Colorado State alumni team "Ram Up" officially selected for TBT

Colorado State will be represented in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) for the first time this summer. 

Ram Up, led by head coach Derrick Stevens and highlighted by CSU legend Jason Smith, will be competing in the New Mexico Regional hosted by the UNM alumni team at The Pit from July 18-21. 

The No. 6 seed Ram Up will initially play the No. 3 seed L.A. Cheaters on Monday, July 18 at 1 pm MT. If they happen to advance to the second round, they will then face the winner of No. 2 Challenge ALS versus No. 7 Once A Bronco (Boise State alumni) on Tuesday, July 19. The New Mexico Regional championship game is Thursday, July 21. 

The winner of the New Mexico Regional will advance to Dayton, Ohio for Championship Week. Quarterfinals games are July 28-29, and the semifinals and $1 million winner-take-all championship game will be July 30 and Aug. 2, respectively, at the University of Dayton.

TBT has become quite popular amongst basketball enthusiasts in recent years, as the annual summer basketball event features 64 teams competing for $1 million live on ESPN networks. In previous summers there have been a handful of former Rams that have competed with other teams. Greg Smith will actually still be competing with the Omaha Blue Crew in 2022. It’s exciting for the Ram Faithful to finally have a squad representing the Green & Gold, though, especially with ‘J-Smooth’ in the mix. 

Smith (2004-07), a 2007 first round selection of the Miami Heat, played 12 years in the NBA for a total of six different franchises. As far as professional careers go, he is by far the most successful CSU alum to play in the NBA. Considering he’s 36 years old, we’ll see how much he actually is on the floor in the tournament, but having him on the roster is massive from an experience standpoint. It definitely helps with exposure too. 

In addition to Smith, Andy Ogide (2008-11) and Kaipo Sabas (2010-12) are names that older Ram fans will recognize on the roster. Ogide has carved out out an extremely impressive international career over the last decade-plus, and much like Smith, he’ll bring a level of professional experience that most of the roster does not have yet. 

Jeremiah Paige (2015-19), Emmanuel Omogobo (2015-17), Prentiss Nixon (2015-18), Che Bob (2016-18) and Kris Martin (2018-20) round out the rest of the alumni group on the team. These guys all played the majority, if not all of their careers under Larry Eustachy. Paige, Omogobo and Nixon all played roles on the 2016-17 Rams team that reached the Mountain West Championship Game. Martin, along with Nico Carvacho, Hyron Edwards and Paige, helped transition the program when Niko Medved took over. 

Finally, John Dawson (Liberty), Eric Kibi (Arkansas Little-Rock), Alex Holcombe (Dallas Baptist) and Ibrahim Sylla (Northern Colorado/North Carolina A&T) will be playing for Ram Up as well. While the roster is representing CSU alumni, the entire group does not actually have to be former CSU guys. 

Derrick Stevens dove what it took for the Rams to win the 2003 MW Tournament.

He talked about his pro career, including his time with the Nuggets organization and what it was like being around Iverson.

He shared his vision for @RamUpTBT as well. https://t.co/vijmQ2BULQ

— Justin Michael (@JustinTMichael) February 26, 2022

In a previous interview on the DNVR Rams Podcast, Derrick Stevens talked about his CSU career, playing professionally, his vision for the TBT squad and more! Ram fans can listen to it in its entirety here.