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

Former members of the Kansas and Kansas State basketball team pose for a photo after a scrimmage at Johnson County Community College on Wednesday, July 17th, 2024, in Overland Park.

JHX Hoops, the Kansas alumni team in The Basketball Tournament, and Purple Reign, its Kansas State counterpart, have announced that they will face off in a scrimmage prior to the start of TBT.

The game, which the teams are promoting as the second annual Wheat State Summer Showdown, is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 17. The scrimmage will take place at the Swinney Center, the gymnasium that is home to the University of Missouri-Kansas City basketball and volleyball teams.

The date and location were revealed in an Instagram post by Purple Reign organizer Jordan Henriquez-Roberts on Friday night. Tickets can be purchased at a Square link via the Linktree located on Purple Reign’s Instagram profile.

The exhibition will serve as a warmup for both squads’ official runs through the TBT as regional hosts at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri, beginning July 19.

In addition, the two teams are selling spots in a “Wheat State Summer Skills Camp Powered by Kruse Elite Basketball,” also set to take place at the Swinney Center from July 15-16.

The scheduling of this year’s scrimmage follows a similar event held last year at Johnson County Community College, which resulted in a victory for Purple Reign.

The KU alumni team, then known as Mass Street and led by Frank Mason III, ultimately won its first two games in last year’s TBT but fell in the third round. Purple Reign lost in the first round. Both were eliminated by Team Colorado.

This year, Mason is playing for a Syracuse alumni team and the former Jayhawks are instead led by 2022 national champion David McCormack. JHX Hoops’ roster also features Cliff Alexander, Jacob Hanna, Billy Preston, Nick Timberlake, Jamari Traylor, Lagerald Vick and Kevin Young, with Sherron Collins as head coach and Tyshawn Taylor as one of the organizers. All represent KU except for Hanna, a recent Washburn graduate, and Preston never played in an official game for the Jayhawks.

Purple Reign’s roster includes Spencer Bain, Cartier Diarra, Justin Edwards, John Florveus (Georgia), DaJuan Gordon, Cam Martin (Jacksonville State, Missouri Southern, Kansas and Boise State), Jordan Parks (North Carolina Central), Jacob Pullen, Dominique Sutton and Austin Trice. The team is organized by Henriquez-Roberts (who has for several years served as the head coach), Martavious Irving and D.J. Johnson, and Ryan Deppen and Clent Stewart are listed as assistant coaches.

The teams could potentially face off in real TBT action not long after their scrimmage. If second-seeded JHX Hoops beats No. 7 OffDaHook and No. 3 Purple Reign handles No. 6 The Shine in first-round action on July 19, the two teams will do battle at 8 p.m. on July 21.