The Purple and Black are Back for the TBT

Hey y’all, I’m back and have some real life, honest to goodness live sportsing to talk about for the first time in a coon’s age (sorry, I’m living in Georgia now, please excuse the southern colloquialisms while I adjust). The Basketball Tournament is returning this summer and the Kansas State alumni have resurrected their Purple and Black team for another run.

If you’re not familiar with TBT, the quick and dirty is it’s a single elimination, bracketed tournament made of former high level basketball players from across the country. The majority of teams consist of college alumni teams, but there are also regional teams, teams playing for charity, and other random groupings of guys looking to cash in on the winner-take-all 1 million dollar prize located at the end of the bracket.

Rules

The rules will look somewhat familiar. The TBT mainly uses NCAA men’s basketball rules, with a few exceptions.

Games are played in 9 minute quarters

Players get 6 fouls before disqualification

The free-throw bonus kicks in the 5th foul in a quarter

FIBA basket interference are in play. One the ball hits the rim, it’s in play with the exception of shots that are in the air when the end of the quarter buzzer sounds (those shots are off limits to everyone).

NCAA rules replay rules with the exception of auto replays in the last 2 minutes. If a play that triggers an auto replay happens in the last 2 minutes, the refs only go to the monitor if the game is within 3 points.

The Elam Ending

If the game is tied at the end of regulation, field goals are kicked from midcourt until a winner is decided, similar to soccer penalty kicks....

Wait, this rule is named after Ball State University professor Nick Elam, and not former Broncos and Falcons kicker Jason Elam? My bad, this changes everything.

The Elam ending means the game clock is turned off at the first whistle inside of 4 minutes. The game is then played to a target score 8 points above the leading score (or the tied score if the game is deadlocked), with the shot clock still in effect. This year, to avoid the defense fouling when they need 1 or 2 points and the offense needs 3 points to hit the target score, when a foul occurs in this situation the offense gets the 1 free throw and the ball like a technical foul. The game ends when one team hits or exceeds the target score.

Purple and Black Roster

#3 - PG - Kamau Stokes - 6’1” - Kansas State

#5 - PG Trevor Gaskins - 6’2” - Louisiana Tech and Ole Miss

#6 - PG - Martavious Irving - 6’2” - Kansas State

# 2 - SG - Cartier Diarra - 6’4” - Virginia Tech and Kansas State

#14 - SG - Justin Edwards - 6’3” - Maine and Kansas State

#34 - SG - Marquis Addison - 6’4” - Missouri Southern State University

#13 - SF - Marvin Clark - 6’7” - St. John’s and Michigan State

#11 - SF - Moses Morgan - 6’6” - Cal State Fullerton and Depaul

#8 - SF - Ron Freeman - 6’7” - Long Beach State and Kansas State

#42 - PF - Thomas Gipson - 6’7” - Kansas State

#7 - PF - Curtis Kelly - 6’9” - Kansas State and UConn

#4 - PF - D.J. Johnson - 6’8” - Kansas State

Seeding and Bracket

Kansas State has the 7th seed in the Wichita Region and will face the 10th seeded Omaha Blue Crew (Creighton Alumni) in the first round on July 16th at 5 PM CDT. This is basically a home game for the Kansas State team (at least in terms of fan support) and I personally dislike anything coming out of the state of Nebraska. If Purple and Black take care of business in the first round, they’ll match up against the #2 seed Aftershocks (Wichita State Alumni) in the second round (assuming they take care of business as well).

That’s a prime time game featuring the best two college basketball programs in the state of Kansas (my apologies to Fort Hays State and the semi pro team in Lawrence).

Quick Rundown

I’ll provide y’all with more information on the Purple and Black team than you’ll need over the next two weeks, but the Purple and Black team has some interesting components that could excel in this format.

Mainly, I’m excited to see Kamau and Cartier in the same backcourt again. This is a guard driven tournament and having two young, in-shape guards leading the way will be fun to watch. Mainly I want to see Carti throw down some highlight film dunks while Kamau bombs away from the perimeter and drops dimes to the low post players.