Oregon basketball alumni team joins The Basketball Tournament field

Oregon basketball alums will make up one of 64 teams participating in the $1 million, winner-take-all summer basketball tournament.

The Ducks’ team named Always Us is compromised of some of the better players to ever wear a Duck uniform and includes Elijah Brown, Johnathan Loyd, Mike Moser, Tajuan Porter, Joe Young, Paul White, Jalil Abdul-Bassit, Dwayne Benjamin, MiKyle McIntosh, Shakur Juiston and Bryce Taylor.

The team will be coached by Director of Operations Josh Jamison and was organized by two student managers.

Alumni teams from schools across the country are participating in the event including teams from Miami, Ohio State, West Virginia, Syracuse, and Marquette to name a few. Oregon is the lone Pac-12 school with a team in the tournament. There is also a Drew League team that started play last season.

The Always Us team was announced as a No. 4 seed in the Illinois Regional. They face the 13-seed Peoria All-Stars in the first round on July 25. Peoria has a 3-4 record overall in the tournament bringing Zach Andrews from the G League along with two NCAA Division II standouts in Montel James and Nick Richards. This is the fifth consecutive season the Peoria All-Stars have participated in The Basketball Tournament.

Two teams from each of the regionals will advance to championship weekend to be played at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio. During the championship game on Aug. 3, one player will hit a shot during the Elam Ending to win his team $1 million.

For the Oregon alumni, the years span from 2005-2020. Johnathan Loyd, Mike Moser, Joe Young, and Dwayne Benjamin all played together at one point. It will be interesting to see possibly four different groups of some of the best to ever play at Oregon on one floor.

The first-round game versus Peoria is set for July 25 at noon PST on ESPN3.