photo by: Justin Mohling/The Basketball Tournament

JHX Hoops coach Sherron Collins is pictured during a game against Heartfire on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo.

In three straight years, the Kansas alumni team in The Basketball Tournament has exited in the round of 16, and in each of the last two the former Jayhawks have come just three points away from a trip to the quarterfinals.

Twice their vanquisher was Heartfire and once it was Team Colorado, but on all three occasions this modern incarnation has suffered third-round losses. Instead of facing off with the Aftershocks in Wichita on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four, the KU alumni went their separate ways.

They would still have needed three more wins, of course, to claim TBT’s million-dollar prize, but the team now known as JHX Hoops has seen a regional championship slip through its fingers repeatedly in agonizing fashion — in Wednesday’s case nearly literally, as David McCormack couldn’t hold onto a pass under the basket, resulting in a turnover that directly preceded the game-winning baseline jumper by Heartfire’s Eric Washington.

The biggest lesson JHX Hoops coach Sherron Collins took away from this year’s ending was that “no lead is safe.” He had seen his team benefit from a series of unthinkable misses by Purple Reign to steal a win on Monday, only to squander an eight-point advantage in the fourth quarter against the 2023 champions two days later.

“Nobody’s safe in this tournament, and we showed that against K-State our last game,” Collins said. “We were up a couple (against Heartfire), and they hit a big 3 right before the Elam, and then they scored, and then we got a stop. It’s just no lead’s safe. You got to be able to put stops together, behind each other, to get a win.”

It’s safe to say Collins will be a part of any future KU runs through TBT: “It was amazing,” he said of this year’s experience. “I’m here until I can’t do it.”

He certainly earned the respect of first-time participant Zeke Mayo.

“Just being able to learn from him, watching him growing up and then just having this opportunity to play for him, very special for sure,” Mayo said.

Mayo, for his part, said of TBT, “I would definitely look forward to it if I had the opportunity.” He briefly appeared in NBA Summer League with the Washington Wizards and then signed on Thursday to play for Ironi Kiryat Ata in Israel.

Assembling a roster of KU alumni continues to be a challenge for organizers like Tyshawn Taylor (who also served as a part-time player in this summer’s event).

He said one might think it would be easy with all the big-name former Jayhawks in the basketball world, but “that actually makes it harder.”

“We got so many guys in the pool of players who can participate in this tournament, and so to try to put a list of those guys, to try to go get those guys and to have guys that are available is tough,” Taylor said after the Purple Reign game. “Some guys are playing overseas, some guys don’t want to get hurt so they can go play overseas.”

He said he appreciates the players who consistently return, like Billy Preston, Jamari Traylor and Lagerald Vick. (Kevin Young has also been a fixture on recent KU alumni teams.)

Beyond those, Taylor and his compatriots managed to assemble a competitive roster for 2024 under difficult circumstances. The frontcourt of Cliff Alexander, Marcus Bell and Preston was strong enough to carry JHX through the first round even when it looked like the long-awaited McCormack wouldn’t be able to play; then, when the national-title hero unexpectedly returned for the second round, he excelled, averaging 12 points and 8.5 rebounds in his two games off the bench.

Bell, a former member of TBT’s LA Cheaters, was ejected from Wednesday night’s loss with a pair of technical fouls, but otherwise he and guards Kelvin Amayo and Jacob Hanna were worthy additions to the JHX roster from the non-KU pool, with Hanna making a particularly strong impression with his defense and athleticism.

The KU alumni have gotten younger overall as compared to their previous runs. If they’re looking for a new area of emphasis in player acquisition, it might be in the backcourt, as their guard play was uneven. As a team, JHX shot just 13-for-49 (26.5%) from beyond the arc.

Vick had been one of the best players on the 2024 team, and his heroic fast-break layup won the former Jayhawks their Sunflower Showdown against Purple Reign, but he only scored 11 points the rest of the tournament in 83 minutes.

Mayo was in some ways the centerpiece of this year’s team; getting him back early from the Summer League was a significant boon to the KU alumni, and he made a few extremely significant 3-pointers, including one that got JHX three points from beating Heartfire. But he also shot 32.3% from the floor on a high-volume of attempts (31) and committed five turnovers per game.

Hanna only played sparingly, Amayo didn’t do much in the first two rounds and Nick Timberlake, fresh off a strong season in England, struggled with fouls in his own limited minutes. Taylor picked his spots and chose a good one to play extensively against Purple Reign, but he was also hampered by a groin injury.

KU legend Frank Mason III had led the former Jayhawks in 2024, but he opted to join a Syracuse alumni team for 2025 instead. He averaged 3.5 points in 13.5 minutes across two games as Boeheim’s Army suffered an upset loss in the second round.

The KU alumni will regroup next July for their latest run at $1 million — even though that’s not the only thing they get out of it. Preston, who never played an official game for KU, is one of several participants to appreciate the “family vibe.”

“It hurts to be over,” Collins said, “because just being around the guys that you wish you could have played with or seeing some of those guys — and everybody vibes, we all get along — the dinners, the meetings, it makes it all worth it.”

photo by: Justin Mohling/The Basketball Tournament

JHX Hoops’ Billy Preston dribbles against Heartfire’s Craig Sword during a game on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo.

photo by: Justin Mohling/The Basketball Tournament

JHX Hoops’ Zeke Mayo exclaims during a game against Heartfire on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo.

photo by: Justin Mohling/The Basketball Tournament

JHX Hoops’ Lagerald Vick is introduced prior to the game against Heartfire on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo.