Penn State Men’s Basketball: Nittany Lion Alumni Announce ‘The Basketball Tournament’ Team

A group of Penn State men’s basketball alumni are reuniting this summer for the latest iteration of “The Basketball Tournament” (TBT). Former Nittany Lion John Harrar had previously announced his plans to form a Penn State team after participating with Purdue’s TBT team this past summer. Harrar’s Purdue ties coming from Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry, a former assistant coach at Purdue.

The Penn State centric roster – named Happy Valley Hoopers – consists of Harrar, Tony Carr, Josh Reaves, Shep Garner, Mike Watkins, Jamari Wheeler, Curtis Jones, Nazeer Bostick, and Trent Buttrick. The roster is an interesting collection of former Nittany Lions. Wheeler transferred to Ohio State after a long career at Penn State while Bostick – friends and high school teammates with Carr – left the program after his first year on campus. Buttrick also transferred to UMass after four seasons at Penn State. Jones joined the program as a grad transfer.

Carr was drafted in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft but currently plays in Denmark. Garner is Florida Gulf Coast’s Director of Video Operation under FGCU head coach and longtime Penn State head coach Patrick Chambers.

The 2022 edition of the TBT consisted of a 64-team field of 5-on-5 basketball in a single-elimination format. All tournament games take place with an Elam Ending. Under the Elam Ending, the clock is turned off at the first dead-ball whistle with 4 minutes or less to play in the game. At that time, a target score, equal to the score of the leading team (or tied teams) plus eight, is set, and the first team to reach this target score is declared the winner of the game. As such, all games end with a made basket.

The winning team takes home the $1 million price.

“The big thing that hit home was how these guys get together every year and enjoy themselves and have fun,” Harrar said back in November when he announced his intentions to create the team. “Yeah, with TBT we get to play basketball, but we also get to see guys we played with when we were younger and hopefully other guys we haven’t played with but went to the same school as us.”