NCAA Basketball: 10 biggest storylines from 2022 “Feast Week” matchups

7. Dayton isn’t the only team with something to prove in the Battle 4 Atlantis

An argument can be made that from top-to-bottom, this tournament is the best and most competitive. On paper, there simply isn’t a bad team and there’s a case to be made for each of them to at last be on the bubble for the Big Dance. Of course, that means that someone is going to go 0-3 in this event and have a lot of questions to face.

The Kansas Jayhawks are the clear favorite on paper, with the Champions Classic victory over Duke as evidence. After them, it was supposed to be Tennessee as the biggest threat but the upset loss to Colorado puts that into doubt. And the six other teams all either have questions to still answer on paper or already have had worrisome results.

USC has lost a home game to Florida Gulf Coast, while BYU has nearly been upset by both Idaho State and Missouri State. Both Dayton and Butler have dealt with injury issues, while NC State is untested up to this point. Wisconsin has a win over Stanford but how they replace Johnny Davis on offense still needs to be dealt with.

This is going to be an interesting tournament with plenty of storylines involving all eight programs. If someone can get the ultimate prize (beat Kansas), that’ll be more important than winning the Battle 4 Atlantis itself. That win nearly propelled Dayton to the Big Dance last year and would be just as big for someone this year.