When Wichita native Tyler O’Quinn set out to make his mark in the basketball world in 2020, he never could have imagined how far he would come in less than five years.
He started by forming a semi-professional team, Midtown Prestige, and made a splash by booking Koch Arena for home games. One team has since grown to eight, known as the Midtown Basketball League, which has given local basketball players a more competitive option to play at the recreational level.
And with the help of significant financial backing from local businessman Mike Ricklefs, O’Quinn has revamped Midtown Prestige to play on national television as one of 64 teams with a chance to win $1 million in The Basketball Tournament.
The Wichita native will try to author the ultimate Cinderella story at noon Saturday when he will coach his team against the No. 1 seed AfterShocks, Wichita State’s own alumni team, at Koch Arena.
“If we’re going on a scale from 1 to 10, I’m definitely at an 11 right now,” O’Quinn said of his excitement for Saturday’s game. “I would have never guessed what this would turn into in 2024. That’s why I say all praise be to God and I’m so thankful for this opportunity.”
O’Quinn, a 2010 East High graduate, actually played football in college for Southwestern, but said his first love has always been basketball.
He always wanted to make a difference in his community, which led to him hosting small basketball tournaments around town as far back as 2014. He still recalls a 3-on-3 tournament he put on at Brooks Middle School.
The idea of organizing a city-wide league came in 2019 during a pick-up basketball run at First Church of the Nazarene.
“One of the guys just said it would be really cool if there was a league in town where guys could play in a season,” O’Quinn said. “We just started spitballing and I kind of took it and ran with it. The seed was planted.”
The league plays its games at Wichita Hoops and it has attracted some of the top talent in the city like Joe Mitchell, Lawrence Wright, Kaelon Gary, Martavious Irving and Briston White. They play 14-game seasons that run from October to March with each player receiving a custom jersey. O’Quinn even recently launched a women’s basketball league.
While the original Midtown Prestige team featured almost exclusively Wichita players, the TBT version of Midtown Prestige will feature all kinds of players from the region that O’Quinn has recruited personally.
The lone member of the TBT team who has played for Midtown previously is Devon Andrews, who also played for the Wichita Sky Kings in The Basketball League.
The rest of the roster features a different array of players, like recent WSU graduate Gus Okafor, a foursome of Wichita-area natives in Kaheem Ransom (Southeast), Garrius Holloman (East), Joe Petrakis (Valley Center) and Jonah Carrasco (North), a trio of Southwestern players in Cevin Clark, Andrew O’Brien and Cooper Pierce and a pair of centers in 7-footer Jonathan Hall and 6-foot-11 Bryce Cashman.
There’s no doubt Midtown Prestige will be the underdogs on Saturday, but AfterShocks coach Zach Bush said his team won’t overlook them.
“Nobody really cares about where you played in this tournament,” Bush said. “It’s certainly fun to have an alumni team, but at the end of the day, it’s basketball. If you have guys who can make plays, know how to defend and rebound, you’re going to have a chance. So we’ll be ready for the challenge.”
No matter what his team’s chances are on Saturday, O’Quinn already feels like he has beat the odds. That doesn’t mean he isn’t game-planning for victory.
“We’ve just got to take this one possession at a time,” O’Quinn said. “We can’t get caught up in the hype and the lights. Don’t get cocky, don’t beat yourself up and most importantly, don’t react emotionally. I don’t expect the crowd, even if we are the local team, to be in our favor. We’re visitors in our own house, so we have to be emotionally intelligent with how we respond.”
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