PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland Pilots men's basketball assistant coach Jeremy Pope will be the head coach of Boeheim's Army – a team comprised of Syracuse University basketball alumni – at The Basketball Tournament 2021 (TBT 2021) this July and August. It will be his first experience as a head coach for the tournament.

"It's going to be an amazing experience joining a program at TBT that's been around for the entirety of the event," Pope said. "Syracuse basketball is a staple of college basketball and everyone knows it's a household program, so it's exciting. I'm grateful for the opportunity."

TBT 2021 will be the eighth edition of the tournament, with 64 teams competing across five regions in a single-elimination competition from July 16 until Aug 3. The tournament has an open-application process that allows a wide variety of teams and players to join, including college alumni teams, international pros, ex-NBA players, future NBA players and more. The winner of the tournament earns a grand prize of $1 million.

Pope will coach Boeheim's Army, a team that consists of former Syracuse University basketball players as well as players who graduated from other colleges. The roster for this year's iteration of Boeheim's Army has three former NBA first round draft picks in Tyler Lydon, Chris McCullough and Malachi Richardson. The roster also features Tyrese Rice, who has put together a highly successful international career.

Boeheim's Army has posted a 15-6 record all-time at TBT and most recently were knocked out in the quarterfinals 2020. The Army made the Final Four of TBT back in 2017 and is consistently one of the top teams in the event.

"I think Boeheim's Army, as a roster, is fielding arguably the best roster that they've ever fielded in the last seven years," Pope said. "Our staff has grown, our roster has expanded and I think we have a really good chance … I think we're going to be in a situation that we all would love to be in."

Pope has several connections to the Syracuse family. He spent the 2017-18 college basketball season as a graduate assistant under University of Washington Head Coach Mike Hopkins, who was an assistant coach at Syracuse from 1995 until 2017. Pope was also a coach at Orangeville Prep in Ontario, Canada under Tony McIntyre, the father of former Syracuse basketball star and NBA first-round draft pick Tyler Ennis.