Boeheim’s Army is filled with Syracuse basketball alum, but how did they get there? GM Kevin Belbey sat down for an exclusive BTS look.
Syracuse basketball has only experienced one National Championship in their history. The folks over at Boeheim’s Army is hoping to add to that trophy case this summer in The Basketball Tournament.
With the tournament nearly here, we decided to sit down with the general manager of Boeheim’s Army Kevin Belbey to get an exclusive behind the scenes look into how they put their team together.
For all the hoopla that is built up for this event, The Basketball Tournament only lasts about two weeks from start to finish. But don’t be fooled, a lot of planning goes into this event. But when does the roster construction for the next season begin?
"“About 30 seconds after we lose. I read an article a couple of years ago when the Golden State Warriors blew the 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. In that piece, it talked about Draymond Green immediately texting Kevin Durant in the locker room saying that the Warriors needed him. That meant so much to KD that in that specific moment Draymond was thinking of KD. So I just try to steal that technique. On one hand, it’s a recruiting tactic but also as soon as we lose I’m literally thinking what we did wrong and what can we do to fix it.”"
With that being said we’re going to do a full deep dive behind the scenes with general manager Kevin Belbey over the next several slides evaluating all the different aspects of building this roster:
- Relationship between Kevin Belbey and head coach Ryan Blackwell as it pertains to recruiting.
- The difference between recruiting returning Boeheim’s Army players and new guys.
- Hardest challenge Kevin Belbey faces every year.
- And so much more!
Thanks to Kevin for taking the time to pull back the curtain and hope you guys enjoy!
Usually, in a football front office, the general manager builds the team and the head coach coaches the talent. In most cases, there is a clear separation of church and state, but with Boeheim’s Army, they try to get the best of both worlds.
"“At the end of the day I have the final say and make the final call, but it’s a collaborative effort. I want Ryan (Blackwell) to be happy with the roster because he’s going to be coaching it. Also, Eric (Devendorf) has been super helpful in the recruiting process. Speaking of that it’s actually really helpful to be able to attack a recruit from multiple angles. Like I may reach out to someone, then I can get Eric or Ryan to do a follow-up message or call. Guys like feeling wanted and getting hit up by multiple people makes you feel good. It’s no different than the Syracuse basketball squad when they’re chasing a recruit, a certain coach may be assigned to a guy, but they all chip in during recruiting.”"
Although the recruiting process is a lot different now than it was when TBT first started:
"“At least now we’re kind of known as an entity, at least in this community, so that’s helpful. When we first started this thing I won’t lie it was incredibly difficult. I had to explain to guys that this TBT thing was legitimate and not a scam. I literally had to pull up YouTube videos showing the guys that this was real. No one knew what it was and players were saying, “TBT? Like throwback Thursday what is this?”"
When the squad is recruiting, there are two different types of recruits they’re chasing:
- Returning players (Boeheim’s Army alum).
- Brand new players who have never played in TBT previously.
"“As soon as we lose I have a Google spreadsheet of every Syracuse basketball alum over the last 15 years or so. They’re all categorized by their status: playing professionally in the NBA or overseas. So we go through that and Marc Lomasky is a huge help putting this together and then we go through the list, position by position.”"
Throughout our conversation with Kevin he continued to reiterate that once a player gets a taste of TBT or Boeheim’s Army, they’re usually hooked. Which has really helped to maintain players from one year to the next.
While continuity is important to team success, adding young blood is arguably even more important. You want to keep a steady stream of young talent on the squad to balance out the veterans.
Here’s how Kevin approaches adding a new player he’s never had on before (like Chris McCullough this season):
"“Everyone wants to make it to the NBA whether you’re the star guy or 13th guy. So as much as I want to go call up Jerami Grant or Dion Waiters about joining us in the future, I’m respectful, those guys are making millions of dollars right now and I don’t want to insult them. My rule has always been when a player is one year removed from playing consistently in the NBA then I’ll approach them because at that time they’re seriously considering other opportunities.”"
A lot of logistics are involved in putting this full roster together. You may be surprised to hear what Kevin thinks is the hardest challenge any given year:
"“A guy can commit to me and go through the whole process in October, January, February, March or whatever and that’s still a very long time away from when we kick off in late July. It’s hard for these guys to know what they’ll be doing that far in advance. Some guys might get hurt, or get opportunities in the NBA or overseas. So even if guys commit early, we all know that it isn’t 100 percent. This is a winner take all tournament, so there’s no guaranteed money in this thing. The other challenge is guys may just be burnt out. Especially if you had been playing professionally in the NBA or in a different league, the summer is your off time to spend with your family. A lot of the guys may not want to sacrifice the weekends”"
But even if you get a squad of 8-11 players together, there’s another challenge that may or may not seem obvious: ego managing.
"“All of these guys are talented and want to win and are super competitive. But I think all of these guys understand that there’s $2 million on the line here. As much as each guy probably wants to be the main reason we’re winning and dropping 20 a night, they understand the big picture. Arinze Onuaku is a great example, I think it was last year deep in the tournament our coaching staff decided we wanted to play some small ball so Arinze sat and never complained once. No one is going to play perfectly through six games, we’re going to need all the guys on this roster to have moments and step up when called upon. So whether it’s me or Ryan or the players, we do a really nice job of being transparent with how a guy is expected to be used and what role they’ll have, etc.”"
