Lobo legends will play in the Pit to honor former stars, prepare TBT alumni team

A celebration of UNM men’s basketball in what has been an offseason of tragedy is scheduled for the Pit July 16.

Former Lobo basketball legends — both those playing on this year’s TBT (The Basketball Tournament) team and a collection of other former University of New Mexico stars from several generations — will play in an alumni exhibition game on July 16 with two purposes.

The game will serve as the annual tune-up for this season’s TBT team — The Enchantment, a team of mostly UNM alumni and other local connections — for its fourth season in the winner-take-all $1 million summer basketball event, which revealed its 64-team bracket on Wednesday.

More noteworthy, however, is that the event will now serve as an opportunity to celebrate the lives of three former Lobo stars who died unexpectedly in the past three months: Ruben Douglas, the former NCAA scoring champion, died April 12 at the age of 44 in Costa Rica after contracting an infection; Drew Gordon, the former Mountain West champion and NBA player, died May 30 at the age of 33 in a car crash near Portland, Oregon; and Greg Brown, the former state champion at Albuquerque High, Western Athletic Conference champion and national Pomeroy Naismith Player of the Year winner, died June 14 at the age of 51 in a car crash outside of Albuquerque.

In the exhibition game, The Enchantment will be dubbed Team Gordon as Drew Gordon played on the team twice and the Lobo alumni team will be dubbed Team Douglas.

“The Greg Brown” 3-point contest will also be held during the event.

Family of all three former Lobos are expected to be on hand.

Event organizer Brandon Mason, who has organized Lobo alumni games in the past and along with Ryan Berryman is one of the two general managers of the TBT team, is trying to line up former Lobos such as Michael Cooper, Kenny Thomas, Tony Snell, Alex Kirk and others to be a part of the game.

More information on the game, including how to purchase tickets, will be available this week.

TBT time

If Lobo fans thought facing Max Rice 10 times in his college career was enough to finally be rid of this shaggy-haired sharp shooter from Boise State, think again.

The Basketball Tournament’s bracket includes a first-round showdown between Once a Bronco, a Boise State alumni team featuring Rice and other recent Broncos, and The Enchantment, a UNM alumni team that has morphed into a team with state ties, not just former Lobos.

The two teams will play at 2 p.m. MT in Houston on July 19 in the Round of 64.

The Enchantment is in its fourth TBT, having advanced one step farther each year — first-round loss in 2021 in Wichita, second-round loss in the Pit in 2022 and a round of 16 loss in Lubbock last summer. The team is 3-3 all-time in the event.

This year’s Enchantment squad, sponsored in part by 505 Sports Venture Foundation, the local collective spearheading the efforts to compensate Lobo athletes for use of their name, image and likeness, will be coached again by Kenny Thomas, the former Lobo and NBA player, and managed by Mason and Berryman. Craig Snow and Mike Murphy will again serve as assistant coaches.

Players include former Lobos Anthony Mathis, Troy Simons, JR Giddens and first-time TBT player Isaac Mushila; former Albuquerque-area prep standouts Scott Bamforth (Del Norte High, and the leading scorer for Enchantment each of the past two summers), Bryce Alford (La Cueva High and one-time UNM Lobo commit who ended up going to UCLA when his dad, Steve Alford, left UNM to coach the Bruins) and Christian Cunningham (Cibola High and second-time Enchantment player).

There are no former NMSU Aggies on this year’s roster like last summer.

Rounding out this year’s Enchantment roster are 6-foot-11 Joey Brunk (Butler, Indiana and Ohio State_, 6-8 Jacob Wiley (Eastern Washington) and 6-8 LG Gill (Duquesne and Maryland).

The eight-team Houston pod features five alumni teams: The Enchantment (UNM), Once a Bronco (Boise State), Bleed Green (a North Texas alumni squad that eliminated The Enchantment in the round of 16 last summer), Forever Coogs (Houston) and Austin’s Own (Texas). The other three teams — Challenge ALS, Program NYC for Autism and LA Ignite — are collections of former college and current professional players.

All are competing for the $1 million prize handed to the team that wins the Aug. 4 championship game in Philadelphia.

The Enchantment 2024 roster

Position, name, height, listed alphabetically

• G Bryce Alford, 6-3
• G Scott Bamforth, 6-2
• C Joey Brunk, 6-11
• F Christian Cunningham, 6-7
• G/F JR Giddens, 6-5
• F LG Gill, 6-8
• G Anthony Mathis, 6-4
• F Isaac Mushila, 6-6
• G Troy Simons, 6-2
• F Jacob Wiley, 6-8

Know the foe

While The Enchantment is the No. 3 seed in the Houston regional, No. 6 Once A Bronco has some firepower, and definitely some size.

Broncos most Lobo fans will remember, maybe not all that fondly as Boise State has had plenty of success against UNM (though not in March’s Mountain West Tournament), include: Rice (6-5), Abu Kigab (6-7), Cam Martin (6-9), Derrick Alston Jr. (6-9), former MW Player of the Year Derrick Marks (6-3), Marcus Shaver (6-1) and Justinian Jessup (6-6).

Once a Bronco is 0-1 all-time in TBT, with the team’s sole appearance being in the Pit in 2022.

Houston regional schedule

Friday, July 19 — Round of 64

• Noon MT — (4) Program NYC For Autism vs. (5) Challenge ALS
• 2 p.m. MT — (3) The Enchantment vs. (6) Once a Bronco
• 5 p.m. MT — (1) Bleed Green vs. (8) LA Ignite
• 7 p.m. MT — (2) Forever Coogs vs. (7) Austin’s Own

Sunday, July 21 — Round of 32

• 3 p.m. MT — 4/5 vs. 1/8
• 5 p.m. MT — 3/6 vs. 2/7

Tuesday, July 23 — Round of 16

• Houston finals

Tickets and how to watch

Tickets for all TBT games can be purchased at TheTournament.com/Tickets

The Enchantment’s first-round game can be viewed at TBT’s web site.

The 63 TBT games will be broadcast on the following: three games on FOX, 16 on FS1, three on FS2, two on the B10 Network and 31 on TBT’s web site.