The Basketball Tournament: 2024 schedule, how to watch, locations, notable players, rules and format

The 11th edition of The Basketball Tournament begins on Friday, July 19, with 64 teams set to battle for the $1 million winner-take-all prize.

The Basketball Tournament (TBT) has become a feature of the summer sports calendar, especially as more prominent players join and the prize money purse continues to increase.

Here’s all you need to know ahead of the upcoming event.

The Basketball Tournament 2024 schedule

The tournament will kick off on Friday, July 19, with plenty of action taking place simultaneously across the country.

First round games will be completed by July 20, with second round action taking place on July 21-22.

The "Sweet 16" will take place on July 23 and 24, before each regional final will play out on the weekend of July 27-28.

The semifinals of TBT will be held in Philadelphia on Friday, August 2, before the title game takes place on Sunday, August 4 at 2 PM ET.

The Basketball Tournament 2024 venues

The host sites for the first four rounds of games include Houston, Lexington, Louisville, Wichita, Pittsburgh, Dayton, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

The semifinals will be held in Philadelphia on Friday, August 2, before the title game takes place on Sunday, August 4.

How to watch The Basketball Tournament, TV channel and streaming

There are multiple ways to watch the 2024 edition of TBT.

Fans can watch the action on FOX networks, including FOX, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and Big Ten Network.

Streaming will be available for free on TBT's official website, as well as on streaming services that carry FOX network, such as YouTube TV or fuboTV.

The Basketball Tournament 2024 rules

TBT will be most familiar to those who are accustomed to watching college basketball.

The biggest difference in formatting involves time, as each game features four nine-minute quarters (instead of a pair of 20-minute halves), while players foul out after their sixth foul, as opposed to their fifth foul.

Additionally, FIBA rules are applied for bonus free throws, as a team will get a pair of free throws on the fifth and subsequent non-shooting fouls by the defense in a given quarter.

One thing that makes the rules of TBT unique is the tournament’s use of the Elam Ending. This is a wrinkle that the NBA has experimented with in past All-Star Games, in which teams end the game by playing to a target score.

In The Basketball Tournament, the shot clock is still enforced, but the game clock is turned off at the first whistle with up to four minutes remaining in the final quarter.

The concept may seem complicated, but it really is simple; you just take however many points the team in the lead has, add seven, and that becomes the target score to end the game.

In recent editions of the event, the target score has since increased to eight points more than the leading team's tally.

The Basketball Tournament 2024 bracket format

Since 2016 this event has most often used a 64-team field and that is once again the case in 2024.

Much like the NCAA Tournament, these 64 teams will battle it out across eight regions, before one designated site (Philadelphia) hosts the semifinals/championship of the event.

The tournament bracket has been released, with defending champion Heartfire set to run it back with most of the same core and head coach - college basketball analyst Laphonso Ellis - as the top seed in the Dayton Regional.

The $1 million championship game will air Sunday, Aug. 4 on FOX.

Who is playing in The Basketball Tournament 2024?

With the prize money increasing and the fanfare growing around this event, more players are forming teams and giving TBT a shot.

Among the headliners in this tournament, NBA champion and longtime analyst Shaquille O'Neal is sponsoring a team in TBT. Team Diesel is the top seed in the Louisville region and features O’Neal’s own son, Shareef.

Elsewhere, Willie Cauley-Stein and Eric Bledsoe anchor a team of former Kentucky Wildcats, while a few old rivals from Louisville (Russ Smith, Payton Siva and Montrezl Harrell) have formed their own team in hopes of capturing the title.

In keeping with the old Big East theme, former UConn national champions Ryan Boatright, DeAndre Daniels and Joey Calcaterra headline the Huskies alumni in the Pittsburgh regional on the Stars of Storrs team.

Mass Street is also a contender in the Wichita regional, with former National Player of the Year and Kansas program legend Frank Mason leading the way.