“We’ve sort of seen an opportunity in this,” NHBT campus recruiter Tamar Brown said. “We’re doing so much more than playing basketball. We’re bringing Jewish students from all over the country together. So we’re really trying to capitalize on that and make it a meaningful experience and trying to foster connections with other Jews and other students around the country and sort of just fostering that kind of environment."

In line with the Jewish faith, the University of Maryland Hillel hosts a Shabbat dinner on Friday evening to welcome all the competing teams and allow the players to meet with the other competitors from around the country.

Saturday morning the Maryland Hillel offers Shabbat morning services and then the teams have the rest of the day to do what they want as no games are played until after the sabbath ends at sundown on Saturday.

“I think it’s more important than people think," Brown said of the importance of bringing young Jewish people together. "People come for the basketball, but return because of the experience. … There really isn’t a large gathering for Jewish college students, so this is what it is, this is it.”

Brown said it was easier to get teams from Michigan to participate because she is from Michigan and has friends and colleagues at the schools that she was able to spread the word about the tournament to.

The men's tournament has grown greatly since it began Brown said. The men's tournament began six years ago with about 20 schools from mostly the west coast region, but now is comprised of roughly 46 teams from all over the country.

Brown said the women's tournament is still relatively small with about 10-12 teams. She said expanding the women's tournament is not a top priority, but said she would like to see it grown in the future.

MSU Journalism senior Darren Weiss, who participated in the event last year said he enjoyed getting to meet young Jewish men and women from around the country last year and is excited to be returning.

“It’s cool because you meet a lot of people from different places, but with the same kind of background," Weiss said. "Another thing that I was not expecting was there was also a girls tournament too. They had about 10 girls teams and it was really cool to hang out with everyone and hear where everyone was from, what they’re studying.”

MSU economics senior and member of MSU's team, Neil Rosenthal said MSU did not have enough interest this year to register a women's team, but hopes in the future the MSU Hillel can get the word out about the event to get enough participation for a women's team as well as the men's.

Rosenthal said he is excited to be taking part in the event this year after not being able to participate last year because it was not heavily promoted around campus. Rosenthal said he is excited for more than just the basketball, but also to get to meet a new large group of Jewish college students and to learn from his peers.

“Just maybe (gain) a new sense of Jewish kids my age,” Rosenthal said. “I haven’t really been, obviously I’m here, but this is very similar to my high school, I actually did go to a Jewish high school as well, but it’s very small, you know everyone, and here I feel like I know everyone too and now I’m going to go somewhere and it’s going to be a large group of Jewish people. I’m not going to know very many people and it’s kind of going to be eye-opening to me to just be in that environment.”

As for the basketball, games begin Friday, but Brown said the action really heats up Saturday evening as games run from sundown until late night. The entrance fee for teams hoping to participate is $800 this year if teams applied by a special early-bird deadline and $975 per team after the deadline.

Rosenthal said this year's team received an anonymous donation which covered the cost of the team's entrance fee. He said the team is splitting a bus to the event with Wayne State players and some of the players for the University of Michigan women's team.

This year, unlike MSU's first year participating the team held tryouts to decide who would give it the best chance to be competitive in the tournament. Weiss and Rosenthal said the team last year was hastily put together and was not as competitive as a result. 

Journalism senior Darren Weiss, who participated in the event last year said he thinks MSU's team is much better this year and is excited for the opportunity to go back and represent MSU again at the tournament.

“Highlight was definitely experiencing another college campus and playing at their facilities and playing against other Jewish teams from around the country and really representing Michigan State," Weiss said. "Me along with the rest of the team and we tried our best to represent Michigan State and we hope to try our best this year and we’ll see what happens.”