James Long isn’t used to coaching basketball this time of year.
He’s not complaining though.
The WVU Tech men’s basketball coach will take the reins of “Best Virginia” a team of West Virginia University alumni that will compete in The Basketball Tournament later this month.
Long, a 2017 graduate of WVU grew up watching the Mountaineers, cheering for them during their Final Four run in 2010. He’ll now get the opportunity to coach some of those players as well as some of his former teammates.
“It’s been great being with my teammates I played with,” Long said. “It’s a great experience with all of us being together again. It’s all very special but these older guys, it’s a different type of special. Da’Sean’s (Butler) on the coaching staff and he is Mountaineer basketball for me. You have Alex Ruoff, Kevin Jones and all these people on the team I looked up to and grew up watching. It’s really special in that regard. This whole experience, regardless of what happens, I’m super thankful for it.”
What’s also special for Long is the opportunity to bring the Mountaineers to Beckley. Best Virginia will host an exhibition Wednesday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center, where the Mountaineer alum will face a team comprised of local athletes, several of which went on to play college ball. The team will host another exhibition in Wheeling on Thursday before the tournament starts on July 17.
The team has been to Beckley before, playing in similar exhibition in 2019, but when Long got involved he knew he wanted to help bring the team back to southern West Virginia.
“It’s a really cool experience,” Long said “I don’t know much about the other team we’re playing, but it’s competitive. Just getting the Mountaineers back to Beckley and it being a special experience for the people of Beckley is cool. It’s special to us too. It means a lot getting to go around the state because we all do miss that. We missed representing the state and this is an opportunity to do that.
“I’m thankful and one of the first things I said when I got this was I’d love to do an exhibition in Beckley because they deserve it. It’s basketball city with great people and they love the Mountaineers. We actually played an exhibition game there my senior year to open up (WVU Tech’s) the campus and that was one of my favorite things we did that year. There was a great crowd, a lot of energy and you could feel the love. It means a lot to me to be able to do this.”
Though a younger coach, even younger than some of the players he’ll be leading this month, Long has proven he belongs. The Charleston native has guided Tech to back-to-back River States Conference titles in his first two years in Beckley. His success played a part in getting the Best Virginia gig.
“It was just little conversations over time,” Long aid. “It wasn’t anything set in stone. It was just little things and I think after we won the conference championship I had a text from John Flowers and he asked if I wanted to coach. We had been talking about it before but I had to take him up on it and I’m glad I did.
“It’s funny. It’s a lot more free and loose but there’s a lot more sitting back and listening from my end because these guys have played at some of the highest levels of basketball in the world and they’re some of the best basketball minds you’ll find.”
Best Virginia will kick off its exhibition tour on Wednesday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center before moving to Wheeling on Friday. General admission tickets are $25 and can be purchased here: Tickets.
The Basketball Tournament event in West Virginia, one of four regionals, will run from July 17 to the 21 and be held at the Charleston Coliseum. Tickets for that event can be found here: TBT.
Contact Tyler Jackson at tylerjackson@lootpress.com, call him at 304-731-5542 and follow on Twitter @tjack94