Michigan State Players to Play in The Basketball Tournament
Former Michigan State basketball players, Nick Ward, Branden Dawson, and Brandon Wood will play in The Basketball Tournament.
Ward will play for a team named Big X, while Dawson and Wood are on Team Heartfire. The 24-team field was revealed Tuesday and left Team Detroit, which featured former Spartans Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers, off the bracket.
The Basketball Tournament is a single-elimination, 5-on-5 tourney, and winner-take-all event broadcasted by ESPN networks. The last team standing will walk away with a $1 million prize.
In its seventh year, it was forced to condense the field due to the coronavirus, so the 24-teams participating will be quarantined at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Teams are required to undergo testing for COVID-19 before their players are allowed on the court in this year's tournament.
TBT announced every game would feature the Elam Ending, a format that eliminates the game clock past a specific time forcing teams to play to a particular score. It was made famous during the 2020 NBA All-Star Game.
Ward's team, the No. 9 seed this year, includes former Ohio State players and Big Ten products CJ Jackson, Andrew Dakich, Vitto Brown, Khalil Iverson, and Keyshawn Woods. Whereas Team Heartfire (Dawson and Wood), are joined by Isaiah Austin and Quincy Miller, both are former student-athletes at Baylor University.
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