Tennessee men’s basketball’s non conference schedule is starting to take shape. The Vols will battle Butler in its opening game at the 2022 Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament.
Tennessee and Butler will matchup for the first time since the 2015-16 season on Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. ET. ESPN2 will broadcast the game.
The Vols-Bulldogs contest is the final matchup of the opening day of the event, following Kansas-North Carolina State, Dayton-Wisconsin and Southern Cal-BYU.
The Bad Boys Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis hasn’t released its full tournament bracket yet. However, Tennessee would match up with either BYU or USC if the game times set the precedent for the tournament schedule.
Tennessee will play three games in the three-day event Thanksgiving week.
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Tennessee is 2-3 all-time against Butler after splitting a home-and-home with the Bulldogs in Donnie Tyndall’s lone season and Rick Barnes first season in Knoxville.
Butler is starting over under first-year head coach Thad Matta. The Bulldogs’ program has struggled in recent years since their move to the Big East, posting losing campaigns three of the last four years.
The Bulldogs are in a four-year NCAA Tournament drought after making the “Big Dance” 10 of the previous 12 years.
Matta is making both his return to Butler and coaching this season. Matta was Butler’s head coach for one season before leaving for Xavier and then Ohio State. Ohio State fired Matta in 2017 following a 13-year run as head coach.
Tennessee also has non conference matchups set with Maryland, Arizona, Colorado and Texas.
The Vols play Colorado in Nashville on Nov. 13 and Maryland in Brooklyn on Dec. 11 as part of the Hall of Fame Invitational.
Tennessee and Texas meet for the second straight season in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. The Longhorns survived a late Tennessee run to win, 52-51, in Austin a season ago. Texas returns to Thompson-Boling Arena on Jan. 29.
Tennessee is looking to sweep its home-and-home against Arizona, traveling to Tucson to face the Wildcats. The game’s date has not been announced.
