WOAY – The 24-team field has been announced for the 2020 edition of The Basketball Tournament, with the field including alumni from both West Virginia and Marshall.
The teams, known as Best Virginia and Herd That, were paired to face each other in the first round July 5 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Best Virginia made its first appearance in TBT last year, reaching the second round of the tournament before a loss to then-defending champion Overseas Elite. There had been teams in previous tournaments prominently featuring Marshall alumni, but no designated alumni team for the Herd before 2020.
Started in 2014, The Basketball Tournament is a winner-take-all event that has gained popularity for its use of the “Elam Ending,” where games end when one team reaches a set point total, instead of the clock running out in the fourth quarter. The winning team this year will win $1 million. This year’s tournament was originally going to hold regionals around the country (including Charleston), with the championship in Dayton, Ohio; officials made the call in recent weeks to move all games to one site (later determined to be Columbus).
