This year, a team of former Michigan State Spartans have come together form a team called the Spartan Heroes to compete in The Basketball Tournament, a single-elimination, 64-team event.
This former Spartans taking part include Raymar Morgan, Derrick Nix, Delvon Roe, Korie Lucious, Brandon Wood, Charlie Bell, Durrell Summers, Brandan Kearney. In order to fill out the roster, this team will also consist of several players who played collegiately elsewhere, including Alan Michael Arnett (Georgia Southwestern State), Nate Miller (Bowling Green) and Leon Rodgers (Northern Illinois).
Former Spartans guard Travis Walton, currently an assistant coach with the Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA D-League, is serving as the team's head coach.
The rules for players on the teams are that they have to be over 18, they give up their amateur status (no college players), and they may not have more than 11 players on the team. We also won't see guys like Gary Harris, Denzel Valentine and Bryn Forbes taking part while they've been playing in the NBA Summer League.
Read more about the rules here.
Spartan Heroes will face Ohio United in the first round of The Basketball Tournament Saturday night. This tournament features a $2 million grand prize this year, and the winnings are distributed among winning team members.
You can watch The Tournament games via Whistle Sports' Facebook page.