As 64 teams gear up for day one of The Basketball Tournament (TBT) on July 19, WVU’s alumni team Best Virginia will be doing so with relics of both the young and old eras of Mountaineer Basketball.
Best Virginia, one of 29 teams in the TBT representing a university’s alumni base, finalized its roster on Monday for its debut at the Pittsburgh Regional on Saturday. Of the 10 Best Virginia players, eight played collegiate ball at WVU, with the exceptions being Xavier Bledson, who just finished his senior season at Indiana State, and Marcus Keene, who has played internationally since ending his career at Central Michigan in 2017.
Chase Harler and Kevin Jones, who each played four seasons for the Mountaineers, will also bring their experience in Morgantown to TBT, serving as Best Virginia’s head coach and assistant coach respectively. Jones, a WVU Hall of Fame inductee, will also bring TBT playing experience to the table as a coach.
Alex Peavler, Tyler Cheng, and Greg Richardson round out the Best Virginia staff. Cheng and Richardson both have ties to West Virginia despite not having played for the Mountaineers. Cheng currently serves as WVU Men’s Basketball’s athletic data statistician, while Richardson serves as athletic director for the West Virginia Academy, a charter school in Morgantown. Alex Peavler assists in player development at St. Louis University.
When compiling the past seasons represented by the roster’s eight WVU alumni, every season from 2013 to 2022 of West Virginia basketball is accounted for. Each Best Virginia player contributed to the culture and results of the Mountaineers in that decade of time, and the team will likely look to pull from that history in Pittsburgh.
Devin Williams (2013-2016)
Williams, who played college basketball least recently of the WVU players, burst onto the scene as a high-level rebounder, especially for a 6-foot-9 forward, as a freshman. With averages of 8.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, Williams recorded eight double-doubles in the season, putting him third all-time among WVU freshmen and tied for first in the Big 12 in 2014 with Kansas’s future NBA MVP Joel Embiid.
After succeeding as a freshman starter, Williams’ role only increased in his two subsequent seasons at West Virginia. As a senior, Williams played in 35 games, averaging 25.4 minutes per. He averaged 13.3 points, the second most on the team, and a team-high 9.5 rebounds per game. Williams was part of two 25-win Mountaineer teams and made the NCAA Tournament in both his sophomore and junior years under head coach Bob Huggins.
Since WVU, Williams has played a long career internationally and currently plays for the Taiwan Beer Leopard in the T1 League. He has played in TBT and for Best Virginia previously, making his most recent team appearance in 2019.
Jonathan Holton (2014-2016)
Also ending his WVU career in 2016, Holton played two solid seasons at WVU, contributing to NCAA Tournament appearances in both. Holton averaged 8.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.1 steals as a Mountaineer.
As a senior, Holton was briefly suspended by the Mountaineers for violating team rules, but he returned for the postseason, contributing eight points and five rebounds in the final game of his career, a first-round loss to Stephen F. Austin.
Tarik Phillip (2014-2017)
In three seasons at WVU, Phillip made the NCAA Tournament three times as a part of a team that improved every season he was on it. Coming off the bench, Phillip was as valuable as ever in the 2016-2017 season, where he averaged 9.5 points, 3.0 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game.
Phillip was named Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year in 2017 and has been playing primarily in European leagues since. Phillip played briefly for the Memphis Hustle in the NBA G-League in 2018-2019 and averaged 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.6 steals. He scored 48 points in a single game, including 39 in the second half in a February G-League game, earning him a Summer League spot with the Washington Wizards before he left to go back to Europe.
Like Williams, Phillip has played for Best Virginia in the past, making his most recent TBT appearance in 2021.
Teyvon Myers (2015-2017)
Making his fourth consecutive TBT appearance is Teyvon Myers, a staple of the Best Virginia name. Myers, who played two years at WVU in a bench role, is a reliable 6-foot-2 guard, even at the age of 30, and was the first name secured for the team this season.
Myers enters TBT after averaging a career high 19.1 points per game in Turkey this past year. He also averaged 4.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 30 games with TED Kolejliler. Myers averaged 5.8 points in 13 minutes per game in 2016-2017 with West Virginia.
Esa Ahmad (2015-2019)
Ahmad makes his Best Virginia debut this Saturday with lofty expectations. As a four-year Mountaineer and 1,000-point scorer, Ahmad is one of the biggest names Best Virginia has to offer. He helped the Mountaineers to three consecutive 25-win seasons for three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2016 to 2018.
As a senior, Ahmad averaged 12 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 23 games. He was dismissed part-way through the season due to violating WVU’s athletic department policies. He struggled with drug-related suspensions in his time at WVU as well.
After recovering from knee injuries for the past two years, Ahmad performed well in Europe this year. He comes to Best Virginia off of a 14.2-point-per-game season in Germany.
Wesley Harris (2017-2019)
A name closely tied to Ahmad’s is Wesley Harris, who was dismissed from WVU for the same reason as Ahmad and at the same time. Also like Ahmad, Harris will be making his Best Virginia debut this season.
Harris, despite getting in trouble with fighting on and off the court, leading to his Big 12 reprimand and later dismissal from WVU, contributed well in his time at West Virginia as a defensive stopper. He also took a step up in scoring after leaving WVU, jumping from 7.9 points per game to 11.6 with Tennessee State in 2019-2020. He averaged 11.8 points in 12 games in Slovakia this season.
Sagaba Konate (2016-2019)
Another returner for Best Virginia is Sagaba Konate, a prolific WVU shot blocker. The 2018 All-Big 12 third team and Defensive All-America selection used every bit of his 6-foot-8, 250-pound frame at WVU. As a freshman, Konate averaged 1.4 blocks per game in just 10.9 minutes before bringing that way up to 3.2 per game in 25.4 minutes the next season.
As a junior, Konate averaged 2.8 blocks per game before getting shut down for the year due to a knee injury and declaring for the NBA Draft thereafter.
Konate also provides significant scoring abilities to Best Virginia. Along with his 3.2 blocks per game as a sophomore, Konate averaged 10.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per. In eight games as a junior, Konate averaged 13.6 points before getting shut down for the year.
Taz Sherman (2019-2022)
Rounding out the Best Virginia roster and bridging the team’s players of old to a more recent era of WVU Basketball is Taz Sherman. Sherman will be making his Best Virginia debut on Saturday.
At 6-foot-4, Sherman was the definition of a scoring guard at WVU, as he led the team in scoring in 2022 by over five points, with season averages of 17.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. Sherman averaged 34.1 minutes per game for Bob Huggins that season. The fifth-year senior earned All-Big 12 second team honors but went undrafted before heading to Budapest, Hungary to begin his professional career.
As he makes his way to Best Virginia, Sherman still has the identity of a scorer. This past season in Finland, Sherman averaged 19.6 points per game to go with 4.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds.
The roster of former Mountaineers, along with its additions of youth, will play as one unit under the Best Virginia name on Saturday, July 20 at 3 p.m in Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center. The game will be available for streaming on TBT Live.
Photo from WVU Athletics
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