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It turned out to be a little touch and go there at the end, but the team made up of former Marquette players has officially made it into the 2016 edition of The Basketball Tournament.
Golden Eagles Alumni were one of 11 teams to earn an automatic bid to the Midwest region because you, the Marquette faithful, handed them enough votes on TheTournament.com. Since you can still enter votes (and recruit votes, thus increasing your share of the potential cash prize if GEA wins the tournament), I’m not sure what the totals on the final day of voting was, but I can tell you that teams 4 through 11 are all within 1,000 points right now.
Three more teams - 120 Sports, Midwest Dream Squad, and Pedro’s Posse - earned at-large bids to the field, while Ants Alumni are in the Midwest courtesy of winning the Midwest Region in the 2015 edition of The Tournament. There’s still one more team to be added to the region, and that one will be decided by TBT’s charity contest. For the Midwest, it’s coming down to either Eberlein Drive or Chicago Dynasty. Fundraising for that ends on June 13th at 11am Central time. (As an aside: You can donate to get College Basketball Talk’s Rob Dauster and his team of Vassar alums into the tournament. They’re currently leading the fundraising in the Northeast by a bit more than $100.)
The defending regional champs aren’t the only returning teams in the Midwest. There are three more teams with TBT experience, including that Midwest Dream Squad that scooted in as an at-large team. Let’s take a look at the teams and size up the competition. If you look through the rosters and recognize some players that I didn’t catch, be sure to speak up in the comments.
120 Sports
Total # of Players: 9
Notable Players: Grant Gibbs, Robbie Hummel, Nate Lubick, Justin Sears, John Shurna
Always A Brave (Bradley Alumni)
Total # of Players: 10
Notable Players: Patrick O’Bryant
Ants Alumni (Former Fort Wayne Mad Ants Players)
Total # of Players: 10
Notable Players: Andre Emmett, Ron Howard, Trey McKinney-Jones
Armored Athlete
Total # of Players: 9
Notable Players: Jordan Hulls, Roosevelt Jones, Will Sheehey, Christian Watford
Bluegrass Boys (Kentucky Alumni)
Total # of Players: 8
Notable Players: Joe Crawford, Marquis Teague, Chane Behanan (who went to Louisville)
Canton Bulldogs
Total # of Players: 8
Notable Players: None
Illinois Hoopville Warriors
Total # of Players: 11
Notable Players: None
Jackson TN Underdawgs
Total # of Players: 11
Notable Players: None
Midwest Dream Squad
Total # of Players: 11
Notable Players: None
Ohio United
Total # of Players: 11
Notable Players: None
Pedro’s Posse
Total # of Players: 8
Notable Players: Mike Bibby, Jason Williams
Purple & Black (Kansas State Alumni)
Total # of Players: 9
Notable Players: Jacob Pullen, Curtis Kelly
Spartan Heroes (Michigan State Alumni)
Total # of Players: 10
Notable Players: Charlie Bell, Korie Lucious
The Region
Total # of Players: 10
Notable Players: None
The bracket, including game times and seedings, will be announced on July 1st. GEA’s opening round game will be played on July 16th at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. You can buy tickets right here.