🌾 The Mecca of TBT

July 20, 2022 | Sign Up | Support Us

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Today is our second deep dive.

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In today's Wichita Weekly Update:

The History of The Basketball Tournament
AfterShocks
Wichita is a Basketball City

Let's get to it!

- Landon Huslig

The Mecca of TBT

New York is known as “The Mecca” of basketball especially notable is MSG - Madison Square Garden.

Wichita is quickly becoming “The Mecca” of TBT aka The Basketball Tournament.

Not every team is strictly “alumni” for a particular school, but many of the teams, like the AfterShocks, Purple & Black, and more are primarily made up of players that played at a specific school.

So, how did Wichita become The Mecca of TBT? Before we get there, let’s dive into The Basketball Tournament itself.

TOGETHER WITH KOCH

The Picture is a Koch Industries Spotlight Series.

What does that mean? These are stories about Wichita, the people of Wichita, and how Koch partners with them to do good.

Today’s spotlight is Catalyte.

It’s a free program in partnership with Koch that identifies candidates who have an aptitude to become software developers.

Job seekers without a college degree are traditionally unable to qualify for tech roles. Catalyte eliminates that barrier by requiring no experience.

The goal is to identify and train overlooked talent and hire them for full-time jobs where they can realize their potential and create greater value.

Learn more here!

The History of The Basketball Tournament

What is TBT?

The Basketball Tournament (TBT) was started in 2014 with 32 teams and a grand prize of $500k.

It has grown into a field of 64 teams, single elimination, and a $1 million winner take all grand prize (which has gone as high as $2 million in a single year).

A fun aspect of TBT is a lot of the teams are “alumni teams” made up of former athletes at specific schools. For example:

Wichita State Shockers → AfterShocks
Kansas State Wildcats → Purple & Black

Former NBA players have played over the years and many of the players are current overseas professional players.

Elam Ending

The rules have changed from time to time, but one one of the best things TBT did was to implement the Elam Ending in 2017.

A normal game ends when the clock runs out and whoever has the highest score wins.

With the Elam Ending, once the clock hits 4 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter, the teams play to a target score and whoever gets there first wins. The benefits?

no overtime
no lame fouling at the end of the game since every point matters
every game ends on a walk-off make (field goal 2 or 3 pointer, or free throw)

AfterShocks

The AfterShocks are the Wichita State Alumni team. Made up of primarily former Shockers, they also have a few others to round out the roster. Although you may not see NBA stars like Fred Vanvleet or Landry Shamet out there, you will definitely recognize some names.

Current roster:

Conner Frankamp (Wichita State)
Darral Willis (Wichita State)
James Dickey (UNC Greensboro)
James Woodard (Tulsa)
Markus McDuffie (Wichita State)
Rashard Kelly (Wichita State)
Samajae Haynes-Jones (Wichita State)
Shaquille Morris (Wichita State)
Tyrus McGee (Cowley College, Iowa State)
Zach Brown (Wichita State)
Zach Bush (Head Coach)
Clevin Hannah (Assistant Coach)
Garrett Stutz (Assistant Coach)
JR Simon (Assistant Coach)

The AfterShocks have an all-time record of 4-2 in their 2 years thus far:

2021: #2 seed AfterShocks went 3-1 with wins over the Ex-Pats, Omaha Blue Crew (old Creighton rivalry), and Challenge ALS before losing to Florida TNT.
2020: only 24 teams in the field due to COVID, AfterShocks did not compete
2019: #2 seed AfterShocks went 1-1 with a win over Iowa United before falling to Sideline Cancer

Purple & Black

A team to watch this year is the Purple & Black (aka KSU alumni) as they pulled out all the stops and have Jacob Pullen, Bill Walker, and Michael Beasley coming back to compete.

Wichita is a Basketball town

We won’t even get into how Charles Koch Arena is one of the best arenas to play at in College Basketball.

Wichita hosted a regional in 2019 and 2021, as well as this year.

The Basketball Tournament draws a lot of fans who want to see quality basketball and see some of their former favorite players from college.

2019: Wichita broke the TBT attendance record for 4 straight days to bring a total of 20,000+ fans to Koch Arena. The AfterShocks game against Iowa United drew 7,184 fans.

For reference, Koch Arena holds 10,506 fans.

2020: Wichita was an obvious hosting location following the record breaking attendance, but then COVID happened. Peep the date on that article (a month before the virus hit).

2021: Post-COVID is a different world, but Wichita once again hosted TBT. More than 6,500 fans showed up to watch the AfterShocks move to the TBT quarterfinals.

2022: And we’re back, baby! Wichita as a host location is a no-brainer at this point. All games will be shown on ESPN.

Show up and support from July 22 - 25.

On July 28th, the winners of the Omaha and Wichita Regionals will play and the Championship game will be held on August 2nd in Dayton, Ohio.

Clearly there is something special about Wichita, so we reached out to a few current and former Shockers / AfterShocks to ask them why Wichita is the Mecca of The Basketball Tournament and what they love most about TBT:

Ron Baker - former AfterShocks Coach, WSU Shocker All-American, and NBA player

“Wichita has become the Mecca for the TBT due to the fact of our loyal basketball fans. Wichita State has always had very good basketball knowledge fans. They make the environment for the TBT tournament very special and memorable.

My favorite part of the TBT is getting to mingle and hang out with Ex shocker basketball alumni and current basketball players from the University.”

Rashard Kelly - current AfterShock player and Tasmania JackJumpers, former WSU Shocker

“Wichita is the Mecca for the TBT because of the environment the fans create when they sell it out. Put together a sold out crowd with Elam ending and it’s a heart racer.

My favorite part of TBT is winning some money.”

Conner Frankamp - current AfterShock and Gaziantep Basketbol player, former WSU Shocker and KU Jayhawk, and the most clutch TBT player in the history of the Elam Ending

“Well the fans have always been amazing here at WSU. I think when they know basketball is coming around and happening they will do anything to make sure they are in attendance. It’s also great to have the old players all together and the fans do an amazing job of welcoming everybody back home.

I think my favorite part is just getting back together with all the guys and getting to spend a week hanging out and playing some really good basketball in front of our home crowd. It’s such a unique thing and I know everyone has a great time during TBT week.”

NCCA Tourny Host

Just to further prove the point of Wichita being a “basketball city”, Wichita is becoming more and more a hot spot for NCAA tournament regionals hosted at INTRUST Bank Arena.

Wichita first hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I Men’s basketball tournament in 2018 and will host it again in 2025. Wichita was supposed to host in 2020, but once again, COVID threw things off.

Following the successful men’s NCAA rounds, Wichita hosted the NCAA Women’s basketball Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games in 2022

It was a smashing success with attendance topping 8540 people with the closest team being 407 miles away. Expect much more from Wichita in the future.