ORLANDO – The eighth edition of The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is set to kick off on July 16 and three former UCF Men's Basketball players are set to compete.
Matt Williams (2012-17), Tristan Spurlock (2010-14) and Keith Clanton (2009-13) will all suit up for Florida TNT, one of 64 teams competing across four regions for the $1 million winner-take-all prize.
"I'm thankful to be playing basketball again on this big of a stage with the familiar faces of Keith and Tristan on my squad with me," said Williams.
Founded in 2014, TBT is an open-application, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States.
Florida TNT will open play in the Wichita regional, scheduled to take place from July 16-20. If they advance, they will travel to Dayton, Ohio for the championship week, where eight teams, the top two from each regional, will compete for the $1 million grand prize from July 31 – August 3. All games will be televised on the ESPN family of networks.
Williams was a senior on UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins's first UCF team that reached the National Invitation Tournament semifinals at Madison Square Garden in 2017. The Orlando native finished his Knights tenure with a program-record 274 threes, as well as the program record for most threes made in a season (126) and a single game (11). Following his career with the Knights, Williams went on to play in three games with the Miami Heat. He has also spent several seasons overseas, and more recently, has been providing skills training and lessons to basketball youth in the Orlando area.
Clanton will be participating in his fifth season in TBT after previously suiting up for Team Krossover (2015), Pedro's Posse (2017), and Team DRC (2018-19). In 2018, he averaged 10.7 points per game and in 2019 he averaged 11.7 points per game for DRC. Clanton is UCF's all-time leader with 129 games played, as well as the Knights' all-time rebounds leader with 1,000 boards. Clanton began his professional career in the Polish league in 2013 and has also played professionally in South Korea, Puerto Rico, Israel, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Japan.
Spurlock will be back in TBT after also suiting up for Team DRC in 2019, where he averaged 10.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. The Woodbridge, Va., native posted 9.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game from 2011-14 with the Knights. After college, Spurlock had a brief stint in the NBA G-League before heading overseas where he has remained since 2015. Spurlock has played in Puerto Rico, Hungary, Argentina, Sweden, China, and Mexico.
Florida TNT will be back for their second year in The Basketball Tournament after previously competing in 2019. The team is composed of some of the best talent from the sunshine state.
