The Basketball Tournament 2022 was the ninth edition of The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 5-on-5, single elimination basketball tournament with a $1 million winner-take-all prize. The tournament, involving 64 teams, began on July 16 and ended on August 2 with the championship game in Dayton, Ohio. The tournament format was similar to that of the last pre-COVID-19 edition in 2019—64 teams, each playing in one of eight regionals.
For the first time, the event had a "championship week", starting with the regional winners advancing to quarterfinals at one of two sites, Dayton and Wichita, Kansas. The quarterfinal winners then traveled to (or remained in) Dayton for the semifinals and championship game. Blue Collar U, a team primarily rostered with alumni of the Buffalo Bulls men's basketball program, won the tournament.
Format For its 2022 edition, TBT retained its traditional 64-team format, and returned to an eight-region format, with each regional involving eight teams at a single host site (similar in format to the NCAA Division II men's and women's tournaments). Seven of the eight regional sites, plus the championship week venues, were revealed by TBT organizers on December 8, 2021. The eighth regional site was revealed on May 19, 2022, as Rucker Park, an iconic outdoor venue in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. It became TBT's first-ever outdoor venue.
In a feature it calls "Run It Back", TBT organizers invited all teams that won first-round games in the 2021 edition to play in 2022. All but one of these teams accepted their bids before the organizers' initial deadline (the other one missed the deadline, but later accepted). These 31 teams, plus The Enchantment, a team consisting mostly of New Mexico alumni, were announced as the first 32 teams on January 26, 2022. The Enchantment was accepted based on New Mexico's home arena of The Pit being a regional site. The remaining teams, and the regional placements for all entrants, were revealed in a selection special hosted by Chris Vosters with analysts Seth Greenberg and April Gray that aired on TBT's YouTube channel on June 22, 2022.
As with previous years, all tournament games operate with the "Elam Ending", a format of ending the game without use of a game clock. Under the Elam Ending, the clock is turned off at the first dead-ball whistle with 4 minutes or less to play in the game. At that time, a target score, equal to the score of the leading team (or tied teams) plus eight, is set, and the first team to reach this target score is declared the winner of the game. Thus, all games end on a made basket (field goal or free throw) and there is no overtime.
Venues The Basketball Tournament 2022 featured games in eight locations, each of which hosted a regional. Two served as quarterfinal sites, with one of those also hosting the championship weekend (two semifinal contests and the championship game). Official regional names, if different from the location names, are indicated in the listings below the location names.
Albuquerque(New Mexico) Charleston(West Virginia) Cincinnati(Xavier) Omaha The Pit Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center Cintas Center D. J. Sokol Arena Capacity: 15,411 Capacity: 11,519 Capacity: 10,250 Capacity: 2,950 Rucker Park Syracuse Wichita Dayton Greg Marius Court SRC Arena Charles Koch Arena UD Arena Capacity: N/A Capacity: 6,500 Capacity: 10,506 Capacity: 13,435
Teams Source:
TBT has a history of teams rostered primarily with alumni from specific NCAA Division I college basketball programs; 27 such teams entered the 2022 tournament. Five other teams were rostered primarily with alumni from groups of NCAA basketball programs sharing a common bond. Two mostly consist of alumni from a specific Division I conference, one is drawn from a group of historic basketball rivals, another is drawn from NCAA Division III alumni, and the last is drawn from historically black colleges and universities.
Name College or sponsor affiliation Source of team name Region AfterShocks Wichita State alumni School nickname of Shockers Wichita Air Raiders Texas Tech alumni School nickname of Red Raiders Wichita Always Us Oregon alumni Phrase used by Oregon head coach Dana Altman Omaha Americana for Autism Team sponsor Americana, an NFT company Rucker Park Athletics Miami Team sponsor Athletics Miami, a basketball facility Dayton B1 Ballers Wichita Best Virginia West Virginia alumni West Virginia Big 5 Philadelphia Big 5 alumni Rucker Park Bleed Green North Texas alumni School nickname of Mean Green Wichita Blue Collar U Buffalo alumni Primary school color, plus city's blue-collar image Syracuse Boeheim's Army Syracuse alumni Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim Syracuse Brown & White alumni School colors Syracuse Bucketneers ETSU alumni School nickname of Buccaneers West Virginia Cititeam Dayton Competitive Choice New Mexico Valparaiso alumni Former school nickname of Crusaders Omaha DaGuys STL Team YouTube channel, with players mainly from Greater St. Louis Omaha Defeat Diabetes JDRF Xavier Eberlein Drive Team owners' home street Wichita New Mexico alumni State nickname, "Land of Enchantment" New Mexico Ex-Pats Patriot League alumni Rucker Park Florida TNT Players with connections to the state of Florida Xavier Fort Wayne Champs Players with connections to