Trio of former men's basketball players compete in TBT

Trio of former men's basketball players compete in TBT

A trio of former Eastern Florida State College men's basketball players are competing in The Basketball Tournament which began Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

CJ Jackson, Shaheed Davis and B.J. Gladden are all on separate teams in the tournament, which is a 5-on-5 winner take all $1 million dollar single-elimination tournament featuring players ages 18 and over. 

Jackson, who helped EFSC to a perfect conference record and a trip to the NJCAA National Tournament in 2015-16, helped his Big X team to an opening-round win with seven points, three rebounds and two assists as Big X defeated D2 79-74 on opening day. Jackson was a second-team All-American at Eastern Florida State College and averaged 16.9 points and 4.4 assists per game. He went to Ohio State and is now playing in the Swedish Basketball League.

Jackson's EFSC teammate Gladden also helped his Team CP3 squad to a win in the tournament with 12 points and five rebounds in the 76-74 victory over Primetime Players. Gladden averaged 11.7 points and started 31 games for the Titans in that 2015-16 season and went on to play at Georgia Southern and is playing professionally in Europe. 

Davis, who played 19 games and averaged 10.7 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Titans in 2013-14, took the court with War Tampa but could not get the win as House of Paign picked up the 76-53 win. Davis finished with seven points and two rebounds. Davis is playing in the Japanese B League.

Jackson's Big X team advances to play Red Scare at 4 p.m. July 8 in the Super 16 round while Gladden's Team CP3 will play G Eagles at 9 p.m. 

All of the games are being shown on ESPN.