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There are a lot of basketball tournaments out there. But only one gets to call itself The Basketball Tournament. Mostly because that's what they named it.
The Basketball Tournament is a single-elimination hoops tournament taking place in Philadelphia that consists of 32 teams vying for a grand prize of $500K.
It's open to anyone — collegians, pros, you, me — who can recruit enough votes for their team on the TBT website. Online voting is already well underway and runs until May 1. Then, most of the tournament runs from June 6 to 8, followed by a two-week break before the championship on June 28.
Okay, sounds cool. So why are we talking about it? Because former Syracuse Orange players Arinze Onuaku and Donte Greene are taking part in it. And that's not all.
The core of Villanova's 2009 Final Four squad has signed up, with Scottie Reynolds, Reggie Redding, Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson being supplemented by Antonio Pena, Corey Fisher, Maalik Wayns and Mouph Yarou on Team ROBY. They were assembled when TBT's organizers reached out to Dwayne Anderson through Penn State team manager Austin Buntz.
TBT has also secured the 2010 Cornell players who made it to the
Elite EightSweet Sixteen as well as teams representing Wisconsin, Siena, LSU, Maryland, Notre Dame and St. Anthony's High School. For hoops fans, those teams come along with names like, Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, Sean Singletary, Ryan Wittman, Aquille Carr, Anthony Ireland, Tony Gaffney, and Ryan Gomes.
The teams with the largest social media support will automatically make the cut, so make sure you're supporting AO and Donte in their quest for $500K. The Cuse duo will be playing alongside Tony Durant, brother of Kevin.
As for why there isn't a bigger Syracuse presence, a rep says that there wasn't enough time to organize everyone. Shame, would have been awesome to see a team of SU expats on the floor together. You're telling me you wouldn't watch a squad consisting of AO, Donte, Devo, Jonny Flynn and Rick Jackson play together?
Keep an eye on The Tournament's website for updates and more details.
