Ram Nation has fielded a team of VCU legends the past two summers in “The Basketball Tournament” or TBT (www.thetournament.com), an open entry winner-take-all $2 million tourney, and thanks to the tremendous support of VCU fans that traveled to see both groups the past two Julys, the TBT is coming to the Siegel Center.
TBT originally announced Richmond would be hosting the South Regional at the Arthur Ashe Center, but we can confirm the tournament will officially be moving that regional to the Siegel Center.
Tickets will be available through the Siegel Center box office starting next week.
Team “Ram Nation” advanced to the “Super 16” in the 2016 tournament before taking things a step further as one of the final eight remaining the following season and now will take a team consisting of the likes of Eric Maynor, Bradford Burgess, Brandon Rozzell, Jordan Burgess, B.A. Walker, Jamal Shuler, Justin Tuoyo, Darius Theus, Melvin Johnson with coaches Joey Rodriguez and Jesse Pellot-Rosa and put them back on the floor they once called their home court in hopes of advancing even further this season.
Ram Nation is 5-2 in two seasons with the two losses coming to undefeated three-time champ, Overseas Elite.
Ram Nation will also feature VMI legend, Reggie William, for the third consecutive season, as well as Xavier grad James Farr and others to be announced.
The tournament started in 2014 with a group of Notre Dame alumni calling themselves “Fighting Alumni” winning the inaugural event, then Overseas took the crown the following season and has yet to be defeated since.
Anyone can create a team but alumni teams have become a huge trend in the tournament, with alumni groups from the likes of Memphis, Kentucky, Iowa State, Syracuse, Gonzaga and many more making up a good chunk of previous TBT fields.
This year’s South Regional alone features alumni hopefuls from the likes of VCU, Wake Forest, Memphis, ODU, UMBC, JMU, Kansas State, Northeastern and Radford.
Teams can earn an automatic bid into the field by being one of the top-nine vote-getting teams in their region. The rest of each 16-team region is determined by at-large bid via tournament organizers and auto bids earned from advancing into previous season semi-final rounds.
Ram Nation currently sits at second in the South Region in fan voting with less than two weeks to go.
You can view the full Ram Nation roster and sign up to become a fan of team Ram Nation here: http://www.thetournament.com/teams/ram-nation-vcu-alumni
$200,000 of the winning team’s earnings will be split among fans who signed up in support of that team with a $40,000 top prize going to the fan who recruited the most fans to register for that team.
The TBT is set to hit Richmond Friday July 13 through Sunday July 15. The four teams who manage to advanced out of Richmond will then head to Atlanta as South Region reps in the “Super 16” July 26-29. The semifinals will then be held August 2 and 3 in Baltimore, MD.
