Jon Rothstein just keeps on Jon Rothstein-ing it up!
On Tuesday, everyone’s second favorite men’s college basketball non-conference schedule reporter
let fly with an update on the participation for the 2026 Battle 4 Atlantis tournament at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. According to Jon’s reporting, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles will be joined by Virginia and Texas A&M along with A MYSTERY TEAM at the event this coming November.Now, you might be saying, hey, wait a minute, wasn’t Battle 4 Atlantis an eight team event in the past? Sure was, but Rothstein’s on top of that, too. According to Jon, B4A will be a pair of four team events this year. Normally I would say that the combination of “Marquette and two other teams will headline B4A” and “there’s another 4 team bracket” would indicate that the other four team group is a mid-major bracket. If that were to be the case, perhaps that would mean MU would even get a home game against one of the four teams in that other bracket.
However, just last week, Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway went on the radio and said that his Tigers team would be in Battle 4 Atlantis this year alongside Wake Forest and Penn State. I obviously trust Penny much more than I trust Jon Rothstein here, so that certainly seems like we have 75% of both of the 4 team brackets settled, right?
Check my math on this: Two 4-team events means two days of four games total, which is a reduction from three days of four games under the eight team bracket situation. Call me crazy, but I thiiiiiiiink this is Battle 4 Atlantis getting a little bit cost-cutting given that the expansion of the Players Era event is making it harder to wrangle in teams for Feast Week events.
ANYWAY
Marquette is 1-3 all time against Virginia. MU got the W back in the very first meeting in December of 1974 in Milwaukee. UVa has taken the next three: 80-63 in November 1988, 96-91 in overtime in February 1990, and 94-88 in January 1991 with the Cavaliers ranked #18 at the time. Feels like there’s part of a home-and-home series missing here, as those three Virginia wins are in Charlottesville and then two in Milwaukee.
As for the modern day Cavaliers, they’re going into their second season under the direction of Ryan Odom and third season without program legend Tony Bennett at the controls. Odom guided the Hoos to a 30-6 record this past season, which got them a #3 seed in the NCAA tournament. They were bounced by #6 seed Tennessee in the second round, but hey: Big turnaround from a 15-17 season a year earlier. Things are far from locked into place around the country, but BartTorvik.com has Virginia at #13 in the very early 2027 projections, which would be good enough for third best in the ACC.
Marquette is 1-1 all time against Texas A&M. MU got the win in the first meeting, a 73-58 contest in Milwaukee in December of 1982. The only other meeting was on a neutral floor in January 1985, and the Aggies got the 77-69 victory there. That’s really more of a semi-neutral court situation, as it was in Houston.
The Aggies had a new head coach last year as well as Bucky McMillan took over after Buzz Williams fled for Maryland. Even though their record (21-11, 11-7 SEC) was pretty much the same as the year before (22-10, 11-7 SEC), Texas A&M got a #10 seed this year instead of the #4 seed the year before…. but the Aggies still won their first round game, same as in 2025. They toppled #7 seed Saint Mary’s before falling to #2 seed Houston in the second round. As far as next year goes, it might be a rough go of things in conference play, as BartTorvik.com has Texas A&M projected as 12th best in the SEC…. but still a top 50 team at #44 in the country.
We don’t know for sure when the Battle 4 Atlantis will be contested this year, but historically, it’s been over Thanksgiving weekend. We also don’t know who will have the television broadcast for this event, as ESPN has signed a deal with the Players Era Festival and that’s obviously going to be taking up air time that B4A would have previously occupied. Might still be ESPN, but we’ll have to wait and see, just like we’re going to have to wait to find out exactly who the fourth team in Marquette’s bracket is.
Marquette’s two games down in Atlantis bring the Golden Eagles to six known contests for the 2026-27 season at this point of the offseason. In addition to the regularly scheduled game against Wisconsin, MU will also visit Michigan, head to Chicago to see Missouri, and host New Hampshire in a buy game. I think there’s space in here somewhere for at least one more high profile contest, preferably at Fiserv Forum. If you could schedule any opponent for the Golden Eagles at home this season, who would you bring to Milwaukee?
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