Brandon Reese was in the middle of planning a trip to South America. Eric Devendorf was at Faegan’s Café and Pub. Josh Pace had just announced his retirement from professional basketball.

Long gone were their days playing basketball for Syracuse. Or so they may have thought.

Over the course of the past year, former SU team manager Kevin Belbey presented former Orange basketball players an opportunity to don the Syracuse colors once again — creating a “Syracuse Alumni” team in The Basketball Tournament, a national winner-take-all, single-elimination tournament for $1 million.

With the help of Devendorf, Belbey recruited a squad that’s comprised of at least one player from each SU team from 2001–14: Reese, Pace, Hakim Warrick, Donte Greene, Rick Jackson, Baye Moussa Keita, Demetris Nichols and Devendorf. They see the tournament as one last chance to wear an Orange jersey.

“That camaraderie within the Syracuse program is really big; it’s like a family-type atmosphere,” Devendorf said. “Getting back and playing with everybody is pretty exciting.”

The team begins competition the weekend of July 17–19 in Philadelphia, and if it wins will advance to play the following weekend in Chicago. If it goes unbeaten in Chicago, the team will play in an ESPN-televised semifinal game in New York City on Aug. 1. The championship game takes place on Aug. 2 at 3 p.m. on ESPN.

“That would obviously be a great opportunity for all the Syracuse fans living in the metropolitan area to come out and see,” said Jesse Leeds, the tournament’s recruiting and public relations director.

Reese sees it as a chance to once again compete with teammates he played with in college.

“Although I’ve played and trained with a bunch of the guys who weren’t at Syracuse the same time as myself, playing on a high level with guys of this caliber is something that’s hard to come by,” Reese said in a text message from Kuwait, where he’s coaching at a Hoop Mountain basketball academy.

Devendorf — who watched one of his good friends, Tory Jackson, win the tournament last year as part of a Notre Dame alumni team — credits everyone’s closeness to Jim Boeheim, who the guard says allows former players to come back and interact with current players.

Tournament entries come from teams ranging from ex-NBA players to neighborhood friends. Anyone 18 years or older who doesn’t have college eligibility left can compete. So far, alumni teams from Connecticut, Indiana, Oklahoma, Xavier, Virginia, La Salle, Temple and Villanova have registered.

This year there will be up to 97 teams in four regions: Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago. The top 18 vote-getters, plus six at-large teams chosen by TBT, will comprise each region. ESPNU will carry all four quarterfinal games on July 25, live from Chicago.

“We’re a confident bunch,” Devendorf said. “If you look on paper, we’ve got a pretty good team. We know, obviously, that there are guys that can play throughout the country.

“We’re really not too worried about anybody else because as basketball players we’ve been doing this our entire lives and we’ve played against the best of the best.”

Belbey said he looked into getting one of the Orange’s current assistant coaches to help coach the team — SU’s recent NCAA sanctions prevent one assistant from going on the road to recruit. Belbey, though, said it’s unlikely because Mike Hopkins, Adrian Autry and Gerry McNamara still have busy schedules.

Belbey also said the team is trying to arrange a time in July for informal practices at the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center to re-acquaint themselves.

“I always think of Jim Boeheim only playing eight guys, so we’ll probably do the same thing,” Belbey joked. “We were able to put a pretty good team together. I think we’ll be tough to beat.”

Since it reached 1,000 fans on its team page on the tournament’s website, the team has the opportunity to submit a fan-designed jersey — something Belbey expressed he wants SU fans to do.

As for getting the chance to play Connecticut one last time, Devendorf said it would be an awesome opportunity.

And for Syracuse fans who want to see the guard stand on a scorer’s table after hitting a big shot against the Huskies, Devendorf said, “We’ll have to see about that.”

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Published on April 14, 2015 at 11:55 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu