It’s a marquee year for the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island as it celebrates it’s 10th year as the host of one of the biggest and best early season collegiate basketball tournaments, the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis event. It is set to take place in about a month’s time, and according to the resort, plans are coming along nicely as they look to embark on their 10th year in style. The men’s tournament will be held November 24-26 inside the Imperial Arena at Atlantis, and for the first time, organizers have embarked on a women’s tournament, set for the week before the men’s tournament, November 20-22.
The tournaments are National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I events.
Vice President of Sales at Atlantis Ted Adderley said that plans are coming along great and they have used their resources to ensure the event happens.
“The entire team here at Atlantis is involved,” Adderley said. “We have pulled people from different departments that don’t know nothing about basketball, but they carry a role in the entire organization of the event. It really is a team effort to make it work. I remember when we first started and ESPN didn’t televise us and if you guys remember, we probably had the best pre-season tournament. We have now surpassed Hawaii (Maui Invitational) and we have ESPN on board so that within itself tells you that the professionalism and how well-run the tournament is each year has been great. This is the one event I can say that we obviously have to bring in college basketball officials and so on.”
The men’s tournament will feature teams from Arizona State University, Auburn University, Loyola University Chicago, Michigan State University (MSU), Syracuse University, the University of Connecticut (UConn), Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and Baylor University.
In the latest Associated Press (AP) rankings that was released on Monday, Baylor is ranked at number eight in the country.
Other than Connecticut, the women’s tournament will feature the University of South Carolina, the University at Buffalo, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Oregon, the University of South Florida, the University of Minnesota and Syracuse.
Connecticut fell to the University of Arizona in the NCAA DI Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship game last season. In the latest AP rankings that were released on Tuesday, Connecticut is the number two team in the country. South Carolina sits at number one and South Florida is ranked at number 21.
Fans and alumni fly into The Bahamas each year to support their respective teams. Adderley says he expects to see occupancy go up during that period once again:
“Based on the size of the alumni of the college, we know how much it drives their room nights. It is a key part of what happens and Thanksgiving is a key component for those who say ‘our team is playing, let’s go down Thanksgiving’. Our occupancy needs this, especially at a time like this. The Battle 4 Atlantis drives our occupancy during Thanksgiving, and it’s something we look forward to. It does help tremendously. That’s why we’re so interested in sports tourism.”
The prestigious tournament has featured some Bahamians including now National Basketball Association (NBA) players Chavano “Buddy” Hield (Sacramento Kings) and DeAndre Ayton (Phoenix Suns).
Other Bahamians who have played in the tournament are Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr. (Michigan State Spartans), Tavario Miller (Texas A&M Aggies) and Dwight Coleby (Western Kentucky University
Hilltoppers).
Other than Hield and Ayton, several other Battle 4 Atlantis alumni play in the NBA. These include Donovan Mitchell (Utah Jazz), Jalen Brunson (Dallas Mavericks), Mikal Bridges (Suns), Donte DiVincenzo (Milwaukee Bucks), Seth Curry (Philadelphia 76ers), Quinn Cook (free agent), Danuel House Jr. (Houston Rockets) and Mason Plumlee (Charlotte Hornets).
The post Plans coming along for Battle 4 Atlantis appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/plans-coming-along-for-battle-4-atlantis/
No comments:
Post a Comment