A team of Notre Dame alumni celebrated victory at The Basketball Tournament last year. This year's final will be on ESPN and the check will be for $1 million. Photo: Matt Thoman.

The Basketball Tournament Offers $1 Million Grand Prize  by John Ourand Courtesy: Sports Business Journal

This summer ESPN is carrying The Basketball Tournament -- a single-elimination tournament of 96 teams that carries a $1 million winner-take-all prize and lists sports industry veterans Tony Ponturo, Andy Dolich and Len DeLuca among its advisers.

ESPN will carry the 1-year-old event's semifinals (Aug. 1) and finals (Aug. 2) from New York. This year's opening rounds began July 10-12 at regional sites in Los Angeles and Atlanta, and continued play July 17-19 in Chicago and Philadelphia. The round of 16 will take place in Chicago starting July 24, with the winners going on to New York. (To see an ESPN video, click here.)

Last year's tournament was won by a group of Notre Dame alums. Cornell's 2010 team that made the Sweet 16 entered the tournament last year, as did a team with former first-round NBA pick Hakim Warrick.

"It was like a 'Field of Dreams' moment where all these different teams were reuniting," said TBT founder Jonathan Mugar. "It was really special to see." 

Confetti rains down on the winning Notre Dame alumni basketball team at the conclusion of the 2014 championship game. Photo: Matt Thoman.

ESPN got to know the event last year, when it streamed some of the tournament's games via its ESPN3 service. Magnus said ESPN executives were impressed by the level of play, which included ex-NBA players and ex-college players mixed in with regular Joes.

Send us your Memorable Sports Moment or SportsPulse and we will share them with our readers. Write: theultimatesportsguide@gmail.com. 

The Fat Lady is Doing Scales ... Offstage  by Pete Elman

The other day I saw a nice story on CSN Bay Area about the Twins' young pitcher J.R. Graham, a local boy from Livermore who played college ball at Santa Clara. His mother has been progressively losing her sight and is now legally blind. So when Graham pitches he wears high stirrups with an extra amount of white sock showing so that Mom can identify him on the field. The piece was broadcast because his team was in town and his parents would be at the Coliseum to see their son, who has made it all the way to the show. He is a back-of-the-bullpen reliever at this point and will only get into a game that is not close.

The Athletics just finished a where-did that-come-from 14-1, five-homer demolition of the Twins, who are surprisingly good this year, with the second-best record in the American League. Graham came into the game in the third inning with his team down 6-0, relieving a former Athletic, the crafty lefty Tommy Milone, who got seriously roughed up. Malone's departure a year ago left many -- me included -- somewhat upset.

Graham got pretty roughed up himself, giving up another run that inning and then four more, courtesy of a Josh Reddick grand slam. But this is no time to feel sorry for young Mr. Graham. I'm feeling positive -- not giddy, but good -- about this win, for three reasons.

First, the A's needed to take this post-break series, which they did. Second, it is surely not a coincidence that this blowout came on the heels of arguably the best win of the year -- a come-from-ahead, down-to-your-last-strike, come-from-behind extra-inning walk-off, featuring the pell-mell base running of Brett Lawrie and Billy Burns. Fittingly, it was "I Believe In" Stephen Vogt who got the winning hit and received the requisite Gatorade shower (two of them) and the inevitable pie from Reddick, who has been waiting all year to deliver dessert to the grill of a happy player in the middle of the postgame interview.

Finally, the "Captain" is back. Those who consider themselves serious A's fans know the importance of Ken Korach. He has been out all season rehabbing from knee-replacement surgery and is back, albeit just for home games (and Giants games). Korach is the beloved voice of the A's, and even with all the heartbreak of the past 15 years, his intelligent, articulate, passionate and likable delivery has been a constant. It's nice to have him back calling games.

So now the team is 43-51, eight games below .500, nine behind the Angels in the West and eight behind both the Twins and the Astros, the top two wild card teams. Why would anyone in their right mind think Beane will not go into seller mode and unload Kazmir, Zobrist and Clippard? I can't answer that. When they lost Friday night with Sonny Gray on the hill I figured that was it -- rebuild mode is now officially under way. But after this weekend, well, no -- not yet, doctor; can I have just a little more time? Is there any chance that the grim reaper of regroup and reload can wait outside just a little longer? Please, Billy ...

The starting pitching is the best in the American League, and the run differential is plus 53, fourth-best in the league. And the A's record since May 23 is the best in the league. I know, you are what your overall won-lost record is, but the A's are not a bad team. Is it out of the question that they can sneak into the playoffs? Not at all. A cursory look at the recent past shows that the A's, with the painful exception of last year, have had some impressive second halves. Granted they will realistically need to win about two-thirds of their remaining games to get to the postseason, a tall order.

So, will Beane keep his word and wait a whole week before he returns phone calls? I hope so. There is scuttlebutt about "lateral moves" where he unloads the aforementioned veterans but gets "equal value" in return. I don't think so. Perhaps some terrific prospects, as usual, but if those three veterans are dealt, it's doubtful that the team can compete. Last year Billy rolled the dice and got snake eyes, and it was awful. This year, maybe he stands pat.

Send us your Memorable Sports Moment or SportsPulse and we will share them with our readers. Write: theultimatesportsguide@gmail.com. 

What do all these illustrious names have in common?

Michael Altfest, Steve Baker, James Brandt, Paul Brekke-Miesner, Robinson Brown, Walter Champion, Harvey Cohen, Isaac Cronin, Eileen Curran, Nick Curran, Glenn Dickey, Andy Dolich, Jeff Elefante, Pete Elman, Leland Faust, Nancy Finley and Chris De Benedetti, Jim Fitzpatrick, Rob Flammia, Daniel Geary, Andre Johnson, Kenny Karst, Ira Klein, Richard Lupoff, Bruce Macgowan, Patric Mayers, Ross McKean, Robert Moselle, Dave Newhouse, John Ourand, Howard Pearlstein, Rudi Petschek, Laurel Poeton, Phil Schaaf, Jonathan Siegel,

Tom Stern, Shelia Young

All of these fans have contributed articles to 

Sports Today and their acclaimed work can be found at www.ultimatesportsguide.com. Simply click Sports Today

at the top of the home page.

  Highly Recommended! 

 Oaks Card Club

4097 San Pablo Avenue, Emeryville, CA 

(510) 653-4456

www.OaksCardClub.com

  Odds to win the 2015 World Series

Readers will be rocked by Dave Newhouse's warts-and-all history of the 49ers' pre-DeBartolo years, 1946-76. The book can be ordered at Amazon.com and at bookstores. Books will arrive in stores this month.  

There are 204 days left until the Golden Super Bowl at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, on Feb. 7, 2016.

Advertise in this newsletter!   *  Reach thousands of fans on a     weekly basis *  Economical rates *  Sponsorship opportunities

Call (510) 414-5394 or write

Ann.Cooke@ultimatesportsguide.net

Sports bars we recommend visiting or living in

Below is a list of sports bars we recommend for all your sports viewing needs. Each is a worthy institution and they have the added distinction of also being longtime Ultimate Sports Guide advertisers. When you stop in, please extend our thanks.