Winner: Oklahoma, Louisville, West Virginia impress in the Bahamas
The Battle 4 Atlantis had a strong field of teams and, like the Maui Invitational, presented several opportunities for quality early-season wins. Oklahoma, Louisville, and West Virginia could do exactly that, as Oklahoma and Louisville faced off in the Championship game, with the Sooners ultimately prevailing. Oklahoma left the Bahamas with wins over Providence, Arizona, and Louisville, while Louisville left with wins over Indiana and West Virginia.
While West Virginia finished 3rd in the tournament, they arguably had the most impressive win, as they defeated no 3 Gonzaga in the opening round and later defeated No. 24 Arizona to land in 3rd place. All three of these teams, especially Oklahoma and West Virginia, had lowered expectations entering the year and were picked to finish near the bottom of their respective conferences. Still, after strong showings in the Bahamas, they all look poised to exceed expectations this year.
Loser: Arizona
Arizona has had an extremely rough start to the season, and their performance in the Bahamas, which saw them go 1-2, didn't make it any better. The Wildcats currently sit at 3-4 overall and have fallen out of the top 25 after being ranked in the top ten in the preseason poll. Arizona has had multiple opportunities to pick up quality wins this year, but they have been unable to capitalize on any of them. As it stands, Arizona's best win is a win over Davidson.
However, they have lost all four games versus high-major teams, including losses to Wisconsin, Duke, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. A game at UCLA later this month represents Arizona's final opportunity to pick up a quality non-conference win ahead of Big 12 play. While Arizona still has time to turn it around, the room for error is limited due to the plethora of early-season losses.
Winner: Oregon
The Ducks were among the biggest surprises of Feast Week, as they won the Players Era Festival while picking up wins over Texas A&M, San Diego State, and Alabama. Oregon now sits at 8-0 overall with two quad 1 wins over top 25 teams, while moving moving into the top 25 themselves, sitting at no. 12 overall in the most recent rankings. Assuming they avoid any buy losses, the Ducks will be in a great position as they begin Big Ten play, where they will have many more opportunities to add to their already impressive resume and will have the potential to be a legitimate contender for the conference title.
Loser: The Big East trio of Creighton, Providence, and Seton Hall
If it weren't for a few outliers, this section would be about entirety of the Big East rather than just a few teams. UConn's struggles were well-documented, but they were far from the only Big East team to have a poor showing during feast week.
Like UConn, Providence headed to the Bahamas with several opportunities for solid early-season wins. Instead, Providence went 0-3 and finished last place in the Battle 4 Atlantis, with losses to Oklahoma, Davidson, and Indiana. The losses to Davidson and Indiana were especially disappointing, considering both teams lost their other two games by double digits. The Friars have since defeated BYU in the Big East-Big 12 Challenge, a win that could potentially turn their season around. Creighton took part in a loaded Players Era Festival that included three other top-25 teams, but the Bluejays went 1-2 in the tournament, only managing to pick up a win over Notre Dame while suffering losses to San Diego State and Texas A&M.
Creighton has a couple more opportunities to right the ship before Big East play, as they have a home game versus Kansas and a road game at Alabama left on their schedule. Seton Hall had picked up two solid wins over VCU and FAU in the Charleston Classic but lost a buy game to an 0-8 Monmouth team this weekend, marking their third buy loss. Sitting at 4-4 overall with two quad 4 losses, there aren't any opportunities for needle-moving non-conference wins left on the Pirates' schedule, and if they can't turn things around, they could be looking at a last-place finish in the Big East.