Auburn basketball’s War Tampa team will be returning to the TBT tournament this summer, but they’ll be arriving in Florida with a new name and a new roster. Today the team officially announced on Twitter their new name: Team War Ready.
The team will officially be considered as the Auburn Alumni team and the roster will include at least eight former Auburn players as well as a few non-alumni in the mix.
Already publicly on the roster are 4 athletes, including a pair from the legendary 2019 Final Four team–Malik Dunbar and Danjel Purifoy. Desean Murray will join the summer team for year three, and just today the fourth player was announced.
Laron Smith, team captain of War Tampa, will officially rejoin the team. Smith joined Auburn basketball as a graduate transfer in the 2016-2017 season when Desean Murray and Danjel Purifoy were both redshirting.
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨
— Team WarReady (@War_ReadyAU) February 17, 2021
For all our Auburn Fans!! We have officially rebranded to Team WarReady for TBT 2021!
Officially will be consider the Auburn Alumni team! As we will have a roster made up of 8+ players from the University with a couple non alumni as well‼️
Stay tuned🦅🏀 pic.twitter.com/1KXlw8q1cZ
Smith played in 24 games and started three in his season on the Plains. He averaged 2.6 points and 2.4 rebounds and was key to helping Auburn win several games that season. Currently, Smith is a member of the United States Virgin Islands men’s national basketball team.
🚨Breaking News 🚨 Our team Captain Laron Smith ( @LaR0n ) is back for @thetournament 2021! One of the best rim protectors in the tournament is back in blue and orange‼️
— Team WarReady (@War_ReadyAU) February 16, 2021
Stay tuned for a big announcement later in the week 😏 pic.twitter.com/ezUtFR73vj
We’re excited to have Laron Smith on the team another year and look forward to hearing Team War Ready’s future player announcements. We’re #WarReady for TBT 21!