The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Bad Boy Mowers 2017 Battle 4 Atlantis featured its traditional field of elite NCAA Division I programmes but it also served as homecoming experiences for DeAndre Ayton and Dwight Coleby.

Both players shared similar experiences on and off the court in their return home.

Ayton and the Wildcats became the most widely discussed story in NCAA basketball when they entered the tournament as the No.2 ranked team in the poll, but finished winless at 0-3, with two of those losses at the hands of unranked teams. They opened with a 90-84 loss to North Carolina State, 66-60 loss to SMU and an 89-64 loss to Purdue.

Despite the Wildcats’ struggles Ayton delivered three standout performances and averaged 22 points and 12.3 rebounds per game while shooting 62 percent from the floor.

“All we’ve got to do is just bounce back, get back in the lab and just take care of the gaps that we were missing this week,” the freshman phenom forward said, “I enjoyed myself, getting a chance to see my dad and family coming to the game to see me play, I just really wanted to win.”

Wildcats head coach Sean Miller said the programme is disappointed to suffer the three consecutive losses, but on a personal note for him, he wanted the team to perform well for DeAndre at home.

“The biggest disappointment for me is just bringing Deandre (Ayton) home and having the team that he represents lose three games because I think it’s fairly obvious it has very little to do with his performance. He actually played three exceptional games. Especially when you consider him being so young. Sometimes you bring a guy back home. The moment is too big with a lot of extra pressure on him but I think everyone saw his unbelievable talent and he’s continuing to get better at some other things as well. Defensively we’re asking him to play on the perimeter, he’s learning everyday and hopefully our team will mesh better but regardless of what he’s doing right now he’ll get even better,” Miller said, “Nothing is as bad as it seems, and certainly we probably weren’t nearly as good as everybody thought we were before we travelled down here, so we’ll use this as a learning lesson. Clearly we’re gonna bounce back and be a much better team. There’s a few things we have to work on and fix.”

Coleby and the Hilltoppers finished the tournament with a 2-1 record. They opened with a 66-58 loss to eventual tournament champions Villanova, but concluded with a 77-73 win over Purdue and a thrilling 63-61 win over SMU in the fifth place game. Coleby averaged 10 points and 8.6 rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent from the field. Following the win over SMU, Coleby had a moment where he went into the crowd and celebrated with friends and family members among the WKU fans.

“Unbelievable, just a loss for words,” Coleby said. “It was just great, having everybody’s support. … Everybody wanted pictures and stuff. It’s great to be back home in front of family and friends.”

The Hilltoppers dressed just eight players for the tournament and Coleby said it provided an opportunity for the team to bond and also

“I’m just trying to stay focused, compete every night and just trying to find ways to help my team to win. I just think we just got closer on this trip because we are a brand new team, we’ve been working from the summer just trying to get to know each other and I feel like these tournaments, especially being away in a different country, it all just helps,” Coleby said, “It’s the best shape I’ve ever been, in having to play all of these minutes we just have to stay focused, can’t be in foul trouble because we don’t have enough guys to help so we just have to keep running and conditioning to stay ready. I think I can work on my face up game just to get comfortable with it moving forward.”

Both teams resume the regular season at their respective home arenas on Wednesday.

The Hilltoppers, 4-2 and first place in Conference-USA will return home to host the Eastern Kentucky Colonels at EA Diddle Arena. Arizona, 3-3, will host Long Beach State at the McKale Center.

After four consecutive years of hosting a Bahamian in the B4A field, that streak will come to an end next year. The 2018 field will consist of Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia, Butler, Dayton, Stanford, Oklahoma and Middle Tennessee State. Six of those teams were in last season’s NCAA Tournament, and Oklahoma was a tourney participant in 2016.

The annual Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis once again falls during the Thanksgiving holiday, scheduled to take place November 21-23, 2018. The 12-game, three-day tournament is regarded as one of the most challenging early-season tournaments.