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The Basketball Tournament returns to action on Friday night as TBT aims to play out the first two rounds in the Northeast and Midwest regions. We’ll get a pair of games from the campus of LIU-Brooklyn to decide who plays the Northeast’s #1 (Boeheim’s Army) and #2 (HBC Sicklerville) seeds, while Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, will provide us with Saturday’s opponents for Scarlet & Gray and Team Fredette in the Midwest.
The Northeast play-in games are the most important thing to keep an eye on for Marquette fans. The 15/18 play-in game winner gets HBC Sicklerville in the first round, and the winner of that game gets the winner of Team Arkansas/Tim Thomas Playaz on Sunday. The winner of THAT game will advance to the Super 16 in Atlanta and take on Golden Eagles, aka the Marquette alumni squad. Thus, the play-in game could end up playing a role in who ends up facing the Marquette guys.
For the most part, the teams in these play-in games are seeded between 15 and 18 by TBT’s brain trust because they’re not stocked with notable names like squads in the vein of Boeheim’s Army or Scarlet & Gray. That was definitely the case last weekend. However, there are two very familiar names on the rosters for Friday night. Former Chicago Bulls draft pick and 2012 NBA Champion Eddy Curry is listed as playing for Midwest Region #17 seed Charlotte Chess Center, while former Seattle SuperSonics draft pick Robert Swift is on the roster page for Midwest #18 seed West Coast Ronin. Those two teams will not play each other on Friday night, so it will be interesting to see if 1) both guys end up playing or 2) both teams advance to Saturday’s first round contests.
Here’s the slate for Friday night. All times Central, and all games streamed on ESPN3/WatchESPN.
Midwest Region
5pm: #15 Peoria All-Stars vs #18 West Coast Ronin
6:50pm: #16 West Virginia Wildcats vs #17 Charlotte Chess Center
Northeast Region
6pm: #15 Talladega Knights vs #18 Queens Struggle
7:50pm: #16 Philadelphia Stars vs #17 South Jamaica Kings