KEENE, N.H. – Former Keene State College men's basketball All-Americans Ty Nichols (Springfield, Mass.) and Jeff Hunter (Hudson, Mass.) will each suit up for "We Are D3" in the 2024 edition of The Basketball Tournament, which is an open-invitation, single-elimination tournament played each summer at various sites in the United States since 2014.

The stakes are a cash prize (the most recent tournament in 2023 had a one-million-dollar purse going to the winners), and the tournament has continually grown over time, currently featuring 64 teams and eight "regions" of eight teams seeded one through eight.

TOURNAMENT BRACKET

"We Are D3" will begin this year's tournament on Saturday (July 20) at 12:00 p.m. against the No. 5 seed "Sweet Home Alabama" in Dayton, Ohio.  The winner of the game will advance to play either No. 1 seed and defending champion "Hartfire" or No. 8 seed "Rise and Grind" on Monday (July 22) at 6:00 p.m. on FS2 (Fox Sports family of channels).  Saturday's game can be viewed here for free.

It will be the first time Nichols and Hunter have shared the court, the leading and No. 4 scorer all-time in program history who have combined to help the Owls win six Little East tournament championships, seven NCAA tournament appearances, three Sweet 16 trips, and one visit to the Elite Eight since 2015.

"All of Owl Nation is excited to watch Ty and Jeff compete this weekend," said KSC head coach Steve Enright, who will be entering his first season with the program in 2024-2025.

"Both are tremendous ambassadors for both Keene State and our program and will do great things for 'We Are D3' in the TBT."

"We Are D3" is a five-time TBT participant (first in 2018) and is led by head coach Mike Rejniak.  They are in search of their first-ever win at the event, but have come close over the years, including in 2023 against No. 1 seed Mass Street (University of Kansas alumni) when they led by seven into the fourth quarter and fell 70-67 in Wichita, Kan.  Nichols finished with 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting, three assists, and three steals in 29 minutes.  In 2021, D3 fell to "Challenge ALS" 67-60 and in 2019 to "Boeheim's Army" (Syracuse University alumni) 68-65.

There will be other Little East Conference representation on "WeAreD3" also, as University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth alum Marcus Azor and University of Massachusetts-Boston alum Malik Lorquet are members of the team.  Beacons' head coach Jason Harris is an assistant coach.  Azor was the conference's Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 and 2021-2022, while Hunter won both major awards in the two years since.  Nichols was the LEC Player of the Year in 2018-2019.

The full roster for "We Are D3" can be found here.

In the upcoming season, Keene State will be shooting to become the first four-peat Little East Conference winner in league tournament history.  The Owls' seven NCAA appearances since 2015 are tied for the most in New England (Babson; Regions I and II).