After making its debut appearance in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) in 2022, a group of Valparaiso University alumni has plans to represent their alma mater once again at this year’s edition of the annual summer event that is televised by the ESPN family of networks.

TBT is a 64-team, single-elimination tournament for a million-dollar prize. The Valpo team fell 88-78 to the Gutter Cat Gang in the opening round of last season’s tournament. The team, which is known as ‘The Cru,’ has applied to participate again this season and will learn whether or not it has earned the opportunity to compete in this year’s event when the brackets are released on June 20.

The Cru is led and organized by Jason Karys¸ a 2017 Valpo graduate who served as a student manager, walk-on player, graduate assistant and eventually Director of Basketball Operations during his time with the Valpo men’s basketball program. He is currently an assistant coach at Stonehill College in his home state of Massachusetts.

Valpo alums who plan to participate in the event include 2014-15 Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year Jubril Adekoya, Keith Carter, 2009-10 Horizon League Freshman of the Year and 2010-11 first team all-league performer Brandon Wood, 2009-10 second-team all-league honoree Cory Johnson, Eron Gordon, 2017-18 MVC All-Newcomer Team honoree Bakari Evelyn, Jay Harris and Darien Walker, among others.

The Valpo TBT team’s staff is comprised entirely of Valpo alums – Darryl Jackson (coach), Alec Peters (advisor), Kendall O’Banner (assistant coach), and Karys (general manager).

For more information on The Cru, fans can follow the team on Twitter and Instagram.