Buffs' Boyle To Be On Hand For Team Colorado's TBT Finals Appearance
August 01, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
CU coach will watch Buffs alums vie for $2 million payday
BOULDER — When Team Colorado — a group of Colorado alums — faces off with defending champion Overseas Elite in Tuesday night's championship game of The Basketball Tournament, there will be at least one face in the crowd very familiar to the former Buffs.
Current Colorado coach Tad Boyle scheduled an early Tuesday flight to New York, where he'll cheer on Team Colorado in the 5 p.m. game at Fordham University's historic Rose Hill Gymnasium the Bronx.
The winner of the game, to be televised on ESPN, will pick up a $2 million payday.
"It's a great story," said Boyle, who hosted Team Colorado members at his house for dinner when they held a training camp in Boulder earlier this summer. "They got beat in the first round last year, now they're back playing for $2 million."
Team Colorado earned its berth in the finals of the 64-team tournament by defeating Always A Brave, a team of Bradley alums, in the semifinals. Team Colorado, which has five wins in the tourney, also defeated a team of Utah alums en route to the championship game.
Former Buff Marcus Hall, who has enjoyed a long professional career overseas, leads Team Colorado in scoring, averaging 24 points a game. After Saturday's semifinal win, Hall said, "It's not about the money. It's about representing our school."
The statement hit home with Boyle.
"To have a guy like Marcus, who hasn't made multi-millions of dollars in the NBA, say something like that is the epitome of what you want representatives of your school and your basketball program to be about," Boyle said. "When he was interviewed, the way he handled it and what he said, you couldn't have asked for a better ambassador for our program and our university."
Team Colorado came together a year ago under the guidance of former Buffs Beau Gamble and Trent Beckley. This year, Beckley is serving as the team's general manager while former Buff Dwight Thorne II serves as the team's coach. Other standout players for Team Colorado have been Marcus Relphorde, Dominique Coleman, Levi Knutson and Austin Dufault.
"You're happy for all of those guys," Boyle said. "But a lot of credit has to go to Trent Beckley and Beau Gamble. Those are two guys who are the epitome of team guys. They helped put this thing together and it wouldn't happened without them. They didn't play a lot when they were here, but the fact that they're trying to tie all the eras of Colorado basketball together speaks volumes about what kind of guys they are."
Boyle has made the process of building tradition around the program a priority since his arrival in Boulder six years ago. Gamble has said that was one reason he wanted to form Team Colorado.
"We want to get people from all eras talking about Colorado basketball," Gamble said earlier this summer. "Our main goal is to reunite players and create that bond between all players from all the years."
It's why Boyle is taking the time to fly back east to watch Team Colorado in the finals, a group of players he said will always be Buffs.
"Whether you played for Sox Walseth, for Bill Blair, Tom Miller, Joe Harrington, Ricardon Patton, Jeff Bzdelik or Tad Boyle, it doesn't matter," Boyle said. "What matters is you're a Buff and you're representing this school."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu