GM Tyshawn Taylor says KU’s alumni team ‘could definitely compete’ for TBT title
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- JHX Hoops features former KU players prepping for TBT debut Saturday in KC.
- GM Tyshawn Taylor believes roster depth gives team real title potential.
- Sherron Collins coaches squad; TBT offers $1 million to tournament winner.
Tyshawn Taylor, general manager of Kansas’ alumni team entry in the upcoming 64-team, single-elimination The Basketball Tournament, sat at a table at Morningstar’s New York Pizza on Saturday afternoon signing autographs for fans with former KU players Nick Timberlake, David McCormack and Kevin Young.
The remaining players on KU’s (JHX Hoops) entry — former Jayhawks Cliff Alexander, Billy Preston, Jamari Traylor and Lagerald Vick plus Washburn’s Jacob Hanna — are expected to be in Lawrence on Monday as the team prepares for Thursday’s Wheat State Showdown exhibition game against Kansas State alumni team (7 p.m., UMKC’s Swinney Center) and Saturday’s TBT opener against New York team OffDaHook (3 p.m., Municipal Auditorium).
If KU prevails against OffDaHook it would play again at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 21, at Municipal.
Former KU and South Dakota State guard Zeke Mayo, who is playing with the Washington Wizards in the NBA summer league, has said he will join KU’s TBT squad as soon as summer league is over. Also there’s a chance Taylor, 35, will play some minutes himself.
The KU team, which goes by the name JHX Hoops, will be led by former KU guard and current Oak Park High School coach Sherron Collins, who directed his team to the first state title in the school’s history last spring.
“It’s going to be tough, but I’m excited for it. I think the team that we put together could definitely compete with any team, especially because it’s a single elimination. We’ve just got to be good for 40 minutes,” said Taylor, who assembled the roster with fellow GMs Stephanie Temple and Scott Ward.
“A guy like Dave (McCormack) … he’s only in his third year (as a pro playing in Germany). In basketball years he’s in his prime right now,” Taylor said.
“And it’s the same for a lot of those guys,” he added, noting most of the players on the roster played pro ball in 2024-25. “The guys we’ll be playing against, no matter who we end up with, are going to look at us like a former Kansas team, right?
“They’re going to play so hard against us. They are going to look at us like, ‘Oh, I remember when he played. I remember when Kevin (Young) did this or that. I remember when David hit that shot (to propel KU to victory in a 72-69 victory over North Carolina in the 2022 NCAA title game).’ So it’s going to be competitive no matter what,” added Taylor, who played at KU from 2009-12 and two years in the NBA.
The KU team figures to get in some practice time during the week before or after a summer skills camp for youths set for 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at Swinney Center on UMKC’s campus.
“We raised enough money to book some flights, enough to book hotels, give guys some per diem so they don’t have to spend their own money,” Taylor said of the JHX Hoops players.
“The goal is to put guys together and go win the money, right?” Taylor added of the $1 million winner-take-all prize money. “We want guys to want to come here and play for something, to understand how important it is. Like Dave and Nick (Timberlake) it’s their first time playing. I think sometimes you think it’s just a summer tournament, just come show up, you play a game and it’s over. No … it’s real. It gets super, super competitive.”
Taylor conceded that the KU alumni would look better if some of KU’s overseas pros or G League players such as Devon Dotson, Devonté Graham, Frank Mason, Marcus Garrett, Malik Newman, Udoka Azubuike were on the KU roster.
Someday they could decide to play. Taylor plans on being GM when that happens.
“If we had Frank sitting here it’d be 30 to 40 more people (in line wanting autographs),” Taylor said at Morningstar’s Pizza. Mason elected to play for the Syracuse alumni team instead of the KU squad.
“Then you add a Devonté to that it’d be 100 people. You get what I’m saying. Guys like that haven’t jumped on board yet, and once they do I know it’ll continue to get bigger.
“Me not being able to play the last couple years (injury problems) after having been close to winning many times, I’m going to keep doing it as a GM. If I can sneak in 10 minutes one of these summers, I’ll give you an up and down and maybe get fouled and go to the free-throw line,” Taylor added, smiling.
Taylor added he wants to “keep building” the team and hopes it continues to grow.
“I want people to support it more (and maybe locate some big money donors). I want it to be like an event. We want to make it an event,” he added.
Taylor said the public is invited to its next autograph event. The JHX Hoops team will be at Crown Toyota-Volkswagen for a meet and greet from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday in Lawrence.
“It’s summer basketball,” Taylor said. “Right now there’s summer league and nothing else. This tournament goes on two weeks after that’s over. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2025 at 9:30 PM with the headline "GM Tyshawn Taylor says KU’s alumni team ‘could definitely compete’ for TBT title."
