Ohio Alumni Participate In The Basketball Tournament
By: Nick Viland
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOUB) – A team dedicated to alumni from Ohio University, Ohio 1804, took on The Basketball Tournament. The outcome wasn’t what they wanted, but the first steps toward making this a long-term endeavor were successful.
Ohio 1804 competed in Columbus on Saturday, July 24, against Xaiver’s alumni team, Zip ‘em up. Ohio 1804 fell dramatically, 91-67.
All that were involved were able to take away positives from the event. Ohio 1804’s general manager, Kenny Brown, said the team was able to become very close by the end of a short week.
“We got here Tuesday, Coach Jaaron Simmons had a plan he wanted to put in a certain set of plays and get everyone acquainted with each other. Then, we hit the ground running,” Brown said. “In the locker room after the game they said, ‘Hey some of you guys I just met four days ago, but I feel that we’ve known each other a lifetime because of how much time we spent together.’”
Brown looked to other teams in order to get advice on what to tell the team on how to compete at this level.
“We got advice, ‘Hey, some of these first-time alumni teams, they come out and they don’t know what to expect and they ease their way into it,’” he said. “So, we tried to drill down to the point, ‘These are professionals, they’re here to win money. You have to bring the energy and can’t ease into it.’”
The tournament might have been short, but Brown hopes that this initial group will allow Ohio 1804 to have a long future and be a regular installation with the yearly tournament.
“The first thing we said when we played this game was play hard, represent OU well, give us a chance for a second year if we don’t win. So, we can keep building this thing and put the fans in the crowd. That’s the dream,” he said.
Brown announced after the team was eliminated that they will be back in 2022 and he is already looking to pack the roster full of Bobcat legends.