TBT Update: Is this any way to end a basketball game? Heck yeah it is. | Opinion
Three Kansas basketball teams, 24 hours, two roof-raising finishes. That’s what The Basketball Tournament — with its Elam Ending — has wrought this week.
Designed as a more exciting way to end basketball games, the Elam Ending delivered big time in down-to-the-wire finishes on Monday and Tuesday.
For fans of Wichita State University and the University of Kansas, bedlam ruled the arenas where unlikely, exciting finishes brought screaming crowds to their feet, and amazing victories to their alumni-squad teams in the TBT.
Meanwhile, it was heartbreak hotel for fans of K-State’s alumni squad, who literally threw away a game they should have won, eliminating themselves from contention for TBT’s $1 million winner-take-all prize.
This is what basketball is supposed to be, and all too often isn’t.
I mean, how many times have you watched college hoops and seen a game turn into a free-throw contest at the end? One team tries to run out the clock and the other intentionally commits foul after foul, grinding play to a halt.
The Elam Ending is designed to end all that. It’s a quirky twist on the rules of basketball, an unlikely marriage of clock-timed arena ball and the playground game where the first team to a certain score wins.
It’s really pretty simple: At the first play stoppage with four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the officials take the leading team’s score and add eight points. The first team to make it to that “target score” wins the game. Even when it’s a blowout, both teams have to play to the end, because the game can only end on a made basket.
The NBA has dipped its toe in the Elam Ending pool, using a modified version for All-Star Games from 2020 to 2023 before reverting to a traditional clock finish in 2024.
But where the NBA backed out, TBT forges on. And it created this week’s two memorable finishes.
The first came Monday, when the KU alumni squad, JHX (short for Jayhawks) Hoops, played K-State rival Purple Reign in Kansas City.
They were tied 50-50 when it was time to set the target score, 58.
A 7-3 run put Purple Reign a mere point away from victory, at 57-53. But JHX scored the next four in a row, tying it at 57 — next point wins.
A JHX foul put Purple Reigner Shaun Williams at the line to shoot two free throws. He missed both. The rebound bounced off a JHX player out of bounds, giving K-State another chance. But then, JHX’s LaGerald Vick picked off a lazy pass and drove the length of the court for the winning bucket.
Then, 24 hours later, Wichita State’s alumni squad, the Aftershocks, found themselves in a similar position against Forever Coogs, University of Houston alums — tied at 63 with a target score of 66.
Marcus Keene, the Aftershocks’ point guard, caught an inbound pass in the backcourt, dribbled into the front court, drifted right and swished a long three-pointer for the instant win.
The crowd goes wild. Koch Arena was under half full, but I haven’t heard it that loud in years.
Lori Mans of Andale was a row behind me in the stands, standing up and shouting along with everybody else. Over the din, I shouted to her, “What do you think of the Elam Ending?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, but I think it’s more exciting!” she shouted back.
Later, at the post-game media conference, I asked Keene how he likes Elam endings.
“I mean, I love it,” he said. “It’s like open gym. So when I’m playing open gym at home, you know, game on the line, I’m trying to take the last shot. I do that so many times that when I come to the game, it’s just like clockwork.”
Tuesday’s win paved the Aftershocks’ way to the TBT version of the Elite Eight.
Wednesday night, we came within one three-point basket of what would have been an epic Wichita State-KU showdown. But JHX gave up a fourth-quarter lead and fell 71-68 to Heartfire, a team sponsored by Arizona Community Church.
It was sad news for Kansas fans — and the tournament. Add our local Jayhawks faithful to the Aftershocks crowd and we might have set an attendance record.
But Heartfire is a grudge game for the Aftershocks.
Two years ago, Heartfire eliminated the Aftershocks in the quarterfinals here in Wichita, and then went on to win the million dollar prize.
As the Eagle’s Opinion editor, it is my considered opinion that this tournament is the most entertaining basketball this town’s seen in years.
Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday, Charles Koch Arena.
See you on Sunday.
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 6:30 PM.
