SYRACUSE, N.Y. - For the third straight season, the University of Hartford's newly minted head basketball coach was on a national stage.

As the co-general manager and coach of the Nerd Team in The Basketball Tournament, Aaron Toomey gets to hone his coaching skills in front of a national audience against some big-time names.

"During Covid, Matt Goldsmith and I came up with the idea of The Nerd Team," said Toomey. "We both came from Amherst College and have good relationships with the top academic coaches in the country. We wanted to put a group together that could show that basketball and academics aren't an either/or thing; that you can do both at a really high level."

The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is a 64-team, single-elimination tournament with the winning team taking home one million dollars. The entire tournament is aired on the ESPN collection of networks.

Alumni teams from the University of Buffalo (Blue Collar U), Ohio State University (Carmen's Crew), Marquette University (Golden Eagles), and Syracuse University (Boeheim's Army) have all brought home the million-dollar prize in the nine-year history of the summer basketball tournament. There has only been one team, Overseas Elite, that has one more than one championship and the collection of professional players claimed four straight titles.

The tournament's biggest impact has been the Elam Ending. A concept that has been used in the last four NBA All-Star games. With this ending, all games must end with a bucket. There is no running out the clock because there is no clock following the first dead ball under the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

"I think the Elam Ending provides a ton of drama and excitement late in games," said Toomey. "It's a fun experience every summer getting to strategize with some different rules."

Once the Elam Ending is activated, the target score is set by adding eight points to the leading team's score.

After losing in the first round of the 2021 TBT to Blue Collar U, Toomey's squad won a pair of games in 2022, including an epic win over Boeheim's Army. However, their run once again came to an end at the hands of Blue Collar U, which went on to win the tournament.

"Last year's results were huge for our team," said Toomey. "It allowed us to secure our place in the TBT and also helped us put together a really competitive group for this summer."

Toomey's collection of nerds came into the 2023 tournament as the third seed in their regional with the last two champions, Blue Collar U and Boeheim's Army as the region's top two seeds.

After opening up a 17-3 lead after the first quarter, The Nerd Team had to overcome a run by the Happy Valley Hoopers (Penn State University) to secure the victory. Trailing after the Elam Ending was activated, The Nerd team scored the final seven points to advance to Wednesday's second round at 8 p.m. against the team they eliminated last year, Boeheim's Army.

"We have an experienced and resilient group," said Toomey. "These guys all play at a really high level and have experience winning close games. We didn't panic and we had guys step up and make huge plays late."