Aug. 21—The ultimate day of the Battle 4 Atlantis might ship one of the intriguing nonconference matchups of the 2024-25 school basketball season, however Gonzaga can have some work to do if it hopes to arrange a possible assembly with former Bulldogs assistant Tommy Lloyd and Arizona within the Bahamas.
Event organizers, probably anticipating that title recreation themselves, stored Mark Few’s Zags and Lloyd’s Wildcats on reverse sides of the Battle 4 Atlantis bracket that was formally launched Wednesday morning.
As an alternative, Gonzaga will open with a first-round recreation in opposition to West Virginia, one other program with which the Bulldogs have developed historical past over the previous decade-plus, most notably assembly within the Elite Eight of the 2017 NCAA Event.
Gonzaga’s opener would be the second recreation of the day on Nov. 27 and tip off at 11:30 a.m. on the Imperial Area on Paradise Island. ESPN or ESPN2 will carry the dwell broadcast.
The Zags have received all of their earlier matchups in opposition to the Mountaineers, however all 5 happened whereas longtime Bob Huggins was overseeing this system in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Former Drake coach Darian DeVries was employed to guide WVU’s program this offseason and introduced son Tucker DeVries, a capturing guard/ahead who’s a two-time Missouri Valley Convention Participant of the Yr.
In a possible semifinal matchup, the Zags would face the winner of Louisville and Indiana, who open Thursday’s video games at 9 a.m. on ESPN.
Former Gonzaga huge man Oumar Ballo transferred to Indiana this offseason after spending the previous three years with Lloyd at Arizona. The Hoosiers additionally added Washington State switch Myles Rice this offseason and are broadly thought of to be a top-20 group coming into the 2024-25 marketing campaign.
The Bulldogs have not confronted Louisville since 2000. The Cardinals additionally made a training change this offseason, changing Kenny Payne with Pat Kelsey, who spent the earlier 4 years at School of Charleston.
Arizona, which is predicted to discipline a preseason top-15 group coming into Lloyd’s fourth season, will open the Battle 4 Atlantis in opposition to Davidson, the one midmajor group on this 12 months’s discipline, within the remaining recreation on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2).
The Wildcats, who return proficient guards Caleb Love and Jaden Bradley, would face both Oklahoma or Windfall in a possible semifinal recreation on Friday.
Few and Lloyd mutually agreed to scrap a nonconference recreation between Gonzaga and Arizona through the latter’s first season in Tucson. But when each groups handle to win their opening video games on the Battle 4 Atlantis, a long-awaited showdown between the longtime associates and training colleagues would materialize within the Bahamas at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 29.
Gonzaga, ranked No. 5 in ESPN’s preseason High 25, might enter with the event’s highest rating, adopted by Arizona, which is ranked No. 9 in the identical ballot.
