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Louisville basketball: Ten former Cardinals for “The Basketball Tournament”

By Presley Meyer

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MARCH 31: (L-R) Russ Smith #2 and Peyton Siva #3 of the Louisville Cardinals answers questions from the media during their post game press conference following their win against the Duke Blue Devils during the Midwest Regional Final round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on March 31, 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MARCH 31: (L-R) Russ Smith #2 and Peyton Siva #3 of the Louisville Cardinals answers questions from the media during their post game press conference following their win against the Duke Blue Devils during the Midwest Regional Final round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on March 31, 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Louisville basketball appears to be assembling a 2020 team for “The Basketball Tournament.” We go over potential candidates for the Cardinals squad.

Who would your Louisville basketball TBT alumni team be?

It’s been a conversation going around the city of Louisville over the last week or so, and it’s a valid one given the lull in college sports and the TBT’s (The Basketball Tournament) rise in popularity.

TBT is a professional basketball tournament designed with the college basketball fan in mind. It takes place in July and August when no other basketball is on and is made up of 64-teams. It’s a single-elimination tournament where 8 teams are selected as regional hosts, with 56 teams being placed into those brackets with seven other teams selected during the open application period.

The regional bracket winners then meet in a final elimination tournament with the winning team receiving the $2 million prize. We saw “Carmen’s Crew” take home the grand prize on Tuesday night, a team made up of former Ohio State alumni, including Aaron Craft, DeShaun Thomas, and plenty of others.

The rules are a bit wonky, but it’s a ton of fun to watch some teams with a lot of former college basketball stars get back together.

If you follow Louisville sports closely, you’ve probably heard the conversation over the airwaves or on Twitter about what a Louisville TBT team would look like. But apparently, the movement for a group of former Cardinals to link up has some legs.

On Tuesday night, Joey Wagner, a local businessman perhaps best known as the emcee at Louisville basketball games, tweeted out that there may be something in the works.

https://twitter.com/JoeyJWagner/status/1158934185391853569?s=20

This got us thinking; If you were to construct a TBT tournament team made only of former Louisville basketball players, who would be on the team?

A small side note: There is no age limit, however, players on the team will have to be at a point in their career where playing in a professional basketball tournament is realistic. They also can not currently be on an NBA roster, so guys like Montrezl Harrell, Donovan Mitchell, Terry Rozier, Damion Lee, Gorgui Dieng, Deng Adel, and Ray Spalding are out (at least as of now). For that reason, we won’t include some big-name former Cards who are too far removed from their tournament careers.

So, without further ado: our top 10 candidates for an all-Louisville basketball TBT tournament team.

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