UVA will be a regional host site for The Basketball Tournament, the 64-team, $1 million winner-take-all summer glorified series of pick-up games that I’m just finding out is still a thing.
That might be because the TBT was aired as summer filler on ESPN for the first 11 years of its run, before moving to FS1 and Fox last summer.
When this TBT thing was on ESPN, I’d accidentally come across a game here and there trying to find something else.
With all but a couple of games on FS1 last summer, I don’t ever even accidentally tune into FS1.
Anyway, good news, TBT is still around, which, yay.
Details
- The 2025 Charlottesville Regional will be played at John Paul Jones Arena on July 18-23.
- Tickets will go on sale May 6. Fans can sign up for ticket and team notifications at tbthoops.com/tickets/notifications.
- For more information on this year’s TBT or the Charlottesville Regional, visit tbthoops.com.
This TBT thing is basically YMCA pick-up ball involving good basketball players, like, for example, Kyle Guy and Kihei Clark, who are the first two announced members of the UVA Basketball alum team, predictably, they’ve named themselves Embrace the Pace, that will compete in the TBT regional at JPJ.
“I’m super excited that TBT is coming to Charlottesville and that UVA will have their first alumni team,” said Guy, who is listed as a special assistant on the UVA Basketball coaching staff in the here and now, with the future of that staff in flux.
“TBT has become such a great way for players to reconnect with each other and strengthen their bonds with the schools they played at,” Guy said. “We’re looking forward to putting out a team UVA fans will be excited about, and I’m looking forward to seeing a packed John Paul Jones Arena in July.”
Guy and former UVA assistant Johnny Carpenter will be the GMs for the UVA alum team, meaning, they’re in charge of getting other UVA hoops alums to commit to playing.
Guy, it seems to me, has some run left in him. He averaged 11.2 points per game in the EuroLeague between 2022-2024.
It still amazes me that he never caught on with an NBA team. After going in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft, he bounced around the league for parts of three seasons, never finding the right situation, as he put up big numbers in the G League, averaging 21.1 points and 4.6 assists as he tried to remake himself into a scoring point guard.
Who knows, maybe he puts up some good performances in this TBT thing and earns himself another look somewhere.
I wonder if that’s the thinking, because otherwise, the schedule for the TBT doesn’t mesh well with the schedule for a college assistant.
The regional at JPJ is scheduled to play out July 18-23, which is in the heart of one of the summertime recruiting contact periods.
Guy isn’t a full-time assistant, and only full-time assistants are permitted to be engaged in off-campus recruiting, but if Guy wants a full-time gig, at UVA or somewhere else, you wouldn’t want a side gig to get in the way of you being able to do your job.
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Chris Graham
