Abroad. Other years the prize was 2,000,000 however, covid got in the way. This tournament is here to stay and any slander makes no sense. The Elam Ending is way more exciting than any 5 minutes of overtime that any league has to offer. I believe the largest comeback was a team down 19 going into the Elam which was won by the Bradley Alumni team.

Blue Collar U, the Buffalo Alumni team in TBT is in the Final 4. This team consists of 7 out of the 9 players who played basically all the minutes vs Arizona as the 13 seed taking us out with the 40-38 first half then a 49 point unstoppable barrage in the 2nd half to our 30 with their small ball, run and gun lineup vs 2 7ft'ers who held up their end of the bargain while Trier, Rawle, and PJC all shat the bed. They look loose and have insane chemistry. Half of the Elite 8 in this tournament were alumni teams with players as old as Travis Diener of Marquette and Eric Devendorf of Syracuse. Wichita St, Marquette, Syracuse, Buffalo.

Ironic how Wichita St, Ohio St, Xavier, and Buffalo accounted for 4 March Madness losses during the prior regime and many of the players on those teams were the ones who knocked us out. Ohio St featuring Aaron Craft who sunk the buzzer beater and Xavier with their squad. The competition is only getting stiffer and for all of the hatred on this message board about players in the past 10 years who didn't live up to their potential in the hater's eyes, there are enough "wasted talents" that some of you think were so bad they should have nothing better to do right now in the dog days of summer that played together that could form an alumni team and be competitive at this level.

[KansasCityCats]

This tournament is only "here to stay" because ESPN is bored while the NFL, NBA and college athletics are in their offseason. People don't care, but a few watch out of sheer boredom. I'm an avid college basketball fan; I'll watch two small schools play each other on a Wednesday night, yet I'll only catch a TBT game once every other year. Good for the players that need the $131,500 share. I'm happy that they can pay rent for another year or two.

The sweet 16 and elite 8 losses hurt but they don't bother me. All of our opponents had experienced veterans, which is the reason they were able to handle our one (or two) and dones

[arxpert]

Happy to have this friendly discussion!  It's only getting bigger and more competitive. Disrespecting them and $100k for 6 games seems weird to me. I don't know more than 10 people in my life that would spit on the chance to earn 60k-120k over 3 weeks for playing a kids game mainly with friends from college or other professional avenues over the dog days of summer --- $33,333.33 for a race to 11 3pt'ers for that little bonus competition was also fun to watch and will attract even more shooters to the event. I like where this is heading. It's a rising stock. Only in 2021 can we officially say that "top" College athletes will earn much more than these players. What a time to be alive when the Alabama QB is only a Soph and signed up over 800k in endorsements with over 1 million more on the way.. plenty of reasons to hang around college for 4 years now. I just wonder when the actual students will revolt.

[KansasCityCats]

I agree that the money would be huge for some of these players.  My argument is that it looks like pennies, compared to NBA (and even Euro-League) contracts.  You bring up an interesting point: I wonder if college coaches will allow their players to eventually earn roster spots at TBT.  That would make things more fun, although I assume that the NCAA would never allow more than 2-3 players from the same college to play on the same team because it would essentially be considered a "practice" during the offseason.