LaTulip Would Love To "Run It Back” Annually For An Illini Alumni TBT Team

Illinois fans should expect to another year of an Illini alumni TBT team next summer.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- When you have so much fun with a constructive idea experience, why not do it again?

This seems to be the attitude of Mike LaTulip, the man who compiled the roster and coached the first Illinois alumni team in The Basketball Tournament.

In the post-game media conference following the House Of Paign’s 83-76 loss to Red Scare, a Dayton alumni team which had been together for several years, LaTulip gave a simple answer to whether he’d be in favor of putting together another run at the championship grand prize. LaTulip’s response should give Illini basketball fans a smile and likely a similar smile to the look on their face when House Of Paign won two games in this year’s TBT.

“There was way too much fun had this week to not want to run it back next year,” LaTulip said. “Obviously a lot goes in to that but I thought we laid the foundation with a lot of really good guys.

“There was way too much fun had this week to not want to run it back next year." - House Of Paign general manager and head coach Mike LaTulip

LaTulip, a former walk-on player at Illinois and graduate transfer player at Wright State, took some time off from his account recruiting manager job in Austin, Texas to be the general manager and head coach of the University of Illinois’ first alumni team entrant in The Basketball Tournament.

House Of Paign head coach Mike LaTulip congratulating Red Scare guard Mike Mikesell after their TBT quarterfinal victory over the Illinois alumni team :: Ben Solomon/The Basketball Tournament

LaTulip began months ago putting together a process of recruiting players, organizing a practice schedule and getting committed talent to meet and get a good feel for each other.

“I knew like two of the guys legit before I came here to Columbus,” said House Of Paign leading scorer Mike Daum, who joined the team without any Illini team after starring at South Dakota State for Scott Nagy, the son of former Illini assistant coach Dick Nagy. “Seeing that first practice where I got to meet everybody for the first time, you could just tell we had a great group of guys willing to buy in to whatever it takes to win. There’s no egos on our team. There’s not one person who’s mad at anybody else for taking a shot. We’re all super encouraging of each other, and I think that’s something special and something you need to win in this tournament.”

For Daum, who still remains among one of the leading scorers in this year’s tournament, may have found an opportunity next year in the NBA but if not, he was able to establish himself as an elite scorer at whatever team in whatever league is possibly in need of a 6-foot-9 multidimensional offensive threat.

The debut of House Of Paign was a unique year in almost every aspect of the tournament because of the coronavirus pandemic. The “player bubble” was as strict as possible as each player took a series of coronavirus tests before they even played a game. The first before they traveled to Columbus, Ohio, two more before their first game and another after every first game. Nobody was allowed to leave their room without a mask. Teams were confined to practice in converted hotel ballrooms specifically designated for a team. Finally, team players were required to pack its bags and leave their luggage near the front door. Once your team loses, you’re required to immediately leave the quarantined TBT bubble.

“We were here for 11 or 12 days and it was some of the most fun and one of the best basketball experiences I’ve ever been a part of,” LaTulip said. “Anybody who saw us, saw House Of Paign saw that we’re tough dudes and we want that to be the staple and cornerstone of us moving forward.”

Suddenly, a tournament that stretched out to as many as 96 teams and eight regional sites was confined to one site and a quarantined lifestyle. This is how the Illinois alumni team was born and now Illini fans have hopes they’ll have some orange and blue to cheer for in the summer months.

For Malcolm Hill, who never got to experience the NCAA tournament in his Illini career, the TBT experience was admittedly “nostalgic” and an ordeal he’d love to be able to participate in again. Throughout the course of the tournament, Hill also experienced the death of his grandmother while he was confined to the TBT quarantine bubble.

“This is a credit to (LaTulip) on reaching out to me all the way back in December and finding a really great group of guys,” Hill said. “I would do this all over again with the same group of guys. No questions asked. This was so much fun just competing.”

While playing contract restrictions and scheduling restrictions may exist after the intensity of the COVID-19 epidemic has passed, LaTulip seemed last week interested in bringing a version of House Of Paign to Illini and basketball fans every summer.