OHIO COUNTY, W.Va. (WTRF)–The Basketball Tournament (TBT) announced on Monday they will hold their regional in Wheeling for the first time.
The West Virginia University alumni team, Best Virginia continues to serve as The Basketball Tournament’s regional host.
John Flowers has been a part of the tournament since it was just an idea.
Flowers came to the Mountain State when he was 17 years old, and he says he fell in love with it.
It all started with an alumni game and blossomed into the state-wide event we now know as TBT.
Best Virginia first began competing in TBT in 2019 and within two years of the games in their home state, Best Virginia has only lost once (5-1).
This all started with an alumni game about eight or nine years ago in Morgantown. Just a few of us had the idea of putting it together, Da’Sean Buter, Kevin Jones…so we were like we might as well do something and raise money for various charities through that and also give people the opportunity to come see us play.
John Flowers, Best Virginia
The games have awarded more than $12 million dollars in prize money since 2014.
Eight teams will battle it out over the course of five days in July and the West Virginia Regional champion will advance to the quarterfinals.
Tickets will go on sale on April 1st.
