Syracuse Basketball: Details set for Boeheim’s Army first TBT game
By Neil Adler
The former Syracuse basketball stars known as Boeheim’s Army will attempt to claim $1 million beginning in about a week.
Boeheim’s Army, the collection of former Syracuse basketball players competing in this summer’s The Basketball Tournament (“TBT”), will suit up for its first game at 4 pm on Tuesday, July 7, with ESPN providing television coverage, according to tourney organizers.
TBT officials have unveiled the tournament’s game schedule for the 24-team field, with the winner capturing $1 million. All 23 contests, which will take place from July 4-14 under quarantine at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, will get broadcast on either ESPN (21 encounters) or ESPN2 (two affairs), per the press release.
Boeheim’s Army is deservedly the No. 3 seed in the TBT, and, without question, this squad represents one of the favorites to cut down the nets in mid-July.
In recent days, the TBT’s Twitter account has featured various rankings of the best players in the tourney, based on position and other criteria. Naturally, many of these lists have included guys from Boeheim’s Army, whose nine-man group is undeniably the most-stacked line-up that this crew has entered into the TBT to date.
Four former NBA first-round draft picks are on the Boeheim’s Army roster, which consists of small forward Andrew White III, power forward Donte Greene, wing Malachi Richardson, center Chris McCullough, power forward Tyler Lydon, combo guard Eric Devendorf, combo guard Brandon Triche, point guard John Gillon, and forward Demetris Nichols.
Which unit Boeheim’s Army faces in its inaugural meeting will become evident once No. 14 seed Heartfire and No. 19 seed Men of Mackey go toe to toe. These two teams play at 7 pm on Sunday, July 5, with ESPN providing TV coverage.
In a bit of encouraging news, Donna Ditota of Syracuse.com reports that every Boeheim’s Army player and member of the squad’s staff “tested negative on the first of several mandatory Covid-19 tests,” according to the team’s general manager, Kevin Belbey.
"More from Ditota. “The team must submit one more home Covid test before arriving at its TBT destination on Thursday. When Boeheim’s Army gets to Columbus, players and staffers must take the first of four more Covid tests before their first game.”"
The TBT will amount to the first live-television basketball to get played on U.S. soil since collegiate hoops and the NBA halted their seasons in mid-March.
Given everything that is going on with the novel coronavirus pandemic, watching some former Syracuse basketball stars compete in about a week’s time will truly prove a wonderful sight to see.