photo by: Chance Parker

Kansas alumnus Tyshawn Taylor smiles during the Bill Self Basketball Camp scrimmage on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, at Allen Fieldhouse.

The last Kansas alumni team to compete in The Basketball Tournament got bounced in the first round, but TBT showed plenty of faith in this year’s offering when it awarded the Mass Street squad a No. 1 seed in the Wichita Regional.

TBT is an open-entry summer basketball tournament that features 64 teams competing for a million-dollar prize. The majority of teams comprise alumni of particular schools, but many — including Mass Street’s first-round opponent, the No. 8 seed We Are D3 — feature different themes.

The two teams will compete in an opening-round matchup at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita on July 19 at 8 p.m. Plenty of intriguing teams populate the Wichita bracket; a first-round win for Mass Street could set up a date with the Missouri alumni of Show Me Squad, while a string of victories could lead the team to a matchup in the tournament quarterfinals with players from Kansas State or host Wichita State.

Getting there could be a challenge, even though the Mass Street squad, coached by current NBA players Marcus and Markieff Morris, includes some well-known former Jayhawks: Devon Dotson, Marcus Garrett, Keith Langford, Dedric Lawson, Mario Little, Thomas Robinson, Wayne Selden Jr., Tyshawn Taylor and Jamari Traylor. The previous KU team, Self Made, lost its inaugural matchup in 2019 to TBT regulars Sideline Cancer. Little and Taylor are the only returning players from that squad. In the intervening years, some KU alumni have played for other TBT squads, as when Taylor and Naadir Tharpe joined an Oklahoma State group in 2020.

The Mass Street TBT team is a project of the Mass St. Collective organization, which works with KU athletes on name, image and likeness opportunities.

We Are D3 has an 0-4 all-time record in TBT. The team features, appropriately, players and coaches with Division III ties and professional basketball experience, coached by Mike Rejniak.

TBT is known for its so-called “Elam Ending,” in which, late in the fourth quarter, teams switch from playing a regular timed game to playing to a target score eight points above the leading team’s current score. The goal of the Elam Ending is to increase drama and limit intentional fouling late in games.

The Final Four of TBT takes place in Philadelphia on Aug. 2.

Tickets for all games are available at thetournament.com/tickets.