This weekend marks the start of The Basketball Tournament and Charleston W.Va. will be one of four regional hosts for the winner take all competition.
The 64-team single elimination tournament will hold early regional games in the four regions named West Virginia, Columbus, Illinois and Wichita. The Charleston coliseum and convention center will house sixteen teams including fourteen games between Saturday, July 17 and Wednesday, July 21.
The tournament will feature last year’s runner up team, and the number one seeded, named Sideline Cancer.
The home state team of number two seeded Best Virginia includes many West Virginia University alumni including Kevin Jones, Nathan Adrian, and Juwan Staten.
The team of the number three seeded Herd That featuring many Marshall alumni including Jon Elmore, Ot Elmore, and Logan’s own Stevie Browning. Browning and the Herd That squad were the Cinderella story of last year’s down sized 24 team tournament after they pulled off a huge upset on the highly favored Money Team.
Browning said the Herd That squad still feels like the under dogs. “We feel disrespected,” Browning said. “After what we pulled off last year and the run we had. We felt we should have at least been considered a two seed, but we like being the underdogs.”
Browning and the Herd That squad are slated to kick off the tournament on Saturday at noon against the number fourteen seed Team DRC which features Player/sponsor Dominque Rodgers -Cromartie a former NFL defensive back. Best Virginia’s game will follow at approximately 2 p.m.
Both games will be on WVOW radio.