ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia men’s basketball is returning to the Bahamas for its 2024-2025 regular season. Yes, you heard that right!
On Tuesday, Complete Sports Management, which manages the Battle 4 Atlantis Basketball Tournament, announced that the Bulldogs will face St. John’s at The Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas.
“CSM is proud to host two powerhouse programs down in paradise,” CSM president Lea Miller said. “We look forward to this compelling matchup early in the season.”
Georgia will face St. John’s on Sunday, Nov. 24, a day after facing Marquette on Saturday, Nov. 23. Both games will be played at the Imperial Arena at the Atlantis resort. Tickets and travel packages are currently not available but will be at a later date. Times for the game have also not been set.
The Bulldogs and Red Storm have played three times prior to next season's game, with the most recent matchup coming from the 2009-2010 season. Georgia lost that game 66-56, but defeated the New York City-based team in 1983, when the top-seeded Red Storm were upset by the fourth-seeded Bulldogs in the March Madness tournament. St. John’s leads the series 2-1.
Marquette is also 2-1 all-time against the Bulldogs. The two recently played in 2017, but in that match, Georgia won 73-66.
St. John’s finished 20-13 last season and ended its season after losing to eventual NCAA champions UConn in the semifinals of the BIG EAST tournament. Marquette, meanwhile, had its season come to an end in the Sweet 16 against eventual Final Four finalist NC State.
Georgia finished its 2023-2024 season with a loss to Seton Hall in the NIT semifinals. St. John’s defeated the Pirates in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST tournament before their season concluded one round later.
The Red Storm are headed by head coach Rick Pitino, who enters his second season as the team’s head coach. Pitino, who was selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, won a national championship as Kentucky’s head coach in 1996 and another as Louisville’s head coach in 2013. He also made the Final Four seven different times and was the first coach to bring three different men’s teams to the Final Four.
Pitino has worked through smaller schools, specifically Panathinaikos and Iona, following a “pay for play” scandal he faced while at Louisville in 2017. Pitino was fired shortly after.
Marquette’s head coach Shaka Smart has been with the team since leaving Texas in 2021. He recently brought the team to a Big East tournament win in 2023.
Georgia, meanwhile, enters the season with nearly a whole new team. Sophomores Blue Cain, Silas Demary Jr. and Dylan James started at the end of last season and will return next year. The Bulldogs are bringing in several new faces, including five-star forward Asa Newell, four-star center Somto Cyril and graduate transfers Tyrin Lawrence and Dakota Leffew.
Georgia’s games against Marquette and St. John’s joined the team’s only other scheduled match for the 2024-2025 season, a game against South Carolina State on Sunday, Dec. 29. The Bulldogs now await their SEC/ACC challenge opponent, their season opener and their SEC schedule.