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Former Syracuse Orange men’s basketball guard Eric Devendorf is the first addition to Boeheim’s Army’s 2020 squad, the team announced via Twitter on Friday.
BREAKING: Our first roster addition is the legend @edeven23! Eric has been with us since the beginning, as the only player who has played on each of our TBT teams. ED has proven time and time again he’s one of the best and toughest players in @thetournament history! pic.twitter.com/01vKEfhpEn
— Boeheim's Army (@BoeheimsArmy) April 10, 2020
The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an annual 64-team, single-elimination basketball tournament held in July and August. Teams, many of them college basketball alumni squads like Boeheim’s Army, compete for a $2 million prize.
Devendorf is the lone player to be on every Boeheim’s Army team since it first entered TBT in 2015. Despite no longer playing professional basketball, he has proven to be the emotional and spiritual leader of Boeheim’s Army, not to mention its best player. As last year’s captain, Devendorf led the team with 15.3 points per game while also averaging 3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.3 steals.
“Whenever it’s time to play, he’s gonna bring it. It’s just in his blood. He’s just built that way,” BA teammate B.J. Johnson told Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota after a game last summer.
As of now, TBT has not yet canceled its tournament due to the spread of the coronavirus.
For the second consecutive year, SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College is set to host the first three rounds of TBT as one of eight regional sites. Last year, Boeheim’s Army fell in Round 3 there to Team Brotherly Love. The Syracuse alumni squad will return this year on July 31.