One of the best rivalries in college sports resumes on the hardwood Monday night at 8 p.m. ET in Pittsburgh. Top-seeded Virginia and Zoo Crew, the WVU and Pitt alumni teams, will battle it out in the second round of TBT’s Pittsburgh Regional.

The university’s realignment — Pitt moves to the ACC and West Virginia moves to the Big 12 — put the Backyard Brawl basketball series on hold for five years between 2012 and 2017. That means that for some of the players on the court, like Best Virginia’s Devin Williams and Teyvon Myers and Zoo Crew’s Mike Young and Jamel Artis, Monday will be their first Backyard Brawl experience.

For others, though, the TBT second round will reignite a rivalry they experience firsthand. Virginia’s best players will be looking to keep their resumes in tip-top shape on the field against the Panthers.

“I’m from West Virginia, so I take it a little more personally,” Virginia head coach Chase Harler said Saturday. “Esa and I played against them in college, and I don’t think I’ve ever lost to Pitt.”

Dear Virginia

Active players on the Best Virginia roster achieved a perfect 6-0 record against Pitt during their active season.

Wesley Harris and Sagaba Konate helped WVU defeat Pitt in the rivalry renewal game in 2017. Harris and Esa Ahmad defeated the Panthers a year later in Morgantown. Taz Sherman helped lead two more Mountaineer victories over Pitt in 2019 and 2021.

Of the players on BV’s roster, Sherman scored the most points against Pitt in his college career, with all 17 coming in a stellar performance in Morgantown in 2021. Ahmad had 13 points and seven rebounds against the Panthers in his lone Backyard Brawl appearance, a 10-point win at WVU Coliseum. Konate had eight points, six boards and two blocks in his lone appearance against Pitt a year earlier.

Harris, who led Best Virginia with 15 points on Saturday, scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds in two games against his school’s big rival.

Zoo crew

Zoo Crew players who appeared in the opening round of the TBT on Saturday night were collectively 0-4 against the Mountaineers as college players. Three of those players — Nelly Cummings, Nike Sibande and Greg Elliott — all appeared in Pitt’s 25-point loss to WVU at the Petersen Events Center in 2022. They’ll return to the scene of the crime on Monday night.

Former Pitt forward Ryan Luther had the best performance against West Virginia among Zoo Crew players, recording 13 points and 12 rebounds in a loss to Harris and Konate in 2017.

Pitt swingman Jared Wilson-Frame totaled 15 points and 10 rebounds in two losses to the Mountaineers. He was inactive for Saturday’s TBT opener, as was former Panthers star forward Dejuan Blair.

Blair is the only Pitt alumnus on Zoo Crew’s roster with a winning record against West Virginia. Blair’s teams were 3-2 in the Backyard Brawl, back in the Big East days, with the big man doing a lot of the heavy lifting. The Pittsburgh native averaged 11 points and eight rebounds per game against the Mountaineers, including a 16-point, 11-rebound performance in 2009.