Fort Wayne, Indiana Xavier Founding Fathers James Madison alumni Status of school namesake James Madison as one of the Founding Fathers West Virginia Friday Beers Armored Athlete Syracuse Fully Loaded Alumni of AAU program Team Loaded West Virginia Golden Eagles Marquette alumni School nickname of Golden Eagles Dayton Gutter Cat Gang Team sponsor Gutter Cat Gang, an NFT company Omaha HBCUnited HBCU alumni Rucker Park Heartfire MedImpact New Mexico Herd That Marshall alumni School nickname of Thundering Herd West Virginia Hoopville Warriors Players with connections to Chicago Rucker Park India Rising Players of Indian origin Syracuse Jackson Underdawgs Players with connections to Jackson, Tennessee Omaha LA Cheaters Drew League New Mexico Lone Star Legends Players with connections to the state of Texas, nicknamed "Lone Star State" Wichita Men of Mackey Purdue alumni Purdue home court Mackey Arena Dayton Mental Toughness JCK Foundation Syracuse Mid American Unity Mid-American Conference alumni Dayton TMT Team sponsor Floyd "Money" Mayweather Dayton Nasty Nati Cincinnati alumni Nickname of the city of Cincinnati Xavier Players from "more prestigious" universities Syracuse NG Saints Neumann Goretti High School Abbreviation and nickname of school Syracuse Ohio 1804 Ohio alumni Year of school's founding Dayton Omaha Blue Crew Creighton alumni Location and primary color of school Omaha Once a Bronco Boise State alumni School nickname of Broncos New Mexico Panamaniacs New Mexico State alumni NMSU home court Pan American Center New Mexico Peacock Nation Saint Peter's alumni School nickname of Peacocks Rucker Park Purple & Black Kansas State alumni School colors Wichita Ram Up Colorado State alumni School nickname of Rams New Mexico Red Scare Dayton alumni Name of Dayton student section Dayton Sideline Cancer Pancreatic cancer awareness Xavier Skip to My Lou Streetball moniker of team head coach Rafer Alston Rucker Park Sweet Home Alabama Classic Lynyrd Skynyrd song, reflecting the Alabama origins of team players Xavier Team AboutBillions Brand of team sponsor Adrien Broner Xavier Team Arkansas Arkansas alumni Omaha Team Challenge ALS New Mexico Team Overtime Overtime Elite Team sponsor Overtime Elite, a sports media company and league Omaha Virginia Dream Players with connections to the state of Virginia West Virginia War Ready Auburn alumni School battle cry "War Eagle" West Virginia We Are D3 NCAA Division III alumni Wichita WoCo Showtime Wofford alumni Wofford College West Virginia YGC Marcus Smart Rucker Park Zip Em Up Xavier alumni Former Xavier team motto Xavier Note: team names are per the TBT bracket; some names have slight variation on TBT website pages.
Tournament bracket All eight no. 1 seeds advanced in first-round play; the lowest seed to advance to the second round was no. 7 Bleed Green in the Wichita Regional.
Six no. 1 seeds advanced in second-round play; the lowest seed to advance to the third round was again Bleed Green.
Five no. 1 seeds advanced in third-round play; the lowest seed to advance to the quarterfinals was no 3. Red Scare from the Dayton Regional.
Only a single no. 1 seed, AfterShocks from the Wichita Regional, won a quarterfinal match; the lowest seed to advance to the semifinals was again Red Scare.
In the first semifinal game, AfterShocks were eliminated by Americana for Autism, the no. 2 seed from the Rucker Park Regional.
In the second semifinal game, Red Scare were eliminated by Blue Collar U, the no. 2 seed from the Syracuse Regional.
Blue Collar U then defeated Americana for Autism in the championship game.
Source:
Rucker Park Regional – Greg Marius Court (New York City)
Xavier Regional – Cintas Center (Cincinnati)
New Mexico Regional – The Pit (Albuquerque)
Syracuse Regional – SRC Arena
Wichita Regional – Charles Koch Arena
Omaha Regional – D. J. Sokol Arena
Dayton Regional – UD Arena
West Virginia Regional – Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center
Championship Week – Dayton & Wichita All games played at Dayton, except for one quarterfinal (Wichita winner vs. Omaha winner) played at Wichita.
Announcers for both semifinal matches and the championship game were Bob Rathbun, Fran Fraschilla, and Angel Gray.
Semifinals
Championship
The final points of the tournament, securing the championship for Blue Collar U, came on a dunk by Montell McRae.
Awards
+ All Tournament Team Pos Player Team PG Chris Warren Florida TNT PG Scoochie Smith Red Scare SG C. J. Massinburg (MVP) Blue Collar U PG Wes Clark Blue Collar U PF Nick Perkins Blue Collar UCoach Adam Bauman Blue Collar UGM Griffin Taylor Americana for Autism Source:
33-Point Contest The "33-Point Contest", first held in 2021, returned. In the 2022 edition, select individual players competed in each region to see who could make 11 three-point field goals the fastest, with regional winners advancing to a final round in Dayton.
Finalists (team, region):
Sean Armand (Friday Beers, Syracuse) Jordon Crawford (The Money Team, Dayton) Eric Demers (We are D3, Wichita) Trevor John (Sweet Home Alabama, Xavier)
James Long (Best Virginia, West Virginia) Anthony Mathis (The Enchantment, New Mexico) Ryan Taylor (Ohio 1804, Dayton) Brandon Wood (The Cru, Omaha)
The contest and prize of $33,333.33 was won by Ryan Taylor.
Notes
References
External links
Blue Collar U vs. Autism Army - Game Highlights via YouTube