WICHITA, Kan. – The Purple & Black – Kansas State’s men’s basketball alumni team – returns to action in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) starting on Thursday night (July 20) against the DaGuys STL at 6 p.m., CT in the Wichita Regional at Koch Arena. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Tickets are currently on sale and can be purchased here.
The Basketball Tournament is a $1 million winner-take-all summer tournament featuring former college and professional athletes. The 64-team field runs from July 19 to August 3 with regionals in Dayton, Louisville, Lubbock, Syracuse, West Virginia, Wichita and Xavier. The Final Four is in Philadelphia August 2-3.
The No. 2 seed Purple & Black will take on No. 7 seed DaGuys STL in the third game on Thursday. If the Purple & Black advances to the second round, they will face the winner of No. 3 seed Team Arkansas (Arkansas Alumni) and No. 6 seed Ram Up (Colorado State Alumni) on Friday (July 21) at 6 p.m. CT.
The winners from the first two rounds will advance to the third round on Sunday (July 23) at 4 p.m., CT, where they will face the winner of the upper side of the bracket, which includes the No. 1 seed Aftershocks (Wichita State Alumni), B1 Ballers, Beale Street Boys (Memphis Alumni) and Broad Street Birds (Temple Alumni).
The Wichita 1/2 Regional Championship Game is set for Tuesday (July 25) at 8 p.m. CT.
The Wichita 2 Regional includes No. 1 seed Mass Street (Kansas Alumni), No. 2 seed Heartfire, No. 3 LA Cheaters (Drew League), No. 4 seed Show Me Squad (Missouri Alumni), No. 5 seed Vegas Rebellion (UNLV Alumni), No. 6 seed Living the Dream, No. 7 seed JUCO Products and No. 8 seed We Are D3 (collection of Division III stars).
Organized by former Wildcats Jordan Henriquez and Martavious Irving, the Purple & Black Team is in seventh year competing in the TBT. Henriquez will serve as the team’s GM and head coach for the third straight summer, while he will be assisted by former Wildcats Clent Stewart (2004-08) and Curtis Kelly (2008-11).
Aside from Henriquez and Irving, the team includes several notable Wildcats including Henry Walker (2006-08), Thomas Gipson III (2011-15), D.J. Johnson (2012-17), Justin Edwards (2013-16), Marcus Foster (2013-15), Jevon Thomas (2013-15), Kamau Stokes (2015-19) and Mike McGuirl (2017-22). Members of the 2023 Elite Eight run – Abayomi Iyiola (2022-23) and Desi Sills (2022-23) – are also on the roster.
The team also includes Marquis Addison (Missouri Southern State) and Khalid Thomas (Southern Idaho/Arizona State/Portland State).
For more information on Purple & Black and tickets for this year’s TBT, visit TheTournament.com.
