Hummel highlights five Purdue players on Men of Mackey squad

Five former Purdue players, including Robbie Hummel, will highlight the roster for the Men of Mackey in 2023. For the fourth-straight summer, Men of Mackey will compete in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) with the goal of earning the million-dollar prize.

General manager Ryan Kay began Men of Mackey for the 2020 TBT, and with 2023’s event just a month away, he feels confident about this year’s roster.

Kay enters each year hoping to fill the roster with as many former Purdue players as possible. While it’s easier said than done to find players able and willing to play, five Boilermakers have officially joined the roster, and at least one more will join ahead of TBT.

The number of Purdue players on the roster has fluctuated each year of Men of Mackey. 2021 remains the high-water mark when eight Boilermakers packed the roster. Kay hopes this year’s roster can reach that number of Purdue players, but he acknowledges the challenges that come with it.

“I think I was really naive when I first started the team back in 2019. With Grady [Eifert] and PJ [Thompson], we thought, ‘oh, we’re just going to write down a list of the top 10 Purdue guys that are still playing, and if we get seven or eight of them, we’ll still have a chance to win this thing.'”

One of the more significant challenges in finding and securing former Purdue players on the Men of Mackey roster comes from the hectic schedule of playing professional basketball in a foreign country.

“I don’t think people always understand what a grind it is to play overseas. You’re over there for 10 months, and then you’re trying to fit your life back home in the states into two months,” said Kay.

For a third-straight year, Hummel headlines the group of Purdue players on the team. Joining him on this year’s team are former teammates Lewis Jackson and Kelsey Barlow, who enter with TBT experience.

However, two former Boilermakers will make their Men of Mackey debuts in next month’s event: Nojel Eastern and David Jenkins Jr.

Though Eastern did not play in another college game following his transfer from Purdue in May 2020, he signed to play professionally in Mexico this past season. In 36 games for Hermosillo, Eastern averaged 14.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and four assists.

“He’s one of the best defenders that Purdue has had over the last decade, and he’s playing really well professionally,” Kay said of Eastern. “We were pretty close to actually signing him last summer, but it didn’t work out. We’re excited to have him [this year].”

One of the unique aspects of TBT comes in the ending. Unlike a traditional basketball game, TBT games utilize the Elam Ending, where teams must reach a target score in order to win. Because of that, Kay must consider the different strengths of players when constructing the roster.

One example of that comes in Bobby Planutis, a first-time Men of Mackey player by way of Purdue Fort Wayne. Over the past three years, Planutis started every game for the Mastodons, shooting 93.2% from the foul line. That free throw ability can come up big in TBT.

Indiana Wesleyan alumni Kyle Mangas and Evan Maxwell return for their third and second years with Men of Mackey, respectively. Mangas, a former Indiana All-Star from Warsaw, averaged 12.3 points per game and shot 38% from three playing professionally in Lithuania this past season. Maxwell also played in Lithuania, averaging eight points per game.

Isaiah Wilkerson rounds out the roster, a former three-on-three teammate of Hummel’s. Wilkerson practiced with Men of Mackey last summer but couldn’t play due to committing too late. Kay thinks Wilkerson could emerge as one of the team’s better players this year.

Kay hopes this roster can make a deep run in TBT. In each of the past three years, Men of Mackey fell in their second game after winning their opener. As a single-elimination tournament, the pressure begins immediately.

The grand prize for TBT? One million dollars split between the roster. Each player for Men of Mackey commits to donate a portion of their earnings to the Tyler Trent Foundation.

“I don’t think any other TBT team does that, and we have 100% buy-in on it. It doesn’t have to be all of it; it doesn’t even have to be thousands of dollars. It can be whatever each player feels comfortable with,” says Kay.

Men of Mackey’s quest for the million bucks begins on July 26 with a 3 p.m. tip-off against Team Colorado, a group filled with Colorado alumni. The group plays in the Dayton, Ohio regional for the second-straight year.

Between now and tip-off, Men of Mackey hopes to make a couple more roster additions to round out their squad.

“We’re in active talks with three [former Purdue players] right now,” Kay said. “I don’t know whether they’ll say yes or no, but they haven’t said no yet.”