Former Blue Coats hooper Melvin Frazier Jr. leads Forever Coogs to TBT’s $1 million championship game

Melvin Frazier Jr. and Forever Coogs are one win away from $1 million.

The semifinals of The Basketball Tournament took place on Friday night at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center, where the former Delaware Blue Coat helped his team of Houston alumni to a 76-73 win over Eberlein Drive. Their victory booked a spot in Sunday afternoon’s $1 million championship game.

“It’s a good feeling, knowing the hard work that we put in, the type of practices we go through,” Frazier said postgame. “One win away from a million — that’s big time.”

» READ MORE: Here’s how TBT helped former Temple hoops aide Dean Demopolous fuel his basketball ‘obsession’

Frazier played his college basketball at Tulane, but he has a connection to Houston through Quannas White, an assistant for the Cougars who recruited him while at Tulane in 2015. White called Frazier earlier this summer to gauge his interest in joining the Houston alums, and he was on board. He didn’t fill up the stat sheet in the semifinal, but Forever Coogs needed every one of the seven points he scored in a game that came down to the wire.

After a 7-0 spurt by Eberlein Drive brought the margin to eight points early in the fourth quarter, Frazier soared for a putback layup — his third and final field goal of the night — to restore a double-digit lead for Forever Coogs. Eberlein Drive fought back to get within one late in the game, but a midrange jumper from former Houston star Rob Gray sealed the win for Forever Coogs via the Elam Ending.

Frazier has been an important piece for the Houston alumni throughout the tournament. He scored in double figures in the Round of 16 and quarterfinals, the latter of which included a pair of game-winning free throws to send Forever Coogs to Philly for the semifinals. Frazier also entered Friday night with a tournament-leading 11 steals and eight offensive rebounds, good for 10th most in TBT.

The 27-year-old showed that same tenacity during the 2023-24 season with the Blue Coats, suiting up in 31 games for the 76ers’ G-League affiliate and posting 10.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game. Coming back to Philly once again was a special moment for him.

“It meant a lot,” Frazier said. “I got a couple people from Delaware who came down. It feels good to come back … it feels like home.”

Frazier Jr. is a journeyman. The Blue Coats were his sixth G-League team in as many years since being selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft by the Orlando Magic. He played in a handful of NBA games for the Magic and also had a stint in the big leagues with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but he mostly resided in the G-League. The travel hasn’t stopped this summer, as Frazier played for Al-Ahly Ly, a Libyan professional team, before TBT began.

» READ MORE: Technically, Philly already had a million dollar team in the $1 million TBT tournament

“It was nice,” he said about his time in Africa. “It was different. A whole different scenery in basketball, but it turned out good for me.”

Frazier says his next team is still uncertain, but he would welcome a return to the Blue Coats for the 2024-25 campaign.

“We’ll just have to see how everything plays out,” he said. “I’ll be up for it, but everything has to make sense.”

His next landing spot is hardly on his mind right now. Frazier will take home a $60,000 cut of the $1 million grand prize if Forever Coogs can finish the job on Sunday when the championship tips off at 2 p.m. at the DAC. They will take on Carmen’s Crew, a team of Ohio State alumni that earned a 76-70 victory over Kentucky’s alumni team, La Familia, in the second semifinal.

Notable faces at the Daskalakis Center for that game included Sixers players and Kentucky basketball alumni Tyrese Maxey and Justin Edwards, Arkansas coach John Calipari , former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, and Camden High graduate DJ Wagner (now at Arkansas).