Offshore tourneys return in college basketball amid COVID-19

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) — Kimani Lawrence and his Arizona State teammates were eager to take everything in as they arrived for a men's college basketball tournament that was among the countless things disrupted amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the past 18 months.

Just being here is a big deal, both for the eight teams in this week’s prestigious Battle 4 Atlantis and for a sport that has made a tradition of playing early season games off the U.S. mainland.

It's a significant step with the return of numerous events in this Caribbean nation of about 700 islands to the Cancun Challenge in Mexico and the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“A year ago, I didn't think we were ever going to be able to get back here as fast as we have,” said Lawrence, whose team dealt with multiple pauses and cancellations due to the pandemic.

Now players at Atlantis are hitting the water slides, relaxing by the resort's many pools and heading to restaurants a year after players were largely locked down in hotel rooms -- separated from each other during meals, even -- on stateside road trips and during bubbled NCAA Tournaments in Indiana and Texas.

“Last year there were a ton of kids that transferred because they were isolated, and they were depressed,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “And they were just being students, wanting to go to class, wanting to socially interact, wanting to be able to travel and play in front of fans.

“So we survived it. And now hopefully this year, we’re in a much more normal situation and the student-athletes are the ones that are going to benefit from it the most.”

The Battle 4 Atlantis begins Wednesday with sixth-ranked and reigning national champion Baylor, Pearl’s 19th-ranked Tigers and No. 22 Connecticut. It is...