Former DePaul star Billy Garrett Agrees To Join Illini's TBT 2020 Team
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The newest member of the Illinois alumni team for The Basketball Tournament is a current professional coming from a nearby rival program.
Billy Garrett, a former star at DePaul and Chicago’s Morgan Park High School, has agreed to join the ‘House Of Paign’ team filled with Illinois alumni players for the upcoming TBT 2020. The team is being organized by former Illini guard Mike LaTulip and Garrett was announced to the team less than two weeks before they’re scheduled to open play in the 24-team tournament.
Garrett will replace former Illini guard Corey Bradford, who announced earlier this week that he’ll be unable to participate in The Basketball Tournament 2020 as a part of the ‘House Of Paign’ Illinois alumni team due to the birth of his first child.
Garrett recently signed with Greek club Larisa in January for the remainder of the season but the coronavirus worldwide shutdown ended the Greek basketball season in March.
Garrett nearly died from sickle cell disease as soon as he arrived for the fall semester at DePaul but managed to come back healthy to win the Big East Conference rookie of the year honors in 2014. As a junior, he averaged 12.6 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.9 rebounds per game on a DePaul team that finished with a 9-22 record and averaged 14.9 points per game as a senior while shooting 36 percent from three-point range.
Garrett averaged 11.9 points, 2.7 boards, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals in 27.1 minutes per game in the 2017-18 season for the Westchester Knicks, the NBA G-League affiliate for the New York Knicks. After signing a 10-day contract with the New York Knicks in 2018, Garrett became the first NBA player with sickle-cell disease after playing four games in which he averaged 6.5 points per game.
Garrett's grandfather, Bill Garrett, the first African-American basketball player in the Big Ten Conference when he played at Indiana from 1948–1951.
The TBT announced its 24-team, single-elimination bracket last week for the tournament that will begin on July 4-5 in Columbus, Ohio and the ‘House Of Paign’ team, which is also expected to have Malcolm Hill, Nnanna Egwu, Michael Finke, Andres Feliz and Leron Black, is the 16-seed in the field and they drew the 17-seed ‘War Tampa’, which will have Auburn alums Bryce Brown, DeSean Murray and Horace Spencer along with Wofford alum Fletcher McGee. The winner of that game will play the top-seed and defending champion ‘Carmen’s Crew’ primarily of Ohio State alumni.