Self Made TBT squad to host meet and greet Sunday in Lawrence

By Matt Tait     Jul 19, 2019

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The uniforms for this year's Self

Team Self Made, the all-KU alumni squad that hopes to be playing for a $2 million prize in The Tournament in the weeks ahead, is hosting a meet and greet for fans at Jefferson’s West in Lawrence on Sunday.

Self Made general manager and lead guard Elijah Johnson will co-host the event from 3-6 p.m. Sunday and the club will be selling T-Shirts and mingling with fans as a small break in their training camp for the event, which is slated to begin Saturday.

“It’s just a meet and greet,” Johnson said Friday. “We’re trying to hang out, get some food and meet some KU fans. But we’re really just trying to interact with people as much as we can before we go down to Wichita and we want as many people to show up as we can get.”

Johnson said fans who purchase food and Self Made T-Shirts will also receive autographs from some of their favorite former Jayhawks. He did not know yet how many of the 10-man squad would be able to make it to Sunday’s event, but the team roster includes Johnson, Tyshawn Taylor, Travis Releford, Kevin Young, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Mario Little, Perry Ellis, Jeremy Case and Landen Lucas.

In addition to hanging with fans and grabbing a bite to eat, Johnson and Nick Schwerdt, host of “Rock Chalk Sports Talk” on KLWN, will be recording a live episode of their new “Foul Shots” podcast from the venue.

Self Made opens play at the TBT at 6 p.m. Thursday against No. 6 seed Sideline Cancer at Wichita State’s Koch Arena. The former Jayhawks are a 3-seed in the Wichita region and need three wins there to advance to the Elite Eight in Chicago, where the eight teams still standing will fight for the winner-take-all, $2 million top prize over the final three rounds.

“I’m very hopeful that it goes well,” KU coach Bill Self told the Journal-World when asked about Self Made’s chances. “But there’s a lot of guys out there that can really play and take it really serious, so I hope our guys are locked in.”

According to Johnson, that’s not a concern.

In addition to a fun reunion for a handful of players who played together during their days with the Jayhawks, Johnson said Self Made’s journey in the TBT is all about taking it as serious as possible and treating it like they used to treat game days when they wore crimson and blue.

To that end, the team is expected to arrive back in Lawrence this weekend and run through a five-day mini-camp of sorts designed to fine-tune skills and get everyone on the same page.

Each day is broken down into individual work and team sessions and Self Made is planning to head to Wichita on Wednesday to make [final preparations for Thursday’s tourney opener.][1]

“We want to give people a little flashback to when we actually used to do it,” Johnson said.

[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2019/jul/9/schedule-uniforms-set-for-self-made-squa/

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.