The Basketball Tournament 2021 Quarterfinals TV Schedule, Live Stream, Rosters
July 30, 2021
The 2021 edition of The Basketball Tournament is down to its final eight teams.
All four quarterfinal matches will take place in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday. The winners will then play in the semifinals on Sunday, and the $1 million championship game is scheduled for Tuesday.
Reigning champion Golden Eagles, a team of Marquette alumni, is one of two No. 1 seeds that survived the first three rounds of play at regional sites over the last two weekends and now faces Boeheim's Army in the last eight.
Perennial power Sideline Cancer is the other top seed left in the bracket, and it has the tougher matchup of the two top-ranked teams in the form of Team 23.
The other two matchups feature No. 5 seeds in some capacity. Floyd Mayweather's The Money Team is the higher-seeded team in a showdown with Blue Collar U, while Florida TNT faces second-seeded AfterShocks.
The Basketball Tournament Quarterfinal Schedule
Golden Eagles and Sideline Cancer are on course for a rematch of the 2020 championship game in the semifinal round.
To get there, the group of Marquette alumni have to get past an old Big East rival in Boeheim's Army, a collection of Syracuse alumni.
Golden Eagles boasts a collection of players from different eras of Marquette basketball dating back to the Tom Crean-Dwyane Wade days. Travis Diener, who played with Wade, hit the game-winning shot in last year's tournament to win $1 million.
Eric Devendorf is the most recognizable name on the Boeheim's Army roster that also includes Tyler Lydon and Malachi Richardson.
Both Golden Eagles and Boeheim's Army won two of their three games by double figures and are capable of putting up high point totals. The Eagles have produced the better totals, as they had 94 points in the first round and 88 in the third round.
If they score at a similar rate, they should be able to get past any opponent, including the other top seed left in the bracket in the semifinals.
Sideline Cancer eked out a pair of victories in the West Virginia Regional to set up a clash with Team 23. The No. 1 seed beat Founding Fathers by three points in the opener and took down Bucketneers by one point in the Sweet 16. Its other win was by 21 points over Fort Wayne Champs.
Team 23 turned in two of the most impressive wins of the first two weekends by beating Herd That and Best Virginia in front of its home crowd in Charleston, West Virginia. Given the experience within its squad, it could play in the tightest quarterfinal against the 2020 runner-up.
On the other side of the bracket, AfterShocks is the highest seed remaining after it took advantage of home court in Wichita.
The Wichita State alumni won three games by seven points or less to reach this stage. Florida TNT, a group of former Florida players, won two tight affairs to get to Dayton.
Conner Frankamp and Markis McDuffie are the most notable players on the AfterShocks roster, which was put together by general manager Ron Baker. Kenny Boynton is the most notable name on the Florida TNT squad.
The winner of the weekend opener will face the victor of The Money Team versus Blue Collar U.
The two quarterfinalists from the Columbus, Ohio regional impressed with four combined double-digit victories. The Money Team took down the Ohio State alumni from Carmen's Crew in the final 16, while Blue Collar U emerged from an upset-laden part of the bracket.
On paper, Sideline Cancer and Golden Eagles should be viewed as the favored squads, but since only one of them can reach the final, the opportunity is there for a team like Blue Collar U to make a surprising run to Tuesday's final.