Best Virginia to Bring Familiar Style in 2024 TBT Pittsburgh Regional

Best Virginia, WVU basketball’s alumni-based team, is set to play in the Pittsburgh regional of the 2024 TBT event from July 19-24. This will be the first time since 2020 that Best Virginia won’t host their own regional, playing in Charleston and Wheeling the last three summers.

Pitt’s alumni team, The Zoo Crew, will do the honors of hosting their own regional this summer at the Petersen Events Center.

Best Virginia general manager Chase Harler spoke with WV Sports Now about the upcoming event.

“Pittsburgh is close enough for WVU fans to travel to. It’s going to be cool to play in Pitt’s arena. I think it’s going to have great energy. I know we’ll have fans who go up and travel. It’s always fun to start playing in this,” he said.

Harler also discussed bringing a unique style to TBT, which West Virginia fans will be very familiar with.

“[Head coach] James Long and I have been having conversations beginning this month about the style of play we want to do, our vision. We went back and forth on how we wanted to approach this and we both agreed we want to bring some comparison to ‘Press Virginia’ like we used to do in the good old days,” Harler added. “Not saying that it’s going to look exactly like that but that’s the blueprint we’re going for.”

Harler returns as Best Virginia’s general manager, while James Long (head coach), Greg Richardson (assistant GM) and Dave Ryan (marketing) also are in the works again with the team.

Best Virginia has advanced as far as the Elite-8 in Dayton in 2022 while earning a 1-seed in the Wheeling regional last summer.

The Basketball Tournament is a 64-team field, which the winning team takes home $1 million.