Frank Mason III isn’t sole scoring threat for KU’s alumni basketball squad in TBT

The Kansas Jayhawks’ alumni entry in the 64-team, $1 million, winner-take-all The Basketball Tournament (TBT) proved Monday it could win without a stellar performance from 2017 national college player of the year Frank Mason III.

The 30-year-old point guard from Petersburg, Virginia scored 20 points and dished four assists in “Mass Street’s” 81-68 opening win over Ram Up (a team of Colorado State alumni) Saturday at Wichita State’s Koch Arena. He scored nine points on 3-of-12 shooting in a 76-59 Round of 32 victory over Florida TNT.

Mason distributed a game-high seven assists while playing 34 minutes in helping KU advance to Wednesday’s TBT Sweet 16 game against Team Colorado. Tipoff is 8 p.m. at Koch Arena, with a live broadcast on FS1.

“That’s just Frank being Frank. He knew his offense wasn’t going (so) he was going to be a decoy and facilitator,” Mass Street coach Sherron Collins said of the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Mason, who played point guard in a pro league in France during the 2023-24 season.

Mason was a second-round draft pick of the Sacramento Kings in 2017 and played four years in the NBA.

“His head was hurting,” Collins said. “He was a little lightheaded today. He was off a little bit. He fought through it. We needed him to do that. He’s a tough son of a gun. He didn’t hit a lot of shots. He was great for the things he did.”

Mason’s backup at point guard is Travis Washington, a 25-year-old former Utah Valley player who had one point in six minutes Monday against Florida TNT.

Three KU starters scored in double figures Monday, Shooting guard Lagerald Vick hit five 3s and scored 19 points while forwards Billy Preston and Dedric Lawson had 13 points apiece. Lawson had 11 rebounds and Preston six as KU was outrebounded 43-39.

“I want to tip my hat to all these guys,” Collins said of his Mass Street players, who will be trying to reach the quarterfinals for the first time. KU has had a team entered in the TBT just twice in 11 years; the Jayhawk alumni squad went 2-1 a year ago.

“All these guys respectively can go get their own,” Collins said. “When they want to, they can go isolate. They are putting their egos to the side, whatever they want to do individually to the side for the better sake of the team. When they do that, when you have these high level guys doing that, it makes it easy for me. I respect them for that.”

The Jayhawks’ alumni squad will secure a spot in the quarterfinals (date and location yet to be announced) with a win against a Team Colorado squad that has already defeated two teams from Kansas.

Team Colorado stopped Wichita State’s Aftershocks 65-61 on Monday after defeating Kansas State’s Purple Reign 71-67 Saturday. Both games were at WSU’s Koch Arena.

Andre Roberson, a 6-7, 210-pound, 32-year-old small forward who played for the Colorado Buffaloes from 2010 to 2013, scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds with two assists and two steals against Wichita State. He hit 8 of 16 shots, going 3-of-5 from 3-point range.

On Saturday, he had nine points and nine rebounds, going 0-for-3 from 3 against Kansas State. The former first-round NBA Draft pick played five seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He last played pro ball for a team in the Philippines.

George King, a 6-6, 220-pound, 30-year-old former CU point guard who last played for a team in Israel, scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds against Aftershocks. He scored three points on 1-of-6 shooting (0-for-5 from 3-point range) against K-State.

Jaizec Lottie, a 6-2, 26-year-old point guard out of Flagler College and Arkansas-Little Rock, who last played pro ball in Latvia, scored 11 points against Wichita State and 10 versus K-State.

D’shawn Schwartz, a 6-6. 25-year-old small forward who attended both George Mason and Colorado , last playing pro ball in France, went 4-of-5 from 3-point range and scored 21 points against K-State’s Purple Reign team. He scored five points with five rebounds against Wichita State.

Josh Adams, a 6-1, 190-pound, 30-year-old former Wyoming standout who last played in Slovenia, had seven points against K-State and none against WSU. Also, 31-year-old Michael Holyfield, 6-11, 270 out of Sam Houston State, had 10 points and eight rebounds vs. KSU but just two points against the Shockers.

Team Colorado hit 9 of 25 three-point attempts (36.0%) against the Shockers and 7 of 26 (26.9%) against K-State. KU, meanwhile, hit 6 of 20 3-point attempts (30%) versus Ram Up and 13 of 31 (41.9%) against Florida TNT.

Mass Street coach Collins is confident his Mass Street squad can move on to the quarterfinals. A day of “rest” was planned for Tuesday in advance of Wednesday’s 8 p.m. game.

“The thing is, all three of us who are coaching (Collins plus assistants Tyshawn Taylor and Travis Releford), we played (the game),” Collins said. “We know the wear and tear. We know these guys are coming off seasons (playing overseas). We’ll get them some treatment, get some shooting in, watch some film. The biggest thing is rest.”

Noted 34-year-old forward Kevin Young: “We had a great training staff come in and help us out. Shoutout to them being able to get us healthy and get us right. Our coaches are ex-players. They know how to practice and create practice plans around our needs when it comes to recovery.”