For the second consecutive year, The Basketball Tournament will host its semi-finals and final in the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Aug. 2 and Aug. 4. TBT is an annual tournament in which 64 teams compete for a grand prize of $1 million. The return of a high profile basketball event returning to Drexel’s campus can be viewed as the realization of Drexel Athletic Director Maisha Kelly’s “goal to utilize the DAC as a hub of entertainment and basketball in Philadelphia.” Kelly also stated that, “Partnerships like this allow us to achieve them and to illuminate Drexel’s brand on a national stage.”

Each team is put together by a General Manager and a Coach. These teams usually center around some form of a theme, such as Alumni of a specific university, players who grew up in the same area or charities that the players are working to raise awareness for. This year’s tournament features teams that represent Universities such as Purdue and University of Connecticut, charities such as Sideline Cancer, which raises funds and awareness for Pancreatic Cancer, and the Purple Hearts, who are raising funds to donate towards community organizations who work to eliminate gun violence within inner cities. 

With the final being held in the DAC, it is only right that there be at least one Drexel alumni in the tournament. Samme Givens, a Philadelphia native, was a Dragon from 2008-2012. At his time on 33rd and Market, Givens averaged 9.6 points per game and was named to multiple all conference teams throughout his career. Since leaving Drexel, Givens has spent the last decade enjoying a professional basketball career overseas, with stops in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Israel, Argentina and currently, Finland.

Givens is also not a stranger to TBT, a tournament that he has starred in three times before. In 2017, Givens played for the Broad Street Brawlers, averaging nearly 15 points per game before his squad lost. This year, Givens will be a member of Brotherly Love Pro Am, a team that 

“works to create equity, opportunity and lasting camaraderie by cultivating a network of professional athletes, centering both fitness and wellness to improve the physical, financial and mental health of communities in Philadelphia.”

Givens will face an uphill battle to make it back to the DAC, however, as his team is the sixth seed and will have to stage a series of upsets to make it to the semi-finals.