WHEELING, WV- We are about a month away from the start of fall sports as most football, soccer and volleyball teams start next week.
But, in case many of you do not know, there is a growing, exciting basketball tournament that takes place for the next couple of weeks.
The Basketball Tournament, or TBT, as it’s typically called, features many college alumni teams, with a few extra players thrown in here and there. The winner of the tournament splits one million dollars amongst the players and coaches. West Virginia University has a team in the tournament called Best Virgnia, and they opened the 2023 tourney on Tuesday night, July 25 against Dubois Dream.
The contest was back-and-forth all night, and many West Virginia fans look at Best Virginia as one of their own, so fingernail-biting was most likely a common theme around the Mountain State for about two hours. In the last four minutes of the game, at the first stoppage of play, the game goes into the Elam ending where you reach a target score. The team that is leading the game at that time must score eight more points to win as the target score is eight more points than what the current leaders’ score s. Whichever team gets to that score first, wins.
With Best Virginia down 68-67, and the target score set at 70, former Mountaineer great Kevin Jones took an out of bounds pass and handed the ball to recently graduated Erik Stevenson. Stevenson elevated high and drained a 3-pointer to give Best Virginia the first-round victory, 70-68.
Jones led BV with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Stevenson had 16 and 11 rebounds. Teyvon Myers added nine points and seven assists.
Best Virginia will play Thursday night against Herd That, a team made up of mostly Marshall alumni, including Greenbrier East’s Rondale Watson, and some other talented former college players. The Wes Banco Arena in Wheeling will most likely be a packed house as it will basically be looked at as Marshall vs. WVU. Herd That defeated Zoo Crew (Pitt alumni) 86-71 in their first game. The game will be at 7:00 PM on ESPN+.
Check out the TBT if you like basketball. It is highly entertaining and is and if you’re a WVU fan, it is fun to watch players from different Mountaineer teams play together as one.
The Best Virginia Roster is:
Teyvon Myers
Sean McNeil
Jamel Morris
Kevin Jones
John Flowers
Chase Harler
Erik Stevenson
Kedrian Johnson
Alex Gross
Nate Adrian
Quincy Ford
Nathan Flowers, Jr.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.