THE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT 2019

#1 Golden Eagles vs #4 Team Colorado

Date: Saturday, July 27, 2019
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Charles Koch Arena, Wichita, KS
Television: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN
Live Stats: Genius Sports

Your favorite Marquette Golden Eagles alumni team has advanced to the regional semifinals (aka Round 2) of this summer’s edition of The Basketball Tournament. Backed by a team high 25 points from Dwight Buycks and another 21 from Elgin Cook, #1 seed Golden Eagles beat #8 seed Fort Hood Wounded Warriors on Friday night, 89-72. Here’s the highlights for you, in case you missed the game:

It was good to see the Marquette guys grit out a win. While the final margin was pretty spacious, it took Golden Eagles a long stretch to finally build that margin up. A 13-0 run bridging into the fourth quarter gave them a 16 point lead, and that ultimately told the tale for that game. Still, that was well over half the game where it was competitive.

Golden Eagles will still be without Jamil Wilson on Saturday afternoon. Wilson had a major impact on their run to TBT’s semifinals a year ago, but he is unavailable for the first two games this year. If the Marquette team wins on Saturday, Wilson will be in uniform and available for Sunday’s regional final.

They’ll be facing #4 seed Team Colorado on Saturday afternoon. The squad made up primarily of Colorado Buffaloes alumni advanced past #5 Purple & Black, the Kansas State alumni team, by the score of 96-93. Here’s the highlights from their game:

Here’s the rundown on the guys who played for Team Colorado yesterday. We have to focus on that and not their listed roster, because as Jamil Wilson proved yesterday, you can only know who’s in the building when it comes to TBT.

Marcus Hall
Shannon Sharpe
Xavier Talton
Dominique Collier
Marcus Relphorde
Xavier Johnson
Richard Roby
Dominique Coleman
Chris Copeland
Tory Miller
Calvin Williams

Richard Roby led them in scoring last night with 23 points, but he went through an 8-for-22 shooting performance to get there. Five more guys scored at least 10 points, so TC is going to be willing to spread the ball around a bit. Roby added 10 rebounds, so putting the clamps on the 6’6” small forward is going to be a key component for the Marquette alumni.

Team Colorado shot just 31.4% from long range in the game, so to a certain extent, Golden Eagles can just let them launch if they want. Chris Copeland did knock down four of his six tries, though, so he can’t be left open.

Golden Eagles and Fort Hood were roughly even in the rebounding rate departments on Friday night. Even though they had fewer opportunities (12 offensive rebounds against 15 for Fort Hood), the Marquette guys still more than doubled up FHWW, 13-6, in second chance points. Taking advantage of second chances can be a key difference in a win-or-go-home-and-not-win-$2-million tournament like TBT.

If Buycks and Cook can have four consistent quarters — Cook was great early and Buycks was great late on Friday — then Golden Eagles should be able to hold true to their #1 seed and advance, even without Wilson in the lineup. Andrew Rowsey had a big four-point-play against FHWW, but he ended up shooting 5-for-12 and 2-for-8 from long range on Friday night. If Rowsey has a lights out performance in him, Saturday afternoon wouldn’t be the worst time to bring it out.

The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to Sunday’s Wichita regional final. A spot in the quarterfinals in Chicago would be on the line against the winner of #6 Sideline Cancer and #2 and host AfterShocks. The Wichita State alumni team drew the biggest crowd in TBT history on Thursday night, so they’ll be the favorite to advance to Sunday just based on that kind of fan fervor behind them at Koch Arena.