The Basketball Tournament selects OCC’s SRC Arena as a regional site for this summer’s event

ONONDAGA, N.Y. — The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is coming to Onondaga Community College’s (OCC) SRC Arena and Events Center where the Boeheim’s Army team will play its first three games in this summer’s event.

The games are scheduled between July 26 and July 28, OCC said in a news release posted on its website. Game tickets will be available through the TBT website.

Boeheim’s Army, a team of former Syracuse University men’s basketball players, is among the teams that will participate in the TBT. The TBT features 64 teams competing in a single-elimination, 5-on-5 tournament.

OCC is among eight regional locations that the TBT has chosen for this summer’s tournament, per a Tuesday news release on the TBT website. The Basketball Tournament is a $2 million summer event that ESPN televises. The eight regional winners advance to championship weekend in Chicago beginning Aug. 1.

 “Syracuse is a basketball city and we are honored to be chosen as a host site for the TBT Tournament,” OCC President Casey Crabill said in a news release posted on the OCC website. “The SRC Arena has established itself as one of the region’s premier facilities for intercollegiate and scholastic athletic competitions, graduation ceremonies, trade shows and countless community-focused events. We look forward to welcoming teams and fans into our air-conditioned arena to watch hotly contested basketball which has become a hallmark of the TBT Tournament.”

The SRC Arena and Events Center is a 60,000-square-foot recreational and athletic complex that includes a 6,500-seat performance arena (4,000 for basketball games), per the TBT website says. The venue opened in 2011.

For the first time in its six-year history, TBT is admitting eight “host” teams before opening its application period, “creating memorable, college-like atmospheres for home and visiting teams alike for rounds one through three,” TBT said.

Named after Syracuse basketball’s “patriarch and 2-3 zone aficionado” Jim Boeheim, the Orange alumni team will return to the court for the fifth straight summer, per the TBT website.

“One of the things we’ve tapped into is the passion college basketball fans have for their former players,” Jon Mugar, founder and CEO of TBT, said in the release. “We’ve also found that visiting teams have had a blast playing in front of raucous crowds cheering against them. This year’s Regional hosts include some of college basketball’s most passionate fan bases.”

Joining OCC and the SRC Arena as regional sites are the cities of Columbus, Ohio; Greensboro, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; Richmond, Virginia; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Wichita, Kansas.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com