Dayton will play Big Ten team in first round of Battle 4 Atlantis

Game 1 matches defending national champion Kansas and N.C. State at noon. The other first-round games are: Southern California vs. Brigham Young at 5 p.m.; and Tennessee vs. Butler at 7:30 p.m.

All the teams will play three games in three days.

If the Game 1 and Game 2 winners (and losers) meet, as they usually do, Dayton could play Kansas for the third time in four years. The teams met in the final of the Maui Invitational in 2019 with Kansas winning 90-84 in overtime. Dayton beat Kansas 74-73 last season in the semifinals of the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Fla., on a buzzer-beater by Mustapha Amzil.

Dayton and Wisconsin have played once. The Badgers beat the Flyers 103-95 on Dec. 28, 1961, at Madison Square Garden in the semifinals of the New York Holiday Festival tournament.

Wisconsin finished 25-8 last season and played in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time coach Greg Gard’s six seasons. The Badgers were picked to finish 10th in the Big Ten last season but finished 15-5 and shared the regular-season championship with Illinois.

Wisconsin lost its top two scorers: Johnny Davis (19.7 points per game); and Brad Davison (14.1). It returns starters Tyler Wahl (11.4), Steven Crowl (8.8) and Chucky Hepburn (7.9).

Dayton has not played a Big Ten team since Nov. 24, 2016, when it lost 80-78 to Nebraska in the first round of the Wooden Legacy tournament in Fullerton, Calif.