photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Former Kansas players Tyshawn Taylor and Sherron Collins watch on during a scrimmage against Kansas State alumni at the Swinney Center in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, July 17, 2025.

The brotherhood of former Jayhawks was one of the compelling reasons for Billy Preston to play for the Kansas alumni team in The Basketball Tournament again.

“(There are) some people I went to school with, like Lagerald (Vick), and people that I knew off the court like Cliff Alexander and a couple other people,” he said on Tuesday. “Just being around like a family vibe, it’s always like that every year that I came here. It was like that last year.”

Of course, it certainly doesn’t hurt that the team that goes all the way and wins the 64-team tournament takes home $1 million.

“That’s the most enticing part, right?” Preston said.

The run toward that tantalizing prize for second-seeded JHX Hoops begins on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri, against No. 7 seed OffDaHook.

KU’s entries in TBT haven’t gotten particularly far over the years. The first one, Self Made, lost in the first round in 2019. The team was reborn in recent years as Mass Street and won its first two games but fell in the third round each of the last two summers.

General manager Tyshawn Taylor, who is also playing this year, has helped build a younger team than he had in years past.

Zeke Mayo, fresh off his senior year at KU, arrived early to join JHX Hoops on Thursday after some time with the Washington Wizards in the NBA Summer League (he said he is now looking to potentially play overseas). The other fresh-out-of-college player is Jacob Hanna, a recent Washburn standout who helped lead the Ichabods to the Division II Final Four and was his conference’s newcomer and defensive player of the year during the 2024-25 season. Nick Timberlake is also just one year removed from his lone disappointing season in Lawrence and averaged 16.6 points per game in 27 contests for the Cheshire Phoenix in England this past season.

On the other end of the spectrum, Darnell Jackson, who completed his career at KU in 2008 and has been playing for the Detroit Amplifiers in the BIG3 league, was a late addition to the roster. He was a member of the Self Made team back in 2019.

New to TBT, though not newly out of school, are former one-and-done Jayhawk Cliff Alexander, who spent time in Bahrain, South Korea and Venezuela last season, and Kelvin Amayo, a Nigerian-Canadian guard most recently of Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers whom Taylor knows from their common roots in New Jersey.

With Frank Mason III flipping from the KU alumni to a team associated with Syracuse, Preston and Vick are the top returning contributors from last year’s squad. Preston, also the leading scorer in Thursday’s scrimmage, stretched the floor as a 6-foot-9 forward and averaged 13.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in the three contests last summer, while Vick shot 10-for-22 (45.5%) from beyond the arc and posted 12.7 points per game. Jamari Traylor, who had one 4-for-4 showing last year in three total games, and Kevin Young are TBT fixtures at this point.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Former Kansas player Billy Preston puts up a baseline jump shot during a scrimmage against Kansas State alumni at the Swinney Center in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, July 17, 2025.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Former Kansas player Lagerald Vick celebrates making a 3-pointer during a scrimmage against Kansas State alumni at the Swinney Center in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, July 17, 2025.

Marcus Bell, who spent time at three junior colleges before finishing his collegiate career at Idaho and Stanislaus State, will make his JHX Hoops debut after playing in TBT for the LA Cheaters last year.

This summer’s roster isn’t likely to undergo any further changes. David McCormack was originally expected to play a central role on the team and is no longer listed, but otherwise, the squad has seen fewer late subtractions than in years past.

JHX Hoops is co-hosting a regional in Kansas City for the first time with Kansas State alumni team Purple Reign (with which it also hosted a youth camp and took part in a scrimmage this week). The teams could potentially match up on Monday night in a sort of Sunflower Showdown, but first need to get past their respective first-round opponents, and for JHX Hoops that would mean beating TBT debutant OffDaHook.

OffDaHook is “a New York-based squad known for its gritty streetball roots and high-energy play,” according to the TBT website. The team is managed and coached by Sidney Godbold.

Shane Gatling, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, averaged 18.9 points per game for Honvéd in Hungary over the course of 36 games last season. He was previously a member of the Colorado alumni team that knocked Mass Street out of TBT last summer.

OffDaHook has a guard-heavy roster on which three players, 6-foot-6 John Egbuta, recently added 6-foot-8 Malik Cameron and 6-foot-9 Jordan Washington, are listed as forwards. Egbuta saw time in 57 games at IU Indianapolis (then IUPUI) during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons and averaged 6.0 points and 2.9 rebounds. Cameron went to a Division III school and recently signed to play in Thailand. Washington went to Iona, where he arrived a season after Amayo concluded his time there. He was one of the top players in the MAAC in 2016-17 and played in Kuwait this spring.

The roster, largely composed of young players from New York City with a couple exceptions, also includes a pair of 6-foot point guards in Jaheam Cornwall (Penn State) and Jalen Nesmith (Clark Atlanta), as well as additional guards Arnardo Camacho (Roberts Wesleyan), Elias Ezenekwe (Antelope Valley), D.J. Rivera (Montevallo) and Nazir Williams (Cornell, where he was second-team All-Ivy League last season).

The winner of the matchup between JHX and OffDaHook will face either No. 3 seed Purple Reign or No. 6 The Shine.

photo by: AP Photo/Steven Senne

Yale guard Bez Mbeng, front left, and Cornell guard Nazir Williams, right, pursue the ball in the second half of an Ivy League tournament championship NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I.

photo by: AP Photo/Hans Pennink

Iona forward Jordan Washington (23) puts up a shot against Siena during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament on Monday, March 6, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Iona won 87-86.

photo by: AP Photo/David Kohl

Montevallo guard D.J. Rivera (5) goes up for a basket against Western Washington guard Richard Woodworth (14) in the second half of an NCAA Division II championship college basketball game at the Bank Of Kentucky Center on the campus of Northern Kentucky University, Saturday, March 24, 2012, in Highland Heights, Ky. Western Washington won 72-65.

photo by: AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Colorado guard Shane Gatling (0) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in Boulder, Colo. Colorado won 71-65.