“Your arena and your team will be solely featured on ESPN because there’s no other basketball,” Mugar told UD graduate Dan Sullivan on the Talking Out Lowd podcast this week. “You have the opportunity to will your alumni team through a six-game event to a million dollars. The experience of rooting them on from round one to two to three to quarters and semis and then a million-dollar winner-take-all championship in UD Arena in front of a packed house would be an unbelievable display and exhibit of fandom in Dayton.”
The first opportunity comes Sunday when the Dayton alumni team, the Red Scare, plays in the first round. Here’s a quick glance at its game and the other three first-round games at UD Arena. The Sunday winners advance to second-round games on Tuesday, and the regional championship game will take place at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
1 p.m.: No. 1 seed The Money Team vs. No. 8 Athletics Miami, ESPN
The Money Team, funded by boxer Floyd Mayweather, reached the quarterfinals last season for the first time by upsetting the Ohio State alumni team, Carmen’s Crew, 91-89 in the third round at the Covelli Center in Columbus. It lost 84-81 to Blue Collar U at UD Arena. Its roster this year includes former Brigham Young star Jimmer Fredette, the NCAA’s leading scorer in the 2010-11 season, and two former Atlantic 10 Conference players: Peyton Aldridge, of Davidson, the A-10 Player of the Year in 2018, and Cyril Langevine and Xavier Munford, of Rhode Island.
Athletics Miami, which is named after a sports facility in Miami, Fla., has a former Buckeye on its roster: Jamari Wheeler, who played four seasons at Penn State and then transferred to Ohio State, where he averaged 7.1 points last season.
3 p.m. No. 3 Red Scare vs. No. 6 CitiTeam, ESPN3
• The Dayton alumni team is 5-3 in three TBT appearances. It started strong last year in Columbus with an 88-44 victory in the first round against BC Vakahni City but lost 76-69 to Category 5, a Miami Hurricanes alumni team, in the second round.
The Red Scare returns Jordan Sibert, Darrell Davis, Trey Landers, Ryan Mikesell, Trevor Thompson and C.J. Walker while adding Vee Sanford, Scoochie Smith, Josh Cunningham and Joe Thomasson to the roster.
“We’ve got a lot of intelligent guys, which is good,” Red Scare coach Joey Gruden said Thursday. “A lot of pros, a lot of good voices. Scooch is a good voice. Sibert’s a veteran. You’ve got Joe coming in with different opinions. You’ve got a lot of different opinions, which is really good.”
• The CitiTeam last played in the TBT in 2014, the first year the tournament was held. Its roster includes: Josh Selby, who played the 2010-11 season at Kansas and was a second-round pick of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2011, and Pat Spencer, a college lacrosse legend at Loyola (Md.) who ranks third in NCAA history in career points. Spencer switched to basketball after his lacrosse career ended, playing one season at Northwestern. He played in the NBA G League last season.
The team’s booster is Tacko Fall, a 7-6 center who starred at Central Florida and has played in the NBA with the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers.
7 p.m.: No. 4 Men of Mackey vs. No. 5 Mid American Unity, ESPN3
• The Purdue alumni team, Men of Mackey, lost in the second round to Carmen’s Crew last year and has a 2-2 record in the TBT. Its roster includes forward Robbie Hummel, who scored 1,772 points at Purdue from 2007-12.
One of the non-Boilermakers on the roster is John Harrar, who played the last five seasons at Penn State.
• The MAC alumni team is 1-3 in three TBT appearances. The Red Scare beat it in the second round in 2019 at Capital University. The roster includes: former Ohio Bobcats star D.J. Cooper; Javon Bess, who played at Michigan State and Saint Louis; Romeo Travis, who played at Akron and with LeBron James at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary; and Antonio Ballard, who played for the Miami RedHawks from 2006-11.
9 p.m.: No. 2 Golden Eagles vs. No. 7 Ohio 1804, ESPN3
• The Marquette alumni team, the Golden Eagles, has a 22-5 TBT record. It reached the championship game in 2019, losing 66-60 to Carmen’s Crew. A year later, it beat the Red Scare 79-70 in the semifinals and beat Sideline Cancer 78-73 in the final.
The Golden Eagles’ return Darius Johnson-Odom, who scored 1,649 points in three seasons (2009-12) at Marquette; Dwight Buycks, who played two seasons (2009-11) at Marquette; and Elgin Cook, a 1,259-point scorer at Oregon (2013-16). A newcomer is Diamond Stone, who played one season at Maryland and appeared in seven games with the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2016-17 season.
• The Ohio Bobcats alumni team made its TBT debut last year and lost its opening-round game. Its roster includes Antonio Campbell, who scored 1,257 points in his Ohio career (2013-17).
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