Keene State alumnus and 2019 D3hoops.com All-America selection Ty Nichols leads The Basketball Tournament in points per game. Photo by Pete Meshanic

Ty Nichols finished his Division III career as a first team All-American for Keene State in 2019. But it turns out, he wasn't done making headlines and wasn't done representing Division III basketball. 

He's done that in a significant way this past week as a member of We Are D3, a team of Division III basketball alumni coached by former D-III head coach Michael Rejniak in The Basketball Tournament, the summer basketball tournament featuring alumni teams from Division I schools and many other areas of basketball. 

He opened the tournament as one of three scorers in double figures for We Are D3, including putting the team on his back down the stretch in the opening game against Laynes Hope on Saturday, July 19. With the team struggling to finish the game off during the Elam Ending phase, Nichols took the ball to the hole and got fouled, hitting two free throws, then added a bucket to close the game and give D3 a 75-71 win. Aside from Nichols, D3 was 1-for-10 from the floor and 0-for-4 from three-point range in the game-closing stretch.

And then on Monday night, it was clear who the best player on the floor was. In a game in which Boeheim's Army jumped out to an early lead, D3 battled back into it and ended up winning 81-78 on Nichols' athletic runner. Nichols was able to get just one shot off during the six minutes of the Elam Ending phase, but it was the winner, after which he ended up on top of the broadcast table celebrating with his team.

"It's a credit to my teammates; they give me the confidence to take any shot that I want and I'm confident in myself to take any shot I want," Nichols said on air in the postgame show. "But it doesn't come down to me, it doesn't revolve around me. We all play together, we all got stops on the defensive end. We all made big plays. It's a credit to them, a credit to the coaching staff, and the 12 fans that we have."

Marcus Azor has also had a great tournament for D3, scoring 17 points and bringing in seven rebounds in the opening win, while Samuel Peek added 14 points and seven boards vs. Laynes Hope.

Dimitrius Underwood, the hero in 2024's TBT win, backed Nichols up with 14 points in Monday's victory against Boeheim's Army, while Mount Union alumnus Christian Parker had a strong game off the bench with 10 points and eight boards in 26 minutes.

Up next for We Are D3 is a Round of 16 game against Stars of Storrs, a team of UConn alumni which also includes St. Joseph (Conn.) alumnus Tyree Mitchell. In fact, nearly 50 former Division III players are on TBT rosters, including elder statesman Jeff Gibbs, a D3hoops.com and D3football.com All-American at Otterbein who was the leader of their D-III national champion team 23 years ago.