Eight former Indiana men’s basketball players will represent the university once more in The Basketball Tournament, a 64-team event culminating in a $1 million winner-take-all championship game.
Indiana’s team, which was organized by ex-Hoosier forward Christian Watford (2009-13), is named Assembly Ball. Its first game is scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday against The Cru, a team comprised of Valparaiso University alums. The game will be televised live on Big Ten Network.
Assembly Ball consists of three guards — Jordan Hulls (2009-13), Yogi Ferrell (2012-16) and Devonte Green (2015-19) — and five forwards — Troy Williams (2013-16), Noah Vonleh (2013-14), Juwan Morgan (2015-19), Race Thompson (2018-23) and Miller Kopp (2021-23).
Kopp is currently playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball League Summer League but will join Assembly Ball after his final game July 19, according to The Basketball Tournament’s press release Tuesday.
Assembly Ball has six other players from different colleges, including a trio of guards in Miami’s Rion Brown, University of North Carolina-Asheville and Louisiana State University’s Keith Hornsby and Stanford’s Tyrell Terry. The team also added three forwards in Miami’s Julian Gamble, Oklahoma’s Kristian Doolittle and Samford’s Dakota Quinn.
The Basketball Tournament has eight host sites — Assembly Ball is the No. 1 seed in the Butler region, with games taking place at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
If Assembly Ball wins Friday night, it will play the winner of the Men of Mackey (Purdue) and Fort Wayne Champs at 8 p.m. Sunday night on Fox Sports 1. The championship game will be at 7 p.m. July 23.
Daniel Flick covers Indiana football and men’s basketball for the Indiana Daily Student. Follow him on X @ByDanielFlick, or via email at DanFlick@iu.edu.
