Wisconsin men’s basketball: Battle 4 Atlantis opening matchup set

The Badgers will play Dayton on the first day of the tournament.

The 2022 Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament is chock full of good teams and the first day matchups were announced on Friday afternoon. Your Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team will take on the Dayton Flyers at 1:30 p.m. CT on Nov. 23 in the Bahamas airing live on ESPN or ESPN2.

This will be the first time that the Badgers and Flyers have met in men’s basketball.

The other teams in the 11th iteration of the event include Butler, BYU, Kansas, NC State, USC and Tennessee.

Wisconsin has had an excellent run of success in this particular tournament, finishing as the runner-up in 2018 and winning the whole dang thing in 2014. Frank Kaminsky was named the MVP in 2014 and then the Badgers went on to win the Big Ten regular season title, Big Ten Tournament title and make their second straight Final Four while Kaminsky was named National Player of the Year. No pressure or anything, Steven Crowl.

Looking back at the 2014 bracket is hilarious because there were four ranked teams (No. 2 UW, No. 18 Florida, No. 22 UCLA, No. 5 UNC) and three of them lost in the first round, making Wisconsin’s path to the title way easier than it could have been. So, while the Badgers won the tournament, UNC beating the Bruins and Gators is arguably a more impressive run.

A quick look at Bart Torvik’s 2023 projections show that this is another stacked edition of the Thanksgiving weekend tourney.

Butler: No. 101
BYU: No. 82
Dayton: No. 35
Kansas: No. 8
NC State: No. 88
USC: No. 40
Tennessee: No. 3
Wisconsin: No. 64

It is probably important to note that the Jayhawks are also the defending national champs and in other sports news this tournament will be taking place during a traditionally huge football weekend AND the men’s World Cup. England and the Americans will be playing on Nov. 25 at 1:00 p.m. CT, the same day as the final of the Battle 4 Atlantis, and Nebraska/Iowa will be kicking off at 3 p.m. CT too.

Get your multiple TV setup ready, friends. It’s going to be a busy fall.