The $1 million grand prize for the winner of The Basketball Tournament is nothing to dismiss, but for Blue Collar U, the team made up of University at Buffalo Men’s Basketball alumni, they’re also playing for something else.
Fans tuning into Monday’s ESPN broadcast of the game against a team of Ivy League players may have noticed different names on the back of the jerseys of the former UB players. Their names were replaced with the names of the victims of May’s mass shooting in Buffalo, which killed 10 and wounded three more.
Blue Collar U Coach Adam Bauman said the idea to honor the victims in that way came up organically.
“We had a group chat actually going. And this was right after [the shooting] happened and we were talking about doing something in some facet to honor those victims,” he said. “And it was actually Blake Hamilton, one of our players, who said, ‘What if we put the victim’s names on the back of our jerseys?’ And then everyone, like once he said that, was like, 'Yeah, that's a no brainer. We're all in on that.'”
Nick Perkins was a four-year player for the Bulls who currently plays professionally in Italy.
“We know we wanted to do something special for those victims and we knew we wanted to you know raise awareness to it because obviously it was such an unfortunate event," he said.
It is a point of pride for Perkins to not only represent his alma mater but also represent the region that embraced him and keep alive the names of the victims of the shooting. He still visits Buffalo regularly during his offseason.
“Buffalo was always good to me,” he said. “Always good to my teammates. From the great wings the great pizza to the people the atmosphere and you get love everywhere you go I feel like no matter where we use that in Buffalo you know saying people always show love always show support and that's one thing I love about the city.”
And the feedback from fans regarding the jersey name change has been all positive.
“I think people love the names on the back of the jerseys," he said. "We have a different cause to do it for, have a city like Buffalo be behind you and support you."
As for the tournament itself, Bauman, who is also director of scouting and analytics for the University of Alabama Men’s Basketball Team, said it’s very similar to the NCAA Tournament only now you’re dealing with professionals.
“It's to win or go home,” he said of the single elimination tournament. “So the games are extremely intense. It's very much NCAA Tournament-like from that standpoint. The preparation, we try to approach it in the same way we did during our NCAA Tournament runs. We do full scouts on opponents and we try to take a little bit mature approach.”
Perkins said it’s a great feeling to get back on the court with guys he’s developed strong bonds with — many of whom were a part of UB’s huge upset win over the University of Arizona in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, the Bulls' first-ever tournament win.
“So it just feels good to be around the guys joking, laughing,” he said. “And talking about memories and stuff and all these guys on his team they all going be my friends for life. Obviously we are here playing, we are here to compete, but it does feel good, especially those guys who's all overseas, all yours feel good to be around some love, be around some family.”
Blue Collar U also is partnering with the Coaching Love Organization to raise awareness for at-risk youth through the game of basketball.
Blue Collar U plays in a quarterfinal game this evening on ESPN.
