The Basketball Tournament releases bracket and teams

Soon, you’ll be scraping the bottom barrel to get your basketball fix.

The NBA Finals will have come and gone. The draft and Summer League will fade into a mid-July haze. But have no fear, because the The Basketball Tournament will be there to save the day, and now we know how it’ll all line up with the official release of the bracket and teams. Notably, all games will be available on ESPN in some form.

Have at it:

Those looking to really recreate March can do so with a printable bracket found here.

TBT will once again employ the Elam Ending, as it did for the entire tournament in 2018, which seeks to avoid the foul-filled clogged machine that can be the end of close games. Its creator, college professor Nick Elam, liked what he saw last summer.

“The Elam Ending looked great in TBT 2018,” said Elam. “It met all of its aims. It addressed the deliberate fouling and the stalling that we see so often late in games. It allowed teams to play at a high level all the way through the end of the game and take their best shot on the last possession of the game. It provided greater hope for late comebacks as long as you can continue to get defensive stops. And it provided more memorable game-ending moments.”

Four-time defending champion Overseas Elite, which has never lost a game in TBT, brings some mid-major flavor to the Richmond regional with Jeremy Pargo (Gonzaga), Angelo Caloiaro (San Francisco) and Bobby Brown (Cal State Fullerton). They’re lumped into a region that doesn’t lack for local mid-major nostalgia, with alumni teams from George Mason, Richmond, Old Dominion, UMBC and VCU.

The rest of the tournament features alumni teams from Dayton, St. Mary’s, Wichita State, Iona, Manhattan and Utah State, and in general is full of your favorite mid-major stars. Interested to see what Thomas Walkup’s beard looks like? Check out Team Hines. Want to see what Omar Samhan is up to? Carve out time for Gael Nation. Want to see if Gregg Marshall’s madness is still in the DNA of his former players? Tune in for AfterShocks’ run through its hometown Wichita regional, which features alumni teams from Kansas and Kansas State.