CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Rossview High assistant basketball coach Jacob Freeze recently had the opportunity to join the coaching staff for the Eberlein Drive in The Basketball Tournament. The TBT is a March-Madness style tournament where 64 teams compete for the grand prize of $1 million. As fate would have it, Freeze’s drive would make the final four, in an experience he’ll never forget.

Freeze is a South Carolina native and attended the University of South Carolina for his undergraduate, where he worked for the men’s basketball team. After he graduated, he followed coach Matt Figger to Austin Peay, where he was a graduate assistant. Following his stint with the Govs, Freeze got into contact with Johnny Jackson, and has been an assistant coach for the Hawks since 2020. This year, an old co-worker from college hooked him up with Eberlein.

“I had a buddy, Vinny Vetrone that was on the staff with me at APSU that has been in the TBT with several teams,” said Freeze. “His dad was supposed to be the head coach, and called me and asked if I could come help coach. He had some health issues, and didn’t end up coaching, but that’s how I got on the staff.”

The Drive were a 6 seed in the Butler region, and with teams being seeded 1-8, they were an underdog on paper. Instead of listening to the rankings, Eberlein ripped off four straight wins against higher seeded teams, including alumni teams from Arkansas, Butler, Indiana and Penn State.

“We had heard a lot of hype about Team Arkansas, and to be honest I hadn’t been there long so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out,” said Freeze. “After that first game, seeing the talent and the way our guys played together, I knew that was pretty special. The more film I watched, the more confident I was in our guys.”

Eberlein would qualify for the Final Four in Philadelphia, the only non-alumni team to advance that far. They would unfortunately fall to the Houston Alumni team in the elimination game by only 3 points.

“The experience was once in a lifetime,” said Freeze. “It’s 64 teams, it’s win or go home, and it’s exciting. When you get there, you don’t really know anyone, and it’s really phenomenal to see how quickly we all came together as a team. Getting out of my own mindset of what I believe in as a coach and being able to be around amazing coaches and people, and I hopefully will be able to implement that at Rossview.”

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Sign up for our free Clarksville Now app