Austin’s Own to represent Texas in The Basketball Tournament
Since 2014, The Basketball Tournament has taken place during the sports calendar’s dog days of summer and featured teams of ex-college and professional stars in a 64-team tournament with a $1 million winner-take-all prize. No team made up of former Texas Longhorns basketball players has ever contended for the cash prize. That changes in 2023.
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Austin’s Own, a team made up mostly of former Longhorn basketball players, begins its quest for the large lump sum on Wednesday in Lubbock. Austin’s Own’s four-team subregional includes a Texas Tech-centric team, a team supporting a veteran-focused charity, and a team from New Mexico. Austin’s Own begins play Wednesday at 6 p.m. at United Supermarkets Arena. Their contest will be aired on ESPN+.
Vincent Hu, a former Texas basketball manager during the Rick Barnes era, saw TBT taking place last summer and wondered why there wasn’t any Longhorn representation. Hu, the team’s general manager, went about making sure UT was represented.
He contacted TBT via social media, and heard back from TBT representatives shortly thereafter.
”We hopped on a call, and the rest is history,” Hu said in June.
Hu drew on his connections in basketball, whether they were with coaches, managers, or players, to put the organization together and give people who may not have had a stage like this an opportunity to perform and gain more opportunity in the basketball world. The main obstacle was the roster. Who did he have to get off the couch to join the program?
”To be honest, every single one,” Hu said.
Plenty of former Longhorns came back to participate in the event, including Alexis Wangmene, Cameron Ridley, Clint Chapman, Jacob Young, Jordan Hamilton, Kerwin Roach, and Myck Kabongo. Others on the team who didn’t attend Texas include Richmond’s ShawnDre’ Jones, Dalton State College’s Randy Bell, and SMU’s Franklin Agunanne.
The team is coached by former first-team All-SWC and All-Big 12 Longhorn Reggie Freeman.
”He was really, really good and really popular,” Hu said. ”Like a big brother, and a guy that a lot of our players throughout the program have connected with throughout the years. He’s been in coaching, and he’s been there, done that at the highest levels.”
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With the first and potential second round games taking place in Lubbock, Hu and Austin’s Own are aware of what’s waiting for them at the USA.
”As we know, in Lubbock they’re extremely passionate about their sports, especially when it comes to an in-state foe like Texas,” Hu said. ”I personally have never been to Lubbock because in my three years as a manager, that was a trip I never made. I’m excited to visit, excited for our team to go there in an hostile environment to play together as a team and to make some noise.
”We have a really good well-coached, well-rounded, and experienced New Mexico team that we have to play in the first round before we even think about the second round matchup with Texas Tech, potentially. I just know that if we both advance to the second round and we play each other, it’s going to be a sold-out, crazy environment. But we’re not going to give any energy to Texas Tech until we give it our all against New Mexico.”
There are a wide variety of teams in TBT, whose contests end in an Elam ending when one of the two teams reaches a target score.
Finally, in 2023, Texas will be one of those teams competing for the million dollar prize.
