The Basketball Tournament is coming back to Wichita.

The $2 million winner-take-all basketball tournament that is broadcasted on ESPN has selected the city of Wichita to host a regional in back-to-back years on Tuesday. The seventh annual tournament has slated the Wichita games to be played from July 30 – Aug. 2 inside Charles Koch Arena. The announcement also means Wichita State’s alumni team, the AfterShocks, will also be making their second-ever appearance in the tournament.

When the tournament came last year, Wichita broke the all-time regional four day record for attendance – bringing in 20,000 fans. Opening night drew a TBT record crowd of 7,184 fans.

“Wichitans showed so much excitement and support for the tournament when the city played host to the event in 2019, packing into Koch Arena to almost triple the TBT attendance record. Without a doubt, we knew what a great event this was for the city and wanted to bring it back to enjoy for a second time,” said Brian Hargrove, executive director of sports development for Visit Wichita, in a release. “The love of basketball and Wichita State is strong, and we look forward to another successful year of TBT action.”

The first-round games will take place on Thursday and Friday with two games each of those evenings. The remaining four teams, since the tournament is single elimination, will compete in the Regional Semifinal on Saturday and the Regional Championship will be played on Sunday. The application period for teams interested in competing in Wichita opens March 15 – there has been no indication to if Kansas and Kansas State’s alumni teams will also return to Wichita.

Former Shockers Toure’ Murry, Clevin Hannah, Shaq Morris, Conner Frankamp, Joe Ragland, Rashard Kelly, Tekele Cotton, and JT Durley have already committed to play in the 2020 rendition of the tournament. The team plans to keep the roster open for four players heading into the summer.

Overall, the tournament has be successful. The high stakes tournament continues to attract world-known talent and some of the top basketball talent that isn’t in the NBA. So far, 34 players have gone on from TBT to sign professional contracts with NBA teams in its seven year history. Last year’s tournament saw 59 former NBA players participate, while 23 of the 64 teams were solely alumni based teams.

Last year’s Wichita Regional champion, Golden Eagles (Marquette alumni), lost in the championship game against Carmen’s Crew (Ohio State alumni).

Tickets for the tournament are already on sale in the WSU ticket office and online.