Golden Eagles (basketball)

The Golden Eagles are an American basketball team that participates in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), an annual winner-take-all single-elimination tournament. The team first played in the tournament in 2016, was the runner-up in 2019, and won the championship (and $1 million prize) in 2020. The Golden Eagles' roster consists of professional basketball players who compete outside of the NBA, most of whom played college basketball for the Marquette Golden Eagles men's basketball team. The TBT team is an independent entity that was named after the college team.

Golden Eagles
Leagues	The Basketball Tournament
Founded	2016
History	Golden Eagles (2016–present)
Team colors	Blue and gold
General manager	Dan Fitzgerald
Head coach	Joe Chapman
Championships	1 TBT (2020)
Website	Team page
Home Away Third

History

2016: First tournament

Davante Gardner (No. 54) played on the first two editions of the team.

The "Golden Eagles Alumni" were the No. 6 seed in the Midwest region.^[1][2]

Games

Date	Round	Location	Score	Opponent		Ref.
				Team	Seed
July 16	Regional	Chicago, IL	95–92	Hoopville Warriors	Midwest No. 11	[3]
July 17			97–70	Spartan Heroes	Midwest No. 3
July 22	Super 16	Philadelphia, PA	82–71	Armored Athlete	Midwest No. 7	[2]
July 23	Quarterfinals		81–89	Always a Brave	Midwest No. 9	[2]

Players

Maurice Acker Dwight Burke Dwight Buycks Joe Chapman Davante Gardner Marcus Jackson Darius Johnson-Odom

Trent Lockett Jerel McNeal Derrick Wilson Jamil Wilson Wesley Matthews (coach) Travis Diener (asst. coach)

Source:^[4][5]

2017: Second tournament

Maurice Acker has played on the team each year.

The Golden Eagles were the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region.^[6]

Games

Date	Round	Location	Score	Opponent		Stats
				Team	Seed
July 8	Regional	Peoria, IL	103–89	Midwest Dream Squad	Midwest No. 16
July 9			81–70	Majerus SLU Crew	Midwest No. 8
July 22	Super 16	Brooklyn, NY	84–77	Purple and Black	Midwest No. 4
July 23	Quarterfinals		56–81	Scarlet & Gray	Midwest No. 2	[7]

Players

Maurice Acker Juan Anderson Lawrence Blackledge Dwight Burke Dwight Buycks Joe Chapman

Davante Gardner Darius Johnson-Odom Trent Lockett Jerel McNeal Jamil Wilson Wesley Matthews (coach) Travis Diener (asst. coach)

Source:^[8][7]

2018: Final four appearance

Jamil Wilson received All-Tournament honors in 2018 and 2020.

The Golden Eagles were the No. 3 seed in the Northeast region.

Games

Date	Round	Location	Score	Opponent		Stats
				Team	Seed
July 21	Regional	Milwaukee, WI	78–67	Johnnies	Northeast No. 14	[9]
July 22		Brooklyn, NY	96–76	Hall In	Northeast No. 11
July 28	Super 16	Atlanta, GA	73–66	Talladega Knights	Northeast No. 15
July 29	Quarterfinals		90–86	Boeheim's Army	Northeast No. 1	[10]
August 2	Semifinals	Baltimore, MD	60–85	Overseas Elite	South No. 1	[11]

Players

Maurice Acker Willie Atwood Lawrence Blackledge Cinmeon Bowers Elgin Cook Travis Diener

Jerel McNeal Brett Prahl Jake Thomas Derrick Wilson Jamil Wilson Joe Chapman (coach)

Source:^[12]

2019: Title game appearance

Dwight Buycks was named to the All-Tournament team in 2016 and 2019.

