Observations from BA’s TBT Quarterfinal loss: 3rd-quarter run, late slip
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No team has collected more The Basketball Tournament victories than Boeheim’s Army.
The Syracuse alumni team entered the 2026 tournament 27-10 all-time. This year, 82-52 and 81-76 wins lifted Boeheim’s Army to a Round 1 sweep of Hall In, Seton Hall’s alumni team. It also grew Boeheim’s Army’s all-time TBT win total to 29.
Yet in four of its last six tournaments, Boeheim’s Army has fallen short of the third round. Last summer, an upset 81-78 loss to We Are D3 bounced a roster described as “championship or bust.”
This summer it was La Familia, Kentucky’s alumni team, in the way of a Boeheim’s Army semifinals berth, as the squads squared off in the Alumni Semifinals Sunday. Former Kentucky star Archie Goodwin and La Familia made it five of the last seven, coming from behind in the Elam Ending to beat Boeheim’s Army 70-66.
Here are some observations from the loss:
Both teams swap shooting strokes early
Boeheim’s Army entered its quarterfinal matchup as the third-most efficient shooting team in TBT in 2026, connecting on 46.8% of its shots from the field in its Round 1 sweep of Hall In.
La Familia shot 5% worse across its three Round 1 games against The Ville, Louisville’s alumni team, shooting 41.1% from the field. Even in La Familia’s best shooting game of the series, its 63-57 series-clinching Game 3 win, its 3-point efficiency cratered to 23.8%.
The roles reversed in the first quarter of Boeheim’s Army’s single-elimination Round 2 bout.
The first three points of the afternoon belonged to La Familia, courtesy of Andrew Harrison, who took his sweet time collecting and shooting a ball that rolled to him wide open in the corner after Buddy Boeheim collided with James Mainor-Bell. Harrison got another open look from the corner 32 seconds later and swished again.
Darryl Morsell and Goodwin made a couple more 3s to fuel a 10-0 La Familia run in the middle of the first quarter. The Kentucky alumni squad’s lead grew as large as 12 in the contest’s first nine minutes.
Boeheim’s Army finished the first frame shooting just 5-for-16 (31.3%) from the field and 2-for-8 (25%) from 3. La Familia, meanwhile, knocked down five of nine 3-point shots (55.6%) to lead by six points at the end of the first quarter.
Ty Nichols erases big early BA deficit
Ty Nichols was nearly single-handedly responsible for keeping Boeheim’s Army from the third round of the 2025 TBT, scoring 36 points for We Are D3 in the two teams’ Round 2 meeting a year ago. In Round 2 of this year’s rendition, BA’s portal pickup was nearly single-handedly responsible for dragging Boeheim’s Army back into the game.
Down 20-9 with just over a minute left in the first quarter, Nichols scored a layup. Down nine.
Thirty-six seconds later, Nichols made another. Down seven. He drew a foul on the bucket and knocked down the following free throw. Down six at the end of the first quarter.
Twenty seconds into the second frame, Nichols connected on a 3-point try. Down three. La Familia added four more points. A minute later, Nichols scored on a jump shot. Down five. He then assisted a Boeheim 3 to help draw BA within two.
La Familia’s Goodwin made a layup, scored a couple free throws, then knocked down a triple to rebuild La Familia’s lead to nine with six minutes left in the half. Nichols got back to work, answering with a layup before sinking a 3-pointer with just under four minutes left in the half. Down three.
Thirty seconds later, Nichols evened the score, tying La Familia 32-32 with a free throw to finish off a 3-point play after La Familia’s Kahlil Whitney was called for basket interference.
Nichols ended the first half with 18 points, and Boeheim’s Army entered the break down three.
BA’s third-quarter run reclaims lead
Boeheim’s Army built on the momentum created by Nichols’ big first half in the third quarter, going on a 14-1 run to reclaim the lead.
The Syracuse alumni scored nine straight points after a Willie Cauley-Stein dunk increased La Familia’s advantage to five points 15 seconds into the third quarter, as Boeheim and Elijah Hughes combined to make three straight 3-pointers and cut the lead to four. Whitney made a free throw to break up Boeheim’s Army’s run, but Cole Swider swished a jump shot and free throw to get BA back rolling.
Hughes collected the last two points of the lopsided sequence on a jump shot, putting Boeheim’s Army up 50-42 with just under four minutes left in the third quarter.
La Familia recaptures 3-point scoring in Elam Ending
After knocking down five 3-pointers in the first quarter alone, La Familia cooled off from beyond the arc. In the second, third and fourth quarters before the Elam Ending, La Familia shot just 3-for-14 (21.4%) from deep.
But with Boeheim’s Army crowding the paint and leaving the 3-point shot open late, Mainor-Bell capitalized to reverse La Familia’s fortunes from distance in the Elam Ending.
With the target score set at 69 and Boeheim’s Army up 63-58 early in the Elam Ending, Mainor-Bell got a clean look from the corner and scored to put La Familia within eight points of winning. Two minutes later, with Boeheim’s Army trailing by one after a Cauley-Stein free throw and Goodwin jumper, Goodwin scored three more points shooting over Hughes, putting La Familia within two points of victory.
La Familia made two of its three 3-point tries in the Elam Ending, snatching the lead from Boeheim’s Army and setting up its come-from-behind 70-66 win.
