4 July 2023
MANHATTAN, KS. (KSNT) – The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an annual basketball tournament comprised of former college teams competing for a one million dollar grand prize.
K-State’s alumni team – Purple and Black – is full of former stars. Find the full list of members here. Martavious Irving, who played at guard for the Wildcats from 2009-2013, joined 27 News for an interview ahead of TBT.
While the group of alumni are expecting to put up a fight, Irving says that the group, more than anything, just wants to be together again.
“[Having fun is] probably, like, 85 percent of it, to be honest,” Irving said. “It’s always good to walk away from it, but as you get older, you go on with your lives. We all have families, we all have careers.”
Irving has not forgotten the faithfulness of K-State fans.
“The K-State faithful is unlike any other fanbase. They’re really diehards,” Irving said. “We love to make them proud.”
He says that as a realtor in Wichita, he often runs into K-State fans who help him out.
“They’re buying me seats [to football games], buying me food, and I graduated ten years ago,” Irving said. “They never let me forget that they’re there for me.”
The Purple and Black roster is made up of players that graduated back in 2008 to Mike McGuirl, who graduated in 2022. Despite the age differences, it’s all one Wildcat family.
“I was coming back to Manhattan, doing camps, working with coach Weber,” Irving said. “We were around the team a lot…a guy like Mike [McGuirl], we’ve known since he first got there.”
The white whale for the Purple and Black roster has been former No. 2 overall pick Michael Beasley. Irving says that Beasley wants to make it out to the tournament at some point, but contractual obligations with the Big 3 League has held him out.
“[Beasley] really, really wants to play,” Irving said. “We’ve spoken to Mike a lot. He’s probably more excited than some of the guys that have been here, to be honest. He has literally said that he needs that reconnection.”
The Purple and Black team starts TBT against DaGuys STL at Koch Arena in Wichita on July 20.