Syracuse Basketball: Boeheim’s Army has plan to beat Overseas Elite

Boeheim’s Army is ready to take its first TBT title in history. To do so they’ll have to take out Overseas Elite, here’s how they plan on doing so.

Boeheim’s Army is one of the coolest inventions in history. It’s quite literally a fantasy Syracuse basketball team that features players from different eras all playing on the same squad.

But it’s time to put the cuteness and the nostalgia away and Syracuse fans want to see results. The furthest Boeheim’s Army has ever gotten is the Final Four, but fans are hungry for a title.

Speaking of championships, one team has dominated that landscape: Overseas Elite.

They’re vying for a five-peat this Summer in The Basketball Tournament and Boeheim’s Army is hoping to break up the party.

Boeheim’s Army general manager Kevin Belbey joined The Manchild Show with Boy Green and shared his take on Overseas Elite and how they can be defeated:

"“We’ve only played them once, I wish we could’ve had a few more cracks at them over the last handful of years. When we played them in 2017 it was a close game. Overseas Elite is just so fundamentally sound, you can’t make mistakes against them. They’re so smart, they know they’re playing for $2 million and they don’t care who gets credit for it, who takes the shot, they just want to win. They aren’t going to make mistakes, they’re going to play hard on defense, and they’re going to get out in transition. If we want to beat them, we can’t have egos, and we can’t make mistakes.Our head coach Ryan Blackwell does a really good job of getting us prepared in a really short amount of time. I mean we get together and practice for seven or eight days, which is not very long at all. It’s like the NCAA tournament, you have no idea who you’re going to play. I think to beat Overseas Elite, you basically have to throw a perfect game and they’re 25-0 over the last four years. They have had one of the most remarkable runs in recent memory in sports. I tip my cap to them, but I hope we get a crack at them this Summer.”"

Both teams are considered favorites to win The Basketball Tournament this Summer, per ESPN. Although Overseas Elite will have to win ball games without two key cogs this year:

• Kyle Fogg
• Errick McCollum

Boeheim’s Army and Overseas Elite have only had the pleasure of facing each other once in TBT history back in 2017. In that game, Fogg and McCollum combined for 29 points (as the top two scorers) in a narrow four-point victory over the Syracuse squad.

Those players are no longer on the squad. Although they still have plenty of dangerous weapons including:

• DJ Kennedy
  • A two-time tournament MVP who dropped 11 points, 6 boards, and 7 assists on Boeheim’s Army in their lone matchup back in 2017.
• Jeremy Pargo
  • While Jeremy Pargo wasn’t on the squad that played Boeheim’s Army a few years ago, he’s a player they should learn more about. Pargo has spent time in the NBA and overseas as a talented point guard.

The Basketball Tournament bracket was revealed earlier this week and both Overseas Elite and Boeheim’s Army earned No. 1 seeds.

But with how the bracket is set up, if a rematch is going to happen, it’ll have to be for the TBT championship on Tuesday, August 6 in Chicago for the $2 million, Winner-Take-All-Championship game at 9:00 p.m.