La Salle '12-13 Sweet 16 team reunites for The Basketball Tournament

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Tyreek Duren and Ramon Galloway don’t talk to each other as much as they used to. But whenever they do, it isn’t long before their magical run to the Sweet 16 comes up.

“Every time I see him,” Duren said, “I always say that if we could go back to college and do it all over again, I would.”

That, of course, isn’t possible. But Duren, Galloway and other key members of the 2012-13 La Salle team are doing the next best thing.

Starting Saturday, a group of former Explorer stars will compete in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), the second annual single-elimination open tourney with a $1 million grand prize.

“It’s like a reunion almost,” Duren said. “I’m excited to be back on the court with my guys.”

Their team — dubbed 20th & Olney, in recognition of their alma mater’s location — features six members of the team that stormed to three straight wins in the NCAA Tournament to advance to La Salle’s first Sweet 16 berth since 1955: Duren, Galloway, Tyrone Garland, D.J. Peterson, Jerrell Wright and Steve Zack. Giving the team an extra bit of punch are two older La Salle alums in Steve Smith and Rodney Green.

20th & Olney will play its first game Saturday night at 9:15 p.m. on the campus of Philadelphia University after earning a first-round bye in the Northeast Regional — which also includes three other Philly-centric teams (Liberty Ballers, The Blue and Gold Club and North Broad Street Bullies).

If the La Salle team wins Saturday, it may have to face top-seeded Boeheim’s Army, a squad made up of former Syracuse standouts, to advance to the “Super 17” of the highly competitive 97-team field.

Kind of like the Sweet 16. Which they know something about.

“With this team, I’d put us up against anybody,” Garland said. “Any time I play with them, I think I’ve got a good chance of winning.”

It was Garland, of course, who provided the most memorable moment of La Salle’s NCAA run two years ago, hitting the game-winning bucket against Ole Miss in the Round of 32 before dubbing the shot “The Southwest Philly Floater” in a delirious postgame interview.

Will the famous shot make a grand return in The Basketball Tournament?

“I’m just trying to get wins,” Garland said. “If it comes back, it comes back.”

Added Duren: “That’s our secret weapon. We’re keeping it on hold for whatever we need it again.”

While both Duren and Garland enjoy thinking about the past, they’re also trying to carve out successful futures in basketball. Both are looking for new European leagues for the upcoming season after Garland spent a year playing in Canada and Duren in Cyprus following their 2014 graduations from La Salle.

And they know a strong performance in TBT certainly couldn’t hurt.

“You never know who’s watching,” Garland said.

Two of the other 20th & Olney players are trying to hook onto NBA teams, as Zack is currently playing for the 76ers' summer league team while Galloway is suiting up for the Bulls.

Whether or not the two of them play in the early TBT games likely depends on how far their teams advance in the Las Vegas Summer League playoffs. But even without them, 20th & Olney still plans to utilize two of the things that got the Explorers to the Sweet 16 two years ago: chemistry and speed.

“I think we can pretty much run with everybody,” said Duren, the point guard. “We’ll use our quickness to our advantage, the same way we did when we were at La Salle.”

While reuniting with players that know each other so well should give 20th & Olney a leg up against other teams in the field, Duren added he’s really excited to play with longtime pros like Green and Smith, the latter of whom he’s been working out with this summer.

The grand prize also serves as nice motivation with Duren saying, “That million dollars makes you play 10 times harder." Added Garland, with a laugh, “I need that.”

But, more than anything else, this tournament serves as a rare opportunity for a few guys to try to relive and recreate one of the best moments of their lives.

“That team was very important to me,” Garland said. “Every time I’m around Ramon or Tyreek, we always talk about how there will never be another team like that.”

Until now, perhaps?

“I think all the chemistry is still going to be there,” Duren said. “And most likely everyone got better since college. So it should be a good show.”

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