The Basketball Tournament 2023: Men of Mackey Team Profile

Men of Mackey, the Purdue alumni team looks to not replicate the Boilermakers performance in this year’s tournament and win the $1,000,000.

Men of Mackey have competed in the last three tournaments and have had the same exact result each time. They’ve won the first, then lost the second. Men of Mackey would love to win the first again, but also the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. They’ve got an uphill battle in doing so, but the Purdue faithful believe that this is their year.

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Current Roster:

• Bobby Planutis (Purdue Fort-Wayne)
• David Jenkins (Purdue)
• Evan Maxwell (Liberty, Kansas, & Indiana Wesleyan)
• Isaiah Wilkerson (NJIT)
• Jacquil Taylor (Purdue & Hofstra)
• Jonathan Octeus (Colorado State & Purdue)
• Kelsey Barlow (UIC & Purdue)
• Kyle Mangas (Indiana Wesleyan University)
• Lewis Jackson (Purdue)
• Nojel Eastern (Purdue)
• Ousmane Drame (Quinnipiac)
• Robbie Hummell (Purdue)

Coaching Staff:

• Ryan Kay (GM)
• Ryne Smith (Head Coach)

Region:

• Dayton, Ohio

Team MVP: Kyle Mangas

Mangas might be the best player you’ve never heard of. In his college career, he scored over 3,000 points. He did that at the Division II level, but that is still extremely impressive. If you don’t find that impressive, he averaged 20.5 PPG in the Czech League the year after. The bottom line is, this guy can score. They’ll need him to score too, as they don’t have a go-to guy and no one on the team whose primary obligation will be putting the ball in the basket.

Mangas averaged 15 PPG in just 23 MPG last year when he competed for Men of Mackey. They would love to see this level of production again, and if he can do so then they will have a good chance of taking control of this game.

Make-or-break Player: David Jenkins Jr.

Jenkins moved around a lot in his college career. He started at South Dakota State, then moved to UNLV, then Utah, and finally Purdue. The more he moved, the more production went down. In his first two years at South Dakota State, he averaged 16.1 PPG and 19.7 PPG. Then, it went down to 14.8, then 8.5, and now 3.9 PPG at Purdue.

So the question for Jenkins is if there’s any version of the South Dakota State version of him in there still. If he can score the ball at ease and become a legitimate offensive threat alongside Mangas, then that will make their opponent’s lives very difficult. If we see more of the 3.9 PPG scorer, not only will that limit his opportunities, but it will limit the opportunities for his team. Keep an eye on Jenkins in round 1.

Team Outlook

Boilernation we’ll see you on a Wednesday afternoon in Dayton.

6⃣ seed
🆚 Team Colorado
🗓️ July 26th at 3PM est.
📺 ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/HLK2C260ih

— Men of Mackey (@PurdueTbt) June 21, 2023

If you’re a betting man, take Men of Mackey to win their first game and lose their second. It seems to be a winning strategy every year. In order to make it to the second round, they’ll have to face Team Colorado, a team comprised of Colorado Alumni who have been one of the more successful in the tournament, boasting an 8-5 overall record (although not very successful in coming up with a creative team name). They’ll really need Mangas to step up in this one because as the six-seed, they’ll have their backs to the wall from the start.

The biggest name on the team is Robbie Hummell. We’ve seen player/coaches and even player/GM, but how often do we see a player/announcer? Hopefully, Hummell and his team can provide plenty of talking points for the talented color commentator.

Some other notable players to watch are Ousmane Drame, a talented defensive player and shot blocker, and Nojel Eastern, a pest on the defensive end.

As the fans would say, Boiler Up and Hammer Down.

Image via @purduetbt