Best Virginia starts its dash for $1 million in TBT 2024 this weekend in Pittsburgh

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — While The Basketball Tournament may still feel like a novel concept, Best Virginia is already turning the page to a new era of its West Virginia University alumni basketball team.

Chase Harler transitions from player to head coach for Best Virginia in TBT 2024, and former low-post bruiser Kevin Jones will join his staff. The team has a scrimmage and multiple practices under its belt, and it will kick off the $1 million tournament Saturday afternoon against Brotherly Love in the first round of the Pittsburgh Regional.

“This is a free-spirited group, [and Harler] kind of balances the personalities well,” guard Tarik Phillip said. “He also knows the game because he’s played overseas at the professional level. We’re all buying in.”

This year’s Best Virginia squad undoubtedly looks different. Phillip is one of nine former WVU players on the roster, but those nine players combine for just eight years of TBT experience with Best Virginia, and Teyvon Myers accounts for four of those tournaments by himself.

Taz Sherman, Wesley Harris, Esa Ahmad and Sagaba Konate are all former WVU players who will make their Best Virginia debut this weekend in Pittsburgh. Devin Williams, Jonathan Holton and Phillip all return to the team after missing one or more of the last few TBTs.

“When we get these guys into town, they get that feeling of being a Mountaineer again,” Harler said. “For them to have that feeling, it helps them play harder and faster, and it means more.”

As for the team’s ringers — impact players who did not play college ball at WVU — Harler worked some of his immediate networks to beef up the roster. Through a connection with former Best Virginia head coach James Long, Harler added recent Indiana State University hooper Xavier Bledson. Phillip also helped Harler acquire Marcus Keene, a TBT regular and one of the most accomplished collegiate scorers of all time .

“Chase brought back a great group of guys,” Phillip said.

To start off the tournament, Best Virginia will face Brotherly Love in the first round of TBT’s Pittsburgh Regional. Brotherly Love is a summer basketball team derived from the Brotherly Love Pro-Am League in Philadelphia, which “works to create equity, opportunity and lasting camaraderie by cultivating a network of professional athletes, centering both fitness and wellness to improve the physical, financial and mental health of communities in Philadelphia,” according to the team’s bio.

Forwards Novar Gadson (Rider), Samme Givens (Drexel), Donte Green (Syracuse), Langston Wilson (Washington) and Lucious Lucky Jones Jr. (Robert Morris) all played Division I basketball in college.

The winner of Best Virginia’s first-round matchup will move on to the second round Monday night at 8:00 p.m. ET against the winner of No. 2 Zoo Crew, the Pitt alumni team and host of the Pittsburgh Regional, vs. No. 7 Million $ Worth of Game. After that will be the Pittsburgh Regional final Wednesday night, and the winner of the Pittsburgh Regional will face the champion of the Butler Regional in the TBT quarterfinal.

“This tournament is about being together for six games, coming together for two-to-three weeks and winning $1 million,” Keene said. “If you win that, everybody’s going to get something good.”

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