Rutgers Based Team Attempting To Play In The Basketball Tournament

Last summer, The Basketball Tournament emerged as a must offseason watch for all hoops fans.  Teams were formed from all over the country, with alumni of several colleges coming together and competing for the $1 million dollar prize.  Boeheim's Army, made up of Syracuse alumni including Laurence Moten and Eric Devendorf, gained a big following. Games were broadcast on ESPN and they were fun to watch.

This year, the Tournament is back and two Rutgers basketball managers, Alex Neumann and Matt Johnston, are heading up a team. Bishop Daniels, who averaged 8.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game as a senior for Rutgers, headlines the roster.  They are in talks with other former Rutgers players to join and so far have landed two other players with Division I experience.

Darrell Lampley was a star for Linden high school in the mid-2000's, winning two state championships there under coach Phil Colicchio. He scored 10.1 points a game as a freshman at St. Peter's before finishing his career at Eastern Michigan.  Lampley averaged 13.3 points a game his senior season, leading the MAC school in scoring. He has gone on to have a solid pro career playing overseas.

Also joining the team is Derrick Reese, who started 15 games this past season as a senior at Tennessee. He was second on the team in rebounding, averaging 5.4 boards per game. He finished his college career on a high note, averaging 7 points and 9 rebounds per game in the SEC tournament, as Tennessee won two games before losing to LSU in the quarterfinals.

The Tournament format is similar to the NCAA tournament, with four regions made up of 16 teams in each. In order to qualify, fans vote and the top 12 teams in each region with the most votes get in.  Then another four teams per region are selected by the Tournament committee. Neumann and Johnston's team is called East Coast Reel. They need our help in getting enough votes to qualify for the Tournament.

Here are instructions on how to vote: click on http://www.thetournament.com/node/35361?f=56fe98cad1f0c521916362 then click on "Click here to become a fan and vote for this team," follow the instructions, and then confirm with the confirmation email that will be received. It takes 2 minutes tops and would go a long way to supporting the guys. Alex and Matt are dedicated managers of the Rutgers basketball team and it would be great to get their team a slot in the Tournament. As of yesterday, they were in 10th place for votes in the northeast region and voting runs through June 1st. Please vote and hopefully we have a Rutgers based team to watch this summer in The Tournament! Their team logo is below and good luck to Alex, Matt, Bishop, Darrell, Derrick, and the rest of the roster!