Penn State's D.J. Newbill Helps Jumpstart Basketball This Weekend
Former Penn State star D.J. Newbill will help kick off basketball's return this weekend.
Newbill is playing for Team Brotherly Love, one of 24 teams competing in The Basketball Tournament, which marks the first live-televised basketball tournament in the U.S. since mid-March.
The tournament is a $1 million, winner-take-all event running July 4-14 in Columbus, Ohio. All games will be played under quarantine at Nationwide Arena and will be broadcast on the ESPN networks.
Team Brotherly Love is composed of players from Philadelphia and area schools such as Temple, Penn and Drexel. Newbill, a Philadelphia native, is playing in the event after a successful season in Australia's National Basketball League. His team is seeded 13th in the single-elimination tournament.
Newbill, who plays for the Cairns Taipans, was named the NBL's 2020 defensive player of the year and was second-team all-league. A team co-captain, Newbill helped Cairns to the NBL semifinals last season.
A two-time All-Big Ten player at Penn State, Newbill ranks fourth on the program's career-scoring list (1,812 points). His 18.3 career scoring average ranks second in school history to Jesse Arnelle.
Newbill was just the second Penn State player to produce three consecutive seasons of 500 or more points. Including his freshman season at Southern Mississippi, Newbill finished with a career total of 2,105 points.
The Basketball Tournament marks the first American basketball games to be televised live since March 12. Newbill's Brotherly Love team opens against the Stillwater Stars.
The bracket includes teams representing alumni of Syracuse, Marquette, Ohio State, Purdue, Clemson and other colleges. There also are teams representing charitable organizations, including the Jimmy V Foundation and ALS.
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