The Basketball Tournament 2023

The Basketball Tournament 2023 was the tenth edition of The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 5-on-5, single elimination basketball tournament with a $1 million winner-take-all prize. The tournament, involving 64 teams, began on July 19 and ended on August 3 with the championship game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The tournament format was similar to that of the last edition in 2022—64 teams, each playing in one of eight regionals.

The event had a "championship week", starting with the regional winners advancing to quarterfinals at one of four sites, Dayton, Louisville, Wheeling, WV, and Wichita. The quarterfinal winners then traveled to Philadelphia for the semifinals and championship game. Heartfire, a team sponsored by MedImpact, won the tournament.

Format
For its 2023 edition, TBT retained its traditional 64-team format and eight-region format, with each regional involving eight teams at a single host site (similar in format to the NCAA Division II men's and women's tournaments). Wichita is serving as host for two separate regionals.

In a feature it calls "Run It Back", TBT organizers invited all teams that won first-round games in the 2022 edition to play in 2023. The remaining teams, and the regional placements for all entrants, were revealed in a selection special hosted by Andrew Zoldan with analyst Seth Greenberg that aired on TBT's YouTube channel on June 21, 2023.

As with previous years, all tournament games operate with the "Elam Ending", a format of ending the game without use of a game clock. 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. Thus, all games end on a made basket (field goal or free throw) and there is no overtime.

Venues
The Basketball Tournament 2023 featured games in eight locations, seven of which hosted a regional. The eighth hosted the championship weekend (two semifinal contests and the championship game). Official regional names, if different from the location names, are indicated in the listings below the location names.

Teams
Source:

TBT has a history of teams rostered primarily with alumni from specific NCAA Division I college basketball programs; 33 such teams entered the 2023 tournament. Three other teams were rostered primarily with alumni from groups of NCAA basketball programs sharing a common bond. Two mostly consist of alumni from a specific Division I conference, one is drawn from a group of historic basketball rivals, another is drawn from NCAA Division III alumni, and the last is drawn from historically black colleges and universities.

Note: team names are per the TBT bracket; some names have slight variation on TBT website pages.

Tournament bracket
Seven of the eight no. 1 seeds advanced in first-round play, with no. 8 India Rising upsetting Red Scare in the Dayton Regional.

Five no. 1 seeds advanced in second-round play; the lowest seed to advance to the third round was no 6. Nasti Nati from the Dayton Regional.

Two no. 1 seeds advanced in third-round play; the lowest seed to advance to the quarterfinals was again Nasti Nati.

No no. 1 seeds won a quarterfinal match; the lowest seed to advance to the semifinals was no 4. Herd That from the West Virginia Regional.

In the first semifinal game, Herd That were eliminated by Heartfire, the no. 2 seed from the Wichita 1 Regional.

In the second semifinal game, Friday Beers were eliminated by Bleed Green, the no. 2 seed from the Lubbock Regional.

Heartfire then defeated Bleed Green in the championship game.

Source:

Championship Week
Quarterfinals games were played at Wichita, West Virginia, Dayton, and Louisville. All semifinal and championship games were played in Philadelphia.

Eric Collins, Fran Fraschilla, and Ashley ShaAhmadi were the announcers for both semifinal matches and the championship game.

Awards
Source: