How Best Virginia, Zoo Crew players fared in the Backyard Brawl during their college careers

One of college sports best rivalries will be renewed on the hardwood at 8 p.m. ET Monday night in Pittsburgh. Best Virginia and Zoo Crew, the WVU and Pitt alumni teams, will battle in the second round of TBT’s Pittsburgh Regional .

College realignment — Pitt moving to the ACC and West Virginia moving to the Big 12 — halted the Backyard Brawl basketball series for five years between 2012 and 2017. That means for some players on the court, like Best Virginia’s Devin Williams and Teyvon Myers and Zoo Crew’s Mike Young and Jamel Artis, Monday will be their first Backyard Brawl experience.

For others, however, the TBT second-round battle will renew a rivalry they experience first-hand. Best Virginia players will look to keep their on-court résumés against the Panthers in perfect condition.

“I’m from West Virginia, so, you know, I take it a little bit more personal,” Best Virginia head coach Chase Harler said Saturday. “Esa and I played against them in college, and I don’t think I ever lost to Pitt.”

Best Virginia

Active players on Best Virginia’s roster were a perfect 6-0, combined, against Pitt in their playing days.

Wesley Harris and Sagaba Konate helped WVU beat Pitt in the rivalry’s renewal game in 2017. Harris and Esa Ahmad downed the Panthers in Morgantown a year later. Taz Sherman assisted in two more Mountaineer wins over Pitt in 2019 and 2021.

Among players on BV’s roster, Sherman scored the most points against Pitt in his collegiate career. All 17 came in a stellar performance in Morgantown in 2021. Ahmad tallied 13 points and seven rebounds against the Panthers in his lone Backyard Brawl appearance, a 10-point win at the WVU Coliseum. Konate registered eight points, six boards and two blocks in his only appearance against Pitt a year earlier.

Harris, who led Best Virginia in scoring Saturday with 15 points, tallied eight points and eight rebounds in two contests against his school’s bitter rival.

Zoo Crew

Zoo Crew players who appeared in Saturday night’s TBT-opening-round win were a combined 0-4 against the Mountaineers in their college days. Three of those players — Nelly Cummings, Nike Sibande and Greg Elliott — all appeared in Pitt’s 25-point loss to WVU at Petersen Events Center in 2022. They will return to the scene of the crime Monday night.

Former Pitt forward Ryan Luther performed the best against West Virginia among Zoo Crew players. He recorded 13 points and 12 rebounds in a losing effort to Harris and Konate in 2017.

Pitt swingman Jared Wilson-Frame tallied a combined 15 points and 10 boards in two losses against the Mountaineers. He was inactive for the TBT opener on Saturday, as was former Panthers star forward Dejuan Blair.

Blair is the only Pitt alumnus on Zoo Crew’s roster with a winning record against West Virginia. Blair’s teams were 3-2 in the Backyard Brawl, back in the Big East days, with the big man doing a lot of heavy lifting. The Pittsburgh native averaged 11 points and eight rebounds per game against the Mountaineers, including a 16-point, 11-rebound performance in 2009.

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