The Golden Eagles were the No. 1 seed in the Wichita regional. By winning their region, the team received 25% of the region's ticket sales as a prize, which was $96,439.^[13]

Games

Date	Round	Location	Score	Opponent		Stats
				Team	Seed
July 26	Regional	Wichita, KS	89–72	Fort Hood Wounded Warriors	Wichita No. 8
July 27			83–81	Team Colorado	Wichita No. 4
July 28			88–80	Sideline Cancer	Wichita No. 6	[14]
August 1	Quarterfinals	Chicago, IL	79–62	Jackson TN Underdawgs	Memphis No. 8
August 4	Semifinals		68–62	Team Hines	Greensboro No. 1	[15]
August 6	Final		60–66	Carmen's Crew	Columbus No. 1	[16]

Players

Maurice Acker Juan Anderson Lawrence Blackledge Cinmeon Bowers Dwight Buycks Mo Charlo Elgin Cook

Travis Diener Jerel McNeal Andrew Rowsey Jake Thomas Jarvis Williams Derrick Wilson Jamil Wilson Joe Chapman (coach)

Source:^[17]

2020: Championship

Mo Charlo played on the 2019 and 2020 teams.

The Golden Eagles were the No. 4 overall seed, in a field reduced to 24 teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Games

The team received a first-round bye.^[18]

Date	Round	Location	Score	Opponent		Stats
				Team	Seed
July 6	Super 16	Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio	76–67	Team CP3	13th overall	[19]
July 10	Quarterfinals		83–76	Brotherly Love	12th overall	[20]
July 12	Semifinals		79–70	Red Scare	8th overall	[21]
July 14	Final		78–73	Sideline Cancer	22nd overall	[22]

Players

Maurice Acker Dwight Buycks Mo Charlo Elgin Cook Travis Diener Luke Fischer

Darius Johnson-Odom Andrew Rowsey Jarvis Williams Derrick Wilson Jamil Wilson Joe Chapman (coach)

Source:^[23]

2021: Championship defense

Matt Lojeski joined the team in 2021.

The Golden Eagles were placed in the 16-team Illinois Regional as the top seed.

Games

Main article: The Basketball Tournament 2021 § Illinois Regional

Date	Round	Location	Score	Opponent		Stats
				Team	Seed
July 25	First round	Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, Illinois	94–66	B1 Ballers	Illinois No. 16	[24]
July 26	Second round		71–64	Playing for Jimmy V	Illinois No. 9	[25]
July 28	Regional semifinals		88–75	Autism Army	Illinois No. 5	[26]
July 31	Regional final	UD Arena, Dayton, Ohio	69–73	Boeheim's Army	Illinois No. 3	[27]

Players

Maurice Acker Sacar Anim Vander Blue Dwight Buycks Elgin Cook Travis Diener

Luke Fischer Matt Lojeski Andrew Rowsey Jarvis Williams Derrick Wilson Jamil Wilson Joe Chapman (coach)

Source:^[28]

2022

Diamond Stone was added to the roster for the 2022 tournament.

For TBT 2022, the team was seeded no. 2 in the Dayton Regional.^[29]

Date	Round	Location	Score	Opponent		Ref.
				Team	Seed
July 24	First round	UD Arena Dayton, Ohio	77–72	Ohio 1804	Dayton No. 7	box
July 26	Second round		56–62	Red Scare	Dayton No. 3	box

Players

Maurice Acker Sacar Anim Vander Blue Dwight Buycks Elgin Cook Travis Diener

Luke Fischer Darius Johnson-Odom Diamond Stone Jarvis Williams Derrick Wilson Jamil Wilson Joe Chapman (coach)

Source:^[30]

Record by years

Andrew Rowsey joined the team in 2019.

Through the 2020 tournament, Golden Eagles recorded the second-most number of victories of any team competing in TBT, after four-time champion Overseas Elite.^[31]

Year	Seed	Won	Lost	Notes
2016	6th Midwest	3	1	lost in Quarterfinals
2017	1st Midwest	3	1	lost in Quarterfinals
2018	3rd Northeast	4	1	lost in Semifinals
2019	1st Wichita	5	1	lost in Final
2020	4th overall	4	0	Champions
2021	1st Illinois	3	1	lost in Quarterfinals
2022	2nd Dayton	1	1	lost in second round
Total		23	6

Awards

Darius Johnson-Odom was named the 2020 tournament MVP.

