For Love And Money: The Rise Of Alumni Teams In The Basketball Tournament

Levi Knutson knew it was time to move on. Since graduating from the University of Colorado in 2011, he had played professional basketball in Spain, Poland, and Germany. But last year, after leading his German team in scoring, Knutson retired. He had endured multiple knee injuries and put plenty of stamps on his passport. He wanted a more normal life.

Knutson and his wife, Maura, settled in their native Colorado. Maura pursued a career as a bridge engineer. Knutson, a three-time academic All-Big 12 selection, started working full-time as a financial advisor. Both enjoyed their jobs and loved being around family and friends.

And then, a few months ago, the game pulled him back in. Knutson heard from Trent Beckley, a former Colorado teammate, who was putting together a group of ex-CU players to compete in The Basketball Tournament, a winner-takes-all event for $2 million that attracts a slew of ex-NBA and college stars. Knutson was healthy enough to join the squad, known as Team Colorado. He thought it would be fun to get back on the court and hang out with his buddies. It turned out to be much more than that, and it almost made him rich.

On Tuesday night, Knutson played on ESPN as Team Colorado faced Overseas Elite in the TBT championship game at Fordham University's Rose Hill Gymnasium in the Bronx. Knutson, who still wears braces on both knees, came off the bench to score 10 points in a tightly-contested game that didn't go his team's way. After trailing by 20 points in the first half, Overseas Elite came back for a 77-72 victory and its second consecutive title. The signature cruelty of TBT is that Knutson and his teammates didn't win any money. But they did leave with plenty of memories.

"We're staying up late and just laughing the whole time and talking shit about the old days and who did what in college and stuff like that," Beckley told VICE Sports last Friday. "I've been kidding around with the other coaches and the guys that are on the bench with me. I feel like this is like our wedding. How often do you really get back together with all of your friends? It's something like a wedding. We understand how special this is."

Team Colorado was one of 20 college alumni teams entered in the 64-team field. Now in its third year, TBT organizers have embraced the concept of former college teammates reuniting and have reached out to school athletic departments to explain the concept. Anyone who is 18 years old or older can participate as long as they're willing to forgo their amateur status. The tournament has no entry fee, but teams must secure enough votes online to be eligible to compete. This year, more than 350 teams applied.

"We want teams that have fan bases or have the ability to go out and get fan bases, whether that's a college-based team or a team with well-known participants," TBT founder and chief executive officer Jon Mugar said. "We're very focused on that aspect. This year, we had great success in getting out to colleges. A big part of getting into the tournament is based on how many votes you're able to get as a team. That certainly favors teams like colleges who have the ability to go out and draw upon a fan base."

In 2014, a group of former Notre Dame players won the inaugural TBT and received $500,000. The prize money increased to $1 million last year and $2 million this year. Mugar said he doesn't know how much the prize will be next year, but he hopes to one day offer tens of millions of dollars to the winning team. Besides the money, TBT organizers tout the ability for players to compete on national television. This year, every game since the event's Sweet 16 was televised on one of ESPN's networks.

"When you leave college, you don't know when the next time you're going to get to play on ESPN again," said Team Colorado point guard Marcus Hall, who scored a game-high 24 points on Tuesday and averaged a team-high 24 points per game during the tournament. "It's special."

Of the final 16 teams, eight were college alumni squads: Syracuse, Pittsburgh, VCU, Colorado, Gonzaga, Utah, Marquette, and Bradley. They competed in a format that resembles the NCAA tournament: single-elimination, 64 teams, four regions. The main difference is the money, which helps draw the attention of players who otherwise may prefer resting during the summer after playing professionally overseas. Still, even with the $2 million prize, some players aren't interested in risking a potential injury, although Hall had no such qualms.

"For me, ball is ball," said Hall, whose season in Turkey ended in mid-May. "I'll play anywhere. I'll play at 24 Hour Fitness. That's just me."

Even for players less inclined to go out there and get it than Hall, signing on with an alumni team has serious appeal. There aren't too many opportunities to compete with former teammates and younger and older players from your same school. "You live the same story as they did for four years," Hall said. "You reminisce and you talk about the different eras. You always think about how it would be if you played with these guys or if they played with us. It's kind of fun."

Hall played for Team Colorado last year, too, an experience he would rather forget. That squad lost a first round game in Los Angeles to Team 23, which advanced to the championship before losing to Overseas Elite.

"We took it a little willy-nilly," said Dwight Thorne II, a former University of Colorado guard who is now Team Colorado's coach and the director of basketball operations at the University of Denver. "We went to LA for a little mini-vacation."

