The final piece to the Indiana non-conference schedule still to be determined is the Battle 4 Atlantis bracket.
In a social media post on Tuesday, the official Battle 4 Atlantis account on X stated the bracket announcement is “coming soon.”
Last season’s Battle 4 Atlantis bracket dropped on Thursday, August 3, so we’re in the window for an announcement for this year’s bracket.
For those unfamiliar, the Battle 4 Atlantis is a three-game annual event on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Indiana was last in the Bahamas for an offseason trip in August 2021, just months after Mike Woodson’s hiring in Bloomington.
Indiana’s performance in the event, played on three consecutive days beginning Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, will be pivotal in forming its non-conference resume. The Hoosiers could leave with resume-building wins. Or they could suffer a disappointing week like the one Indiana had in Maui in 2015. Indiana lost to Wake Forest and UNLV on that trip and beat a terrible St. John’s team.
Looking at the eight confirmed non-conference games for the Hoosiers, there’s little to get excited about in building an NCAA tournament resume.
Our best guide right now for projecting the NET rating quadrant Indiana’s confirmed non-conference games will fall into is Bart Torvik. Looking at current projections on Torvik, here’s how the eight games are forecasted:
Quadrant 1: NoneQuadrant 2: South CarolinaQuadrant 3: Sam Houston State, ChattanoogaQuadrant 4: SIU Edwardsville, Eastern Illinois, UNC Greensboro, Miami (OH), Winthrop
As a reminder, here are the guidelines for the quadrants:
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
As a result of a non-conference schedule that could include as many as five Quad 4 games, Indiana hopes its trip to the Bahamas can produce matchups to balance out the underwhelming home slate.
It’s important to caveat that Indiana will have countless opportunities in Big Ten play for resume-building wins. A low-quality non-conference schedule won’t loom as large if they can collect enough meaningful wins at home and on the road in conference play. But it’s never a bad idea to get started as early as possible, collecting quality wins.
Shifting our attention to the Battle 4 Atlantis bracket reveal, Arizona and Gonzaga are the two programs with the highest preseason rankings nationally in the event.
Gonzaga is currently No. 9 and Arizona is No. 10 in Torvik’s projections. Given the quality of both programs, these are quad 1 opportunities. It also won’t be surprising to see Gonzaga and Arizona on opposite sides of the bracket, with Indiana needing to knock off one of those teams in the semifinals to reach the final.
The event took a step back with the loss of Creighton, who pulled out of Battle 4 Atlantis to play in the “Players Era Festival” in Las Vegas and was replaced by Providence. The Blue Jays are currently No. 13 in Torvik’s projections for next season and would have provided a clear quad 1 opportunity.
Without Creighton, Indiana’s other five potential opponents are Oklahoma, Louisville, Providence, Davidson and West Virginia.
Here’s where a neutral court game against those five teams would fall quadrant-wise, according to Torvik’s projections:
Quadrant 2: Oklahoma, Providence, Louisville, West VirginiaQuadrant 3: Davidson
Assuming an opening game against Arizona or Gonzaga is unlikely, Indiana’s ideal path would be an opener against Oklahoma, Providence or Louisville. All three are ranked in the top 62 in Torvik’s current projections, while West Virginia is currently No. 83.
The Hoosiers must avoid an upset in the opener, which would move them to the loser’s bracket and likely take away a matchup with Arizona or Gonzaga. This is what happened in Maui back in 2015, as Indiana lost the opener to Wake Forest, costing the Hoosiers a matchup with another ranked team, Vanderbilt, in the semifinals and Kansas, the nation’s No. 5 team, in the final.
If the Hoosiers can get past the opener with a win, playing a quad 1 game and two quad 2 games at worst in the Bahamas is likely. That would greatly boost a non-conference schedule that is currently underwhelming on paper. And after a season in which Indiana’s best accomplishment in the non-conference was a narrow home win against Morehead State, getting resume work done early would go a long way in returning to the NCAA tournament.
The 2024 Battle 4 Atlantis men’s line-up is loaded! Stay tuned for the bracket announcement coming soon…
Room reservations + game tickets are available at https://t.co/vqiZkC9Ydr ?@ArizonaMBB @DavidsonMBB @ZagMBB @IndianaMBB @LouisvilleMBB @OU_MBBall @PCFriarsmbb @WVUhoops pic.twitter.com/ywu2fYwS2s
— Battle 4 Atlantis (@B4AOfficial) August 6, 2024
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