The Basketball Tournament 2019: Day 2 Viewing Guide

Six of 16 first round games in the 2019 edition of The Basketball Tournament gave us an upset, at least in terms of seed lines. Four of those six upsets saw alumni teams — Wisconsin, Kentucky, Saint Mary’s, and Arkansas — get booted from TBT after just 36 minutes of action.

That’s one of the best parts about TBT, in my opinion. You can come in with big fancy names from college basketball careers, but if you’re not ready to go when the ball is tipped, you’re going to lose. There’s $2 million on the line for whatever team wins this thing, and that’s not a joke.

Today, we will see the regional championship matchups decided in the Columbus, Lexington, Greensboro, and Memphis regions. It’s going to be a series of doubleheaders at each site with the games spread out all day long, covering you from 11am Central time down to right around 9pm by the time the last game wraps up in Memphis. The Columbus and Lexington regional semifinals will be on ESPN and ESPN2 respectively, while Greensboro and Memphis will be exclusive to ESPN3.

I think the teams that knocked off the alumni squads are the big ones to watch today. Mid-American Unity gets a crack at the Dayton alumni after putting the Badgers out yesterday, but Red Scare clobbered The Region by 26 in their first round game. D2 knocked off a collection of UK alums and get to face off against TBT veterans Fort Wayne Champs today. Like MAU, the Fort Wayne crew had a monster win yesterday, beating Showtime by 37 points. They’re not going to go quietly, that’s for sure.

In general, the Memphis bracket is a complete mess, with the hosting University of Memphis alumni team coming out as the only seed favorite to win yesterday. That one is a complete toss up as to who will advance to Sunday’s championship game. I’m fascinated by the Southern Gentlemen/Jackson TN game. The Gents played just five guys yesterday in their 92-82 win over Broad Street Brawlers, but they shot 47% from three-point range to get the W. Jackson TN missed all 21 of their long range attempts, but still beat top seeded Gael Force, 59-50. Can Southern Gentlemen keep shooting like that on tired legs on a second straight day, or will Jackson TN be able to control the scoring like they did on Friday?

Because this is a Marquette Golden Eagles website, we have to talk about Darius Johnson-Odom. He had 24 points, four rebounds, and an assist as top seeded Loyalty Is Love beat Hoopville Warriors, 107-98. They face off against #4 seed KBC at 3pm CT on ESPN2 today.

Be sure to check out TheTournament.com for recaps and highlight reels from all of yesterday’s action as well as live stats for today’s games!

All times Central