More than nostalgia: Aftershocks repping Wichita well in The Basketball Tournament
If I knew The Basketball Tournament was going to be this much fun, I’d have gone years ago.
Although I consider myself a basketball fan — Go Phoenix Suns! — The Basketball Tournament was never really on my radar until I went to a game for the first time Saturday.
The basic tournament setup is that a bunch of guys, mostly ex-college hoopsters, form teams and go at it in a 64-team tournament in pursuit of a winner-take-all $1 million prize. That works out to about $71,000 for the players and coaches.
Saturday’s tournament session at Koch Arena was a twofer. Game One featured Purple and Black, a K-State alumni team. Game Two featured The Aftershocks, mostly former Wichita State Shockers.
One of my twin sons graduated from K-State and the other from WSU. So I donned my purple Powercat shirt and yellow Wushock hat and it was game on.
I’d always seen The Basketball Tournament as kind of a “tweener,” falling somewhere between playground hoops and legit college ball.
I expected it to be mostly a nostalgia experience, a chance to root one more time for some guys that I’d cheered for when they were in college, like former Wildcats Jacob Pullen and Thomas Gipson and onetime Shockers Markis McDuffee and Conner Frankamp.
It was actually a lot more entertaining than that. In fact, it was a lot more entertaining than a lot of college games I’ve seen.
My one gripe against college ball is that the end of game often devolves into a lengthy free-throw contest, as the team that’s trailing commits intentional foul after intentional foul, hoping the other team will miss at the charity stripe and they can get back in the game.
Yawn.
The Basketball Tournament has solved that problem with something called the “Elam Ending.” With four minutes left, a “target score” is set and the first team to get to it wins. There’s no stalling to run out the clock, and there’s no reason to commit endless fouls to try to stretch out the game.
Much to my surprise, these guys were playing with the kind of talent and intensity I remember from their college days.
And the refs let them play. As the late, great Los Angeles Lakers announcer Chick Hearn used to say, “no harm, no foul, no blood, no ambulance.”
The atmosphere was electric. Several thousand fans, almost all decked out in Shocker yellow, were as animated and enthusiastic as they get for regular WSU games.
Purple and Black lost, but the Aftershocks won and advanced.
My wife, Kathy, and I had such a good time we considered going back for Monday’s game. We ended up watching it on ESPN2 instead, because it didn’t start until 8 p.m. and she has to get up early for work.
But after former Shocker Darral Willis (2016-2018) made a contested layup to pull out a 70-69 nail biter to beat Bleed Green — former University of North Texas players — Kathy turned to me and said “Wednesday, we’re there.”
If the Aftershocks win Wednesday, they make it to the semi-finals. And somehow, I find myself nearly as excited by that as I was in 2014 when the Shockers made it the NCAA Final Four.
This is going to be interesting.
I did some checking on the upcoming opponents, the Gutter Cats. They’re loaded with Euro pros and are considered one of the favorites to win it all. Unlike many TBT teams, they have official sponsors, Puma, the shoe giant, and something called the Gutter Cat Gang.
From the team’s “about” page: “Gutter Cat Gang is a global lifestyle brand that operates at the intersection of Web3 and street culture. GCG launched in June 2021 as an underground social club based around culturally-focused membership NFTs” (whatever the heck that means).
More to the point: “Team Gutter Cats’ roster features an array of talented players, including Kyle Hines, who has won four EuroLeague championships, claimed several titles in Italy, Russia, and Germany, and had multiple personal accolades.”
So, there’s your scouting report.
See you at the game.
I’ll be the guy in the yellow shirt.
