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The Basketball Tournament: Super 17 Preview

07/23/2015, 10:00am EDT

By Jeff Griffith

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Over the past two weekends, 96 different teams converged on four different regional sites--Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles--to begin what they each hoped was a journey to a million dollars, as part of the second annual installment of The Basketball Tournament.

On the first weekend of play, the Los Angeles and Atlanta regionals saw their respective pools of teams get whittled down from 24 to only four each. The same took place in Philadelphia and Chicago this past weekend, cutting the field to only seventeen teams moving on to play in Chicago this coming weekend at DePaul University.

Wait, doesn’t four times four equal sixteen?

That’s correct--the 17th team that will be playing in Chicago is the Notre Dame Fighting Alumni, who received an automatic spot in the “Super 17” by winning last year’s tournament.

With only 17 teams still clinging to a chance at a million dollar prize, here’s a preview of what will be going down this weekend at DePaul:

Thursday, July 23

8:00 PM (all times eastern)--Notre Dame Fighting Alumni vs. Midwest Dream Squad: Last year’s defending champions will have to play a play-in game to become one of the final sixteen, but being littered with talented players like Tim Abromaitis, Ty Nash, and Ben Hansbrough should give the Fighting Alumni an advantage in the play-in game. They’ll be up against the Midwest Dream Squad, the Chicago regional’s fourteen-seed, who are led by former Eastern Illinois guard Travis Marion.

Friday, July 24

10:00 AM--Primetime Players vs. Dirty South: The Super 17’s two lowest remaining seeds--seeds nineteen and twenty-one from the Atlanta regional--open up Friday’s action, led by several former division two and three players, as well as a couple from division one. Donald Rutherford led Primetime Players through the south regional with eighteen points in their third-round win over HBC, but Dirty South’s shooting ability should be a key factor; Dirty South dropped forty-nine three-pointers in their three regional games, shooting over fifty percent from beyond the arc.

11:45 AM--Sean Bell All-Stars vs. Overseas Elite: The second of two south regional semifinal games will pit two much more experienced teams, with fourteen former division one players taking the floor between the two teams. Marvin Roberts, a Florida Internationl alum, led Sean Bell All-Stars in scoring in both their second- and third-round regional games. Oversaes Elite, who brings several different athletes who played professionally in Europe, eeked out back-to-back three-point wins to advance to the Super 17. Expect a close one between these two experienced, evenly matched teams.

1:30 PM--7Outz vs. Team 23: Despite having stunned one of the most hyped teams in the entire TBT field, Grantland, on a buzzer-beater in the third round of west regional play, there’s still work to be done for 7Outz. Andrew Lavender, who hit the ticket-punching shot for 7Outz, averaged nineteen points in regional play, developing a potent three-point shot especially late in games. Team 23, comprised of talented players from Arizona, swept through the regional winning each game by at least fifteen points; they’re much more a force than their thirteenth seed would suggest. Then again, the same is true for 7Outz seeded ninth.

3:15 PM--LAUNFD vs. Team Utah: Two of the most experienced teams out of the west regional performances and top-tier talent like Hassan Adams and Nick Covington on their respective rosters. LAUNFD, who rolled through their first two games by a combined score of 267-111, won their third-round game by fourteen to advance to Chicago. Team Utah’s road wasn’t quite as easy, but they still won both of their games by double-digits. Both of these teams have the capability to do serious damage in this bracket, so this could be one of the most exciting games Friday will have to offer.

5:00 PM--Sideline Cancer vs. City of Gods: One of the most experienced teams in the entire bracket takes on one of the most inspiring stories as these two teams clash in the round of sixteen. City of Gods has a perfect experience score of one hundred on the TBT website, thanks to former NBA talent like DerMarr Johnson, Xavier Silas, and Devin Sweetney. Sideline Cancer doesn’t have quite the same pedigree, but plays for a cause that could inspire any band of teammates to victory; they’re playing for Greg Griffith, whose wife started a cancer foundation after he lost his battle to cancer several years back. Don’t make the mistake, however, of thinking Sideline Cancer isn’t a talented team--they’ve already proven themselves by knocking off the northeast regional’s second-seed, Big Apple Basketball.

6:45 PM--Boeheim’s Army vs. Liberty Ballers: Top-seeded Boeheim’s Army, a team of Syracuse alumni who recently defeated a team of La Salle alumni in the northeast regional’s most hyped and most thrilling battle, will now face yet another tough test in the first round of the Super 17 when they take on alumni of Villanova, Siena, and other Philadelphia-area programs. This could possibly be the most evenly-matched game with Hakim Warrick and Demitrius Nichols leading their Army in orange against Antonio Pena, Reggie Redding, and the red, white, and blue Liberty Ballers.

8:30 PM--Illinois Hoopville Warriors vs. Armored Athlete: Having returned several of their players--including Rico Hill and Malcolm Griffin--from their 2014 team, Illinois Hoopville Warriors hopes to ride the energy of their two close regional victories through what should be yet another close encounter with Armored Athlete. Ex-Indiana sharpshooters Jordan Hulls and Will Sheehey are two of the many gifted athletes on an Armored Athlete squad that rolled through the Chicago regional with two double-digit victories.

11:00 PM--Ants Alumni vs. Play-in Winner: The Ants Alumni, despite not knowing who they’ll be playing on Friday night, are one of the bracket’s most talented teams, full of top college talent that played in the NBA D-League for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Stephen Graham and Trey McKinney-Jones are just two of the Ants’ top-flight players that could lead their team to a million dollars. Should the Ants Alumni face off with the Fighting Alumni, we’d see one of two potential finalists fall much earlier than expected.