For the first time, Maryland basketball will be represented in the summer’s biggest college basketball-related event. A team of former Terps players will compete in The Basketball Tournament, the annual nationally televised event pitting teams of alumni against each other for a $1 million prize.
Maryland’s team will be called Shell Shock and coached by former Terps staffer Nima Omidvar, now an assistant at Coastal Carolina, and headlined by former star point guard Melo Trimble, who will be joined by Jake Layman, Darryl Morsell, Robert Carter, Damonte Dodd, Reese Mona and others to be named later. Getting Trimble, who’s starred in several leagues overseas since leaving Maryland in 2019 on board was the key according to the team’s general manager Andrew Terrell, a former walk-on guard and fan favorite who played for Mark Turgeon in the late 2000s.
“The only dominoes I really needed was Melo and Jake saying they were a go … I really just had to call Melo and ask, ‘Who do you want?'” Terrell said. “Melo is pretty respected universally in the Maryland world.”
The Maryland team’s expected entry was previously reported by InsideMDSports.
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Current NBA players aren’t allowed to play in the event, but many who’ve recently played in the league pop up on rosters. Layman is the most accomplished NBA name on the roster. He was released by the Minnesota Timberwolves last year after spending three years there and three years with the Portland Trailblazers, where he had his best season as a pro in 2016, when he averaged 7.6 points and 3.1 rebounds and shot 50.9 percent. But he wasn’t able to complete a deal to play for German club Bayern Munich this past season because of an injury, so he’s not a lock to play.
“Jake is very much going to be a game-time decision,” Mona said.
Terrell is hoping the team will get a warm-up by scrimmaging against the current Maryland team.
“I want to have a scrimmage with fans in the stands, where they can get a glimpse of the future and also see some of their favorite Terps from the past,” he said.
Carter a standout forward under Turgeon, and Morsell, the Big Ten defensive player of the year at Maryland in 2021 before transferring to Marquette, are other notable names. The roster needs several more players, and Terrell is hoping to get former Maryland stars like Dez Wells and Anthony Cowan on board. He also mentioned Rasheed Sulaimon and Richaud Pack as possibilities. Many of the teams in the event, known widely as TBT, include a few outliers who didn’t play for the same school; former Indiana star Noah Vonleh, who recently played for the Lakers, and former Stanford standout Anthony Brown are among the other potential additions.
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The event will begin in late July at seven regional locations: Wichita, Louisville, West Virginia, Syracuse, Dayton, Lubbock and Cincinnati. The championship will be held in Philadelphia two weeks later. Finally, Maryland fans will have a rooting interest when watching the tournament.
“This is something we’ve been trying to do since 2019, but we just never got enough legs out of it. It’s a tough time of year to get guys to play, especially guys with families,” Terrell said. [Former teammates reuniting] is what I’m most excited about. Obviously we’d love to win it, but it’s like family getting back together.”