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The North Carolina Tar Heels and Arkansas Razorbacks headline the 2023 Battle 4 Atlantis field.
UNC and Arkansas are the only two ranked teams among the eight-team field and they reside on opposite ends of the bracket.
A difficult path awaits both teams just to get to the final, as the Villanova Wildcats, Michigan Wolverines and Memphis Tigers are among the notable teams that fill out the field.
All eight teams slated for the event will play three games across Wednesday. Thursday and Friday. The championship game takes place on Friday afternoon.
Battle 4 Atlantis Schedule
North Carolina vs. Northern Iowa (Noon ET, ESPN)
Villanova vs. Texas Tech (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
Michigan vs. Memphis (5 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
Arkansas vs. Stanford (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU)
UNC/UNI loser vs. Villanova/TT loser (Noon ET, ESPN2)
UNC/UNI winner vs. Villanova/TT winner (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Michigan/Memphis winner vs. Arkansas/Stanford winner (5 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Michigan/Memphis loser vs. Arkansas/Stanford loser (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU)
Third-Place Game (1 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
Championship Game (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Consolation Game (6 p.m. ET, ESPNU)
Consolation Game (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+)
North Carolina comes into the Bahamas with the highest ranking among the eight-team field and the easiest path to the final.
The Tar Heels face the lone mid-major in the bracket, the Northern Iowa Panthers, to kick off the event on Wednesday.
The Villanova Wildcats or Texas Tech Red Raiders will face UNC in the winners’ bracket on Thursday.
Villanova looked strong in its most-recent victory over the Maryland Terrapins, but it does have an upset to the Penn Quakers on its resume.
The Wildcats are led by a slew of veterans, starting with Justin Moore, who have either been inside the program for years or arrived via the transfer portal this offseason.
Texas Tech will use the Battle 4 Atlantis as its first test under first-year head coach Grant McCasland. The Red Raiders played three mid-major squads to build up to the event.
The Red Raiders will play tough defense, an attribute that McCasland’s North Texas teams had during his tenure there. That could be make the Villanova-Texas Tech game a race to 55 or 60.
Both the Michigan Wolverines and Memphis Tigers passed their first tests of the young season in wins over the St. John’s Red Storm and Missouri Tigers.
The Wolverines and Tigers each average over 85 points per game, so they should produce the highest-scoring first-round matchup.
Arkansas can score and defend with anyone and it will come into the event with some extra motivation to get back on track after it lost to the UNC Greensboro Spartans on Friday.
Eric Musselman’s team opened the season with three wins in which it scored over 85 points, and if it gets back on track in the Bahamas, it has the potential to produce a few exciting games.
Stanford’s defense, which allows 77.3 points per game, could be its downfall against Arkansas and in a matchup with either Michigan or Memphis on Thursday.
UNC and Arkansas have the highest ceilings among the eight-team field, but six programs could make a legitimate case to win the event, which is what will make it the second-best Thanksgiving week college basketball tournament behind the Maui Invitational.
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