It's ironic that as WVU basketball alumni squad Best Virginia makes it'd deepest run yet during it's sixth overall appearance in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), the team is being led to success by a player who has no former connection to the Mountaineers.
Best Virginia advanced to the TBT Semifinals for the first time ever with a win on Monday night, and the undisputed player of the tournament so far for the team has been James Reese V. Reese is the team's leading scorer, averaging 22.3 points per game and chipping in a total of 89 points over the team's four games so far, the latter of which is good for third overall among all players in the tournament. Reese is also the only player in this year's tournament to record 20+ point scoring efforts four different contests, and is third overall in the tournament with 14 made three-point shots.
"I keep saying the DNA is just tough, blue-collar basketball. That's kind of how I got my career started, and that's how I'm going to finish it and keep it going," Reese said after the team's third-round win against Elite Nation. "You get called by a good group of guys like West Virginia, and you know, it just feels like home and it's easy to play with these guys."
The team initially came together as a WVU squad, but the need to fill the roster each year has resulted some players without ties to Morgantown getting involved – which is how Reese, a former North Texas and South Carolina star, ended up in his current role.
There area couple WVU connections for Reese that landed him a spot with Best Virginia, and it comes in the form of his relationship with incoming WVU Head Coach Ross Hodge, who will begin his first season leading the program this fall, and former WVU star Erik Stevenson, who was scheduled to play with Best Virginia before signing an NBA Summer League contract.
I can’t say enough about how supportive @coachrosshodge has been… from personally donating to Best Virginia to help make this run possible, buying the team pizza after games, giving us James Reese 🙌🏾 Coach gets it! 💙💛 #family #BestVirginia
— john flowers (@jflow41) July 29, 2025
Reese played for North Texas when Hodge was an assistant coach with the program, and Stevenson and Reese were roommates previously at South Carolina. Reese mentioned following the team's third-round win that Stevenson reached out about the opportunity initially, while Best Virginia GM John Flowers also credits Hodge for helping establish the connection. Reese was excited to play in front of Hodge after he learned his former coach would be attending the team's semifinal game this past Monday.
"When he texted me and told me that he was coming it's obviously a good feeling, cause you know, that's my guy," Reese said after Monday's win. "I just knew we couldn't lose."