This year, Team Colorado got some revenge, knocking off Team 23 in the Sweet 16 in Philadelphia. The next day, Team Colorado overcame a nine-point halftime deficit and defeated a group of University of Utah alumni 83-78 to advance to the semifinals. The squad won both of those games without starting forward Richard Roby, who injured his medial collateral ligament in mid-July in Las Vegas while trying out for the Korean Basketball League. Roby, who averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds in the first two rounds, missed the semifinal and championship games, too.

Team Colorado credits its success in this year's TBT to its more serious approach. Yes, they had fun, but they also wanted to win. In late June, the players flew to the University of Colorado's campus and participated in a week-long training camp. They worked out, practiced and had scrimmages against the current Buffaloes team. It was not all a basketball grind, though; they also visited their favorite restaurants and hung out together at night.

"It put us ahead from a team chemistry standpoint," Beckley said. "When you look at a lot of teams out there, they have a lot of NBA players and a lot of talent, but they don't have that camaraderie and that chemistry and that purpose that we're approaching the game with. It took a big hit in the first year to kind of learn some lessons. We wanted to make sure we did it right this year."

Always A Brave, Team Colorado's semifinal opponent, also benefited from having played together and holding practices before competing in TBT. The team consisted of former Bradley University players, including former NBA Draft first round pick Patrick O'Bryant and five other members of the 2006 Braves squad that upset Kansas and Pittsburgh in the NCAA tournament before losing to top-seeded Memphis.

Bobby Parker, Bradley's associate athletics director for communications, served as the team's general manager. Last summer, Parker saw a dunk from former Bradley forward Zach Andrews in a TBT game featured on ESPN's SportsCenter. Parker had never heard of TBT, but he started doing research on the tournament and reaching out to former players. Most were intrigued and said they'd be interested.

Like Team Colorado, Always A Brave had a training camp on Bradley's campus. Players arrived on July 10. The next day, the team held a three-hour fan festival on the quad outside the on-campus basketball arena, followed by an alumni game inside the arena. The team practiced the rest of the week before heading to Chicago, where it was the ninth seed in the Midwest regional.

Always A Brave's run nearly ended in the second round, when it trailed by five points with 10 seconds left. Jeremy Crouch then made a three-pointer, and then Tony Bennett stole the inbounds pass and connected on a three with 1.5 seconds remaining for a one-point victory. The next weekend in Philadelphia, Always A Brave won a round of 16 game over a team that featured former NBA guards Mike Bibby and Jason Williams, and then beat a Marquette alumni team that featured four players with NBA experience in the quarterfinals. For the teammates from 2006, as well as the younger and older players, the tournament served as a reunion of sorts.

"They're spread out all over the world, and when they are home in the summertime, they're all over the country, as well," Parker said. "This is the first time the whole group has been back together. They're really having a good time with it. I think that's why they're having success is they're just really enjoying it and not worrying about winning the tournament. They're taking in the moment and enjoying their time with one another."

University of Colorado coach Tad Boyle flew in for the championship game, and he saw an exciting contest. With a 12-0 record in two TBT appearances, Overseas Elite entered the game as a heavy favorite. Still, Team Colorado got out to a fast start, went ahead by 20 points midway through the first half and led 46-36 at intermission even though Hall sat out more than five minutes after early foul trouble.

With 11:21 remaining, Paris Horne's layup put Overseas Elite ahead 51-49 for its first lead. It was reminiscent of Saturday night's semifinal, in which Overseas Elite overcame a 15-point, first half deficit and won 103-92 over City of Gods, the East region's top seed.

Still, Team Colorado didn't fold. It led 63-56 before Overseas Elite went on a 7-0 run to tie the score. After Kyle Fogg made two free throws for a 75-70 Overseas Elite lead with 17.5 seconds remaining, Hall connected on a three-pointer, stole the inbounds pass and launched a three. He missed the shot, and Team Colorado couldn't recover the loose ball. Fogg's two free throws then clinched the five-point victory and Overseas Elite's second championship in the three-year tournament. "It's OK if you want to call us a dynasty," said Overseas Elite guard Errick McCollum, the older brother of Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum. "It's OK."

Despite the loss, Team Colorado didn't leave New York too disappointed. Beckley, the squad's general manager, envisions the TBT experience strengthening the bond between generations of ex-players and benefiting Boyle's program. Under Boyle, Colorado has made the NCAA tournament four times in the past five seasons, the best stretch in school history.

Beckley wants former players who are now competing overseas to come back to campus during their offseasons to train and hang out together. He also hopes to build a network of alumni who can help each other in non-basketball endeavors, too. "This whole TBT is really giving us a platform to organize something and to play for a common goal," said Beckley, who works in sales at Google. "We're really doing something for the good when we think about what our bigger purpose is. It's not just to win this money, but to build something bigger for the whole program."

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