Back after a year away due to the COVID-19 pandemic, We Are D3 will once again represent NCAA Division III basketball in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a 64-team single-elimination tournament broadcast on various ESPN platforms. Former Western Connecticut State University student athletes Daquan Brooks (Bristol, Conn.) and Fenton Bradley, Jr. (Mansfield, Conn.) have been named to this year squad.
Brooks played for WestConn from 2008 to 2012 and is the program's all-time leading scorer with 2,269 points. His best season came in 2011-12 when he scored a team-record 815 points and led WestConn to a second-straight NCAA tournament appearance. Brooks is also the men's basketball all-time assist leader with 467.
Bradley, Jr. was the leader of WestConn's 2019-20 Little East Conference and NCAA Tournament team. During his last season, Bradley, Jr. led the team with a 16.2 point and 6.3 rebounding average through a 20-8 season.
This is the third year in The Tournament for We Are D3, the brainchild of former SUNY New Paltz head coach Mike Rejniak, comprised of Division III men's basketball alumni who are playing professionally overseas. And after nearly upsetting Boeheim's Army, a team of Syracuse alumni, in Syracuse, New York, in 2019, We Are D3 is seeded a little higher (14) and has a prime time spot on ESPN for its tournament opener.
We Are D3 takes on Team Challenge ALS on Saturday, July 16, at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The D-III squad features the following:
Head coach: Mike Rejniak.
Assistant coaches: Matt Droney, Joshua Nunn.
There are three D3hoops.com Players of the Year in the TBT, but none are on the We Are D3 team. Jeff Gibbs is once again playing for 2019 champs, Carmen's Crew. Nate West is playing for the Murray State Alumni team (the Overlooked), and University of Rochester's John DiBartolomeo is playing for Aaron Toomey and Matt Goldsmith on The Nerd Team (along with TCNJ's Randy Walko and Amherst's Willy Workman). D'Vontay Friga of Mount Union is on Team Challenge ALS, facing off against We Are D3 in the opening round. Jordan Dehm of Peoria All-Stars played at Eureka.