Former Badgers unite as "Kohl Blooded" in The Basketball Tournament

Vitto Brown has been a busy man.

After an NBA G-League season where he averaged 10.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Maine Red Claws in the NBA G-League, the former Wisconsin big man hosted a basketball camp in late June. Now, he turns his attention to an upcoming competition with some old friends and former Badgers many fans will remember from years past.

Come mid-July, familiar faces from Wisconsin basketball lore -- Brown included -- will come together as "Kohl Blooded," one of 64 teams competing for $2 million in The Basketball Tournament.

The name pays homage to the arena where many of these Badgers established a winning tradition over the past 20-plus years, but Brown admitted he could not take credit for it.

"I was talking to Nigel [Hayes] and we were trying to come up with a name. ‘What sounds good?’" Brown told BadgerBlitz.com on Sunday evening. "I think it was one of his friends that he was talking to about it, said like, ‘Kohl Center, Kohl Blooded.’

“We were like, ‘Oh, that’s actually kind of nice. I like that,’ so everybody liked it and we decided to stick with it.”

Now in its sixth year, The Basketball Tournament is a single elimination competition that starts July 19 and runs through Aug. 6 with the ESPN networks broadcasting the games. Eight initial regions will narrow down to a final week in Chicago with the winning team scoring $2 million.

"Kohl Blooded" heads into the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Columbus region and reunites former teammates Brown, Hayes, Charles Thomas, Jordan Hill and the most recently added Ethan Happ, who was publicly announced last week. However, the team also includes former Badgers Jordan Taylor and Trevon Hughes, along with Kammron Taylor as its general manager and head coach.

“Some of the TBT organizers had reached out asking if I wanted to put together a Wisconsin alum team, so I said I’ll see what I can do," Brown said. "I haven’t talked to a lot of these guys outside of my class. I haven’t talked to them in a while, so I’ll see what guys are doing. Not sure where everybody’s at, but over the summer after the G-League season finished, I had more time to do this recruitment and start catching up with guys. We were able to come up with at least 10, so should be real fun."

"The Tournament" will allow Brown and the other former Wisconsin athletes the ability to play with old friends, but also connect with some old UW alums before them. Recently, a Facebook memory resurfaced on Brown's profile of an old photo.

"My high school went up to Wisconsin and we played in the Badgers team camp and it was a picture with Jordan Taylor, so it was like he was there currently at the time and I was in high school," Brown said. "I’m like, ‘Dang, now we’re going to be on the same team.' Back then I was just watching him play, so it’s pretty cool to get that opportunity and, obviously, all those guys are great players.”

Getting everyone together is easier said than done. Brown noted it was tough because though he tried to plan ahead, players at times do not know what their next move could be.

"You don't know where you’ll be in a month’s time, two month’s time, or however early we tried to plan this, though,' Brown said. "So a lot of it was just like guys saying that they wanted to do it, but we’ll have to see when it gets closer what our schedule is looking like. That’s why some of the additions might have taken a little bit longer than others, but like I said, you realize that’s the situation.

"Be patient with it, but at the same time, you got to kind of keep reminding people, ‘Can you let me know by this time at least, so that way we can have a contingency plan if we need to.’ It’s worked out so far, though.”

Before the Tournament, at least one Badger will participate in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in hopes of impressing professional basketball personnel. After a season where he claimed consensus second-team All-America honors, Happ was reportedly supposed to play for the Chicago Bulls squad but was not on the roster released by the organization on July 2. On July 1, the Los Angeles Clippers announced Hayes as one of the players on its summer league roster.

With players' schedules, Brown has modeled Kohl Blooded's schedule after his experience from playing in last year's competition.

“I think me and maybe one other player have played in this tournament before, so it’s kind of new for a lot of us," Brown said. "What we did last year, we just all met up probably three days before the tournament, maybe two, and practiced in Ann Arbor because that’s where our gym connection was. This year, with me living in Ohio and Nigel, we’ll probably just all meet somewhere here and get together a couple days beforehand. I mean that’s really all you can do because guys are pretty much busy up until the tournament time. It’s almost like a higher level of AAU, if you will.”

Fans can support Kohl Blooded in The Basketball Tournament as well. On its team page, 847 supporters have already registered. If the team comes away from the competition as the champion, the web site states that the "top 1,000 Supporters of the winning team share $200,000" of the $2 million purse.

As Brown notes, "more votes always help."

“It will allow us, if anything happens roster-wise, we can add another player if need be and wouldn’t have to pay for it," Brown said. "If you get 1,000 votes, you can add that tenth roster spot for free, so that’s very helpful. If anybody or any businesses or companies are interested in sponsoring the team or donating in any way, they are free to reach out.”

Each year, The Basketball Tournament has grown more and more. On Aug. 19 at Noon CT in Columbus, Brown and Kohl Blooded start their quest for the championship and $2 million against Mid American Unity.

What should Badgers fans expect from this squad? According to Brown, some of the same attributes that helped guide these players to success at the college level during their time in Madison, but maybe also something a little different as well.

"They should obviously expect a team of competitors," Brown said. "We’re all seasoned in the sense that we’ve all competed at the highest level of college basketball. Some of us NBA, some high level overseas, so we’ve got a team of competitors but also a team of winners and a team that knows what teamwork is.

"They should expect to see what a normal Wisconsin basketball [team] would give you, but now we’re getting to play outside of college in the professional landscape so we’re able to do some different things out there. I can’t divulge everything. Some of it’s just going to be a surprise, I’ll tell you that.”

Update, July 5: On July 2, The Chicago Bulls announced their summer league roster, and Happ was not listed.