After a three-game home stretch opened the 2023-24 season for Texas Tech basketball, the Red Raiders are set to embark on a journey to the Bahamas to take part in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Tech was victorious in its first three games of the season, defeating Texas A&M-Commerce, San Jose State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and will now see its best opponent of the season, Villanova.

The first games of the Grant McCasland era were highlighted by the Red Raiders having three different leading scorers in each contest. Though they have not been the most stylish wins, the Red Raiders were able to grind out victories against each of their challengers. As of Tuesday morning, Tech’s three previous opponents ranked No. 286, 122 and 252, respectively, in KenPom.com rankings. The duel against Villanova Wednesday will provide the Red Raiders with their first true test of the season against a high-major opponent- the Wildcats stand at No. 25 in KenPom and were picked to finish fourth in the Big East preseason poll.

“You look across college basketball right now, it’s wild, there’s not a night that there’s someone not getting upset,” McCasland said Tuesday in a Zoom press conference. “... I think as we grow as a team, the more we embrace every possession matters, and how you compete for every possession, I think is really important. You get into a tournament like this, you’re playing against a team like Villanova, we’ve played against other teams already, where we’ve learned, I think we’ve grown and seen this is, we’ve got a long way to go.

“... I do know Villanova will defend you. I watched them improve after a loss to Penn. They lost to Penn and then you could tell there was a sense of urgency in regard to how they were going to improve.”

The Wildcats, led by second-year coach Kyle Neptune, take the trip to the Bahamas looking to win the tournament for the third time. Villanova has played in Battle 4 Atlantis two other seasons, 2013 and 2017, winning the championship both times under then-head coach Jay Wright. Neptune’s first season at the helm saw the Wildcats lose in the first round of the NIT to Liberty, the same tournament that a Grant McCasland-led North Texas team went on to win.

Tech and Villanova have only met once before in the 2018 Elite Eight, where the Wildcats emerged victorious and eventually won the NCAA title.

Justin Moore leads the Wildcats as Villanova’s lone selection to the All-Big East first team. A 6-foot-4 guard, Moore is the Wildcats’ primary scorer, averaging 16 points a night on a 44 percent shooting clip from the field. Eric Dixon is a swift, 6-foot-8 forward, who is typically at any time Villanova’s tallest player on the floor. Dixon joined Moore in the All-Big East preseason awards list, being selected to the conference's second team. The “small-ball” lineups are not uncharacteristic in basketball these days and are utilized a majority of the time by Neptune’s squad.

“I feel like I’ve kind of gotten used to that,” Tech forward Warren Washington, who stands 7-feet tall, said. “A lot of teams nowadays don’t have a bunch of 7-footers, a lot of teams like going small and getting the bigger guys down low. I feel like it’s something I’m used to. I know (Dixon), the big guy they have is really good so it will be a great challenge, I’m excited for the matchup.”

Tyler Burton and TJ Bamba are Villanova’s second and third-leading scorers, both averaging around 11 points per game. Burton leads the team in rebounding, pulling down 8.3 boards a night. The Wildcats also have their own 806 flavor on the roster, Amarillo’s own Brendan Hausen, who is now a sophomore.

Looking across the bracket, the competition is fierce and will allow Tech to get a feel of what its team is truly made of. Depending on the result of Wednesday’s game, a Thanksgiving day affair will take place either against North Carolina or Northern Iowa. Further down the bracket, one of the more intriguing first day matchups is set to tip off at 4:00 p.m. between Michigan and Memphis, led by basketball legends Juwan Howard and Penny Hardaway, respectively. Arkansas and Stanford round out the bracket, with Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks coming off another Sweet 16 appearance a season ago.

Wednesday’s contest is set to tip off at 1:30 p.m., with television coverage provided all tournament long on the ESPN family of networks.