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Iowa basketball: Baer to join Cyclones, Bulldogs, and Panthers for TBT

By Andrew Wade

COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 22: Nicholas Baer #51 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates during the second half against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 22: Nicholas Baer #51 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates during the second half against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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The creation of a TBT team dubbed Iowa United featuring former members of the Iowa basketball team, Drake, Iowa State, and UNI was announced this week.

The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is a $2 million winner take all tournament held yearly, and in the past, the only representation from the state of Iowa was the Hilton Magic, a squad made up entirely of former Iowa State players. This year, however, General Manager Matt Crawford wanted to spice things up by creating the Iowa United, a team composed of former players from the Iowa basketball program, the Iowa State basketball program, the Drake basketball program, and the Northern Iowa basketball program.

Crawford wanted to create a team that can win games at this exciting tournament, help out an incredible cause (the Iowa United will be playing for the Fore The Veterans foundation), and gives the entire state of Iowa a team everyone can root for.

This idea, inspired nearly a year ago after the Hilton Magic were knocked out of the tournament in the first round, has taken a ton of work to come to fruition, and by the end of next week we will know the full roster for this team (and I promise you, it’s a pretty good roster!).

At this point though, the Iowa United have announced just four players who will be joining together in the TBT tournament held later this summer. These players are Iowa State’s Tyrus McGee, Iowa’s Nicholas Baer, UNI’s Wes Washpun, and Drake’s Reed Timmer.

So far, that’s quite an exciting foursome. Here’s a quick breakdown of each player (more information on each player will be released later this week).

  •  McGee is a dynamic scorer who was the leader of the last Hilton Magic team and is currently playing overseas.
  • Former Iowa basketball player Nicholas Baer is a hustle guy who will give any team valuable minutes off of the bench, and provide a nice shooting touch from behind the arc.
  • Wes Washpun, the former Tennessee Volunteer turned UNI Panther is an electric point guard who can figuratively jump out of the roof and is currently playing overseas in the UK.
  • Reed Timmer may be the least known player on this list, but he won’t be for long. Drake’s all-time leading scorer is currently lighting it up in Germany and will be a force off the bench for the Iowa United. In his senior season with the Bulldogs, Timmer averaged 19.2 points while shooting 41.3% from three.

There will be five more players announced throughout this upcoming week including at least one more former Iowa basketball player on the Iowa United’s twitter account. At that point, the Iowa United will be entered into the TBT database where they will need our help voting them into the tournament.

As you can expect, we will be providing more details on the tournament, the next crop of players being announced, and what you can do to help get this team in the tournament when the time is closer.

I, for one, cannot wait to watch the state of Iowa bring all four schools together to win some games on a national stage.

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