Team of Former OU Basketball Players Misses Out on $1 Million Tourney Prize

Former OU basketball player James Fraschilla didn’t see that much game action in his four seasons with the Sooners, and when he did get playing time, he was generally surrounded by other reserves.

Later this month, however, Fraschilla will find himself on a team surrounded by former Sooner starters competing against 97 other teams from around the country in a competition billed simply as The Basketball Tournament.

What makes this competition special is that the winning team will win $1 million in prize money.

Jan 8, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners forward Tyler Neal (15) attempts a shot against Kansas Jayhawks center Joel Embiid (21) during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

According to Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Fraschilla, the son of ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla, has assembled a team includes former OU basketball standouts Tony Crocker, Cade Davis and Willie Warren. The careers of these three players overlapped between 2006 and 2011. Fraschilla’s first season at OU wasn’t until 2011-12.

Clark reported that in April the younger Fraschilla began receiving messages from several people on his Facebook page talking about a national basketball tournament that was offering a million-dollar prize. At first, he thought it was some kind of prank, too good to be true.

The organizers of The Basketball Tournament kept sending Fraschilla messages informing him of the level of talent that was competing in the tournament and suggesting that he put together a team made up of former Sooner players, according to the information obtained by Clark.

“It turned out to be true,” Fraschilla told Clark. “They’re only in their second year, so that’s kind of why I hadn’t heard about it. They kept talking to me about the different alumni teams in it, and they told me who played last year. So it kind of seemed like a cool thing.”

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In addition to Crocker, Davis and Warren, The Basketball Tournament website lists several other Sooner basketball alumni who are on the roster of the OU entry in the tournament. The Sooner roster was also supposed to include Ebi Ere, who played on the Sooners Final Four team in 2003, Andrew Fitzgerald, David Goldbold, Tommy Mason-Griffin, Tyler Neal and Ryan Wright.

Teams include current and former NBA players, former U.S. college stars now playing professionally in Europe and Asia former college stars. The prize money that goes to the winning team is double what is was last year, when an alumni team of former Notre Dame players won it all.

The Oklahoma entry was scheduled to begin play last Friday in Atlanta, which was serving as the host city of the South Region. After all of the young Fraschilla’s hard work and effort in assembling the Sooner team, however, things didn’t turn out so well for the OU alumni squad.

Conflicts ostensibly arose that prevented a number of the Sooner team members from making it to Atlanta for the opening round game. Consequently, the OU squad wasn’t able to field a team against an opponent that called itself “Team No Excuses,” forcing a forfeit and eliminating the OU entry before it even got started.

About all we can say to that is, as James Fraschilla first thought: The whole idea – as far as a team from the Sooner Nation was concerned – was indeed to good to be true.

Better luck next time.

For those teams that make it all the way to end, the semifinal and championship games are scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN on Aug. 1 and 2.