The 2022 The Basketball Classic (TBC) was a

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

men's college basketball postseason tournament featuring

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) Division I teams not selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament or the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

(NIT). The tournament began on March 15 with the semifinals played on March 29 and the championship game played on April 1. The tournament was won by the

Fresno State Bulldogs The Fresno State Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent California State University, Fresno (commonly referred to as Fresno State). The university is a member of NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference (MW). It was a ...

The Basketball Classic The Basketball Classic presented by ERACE is a single-elimination, fully-bracketed men's college basketball postseason tournament created in 2022 as successor to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, featuring 32 National Collegiate A ...

was founded by Eracism. This was the tournament's inaugural edition, officially known as the 2022 The Basketball Classic presented by Eracism. All games were streamed on

ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Structure

Tournament organizers originally announced that there would be 32 teams in the field. However, when the participating teams were named, there were only 21 listed. Three teams then withdrew prior to competing, leaving the actual field size at 18 for the tournament. In lieu of a traditional

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

, a model previously used by the NIT was implemented, in which the matchups are set after each round. Later-round host sites are determined, at least in part, by first-round game attendance figures. Five matchups in the tournament were designated as "Legend Games", honoring

Willis Reed Willis Reed Jr. (born June 25, 1942) is an American retired basketball player, coach and general manager. He spent his entire professional playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks. In 1982, Reed was inducted into the Naismith Memo ...

Travis Grant Travis Grant (born January 1, 1950) is a former American basketball small forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Los Angeles Lakers. He also was a member of the San Diego Conquistadors, Kentucky Colonels, and Indiana Pacer ...

Zelmo Beaty Zelmo "Big Z" Beaty ( ; October 25, 1939 – August 27, 2013) was an American basketball player. He played eight seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and four in the rival American Basketball Association (ABA). A three-time ABA A ...

Marques Haynes Marques Haynes (March 10, 1926 – May 22, 2015) was an American professional basketball player and member of the Harlem Globetrotters, notable for his ability to dribble the ball and keep it away from defenders. According to the 1988 film ''Harl ...

and

Cleo Hill Cleo Hill (April 24, 1938 – August 10, 2015) was an American professional basketball player who was selected by the St. Louis Hawks in the first round (8th overall) of the 1961 NBA draft. A guard from Newark, New Jersey and the Winston-Salem S ...

, all of whom played college basketball at

historically black colleges and universities Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...

(HBCUs). In addition to advancing in the tournament, the winning teams received a trophy honoring the legend for whom the particular game was named. Due to scheduling issues, the Cleo Hill game was not played.

Participating teams

The following 18 teams accepted invitations to the tournament and competed. Team records listed are from before the tournament started. Three programs accepted invitations, but withdrew prior to playing: Merrimack,

UMBC The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

, Wofford. The following programs declined invitations:

Arkansas State Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage l ...

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, Samford,

Sam Houston State Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...

Utah Valley Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

Weber State Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

Schedule

Bracket

The Basketball Classic field was announced after the field for the NIT was released on March 13. ''Note: Bracket is for visual purposes only.'' In lieu of a traditional bracket, the field and matchups are re-set after each round. With an 18-team bracket, organizers chose to match one second-round winner against Portland, with three other second-round winners advancing directly to the semifinals. ''Home teams listed second.''
* – Denotes overtime periods

Awards

The following most valuable players were selected for each of the Legend Games: * Zelmo Beaty Game – Rudi Williams, Coastal Carolina * Marques Haynes Game – Dwayne Cohill, Youngstown State * Travis Grant Game – Javon Franklin, South Alabama * Willis Reed Game – Dre Marin, Southern Utah

Notes

References

External links

The Basketball Classic official website
{{2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox The Basketball Classic Basketball Classic, The Basketball Classic, The