AfterShocks are back: Wichita State alumni team returning to defend TBT title
The AfterShocks had the perfect ending.
They had the $1 million check. They had the confetti. They had Koch Arena rocking again with more than 9,000 Wichita State fans turning The Basketball Tournament championship game into something that looked and sounded like a vintage home game in the Roundhouse.
They could have walked away as champions.
Instead, they are coming back for more.
The AfterShocks, Wichita State’s alumni team, will return to TBT this summer as the defending champions in a newly formatted 16-team event with a winner-take-all $2 million prize. The AfterShocks will open their title defense with a best-of-three first-round series against The Enchantment, New Mexico’s alumni team, with all three possible games scheduled for Koch Arena.
“Everybody had such a good time last summer and the guys had a genuine love for each other and we played so well together,” AfterShocks coach Zach Bush told The Eagle. “And then upping the prize money to $2 million doesn’t hurt either. So why walk away when we feel like we could potentially do it again?”
That question lingered after last summer when the AfterShocks finally reached the top of TBT following years of helping turn Wichita into one of the tournament’s signature markets. With most of the roster on the other side of 30, there was at least a real conversation inside the group about whether winning the championship should be the final chapter.
But the pull of another summer at Koch Arena — and the chance to double last year’s payday — proved too strong.
The AfterShocks will bring back a core group that includes former Shockers in Conner Frankamp, Markis McDuffie and Rashard Kelly, as well as star guard Marcus Keene, Bush confirmed to The Eagle. McDuffie will serve as team captain, while Keene, last year’s championship-game star, is keeping the promise he made to the Koch Arena crowd after the title game.
Keene scored 22 points in the AfterShocks’ 82-67 win over Eberlein Drive in the 2025 championship game and was named to the all-tournament team. In the celebration afterward, he brought the crowd to a roar by saying he would return if the AfterShocks wanted to run it back.
Now he is.
It will not be a complete reunion, however. Under TBT’s new rules, alumni teams are limited to four non-alumni players. Last summer’s championship team had four former Shockers and six non-alumni players, meaning Bush and the AfterShocks will have some difficult roster decisions ahead.
The AfterShocks are expected to add at least two more former Wichita State players in the coming weeks with the four non-alumni spots likely all going to players from last summer’s title team.
The roster-building challenge is part of a much larger TBT overhaul. After years as a 64-team, single-elimination tournament, TBT will shrink to 16 teams in 2026. The field will be split into two sides: eight alumni teams and eight non-alumni teams. The first round will be played as a best-of-three series before the tournament returns to single elimination in later rounds.
Only five wins are needed to claim the $2 million prize.
For the AfterShocks, the path begins at home. Game 1 against The Enchantment is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, July 20, on FS1. Game 2 is set for 8 p.m. Thursday, July 23, on FS2. Game 3, if necessary, will be played at 8 p.m. Friday, July 24, on FS2.
Tickets for the Wichita games are available through the Wichita State box office, starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The home setup is notable because, unlike the other three alumni series, the AfterShocks will not have to travel for Game 2. Asked if that was a reward for winning last summer’s championship and agreeing to defend the title, TBT CEO Jon Mugar laughed before giving a less dramatic answer: logistics.
Still, Mugar said he liked the concept of giving the defending champions some kind of built-in advantage.
“It is great to have the defending champions back to defend their crown,” Mugar said in a statement. “They have an extraordinary opportunity to win another $2 million in front of their home crowd, some of the best basketball fans in America. It is an incredible home-court advantage against a very tough New Mexico team.”
Bush has no problem embracing that edge.
“We feed off our crowd energy and we pride ourselves on having the best home-court advantage in TBT,” Bush said. “We love it, our fans love it and we set the precedent for what TBT can be. We know we’re not invincible, but we definitely have an advantage when we’re at home.”
The numbers back up the confidence.
The AfterShocks won six straight games last summer by an average margin of 12.7 points. They won by 12 and 15 points in the Final Four, as the title game drew 9,029 fans to Koch Arena, a TBT championship game record and Wichita State’s largest basketball crowd in more than three years. More than 500,000 viewers watched the game on FOX.
That Wichita response is part of why TBT wanted the AfterShocks back in the bracket.
“Wichita State fans are incredibly important to us,” Mugar said. “They’ve made a massive impact on this event and my life as part business owner. I think delivering a team there and bringing the product back is really essential.”
The winner of the AfterShocks-The Enchantment series will host the winner of the Kansas-Kansas State series in a single-game second round at 8 p.m. Monday, July 27, on FS1.
The other alumni matchups are Kentucky vs. Louisville and Syracuse vs. Seton Hall. The Alumni Bracket championship will be played Wednesday, July 29. If Kentucky or Louisville advances that far, Mugar said the AfterShocks would likely have to go on the road for that game.
But if the AfterShocks win the Alumni Bracket, the $2 million championship game would come back to Wichita on Sunday, Aug. 2, on FOX.
That is the dream scenario for the AfterShocks and for a Wichita fan base that helped turn last summer’s title game into one of the signature moments in the tournament’s history.
The AfterShocks already had their storybook finish.
Now they are betting they can write a sequel.
This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 3:03 PM.
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