Herd That returning to The Basketball Tournament

HUNTINGTON, WV (WOWK)- Marshall University’s Alumni Team, Herd That, will be making their seventh appearance in The Basketball Tournament Friday afternoon. TBT is a 64-team tournament where the winning team takes home a $1,000,000 cash prize.

Last year, Herd That became tournament darlings after making an unexpected run to the semi-finals, before being knocked out by Arizona-based team Heartfire.

That performance earned them the number-one seed for the Lexington region of the TBT bracket.

Herd That will tip off tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m., facing off against Jackson TN Boom, a team making their TBT debut.

This year, they have seven players returning from the 2023 roster, including longtime point guard Jon Elmore. While the cash prize is plenty of incentive to compete, Elmore said representing Marshall on a national stage means much more.

“It’s an honor and privilege to be able to represent Marshall on the national and international level, put that brand out there. That’s the reason we do it every year. So we’re excited and fired up to hopefully make the run to win it all,” said Elmore.

Ot Elmore, the older brother of Jon, is returning in his role as general manager and head coach of Herd That. Marcus Reed will stand by his side serving as the assistant coach, a role he’s thrilled to have.

“Oh man, I’d do anything for the green, I love it, man. I appreciate everything they’ve done for me, they’ve helped me a lot in my career. So just being able to get out there and coaching the green, I played for the green so it means the world to me, I’m loving every minute,” said Reed.

Herd That has also brought in Marshall Alumni and four-time TBT champion Deandre Kane. Kane won three tournaments with Overseas Elite, and one with the Syracuse alumni team, Boheim’s Army. Kane said he wanted to end his TBT career where his college basketball career started.

“I had to come back, and this is probably my final year playing TBT, so I wanted to end it with The Herd. It feels good to be back playing with these guys and to bring that kind of championship pedigree here. We’ll see what I can do to help these guys win a championship,” said Kane.

You can find the full 2024 Herd That roster here . You can watch Herd That’s first-round game on the TBT website . Round 2 will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1, and you can catch round 3 on Fox Sports 2.

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