Consider this for a moment, the entirety of Boeheim’s Army is a “dream team” of Syracuse basketball greats. Each of these players was the lead dogs of their own Syracuse groups and now are combining their forces for a common cause.
Which means if you play the numbers game, there’s not a lot of minutes to go around. That is one of the hidden challenges of putting this roster together, Belbey provided some more details on this:
"“Something that just popped into my mind is this when I’m thinking of putting a roster together. TBT games are very short, it’s only a 32-minute game. College is 40, NBA is 48, technically TBT is a 36-minute game but it’s usually shorter than that because in the fourth quarter they turn the clock off for the Elam Ending. So really the game is 32 minutes and then whatever happens through the Elam Ending. So if you have 10 or 11 guys on the team it can really be too many on a roster. If you’ve played at any level you know that it’s hard to get into a rhythm coming in and out of the game considering how short it is.”"
Speaking of “The Elam Ending”, here’s a quick refresher on the specifics via TBT site:
"“Designed by Mensa member and basketball superfan Dr. Nick Elam – eliminates deliberate fouling at the end of games, ensures the final minutes are played at the same pace and flow as the rest of the game, and guarantees every game ends on a made basket. Under the rule, at the first dead ball after the four-minute mark in the fourth quarter, the game clock shuts off. A Target Score is set by adding seven to the leading team’s score. The first team to reach the Target Score wins.”"
Interestingly enough due to “The Elam Ending” there’s fewer minutes to go around which feeds into the ego-managing we discussed earlier.
Here’s how Kevin Belbey dances the line during the recruiting process when talking about how many minutes a guy will get vs his role:
"“I usually leave that to head coach Ryan Blackwell. I’m not going to step on his toes or overpromise something like that. But what I will do during recruiting is tell the player the role that I anticipate them having on this team. In this torumanet, everyone has to have a role. For example, here’s what I told one of our players that’s on the team this year: hey this is the type of role you’ll have on this team (shooter/wing) and that we’re bringing you in to score points in bunches. I want to be transparent and not lie to the guys or overpromise something. Again everyone who is joining this team has a common goal to win this whole thing. We’ve never had someone that we’ve recruited step into my office and demand certain minutes or anything like that. But really when you look at our roster over the years, this is a roster filled with Syracuse all-stars who played at a very high level. Most of the time the players were the leading star on their version of the Syracuse team that had great success. Like James Southerland was one of the best players on that 2013 Final Four team and for us, he was coming off the bench and he played in the NBA. So it’s a weird dynamic but these guys are selfless and will do whatever it takes to win.”"
If a player wants to join Boeheim’s Army, there are a few simple steps they must follow to make it official:
"“It’s more than just saying you’ll play and you’re good. Once we get some sort of verbal agreement with a player he has to send in a verification video. For example, I can say that LeBron James is coming, but that’s just talking, it’s not real/official until the player does the video. While anyone can drop out at any time for the reasons we talked about before (injury or getting a guaranteed contract from someone else), it puts their name out there too and puts some skin in the game. So once the verification video comes in, now it’s public, your name/word is behind it and there’s some ownership and suddenly it’s no longer talk.”"
So to reiterate, the first step is a player committing. The second step is a player submitting a verification video.
What’s a verification video?
It’s super easy to do: you set up a quick bio, profile, and upload the video to TBT site and then we’re off to the races. When a player commits he has to make a video saying why he’s playing in the tournament (TBT uses it for marketing).
For example, “Hey I’m Paul Esden, I’m playing in Boeheim’s Army and I’m trying to win $2 million to prove I’m one of the best basketball players on the planet.”
Right now Boeheim’s Army has eight players on the roster (with verification videos submitted):
- Brandon Triche
- John Gillon
- Eric Devendorf
- Jordan Crawford
- Chris McCullough
- Arinze Onuaku
- Hakim Warrick
- Darryl ‘Mookie’ Watkins
Kevin Belbey has said previously that he’s “comfortable” with this group, but the team could look to add another player.
A few weeks ago Boeheim’s Army called upon its’ fans to help them secure “1,000 fan votes” so they’ll have the ability to add another player after the June deadline. Without the fan votes, Boeheim’s Army would’ve had to pay a penalty, thanks to the support of Orange Nation, they won’t have to.
So who will that player be?
"“There’s no one right now that has the spot, that might’ve been a miscommunication on my part and I apologize for that. Right now we don’t have someone committed, but we’re actively talking to people. So we may add at least one more guy and if something happens with the roster then, of course, we’ll be adding more. I think nine is a sweet spot for the roster.”"
Boeheim’s Army can add a player as late as 72 hours before tip. That’s a rule general manager Kevin Belbey plans on maximizing:
"“If we add one more, we’re looking for a wingman, shooter/scorer. The first part of it is understanding the available pool of talent, who is out there and start some conversations. So we’re always looking to improve the team, but the other reason for this rule being necessary is something we talked about earlier: injuries can still happen, guys can sign guaranteed deals elsewhere and leave, so we have to be prepared for everything. We had this situation a few years ago when we suffered an injury maybe a week out and we snagged John Gillon late. We have to take advantage of every rule that is in place. So if TBT has the 72-hour rule, every year we’re going to try and maximize it as long as it makes sense for the team. We won’t just add someone just to add someone, but it’s nice to have the option.”"
The Basketball Tournament will come to Syracuse for the first time in history from July 26 through July 28. Boeheim’s Army will host the Syracuse regional from Onondaga Community College, for ticket information click here.