The Men of Mackey are participating in the 2020 “The Basketball Tournament”. What are their odds of making a run?
“The Basketball Tournament”, which we will call TBT for the remainder of this article is not only the self-proclaimed “highest-stakes basketball tournament in the world”, but in 2020 it is also an opportunity for basketball fans to get their first taste of competitive hoops since the NBA and March Madness was canceled more than 100 days ago.
Surprisingly, this is the first TBT that Purdue has ever fielded its own alumni team, and not surprisingly, they are doing it while sponsoring a great cause that the late Tyler Trent has brought to the forefront of the Purdue and entire college sports Community, cancer research.
Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflict caused by COVID-19, three Men of Mackey team members, Ryan Cline, PJ Thompson, and Grady Eiffert have had to pull out of the event. That, however, isn’t going to stop this squad from representing West Lafayette.
Purdue nor IU has ever had a team in this tournament that has existed since 2014. It’s an event made for die-hard basketball fans and folks in the Heartland are going to be on pins and needles watching this team full of Matt Painter’s former players. Let’s take a look at the roster.