Former Ohio State basketball player Kyle Young (25) during the Ohio State-Towson game Dec. 8, 2021. Young will play for Carmen’s Crew. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Lantern Photo File
After a one-year hiatus, Carmen’s Crew is back.
The Buckeyes alumni team returns to The Basketball Tournament, a 64-team single-elimination men’s basketball competition, after participating each summer from 2017-2021, winning in 2019 and missing the event in 2022. Carmen’s Crew’s 2023 campaign tips off July 26 in Dayton against Team Overtime.
The 2023 edition of Carmen’s Crew features a revamped roster with only three returning players and a “something to prove” attitude. Guard C.J. Jackson said this year’s Carmen’s Crew squad has the same sense of grit as the Buckeye teams he played on from 2016-2019.
“I think the guys we have on our team, everyone’s super competitive, and I think that’s one of our underrated characteristics,” Jackson said. “It’s kind of what we had to hang our hat on back in school, we just were really competitive.”
Six more former Buckeyes — William Buford, Trevor Thompson, Andre Wesson, Kaleb Wesson, Keyshawn Woods and Kyle Young — are joining the 2023 roster.
The roster also features four non-Buckeyes: Saint Louis and Michigan State’s Javon Bess, Washington’s Malik Dime, Bowling Green’s Scott Thomas and Northern Kentucky and Arkansas’ Jalen Tate.
Jackson said despite their college backgrounds, the four are just as familiar with the group as the Ohio State alumni.
“Even the guys that didn’t go to our school have been playing together for the last five or six years, so we’re very familiar,” Jackson said. “Everyone knows everyone.”
Jalen Tate, who hails from Pickerington, Ohio, and whose brother, Jae’Sean Tate, played for four years at Ohio State, feels a particularly strong sense of community with the team. Through Amateur Athletic Union tournaments, high school basketball and summer training, he said he feels “closer than family” to some teammates.
“The relationships are already built,” Jalen Tate said. “These are guys that it’s easy to go to war for because you’ve been rooting for them your whole life.”
Jalen Tate said he expects this level of camaraderie to give Carmen’s Crew a leg up on its competition.
“I think it’s just great how we can all put it together so fast,” Jalen Tate said. “These are guys we played with all our lives during the summer and now it’s put to a cause. A lot of these [opposing] teams are just being thrown together last second, or guys are coming from all over the place that really haven’t built the chemistry already, so I think that’s a big strength for us.”
While the team is rich with The Basketball Tournament newcomers, it is accustomed to tournament success. Head coach Jared Sullinger was in charge when Carmen’s Crew won the tournament in 2019, in addition to starting at forward during Ohio State’s 2012 Final Four run.
Jalen Tate said Sullinger’s past successes are another advantage for Carmen’s Crew.
“He coached those last teams, but he also played for those last teams when they were some of those great teams, so he does a great job of balancing — telling us how we’re similar to the last teams, but how we can be better and different, and just keeping those lessons he learned back then,” Jalen Tate said.
Jalen Tate is not a stranger to tournament success, either, as a member of Arkansas’ 2021 Elite Eight team, he explained how his past tournament experience can be applied to the tournament this summer.
“Taking it one possession at a time, trying to get the best shot we possibly can, trusting your offense, but truly relying on your defense and sticking to your principles,” Jalen Tate said. “I think we have to be able to control the momentum and we have to keep the game on our terms.”
In preparation for the tournament, Carmen’s Crew has held “super locked-in” practices, and fans should expect to see “a lot of versatility” on the court, Jalen Tate said.
“There will be times where we’ll be flying up and down the court playing at super speed, but there [will] also be times where, when you get down to the Elam Ending, or close to that time where we won’t have to rush, and I think that will be our biggest thing — a lot of different paces, a lot of different lineups out there,” Jalen Tate said.
Carmen’s Crew’s first game of the 2023 tournament will be against Team Overtime, whose only previous tournament appearance ended in the first round with a 74-70 loss to the Omaha Blue Crew. As Carmen’s Crew approaches its first-round matchup, an eagerness to compete is heightened.
“It’ll be fun playing and seeing those guys again,” Jackson said. “It’s probably all fun until the game starts. Once you start playing in real live action, just naturally, your competitiveness wants to come out.”
