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Tennessee basketball’s Battle 4 Atlantis opener makes trip a waste if Vols don’t win it

By Caleb Calhoun

Dec 11, 2021; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes talks to guard Zakai Zeigler (5) and guard Josiah-Jordan James (30) and forward Uros Plavsic (back) during the second half against the UNC-Greensboro Spartans at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 11, 2021; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes talks to guard Zakai Zeigler (5) and guard Josiah-Jordan James (30) and forward Uros Plavsic (back) during the second half against the UNC-Greensboro Spartans at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports /
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Early-season tournaments are supposed to usually do two things for teams. They help them gauge where they are as a group, and they build up your resume for the NCAA Tournament. Tennessee basketball lost both opportunities with its Battle 4 Atlantis opener.

It was revealed Friday by College Basketball Inside Jon Rothstein that Rick Barnes’ team will open the eight-team tournament in The Bahamas against the Butler Bulldogs. They may be the worst team in the tournament and really hurt the Vols’ chances to build a resume.

That matchup is set for Wednesday, Nov. 23. The other matchups in the event will be the Kansas Jayhawks against the N.C. State Wolfpack, the Dayton Flyers against the Wisconsin Badgers and the USC Trojans against the BYU Cougars. Rothstein revealed the matchups on Twitter.

Butler has a great program, but they aren’t going to be where they need to be in this game. They are coming off a 14-19 season and have a new head coach, who is really an old head coach of there’s, former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta.

Although Matta did bring in four transfers, only one of them averaged double figures last year, and none of them averaged double figures for a Power Five program. As a result, that’s not going to improve the team much against a foe like Tennessee basketball, even if it helps them for Big East play later in the year.

As a result, facing Butler won’t improve the Vols’ NCAA Tournament resume, and it won’t help them gauge where they are this early in the year. All in all, with only three games to play in the event, it somewhat makes the trip a waste.

There’s one thing the Vols can now do to salvage the trip: win the whole thing. Tennessee basketball has only won one of these early-season tournaments. They won the NIT Season Tip-Off to begin the 2010-2011 season, Bruce Pearl’s final year, before everything collapsed.

Winning this tournament would mean securing a quality win somewhere else. It’s likely they face off against the winner between USC and BYU given the times of all the games scheduled, but once again, neither of those teams is really likely to boost their resume.

Taking that into account, they almost have no choice but to reach the championship game. After all, then they could face Wisconsin, N.C. State or Kansas to get another Power Five win. If they face Dayton, well, that at least increased their chances of winning the tournament.

The point is, Tennessee basketball needs to win this tournament to have something good on their resume coming out of this, as it’s their only way. Nothing good comes out of the trip otherwise given who we know they are going to play.

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To be fair, the Vols will have plenty of other resume opportunities with a matchup against the Colorado Buffaloes in Nashville, a visit from the Texas Longhorns and a neutral site game against the Maryland Terrapins.

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