2020 TBT Proceeding with Quarantined & Condensed Tournament

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Each year since 2014, thousands of talented hoopers have gathered for the open-application three-on-three tournament known simply as TBT (The Basketball Tournament). Big money is always up for grabs — $2 million went to the 2019 winner — and the coronavirus won’t stop teams from trying to cash in.

On Wednesday, ESPN announced a multi-year extension with the tournament, with this year’s event (albeit smaller than usual) running from July 4th through July 14th. Rather than the planned 64 teams across numerous cities and $2 million purse, the 2020 TBT will have 24 teams all in one quarantined venue (Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH) with $1 million up for grabs. All 23 games will be “fanless” and on an ESPN network, making it the first major basketball event since the pandemic started in mid-March.

Testing protocols will be in place, says the network. If one player tests positive while underway, their entire team will be removed.

“Everyone is unified in wanting to see athletes out there having fun again, and our players can’t wait to compete,” TBT founder and CEO Jon Mugar said in the release. “TBT is one of the most unique and competitive events on our schedule,” Burke Magnus, ESPN Executive Vice President of Programming and Scheduling added.

The release also stated the bracket, schedule, and field will be announced “in the coming days.”

via TheTournament.com

On the TBT website, the bracket is currently empty but one team is listed at “accepted” on the team page — Best Virginia (West Va. alumni). More than 50 are listed at “eligible” and more than 30 are listed as “ineligible,” as of June 11th. See teams here.

Notre Dame alumni won the inaugural event in 2014, followed by Overseas Elite in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Last year, their reign was finally broken by Carmen’s Crew (Ohio St. alumni). I’d assume Overseas Elite and Carmen’s Crew will be in the 2020 field, plus regular TBT heavyweight Boeheim’s Army (Syracuse alumni).

We’ll post the bracket and stuff whenever it’s available!