TBT: Boeheim’s Army has new uniforms, plus ‘Elam Ending’ expands to all games

When we’re all watching Boeheim’s Army compete in this summer’s edition of The Basketball Tournament, the Syracuse Orange alumni team will once again be wearing some fantastic uniforms.

Uni Watch’s Paul Lukas had the first look for this year’s jerseys, sponsored by Puma, and they look better than Syracuse’s current set, to be honest...

Along with the fan-favorite Syracuse script design on the front, you’ll also notice the “K” patch adorning the jersey — the same one that the Orange men’s basketball team also wore to honor former administrative assistant Kelly Seubert. It’s a nice tribute to continue from the actual basketball season, and more #synergy with the program and coach that lends Boeheim’s Army its players and moniker.

This isn’t the first time Boeheim’s Army has used a former Syracuse uniform as inspiration for its own. Last year, the team wore threads inspired by the 2003 national championship squad, and the 2016 team wore a variation of the script. Same with 2015, though with some additional nods to the old striped look up the side.

One would assume the team or TBT starts selling these uniforms soon, at which point, Syracuse fans will undoubtedly shell out all the money in the world for them, as has been the case in the past.

If you missed it, this year’s team is the No. 1 seed in the Northeast, and will have its usual roster of Orange alumni on the squad. Among this year’s players: Eric Devendorf, Paul Harris, John Gillon, Kris Joseph, Dashonte Riley, James Southerland, Brandon Triche and Hakim Warrick.

As Boeheim’s Army hopes to make it back to the Final Four, they will have an additional challenge — or perhaps, an opportunity — on the way. After experimenting with it during the play-in games last year, the Basketball Tournament will implement the “Elam Ending” for all contests this time around. The basics:

• Clock goes dark at first dead ball under four minutes left in the game
• Officials add seven points to score of leading team
• First team to reach that score wins

When created by current Ball State professor Nick Elam, the goal was to remove the parade of fouls in the game’s closing minutes and also add some excitement and action to the proceedings. Without a clock in place, the goal just becomes hitting a certain score — giving every game a buzzer-beater of some sort and taking time management out of the equation.

As a basketball fan, this sounds like a blast in many ways, since every ending is exciting. That said, if my team was up 10 at the four-minute mark and then lost, I’d be pretty irate. Jim Boeheim would hate this rule because then we couldn’t just take the air out of the ball to close out games. But since we usually hate when he does that anyway, you’re probably fine with it too.

TBT gets started in late June, so you’ll be seeing this insane/fun idea play out en masse soon enough. Thoughts/complaints/praise for the new uniforms? Share it all below.