The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IN its eighth official edition, the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament has established a reputation as an event loaded with high-calibre talent playing against the backdrop of a tropical paradise.

Coaches and players from this year’s eight-team field have already turned in rave reviews of the tournament, their adjustment to the Imperial Arena at Atlantis and the Bahamas itself.

The Virginia Cavaliers claimed the tournament title Friday afternoon with a 53-46 win over the Wisconsin Badgers. The Oklahoma Sooners finished third with a 65-54 win over the Dayton Flyers.

“This tournament was a test of our system, and it was a test individually of what our guys had in their mind and in their heart, and their willingness,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said. “We talked about refusing to yield. It’s kind of coach-talk, but it’s true when you get in those spots. I kept saying (during timeout) that I love being in this spot. Let’s keep fighting and see what we can do.”

Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter was named MVP and led the All-Tournament team alongside teammate Ty Jerome, Ethan Happ of Wisconsin, D’Mitrik Trice of Wisconsin and Christian James of Oklahoma. “A very hard-fought game. To play three games in less than 48 hours, and play a physical game like that, that was just a battle of, will you not yield, and I thought our guys did a terrific job,” Bennett said, “And then again, we were solid. Both teams are still forging their identity, and you don’t take too much, but it was just sort of a slug fest at the end and I’m glad we were the last man standing.”

Six of those teams were in last season’s NCAA Tournament, and five B4A participants in previous editions. Stanford appeared in 2012 and ultimately finished in fifth place with a 1-2 record. Butler, Oklahoma, Florida and Wisconsin all competed in the 2014 event. Wisconsin was the eventual champion when they defeated Buddy Hield and the Sooners in the title game. Butler finished in third place while Florida ended up sixth.

“This whole tournament’s been fantastic, three good teams in three days. A lot of good play, a lot of play we need to improve, but it’s what’s these early season holiday [tournaments] are all about. Really proud of our guys,” Sooners head coach Lon Kruger said, “We like our starting point a lot. Sometimes, you’ve got a team where you know which guys, every night, are going to be consistent producers. I think this is going to be a group that different guys, different nights.

Butler finished the tournament in fifth place with a win over Florida in the finale.

“Blessed to be a part of a great university and this event, it’s a blessing for us to be invited. It’s a great stage to be on with the competition and the crowd, the whole set up. Thanks to everybody that sets up Battle 4 Atlantis,” Bulldogs head coach LaVall Jordan said, “We knew the third game on the third day would be a bit of a grind. We’d need some bodies from the bench, it was gonna be huge and we had to outlast them. You look at the stat sheet, they shot 28 percent in the second half. We had to make it gritty. Just proud of our group for responding. It wasn’t perfect, I can’t even say it was pretty, we just had to find a way to get the job done.”

Stanford Head Coach Jerod Haase said his team grew over the course of the event both on the court and in the community following their visit to St. Cecilia’s Catholic Primary School.

“I think there’s a lot to talk about this tournament for our program and certainly wins and losses are a key component. I understand that, but I do think there are many other ways we are going to evaluate this and I think we grew throughout the three days,” he said, “Obviously there were times when we were as ugly as could be on the offensive end, and at times struggled defensively, but I thought our guys competed pretty consistently. I think we grew as a team, and I think this is a building block for us moving forward.”

Oklahoma Senior Guard Christian James On his team’s play and what they learned during the tournament We kind of learned what type of team we are. We’re still getting a feel for each other, and learning the roles we’re supposed to have on this team. I’m so proud of those guys. Just give honor to God, without him we wouldn’t be here. We definitely grew up today, these past three games. The Wisconsin game was a big game for us, and I felt that we bounced back and responded well today.

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said his team experienced growth as well and fell just short in their bid to be the second team to win multiple B4A titles.

“Hopefully we’ll take this experience, as I told the team, take this experience and we have got to be better because of it. We’ve grown over the last three days of playing in this, and now we get a chance to take this experience and take it back home and make it better,” Gard said, “I think we definitely got better as a team. I think we learned a lot about ourselves as a team. Obviously, we would’ve liked to win the tournament, would’ve liked to have had the chance to go 2-1 today, but that wasn’t our fate, so I think how we handle this moving forward, the lessons that we’ve learned, we’ve got a group that really enjoys playing with each other. They enjoy being around each other. They’re disappointed because they wanted to win, but I think the lessons that we learn from this team, if we can continue to carry them forward in terms of what we have to do from a defensive standpoint, and what our strengths are as a team. We played some really good competition over here, in the course of the three games, so we’ll get a couple of day to reflect, and look at where we can improve, what we’re doing well and we’ll go from there.”