MORGANTOWN — Two years ago, Best Virginia entered The Basketball Tournament (TBT) as more of a fantasy team.
A collection of fan-favorites from the 2010 Final Four and the “Press” Virginia teams walked into a regional in Richmond armed with high expectations, but short on guard depth.
“I think one of the things we learned very quickly was you have to have guards,” said Dave Tallman, Morgantown High’s boys’ basketball coach who also doubles as an assistant with Best Virginia. “Basketball is a guard’s game now anyway, but in the TBT, you have to have at least three or four who can run the offense and also create some offense, and you’ve got to have some shooters.”
Best Virginia was awarded the No. 2 seed in the Charleston Regional Monday, and along with Marshall’s alumni team, Herd That, are the hosts of the regional which takes place July 17-21 at the Charleston Coliseum.
TBT is a 64-team, single-elimination tournament with a winner-take-all prize of $1 million.
The championship game is scheduled for Dayton on Aug. 3.
Best Virginia is matched up against WOCO Showtime, a Wofford alumni team making its seventh TBT appearance, in the first round. The first-round game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on July 17.
Herd That, the No. 3 seed in the regional, plays Team DRC in the first round.
Sideline Cancer, which was the TBT runner-up in 2020, earned the No. 1 seed in Charleston.
Best Virginia still has its stars from the Final Four and Press Virginia eras like Kevin Jones, John Flowers and Juwan Staten, but it has also added a natural shot blocker in Sagaba Konate and an additional shooter in Alex Ruoff.
Tarik Phillip and Chase Harler were also added to add more guard depth behind Staten and Jaysean Paige.
James Long, a former WVU player who is now the head coach at West Virginia Tech, will coach Best Virginia.
“You can’t really go into this thing with just a collection of all-stars, you have to have good team chemistry,” Tallman said. “I think some of the pieces we’ve added, we’ve kind of become a more well-rounded team. We’ve added to our guards, but we also added a great shot blocker in Sags and we added another much-needed shooter with Alex Ruoff.
“We’ve got a good mixture of veterans and younger guys, which is also important in getting your chemistry to click.”
Best Virginia will play in two exhibition games on July 7 (Beckley) and July 9 (Wheeling) before heading to Charleston.
“I’m sure everyone will be excited to go down there and represent WVU,” Tallman said. “Getting the No. 2 seed I think will have a lot of guys excited. I’m excited to see how this team comes together during our workouts and how we piece everything together.”
Best Virginia roster
John Flowers
Kevin Jones
Alex Ruoff
Jaysean Paige
Tarik Phillip
Sagaba Konate
Nathan Adrian
Juwan Staten
Chase Harler
Logan Routt
Head coach: James Long
Ticket info
For tickets to the July 7 (Beckley) and July 9 (Wheeling) exhibition games, visit
bestvirginiatbt.com
For tickets to the TBT Charleston Regional from July 17-21, visit
thebasketballtournament.com/tickets.php
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