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ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬœ(ESPN analyst) Seth Greenberg, who is a good friend of the Greenbrier and visits pretty often, he had come and we kind of kicked that around the idea (of hosting basketball games),ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ� Greenbrier spokesman Cam Huffman said. ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬœAnd he came and looked at the ballroom and he said, ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ˜I think this could work,ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ™ and so we kind of tried it out first with the high school tournament, did that a couple of years, and decided that we liked how that was going and it could be possible to do it on the college level.ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ�

The first-ever college basketball game played in Colonial Hall was between Marshall and Radford last season, a one-off game that served as a trial run for hosting Division I menÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ™s basketball.

The 2024 Greenbrier Tip-off was announced that night to some 1,000 fans in attendance that night.

It began last weekend when the resort welcomed University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, Tennessee Tech, VMI and Charleston Southern.

The Vaqueros won two games to claim the tournament title.

ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬœWe learned a lot from (MarshallÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ™s game last year), and last weekend was sort of another trial run with the mid-major teams, and it went really well and we learned a lot, again,ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ� Huffman said.

ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬœItÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ™s a small, intimate venue, and you canÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ™t get a better view of the action. YouÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ™re talking big-time college basketball, sitting almost courtside. ItÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ™s really an amazing opportunity.ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ�

After tinkering with the placement of the court and adding more bleachers to the ballroom, the official capacity of the venue is 1,300.

The bracket setup will be the same this weekend, but with four teams from major conferences ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ” Wisconsin, LSU, Pitt and UCF ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ” none of which have lost yet this season.

Play begins Friday at 2:30 p.m., when Pitt takes on LSU. The Panthers (5-0) recently defeated West Virginia 86-62. The Tigers (4-0) own a solid win over Kansas State.

The second semifinal on Friday at 5 p.m. features Wisconsin and UCF. The Badgers (5-0) are ranked No. 19 in the latest Associated Press poll and own an impressive 103-88 win over No. 9 Arizona. The Knights (4-0) opened the season with a 64-61 defeat of No. 13 Texas A&M.

The teams will take Saturday off, with the third-place game scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. and the championship game at 5:30 p.m.

ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬœWe wanted some combination of regional and then some teams a little further away,ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ� Huffman said. ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬœWe wanted a regional team to help bring some of the fan base and create an atmosphere, but also one of the reasons we wanted to do this tournament is to kind of open up the Greenbrier to people who may have never visited before.ÈËÑýÉ«ÇéƬ�

The tournament is being run by Intersport, which handles similar events all over the world. All games will air live on CBS Sports Network.