The Aftershocks are rocking Koch Arena in TBT, and man do we need this | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The Aftershocks reunite Wichita State alumni for a nostalgic TBT tournament run.
- TBT games at Koch Arena recreate college-era energy despite modern NCAA changes.
- Challenge ALS and DJ Burns pose size challenges for the smaller Aftershocks squad.
For an average fan like me, The Basketball Tournament, underway at Charles Koch Arena this weekend, is about one part basketball and four parts nostalgia.
The nostalgia parts are named Conner Frankamp, Markis McDuffie, Trey Wade and Rashard Kelly.
The former Wichita State standouts are the core of the Aftershocks, a team that harkens back to the days when Shocker basketball was the undisputed pride of Wichita and a force to be reckoned with in the NCAA Tournament.
Frankamp now plays in Taiwan, McDuffie in Italy, Wade in Poland and Kelly in Japan.
But once a year, they return to Wichita to play in TBT, a $1 million winner-take-all tournament featuring teams from across the country.
Friday’s game didn’t fill up Koch Arena like WSU did in its heyday. But it drew a solid and enthusiastic crowd, wearing Shocker swag like the players on the Aftershocks never left.
The Aftershocks’ head coach is Zach Bush, also a former player.
“You go out there, you get chills every time and it feels like college a little bit,” he said at the post-game news conference. “These fans beat everything. They’re what create the atmosphere and the energy. There’s nothing like it.
“Somebody gets a dunk, or gets a stop and a transition three, and (the arena) erupts — I think it fuels the team and it’s the big fun piece of why these guys keep wanting to play in front of these (fans).”
The Aftershocks are more than a gimmick.
The represent basketball from the time before name, image and likeness payments and a penalty-free transfer portal combined to pretty much wreck college sports.
The Wichita State formula was to recruit players of middling reputations, coach them up over time and teach them to play as a unit that could challenge the best in college basketball.
They made it to March Madness for seven years straight from 2011 to 2018, including a Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2013.
Shockers went to the NBA — Ron Baker, Cleanthony Early, Landry Shamet, Austin Reaves (via Oklahoma).
One even became a star: Houston Rockets point guard Fred Van Vleet, who has a championship ring and an All-Star appearance to his credit and was just elected president of the NBA player’s union.
But the NIL and portal game is one we can’t win here. Our fan base and alumni aren’t rich enough, and a player who gets noticed here would be stupid not to portal out to where the NIL money’s better.
Although most of the players in the TBT are pros someplace and there’s a cool million at the end of the rainbow, it feels more like college basketball than college basketball does these days.
In the TBT, the teams mostly fall into two groups — alumni-focused squads like the Aftershocks, and teams put together to raise attention and money for charitable causes.
The team the Aftershocks beat Friday, No Excuses, is based in Houston and helps support a nonprofit providing services and scholarships to disadvantaged youth.
The team the Aftershocks will play Sunday evening is another charity squad, Team Challenge ALS, which edged the Texas alumni squad, Austin’s Own, in a thriller Friday evening.
I’m really curious to see how the Aftershocks plan to get around Challenge ALS. Their center is DJ Burns, 6-foot-9 and (allegedly) 275 pounds, formerly of N.C. State and now a pro in South Korea.
Burns looked like a roving Coke machine defending the paint against Austin’s Own, and he could be trouble for the considerably smaller Aftershocks.
Sunday’s TBT card at Koch Arena tips off at 6 p.m. with Forever Coogs, the University of Houston alumni team, versus Fire Family, representing the Potawatomi tribe of Oklahoma.
The Aftershocks-versus-Challenge ALS game follows at 8 p.m. The same ticket gets you into both games.
The winners of Sunday night’s matchups will face each other at 8 p.m. Tuesday in a regional final.
It’s weird, but somehow, I feel like I’ve been waiting for this all year.
This story was originally published July 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
