<a href="http://www.vcuramnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012-Battle-For-Atlantis.png"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-7941" title="2012-Battle-For-Atlantis" src="http://www.vcuramnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012-Battle-For-Atlantis-300x166.png" alt="" width="300" height="166" /></a>The Battle 4 Atlantis tournament VCU will compete in from November 22-24th has finally announced their first-round games.
The Rams will take on Memphis (currently of CUSA, but heading to the Big East following this season) in the first round.
Like VCU, Memphis is led by a young, star coach in Josh Pastner. The 34-year old Pastner has gone 75-29 at Memphis in his first three years as a college head coach, and has lead the Tigers to two NCAA tournaments in his three seasons at the helm, losing to VCU's new conference-mate, St. Louis, in the round of 64 in last season's NCAA tournament.
Analysts have pegged the Tigers as a preseason top-25 team, falling in the 13-20 range. Seven (Louisville, Duke, VCU, Memphis, Missouri, Stanford and Minnesota ) of the eight-team field are expected to be top-25 caliber, making this the premier preseason tournament of the 2012-13 hoops season.
Other opening round games include Missouri vs. Stanford, Duke vs. Minnesota and Louisville vs. Northern Iowa and will be televised live from the 3,900 seat arena at the famed Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas on AXS TV and NBC Sports Network.
AXS TV will air coverage of the tournament at 1:00 pm ET and 3:30 pm ET, while NBC Sports will broadcast the daily 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm games starting on November 22 (please check your local listings).  AXS TV is available nationally on DirecTV (channel 306), Dish (channel 131), AT&T U-Verse (channel 1106), Verizon FiOS (channel 569) as well as Charter, Comcast Xfinity, Insight, Suddenlink and other TV providers.
The Rams will take on Memphis (currently of CUSA, but heading to the Big East following this season) in the first round.
Like VCU, Memphis is led by a young, star coach in Josh Pastner. The 34-year old Pastner has gone 75-29 at Memphis in his first three years as a college head coach, and has lead the Tigers to two NCAA tournaments in his three seasons at the helm, losing to VCU's new conference-mate, St. Louis, in the round of 64 in last season's NCAA tournament.
Analysts have pegged the Tigers as a preseason top-25 team, falling in the 13-20 range. Seven (Louisville, Duke, VCU, Memphis, Missouri, Stanford and Minnesota ) of the eight-team field are expected to be top-25 caliber, making this the premier preseason tournament of the 2012-13 hoops season.
Other opening round games include Missouri vs. Stanford, Duke vs. Minnesota and Louisville vs. Northern Iowa and will be televised live from the 3,900 seat arena at the famed Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas on AXS TV and NBC Sports Network.
AXS TV will air coverage of the tournament at 1:00 pm ET and 3:30 pm ET, while NBC Sports will broadcast the daily 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm games starting on November 22 (please check your local listings).  AXS TV is available nationally on DirecTV (channel 306), Dish (channel 131), AT&T U-Verse (channel 1106), Verizon FiOS (channel 569) as well as Charter, Comcast Xfinity, Insight, Suddenlink and other TV providers.
