Happy Valley Hoopers, a Penn State Basketball Alumni Team, kickoff their second year in the 1 million dollar winner take call competition today.
Known as The Basketball Tournament, or TBT, 64 teams from across the nation compete in a bracket style competition (just like the NCAA Tournament in March).
If you win, you advance, lose and go home. The winning team splits 1 million dollars amongst themselves…teams finishing 2 through 64 get nothing.
While the tournament has existed for over a decade, this is the second year a Penn State Alumni team is participating. After last years first round loss in Syracuae, NY, Captain and GM John Harrar is ready for revenge.
Compiling a roster made up of mostly Nittany Lion Alumni and coached by former Pat Chambers assistant, Ross Condon, Happy Valley Hoopers start their march towards a million today at 1:00 pm in Pittsburgh.
Their region includes UConn, Pittsburgh and WVU Alumni teams, but their round 1 matchup is against Dubous Dream, led by the Weathers brothers Michael and Marcus (SMU) and TBT veteran Tayler Parsons.
Happy Valley Hoopers are led by the aforementioned Harrar, Izaiah Brockington, Josh Reaves, Qudus Wahab, Myron Jones and Sam Sessoms. Other familiar Nittany Lions names like Kyle McCloskey, Trent Buttrick, Curtis Jones, Greg Lee and Taylor Nussbaum. Joining the PSU clan this year are Jawuan Daniels (Prarie View A&M) and Christian Johnson (Duquesne).
Breaking news says Happy Valley Hoopers will be without Wahab, Reaves and Brockington today, which will make getting their first TBT victory today all the more difficult.
For a full dive on the Happy Valley Hoopers, check out the Shots Gotta Fall Podcast’s conversation with Harrar and Condon:
Tickets are still available for Saturday’s game at the Peterson Events Center through Ticketmaster or you can watch the game live on thetournament.com/watchtbt.
Evan Smith is an alum of Penn State (Marketing, Economics, 2011) and a basketball season ticket holder since 2006.
NittanyCentral is his second reporting job following the Men's Basketball program. He co-founded and co-hosts the Shots Gotta Fall - The Penn State Basketball Podcast (the premiere, the best, the only) with Steve Travis.
Smith's most proud moment covering the team was seeing the national No. 9 ranking during Pat Chambers' last year. His most embarrassing moment was spending almost a thousand dollars to travel 2,000 miles in 46 hours to watch the Nittany Lions lose to Temple in the 2011 NCAA Tournament (screw you Juan Fernandez).
NittanyCentral is his second reporting job following the Men's Basketball program. He co-founded and co-hosts the Shots Gotta Fall - The Penn State Basketball Podcast (the premiere, the best, the only) with Steve Travis.
Smith's most proud moment covering the team was seeing the national No. 9 ranking during Pat Chambers' last year. His most embarrassing moment was spending almost a thousand dollars to travel 2,000 miles in 46 hours to watch the Nittany Lions lose to Temple in the 2011 NCAA Tournament (screw you Juan Fernandez).
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