Published Jul 16, 2023
Mass Street preparing for TBT opener on Wednesday night
Joe Blake
Staff Writer

A few members of the Mass Street TBT (The Basketball Tournament) team made up of notable alumni of Kansas were in Lawrence to get shots up together ahead of Wednesday night’s round one match-up with We Are D3. The winner of the 64-team, single-elimination tournament takes home a million dollars.

“We’re just going to go out there, go hard, compete, have fun, and hopefully have a chance to win this million dollars,” former Kansas forward Jamari Traylor said.

Many players got to reconnect with former teammates and get used to players that they may not have played with while at Kansas.

“I’m looking forward to playing with Mitch [Lightfoot] and Jamari [Traylor], Dedric Lawson, and a couple of other guys,” former Kansas guard LaGerald Vick said. “It’s going to be exciting.”

Traylor, who played at Kansas from 2012 to 2016 after redshirting his first year, feels like he is connected to a lot of different former Jayhawks on the Mass Street team.

“It’s cool, because I feel like I’m in the middle of the group… It’s cool to get back in here, be around some old teammates,” Traylor said.

Mass Street is taking part in the 10th annual The Basketball Tournament. Wednesday night won’t be the first time that a group of former Jayhawks will take the floor for this event. In 2019, under the name “Self Made” was defeated by Sideline Cancer 87-63.

“You can’t underestimate anybody in the TBT,” Traylor said. “Guys can play, guys can shoot, guys can get rolling, you don’t want something like that to happen, so you’ve got to come out and respect everybody.”

The games will be played at Charles Koch Arena on Wichita State’s campus, who will also have an alumni team represented. Kansas State and Missouri will also have alumni teams competing in the Wichita regional.

Traylor expressed his excitement to see Kansas fans in the Wichita area show their support when they come to town.

“Whenever we’re in Kansas we’ve got a good bunch of fans in Wichita,” Traylor said. “It should be a good turnout. Anywhere around here, we’re going to bring some fans out, so I’m excited to go out there and play in Wichita… “I’m really excited to see where this takes us.”

The fans that do tune in for the game will be watching a slightly different format of basketball, most notably featuring the “Elam Ending,” which means that a target score is set during the fourth quarter, and whoever gets to that score first wins. The Elam Ending makes every game end in a game-winner.

Mass Street will look to find that game-winner after an 8 p.m. tip off on Wednesday night on ESPN+.