Year	Player	Award	Ref.
2016	Dwight Buycks	All-Tournament	[32]
2018	Jamil Wilson	All-Tournament	[33]
2019	Dwight Buycks	All-Tournament	[34]
	Daniel Fitzgerald (GM)	All-Tournament
2020	Darius Johnson-Odom	All-Tournament & MVP	[35]
	Jamil Wilson	All-Tournament
	Joe Chapman (Coach)	All-Tournament

References

1. Brown, Josh (July 2016). "Four Regional Champions Crowned in Philadelphia". thetournament.com. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
2. "2016 Recap". thetournament.com. The Basketball Tournament. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
3. "Watch All TBT 2016 Northeast and Midwest Regional Games". thetournament.com. 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
4. "Meet the Golden Eagles Alumni (Marquette Alumni)". thetournament.com. 2016. Archived from the original on July 29, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.
5. Andy, Brewtown (May 19, 2016). "The Basketball Tournament 2016: Marquette's Gonna Field A Team!". anonymouseagle.com. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
6. Brewtown Andy (June 20, 2017). "Marquette Alumni Get A #1 Seed In 2017's The Basketball Tournament!". anonymouseagle.com. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
7. "Scarlett And Gray vs Golden Eagles". July 23, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2020 – via raycomsports.com.
8. "Meet Golden Eagles (Marquette Alumni)". thetournament.com. 2017. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.
9. Steele, Ben (June 30, 2018). "Golden Eagles Alumni band together for opening win in The Basketball Tournament". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved August 1, 2021 – via jsonline.com.
10. Szuba, James (July 29, 2018). "Golden Eagles 90 - Boeheim's Army 86: Syracuse alumni fall down the stretch". nunesmagician.com. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
11. "Overseas Elite Blows Past Golden Eagles to Reach Championship Game". thetournament.com. August 2, 2018. Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
12. "Meet Golden Eagles (Marquette Alumni)". thetournament.com. 2018. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved July 16, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.
13. "Tickets". thetournament.com. July 2019. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
14. "Golden Eagles vs. Sideline Cancer". fibalivestats.com. July 28, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
15. "Golden Eagles vs. Team Hines". fibalivestats.com. August 4, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
16. "Carmen's Crew vs. Golden Eagles". fibalivestats.com. August 6, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
17. "Meet Golden Eagles (Marquette Alumni)". thetournament.com. 2019. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.
18. "Bracket". thetournament.com. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
19. "TBT 2020 Schedule | The Basketball Tournament". thetournament.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-07.
20. "TBT 2020 Schedule | The Basketball Tournament". thetournament.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-10.
21. "TBT 2020 Schedule | The Basketball Tournament". thetournament.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-14.
22. "StatMonitr Stat Feed".
23. "TBT 2020 Championship: July 14 Rosters, Referees, Starting Lineups". thetournament.com. July 14, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
24. "Golden Eagles vs. B1 Ballers – Summary". FIBA LiveStats. July 25, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
25. "Golden Eagles vs. Playing for Jimmy V – Summary". thetournament.com. July 26, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
26. "Golden Eagles vs. Autism Army – Summary". thetournament.com. July 28, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
27. "Golden Eagles vs. Boeheim's Army – Summary". thetournament.com. July 31, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
28. "Meet Golden Eagles (Marquette Alumni)". thetournament.com. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
29. "Bracket". thetournament.com. 2022. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
30. "Meet Golden Eagles (Marquette Alumni)". thetournament.com. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
31. Borzello, Jeff (July 14, 2020). "Golden Eagles, TBT's second-winningest team, win first title". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
32. "TBT 2016 All Tournament Team". thetournament.com. August 2016. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
33. "TBT 2018 All-Tournament Team". thetournament.com. August 3, 2018. Archived from the original on August 7, 2019. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
34. @thetournament (August 7, 2019). "These guys were UNREAL this summer! Your #TBT2019 All-Tournament team!" (Tweet). Retrieved August 7, 2019 – via Twitter.
35. @thetournament (July 14, 2020). "These guys were UNREAL this summer! Your #TBT2020 All-Tournament Team!" (Tweet). Retrieved July 14, 2020 – via Twitter.

Further reading

• "Euroball-packed Golden Eagles Win $1 Million TBT 2020 Championship". eurohoops.net. July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
• Nickel, Lori (July 15, 2020). "Travis Diener picks up the tab, and plans to make a donation after TBT game-winner". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
• Albrecht, Adam (August 6, 2019). "How Joe Chapman went from professional basketball player to successful entrepreneur". adamalbrecht.blog. Retrieved July 16, 2020.

External links

• Team page