5 things to know about the Red Scare’s preparation for The Basketball Tournament

Here are five things to know about the 2021 edition of TBT and the Red Scare:

1. The Red Scare is excited about the prospect of playing in Columbus and then Dayton if the squad is able to advance.

Perhaps this goes without saying, but Gruden and player Ryan Mikesell confirmed the feeling and articulated just why each venue could benefit the team.

“A lot of their families are going to be in town, which they don’t get to see a play a lot because they all play overseas so I know we’re definitely excited to have fans,” Gruden said of the Covelli Center at Ohio State. “They announced that it will be a full house so it’s definitely gonna be awesome to have fans in attendance.”

And with the overall crowd, Mikesell said the energy can start to make a team feel unbeatable when it is going in their favor.

“If we can win three games in Columbus and get to UD Aena, anything can happen no matter who we play or what type of talent is in front of us,” Mikesell said. “Whenever you have home-court advantage, it can swing you into a situation where you feel like you’re almost invincible out there on the court. You start making shots, start playing a little harder on defense and start communicating more and it just kind of falls in place with one another and so it’s definitely motivating.”

2. They are looking at holding a training camp in Dayton next month.

Gruden said the university will provide a facility for the team to practice together in beginning July 19.

He hopes to be able to have media present and even invite the public if feasible.

“We’re going to be working out at the UD rec center the whole week leading up to the event, so we’ll get some good quality practice time, which is another huge advantage because a lot of teams don’t get to practice, they kind of just show ups and play, so we’ve got a week of practice, or training camp I like to call it, and home court advantage so we’ve got a good set up prepared a lot of other teams.”

3. Scouting this opponent is not easy.

The Red Scare will take on BC Vahakni City to start the tournament.

That is the champion of the Armenian League that paid its way into the field and will have a mix of Americans and European players on the floor against the former Flyers.

“It’s been tougher (scouting them) than most teams,” Gruden said. “I’ve been doing a lot of digging. Whether I find a clip or two on Twitter or YouTube or from five years ago. They’ve got a lot of older guys, veterans that have been around so that makes me feel a little nervous just because they’ve play together and have a little more experience.”

With assistant coach and fellow Flyers alumnus Jeremiah Bonsu, he is also doing some self-scouting.

“We’ve watched a lot of film on what we did well last year and what we could do better,” Gruden said.

4. Gruden expects his team’s prior experience to pay off.

While The Basketball Tournament is a new event, it is in year three so there are some veterans of it.

Since it presents a unique environment — Mikesell described it as a structured summer league with professional-caliber players who are more mature than the typical college opponent — there can be a learning curve.

“A lot of a lot of teams jumping into the TBT, their first year they don’t do very well just because they’re not used to what it is,” Gruden said, noting there are some unique rules including the Elam Ending that sets a target score to end the game rather than have the teams simply play to the end of the game clock. “There are different kinds of rules and level of basketball — I think people think it’s a lot easier than it is, but it’s a really hard tournament.”

5. The squad is hungry to go all the way after making it to the semifinals last year before losing to eventual champion Golden Eagles (Marquette).

“We have guys who have been really successful at their professional levels so I think having that success in TBT, hopefully it will snowball into even more success, and continuing into not really being satisfied with how we did last year because ultimately we didn’t win,” Mikesell said. “So we have to kind of keep that same hunger and continue to see if we can make it to Dayton.”