By Dave Morrison
Last January, Jim Justice declared that he would bring back the Mountain State Coal Classic in a bigger, better form.
And Justice is doing just that.
Despite the fact that the West Virginia Coal Association pulled its sponsorship, the tournament will return back and better than ever.
The new Big Atlantic Classic will be held Feb. 1 through Feb. 6 and will kick off with the annual Tip-Off Banquet on Sunday, Jan. 31.
“I think it’s the best field of teams we’ve ever had,” Justice said Saturday evening. “We’ve worked hard on it, starting as early as last spring. We had it pretty much wrapped up over the summer.
“What we have is a terrific cross-section of teams from all over our state.
“It took some doing. But Mo (Ball) did a great job and I was with just about every one of those teams at some point (in the process).”
Typically, Justice has brought together what has to be considered a top-notch tournament.
In the Class AA boys tournament alone, there is Wyoming East and Westside out of basketball-crazy Wyoming County.
East has played in the last three Class AA state title games. They won two and lost to Ravenswood last year. Westside is always a perennial power.
Then there is Oak Hill, the only team that beat East until last year’s title game. The Red Devils feature two of the state’s premier young players in Kalif Wright and Jack Flournoy.
In the Class AAA boys and the girls division, the tournament is taking on a new look.
There will be two brackets in each division.
“What we tried to do was put two teams from the south and two teams from the north in each bracket and give it a sort of north versus south flavor,” Justice said. “It makes it a two-game set instead of a three and we think that will be better for the fans.”
In the boys A bracket will be Woodrow, Capital, Martinsburg and Parkersburg South. In bracket B will be Greenbrier East, Logan, Hedgesville and Morgantown.
In the girls A bracket will be Greenbrier East, Summers County, Hedgesville and Brooke. The B bracket will have North Marion, George Washington, Huntington and Parkersburg South.
There will be a champion in every bracket.
In the boys A division Trinity Christian, Gilmer County, Charleston Catholic and Pendleton County will vie for the crown.
The national division will pit Mountain State Academy against Oak Hill Academy.
“Again, I think it’s the best tournament we’ve ever put together,” Justice said. “We have the premier teams in the state and it is a credit to all the people here who have worked hard to put this together.”
Justice said the speaker for the banquet hasn’t been finalized. In the past he’s had folks like Dick Vitale, Terry Bradshaw and Larry Bird in on Sunday.
“We’re sure working on it but really it won’t be finalized probably until the first week in January,” Justice said. “We’re going through the same array of people and we want to pick the right one. Someone who will appeal to the kids and at the same time have a good message.”
As for the name, Justice said the Big Atlantic Classic just fit.
“This tournament has been known as a great tournament, at least in the southeast, for some time,” Justice said. “Years ago my AAU teams played in an AAU tournament called the Big South. We thought of Big East. We thought of Atlantic Coast. We wanted something synonymous with big. When it comes to basketball, it doesn’t get any better than the Big East (Conference) first, and secondly, the Atlantic Coast Conference. So we just kind of blended them together.”
