Kentucky basketball: 2024 commit to make TBT history

Class of 2024 Kentucky basketball commit Somto Cyril will make history in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) on Wednesday night.

Cyril, a 4-star big man from Atlanta, plays for Overtime Elite. Team Overtime is playing against Carmen’s Crew in TBT, and Cyril is on the roster. In the 10 years TBT has been going on, no true amateur player has ever suited up.

Cyril will become the first.

This may be confusing for some people who follow TBT. Team Overtime played in 2022, losing its first game. On that team were Amen and Ausar Thompson, who were both taken in the 2023 NBA Draft. However, the Thompsons had already signed contracts with Overtime Elite before playing in the winner-take-all $1 million tournament.

Somto Cyril hasn’t made any deals yet, making the future Kentucky basketball player a true amateur among professionals in the summer tournament.

Cyril and Team Overtime will have a tough matchup against a Carmen’s Crew team which has a 16-4 all-time record in TBT. They are made up of mostly Ohio State alumni, and feature players like Andre & Kaleb Wesson, and William Buford. Jared Sullinger is the GM and head coach.

For Cyril, it should provide a true test against some physically gifted and experienced players. For a lot of the players in TBT, the $1 million prize is a big deal, depending on how their pro careers turned out after they were stars in college. Cyril is obviously still trying to prove himself and will have a fairly big stage to do it on.

Luckily for Cyril, Team Overtime has one of the deeper frontcourts in TBT. He will share the paint duties with 6-11 Jahzare Jackson and 6-8 Romello White. Jalen Lewis is listed as a small forward, but is also 6-10 and can play inside when needed.

Starting lineups won’t be announced until right before game time, so it will be interesting to see how much playing time Cyril gets and where in the rotation he will fall.