The Basketball Tournament 2019: Day 1 Viewing Guide

TBT is back, baybay!

The Basketball Tournament kicks into high gear straight out of the gate today with 16 first round games. By the time the clock hits midnight tonight, we’ll have half of the first round completed by way of the Columbus, Greensboro, Lexington, and Memphis regional sites. 14 of the games will be brought to your eyeballs by way of ESPN3, starting at 2pm Central time, with the final two — both from Columbus — getting the broadcast spot on ESPN2.

We will see eight college alumni teams in action today: Arkansas, Clemson, Dayton, Kentucky, Memphis, Ohio State, Saint Mary’s and Wisconsin. All of them are favored by seeding in their region to win their game today, but this is TBT. Weirdness happens. I almost feel safe guaranteeing that at least one of those eight squads will not be back in action tomorrow in the round of 32.

Since this is a Marquette website, it’s probably important to point you in the direction of Loyalty Is Love, the #1 seed in the Lexington Region. For whatever reason, former Golden Eagle Darius Johnson-Odom is playing for that squad, which is run by DeMarcus Cousins. The roster is loaded up with names that a college basketball aficionado would recognize, so they should be an interesting watch.

As was the case a year ago, all TBT games will use the Elam Ending. At the first clock stoppage with four minutes left to go, the clock gets turned off for the rest of the game. Eight points are added to the point total of the team that’s currently leading the game to create the Target Score. First team to reach the Target Score wins, meaning every single game in TBT ends with the ball going through the net one way or another. If the clock stops under four minutes as a result of a foul that would generate a free throw attempt for either team, the freebies will be shot before the creation of the Target Score.

All times Central