Boeheim’s Army, the Syracuse Orange alumni team, has never necessarily been “underdogs” in The Basketball Tournament (TBT). Sure, there have been years with lower expectations than others. But since its inception in 2015, the squad has been one of the better supported and most recognizable collections of players in the event.
And yet, they’ve always felt like a plucky group of guys trying to make one last run at some NBA exposure, or perhaps a championship that eluded them during their time at SU. It always felt a lot more like that to me, anyway, especially compared to the mercenary-type approach of some other teams in the field — namely four-time defending champion Overseas Elite.