After capturing their first title and the $1 million prize at The Basketball Tournament last year, Derrick Wilson ’11 and his fellow Marquette alumni are looking to repeat.
Thus far the tournament has gone well for Wilson and his fellow Golden Eagles, as the team, seeded #1 in the Illinois region, has made it into the third round. The team cruised past their first game with a 94-66 win over B1 Ballers, and then eked out a tight 71-64 win over Playing for Jimmy V in the second round.
The Basketball Tournament, launched in 2014, pits teams from all over the country in a five-on-five format, with a single-elimination bracket similar to the NCAA basketball tournament. The winning team earns a $1 million prize to divide amongst its members.
After competing together for several years, Wilson and his fellow Marquette players, some of whom were former teammates, finally broke through last season, winning the championship in the Columbus, OH bubble during the first wave of COVID.
Now the team hopes to capture another million dollars and become the only other team to repeat in the tournament’s history, joining the Overseas Elite team, which won four in a row from 2015-2018.
The next test for the Golden Eagles will be tonight, as the team faces #5 Autism Army at 6:00 p.m. Central Time. Most games are broadcast on one of the ESPN networks. Autism Army is “competing on behalf of the Life’s WORC organization, a non-profit providing care and support services for people with developmental disabilities and autism,” according to the team’s website.
At Hotchkiss, Wilson earned 11 varsity letters, including four each in basketball and track and three in football. He was captain twice in both football and basketball, and was a two-time winner of the Brian Cullinan ’67 Football Prize and a three-time winner of The Basketball Prize.
After playing for four years at Marquette, Wilson has played professionally in several places, most recently in 2020-2021 for the Turkish squad Sigortam.net. He has been with the Marquette TBT team since 2016.
