Pitt alum Rozelle Nix and Robert Morris alum Josh Williams will be playing basketball this summer in The Basketball Tournament.
TBT, as the tournament is known, is entering its seventh season, with 24 teams entering for a chance at a $2 million prize for the winning team.
Nix will play with Bearcat Jam, a team made up of Cincinnati Bearcats alumni and other players from Nix’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nix spent two seasons at Pitt, redshirting in 2015-16 and playing in 20 games in 2016-17. The 6-foot-11, 300-pound center then graduated and transferred to South Alabama for his redshirt senior year and has played the last two seasons overseas in Portugal.
Williams will suit up for The Islands, a team full of recently-graduated college players. Williams played two seasons at Robert Morris after transferring from Akron. As a senior in 2019-20, he was named the team’s MVP while averaging 13.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and leading the Colonials to an NEC title and the NCAA Tournament.
A 6-foot-2 guard, Williams shot 40% from 3-point range in his two seasons in Moon Township and tied the Division I record for 3-pointers in a game with 15 in 2018.
Bearcat Jam and The Islands are among the over 100 teams vying for 24 spots in the tournament, which was reduced in size from a planned 64 team due to coronavirus travel concerns.
The 24 teams will play in one quarantined city in a 10-day tournament to determine a winner. The process for cutting down teams has not yet been announced, though Best Virginia, a team of West Virginia alumni, has already announced they will be participating. Teams must have their rosters submitted by June 15.
