The American Basketball Association (ABA) South Region Champions are the Austin Bats, and the Texas team is headed back to the big stage for the ABA Championship Weekend in Atlanta over April 10-12.

So why should you root for the Bats?

The Team

The Austin Bats were founded by Leticia Castillo, who still serves as their CEO. Coached by Rommel Corro and Ryan Williams, their team colors are black and red, and they even have their own dance team to entertain the crowd during breaks and at halftime!

The Bats spent all season ranked among the top teams in the ABA Power Rankings, including several consecutive weeks at #1. They turned in huge scores in virtually every game until a clunker at the end of January, where they couldn’t find the bottom of the basket and lost to the Alamo City All-Stars in a head-scratcher, 95-78.

You can’t keep an elite team down, however, and the Bats are elite.

They’re no strangers to the big stage of the ABA Championship Weekend. Just last season in St. Louis, the Bats were among the last four teams standing in the league, ultimately falling in the semifinals.

So when a team like this only puts up 78 points in a game, it’s a one-off, not a sign of trouble. Exhibit A: the Bats scored 170 points in their very next game and blew their opponent out of the water by 58. They never looked back. That’s how you overcome adversity and get stronger in the process.

The Bats finished the regular season with a gaudy 18-1 record and the #5 spot in the final ABA Power Rankings. Add their 4 playoffs wins to that total, and Austin enters Championship Weekend at 22-1.

Without the pressure of trying to maintain a perfect record, with the experience of having “been here before,” and with their prolific offense, the Austin Bats are definitely a stout challenger for the league championship.

In their semifinal game, the Bats will face the Silicon Valley Panthers (23-0) out of East Palo Alto, California on April 10 at 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT in Atlanta.

What Impressed Us

After watching the Austin Bats in a few regular season games and in the ABA playoffs, we were impressed by their offensive firepower. In their 19 regular season games, they scored 140 points or more 13 times. In a 14th performance, they scored 139.

The ABA is designed to deliver high-scoring, fast-paced games, but even in this league, hitting 140 points is pretty darn impressive.

In 7 of their games, they scored 160 points or more. Now we’re getting into rarified air.

In their first playoff game, they turned in 159 points.

If defense is a shortcoming in an opponent’s game, the Austin Bats are going to annihilate them. It happens so quickly, too! One minute, the Bats are in a close game, and an eye-blink later, they’re up by 30. It’s incredible! Opponents and fans alike are left with their jaw hanging open, muttering to themselves, “What just happened?!”

Three Guys to Watch in Atlanta

With such a high-powered offense, the leading scorer for the Austin Bats has to have a healthy amount of poi– HOLY MOSES!!

Tyrone “Ty” Jordan (#2) scored 815 points in the regular season!! Hands down, his point total leads the entire ABA, surpassing the league’s second-highest scorer by 228 points! A 6’3″ SG, Ty averaged a stunning 35.4 per game and hit 170 treys in the regular season.

Ty’s 103 assists and 56 steals are both good for second on his squad, so he’s anything but a one-trick pony.

Ty played his college ball at Malone University in Canton, Ohio before spending time playing in international leagues in places such as Spain, Argentina, Bolivia, Iraq and Kenya. He has also played in the TBL.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, he was named First Team All-ABA at the conclusion of this year’s regular season.

Okay, easy fix for Bats’ opponents, right? Just shut down Ty Jordan, and you’re good, right?

Wrong.

Over on the other side of the court is the other SG, 6’2″ Ja’Michael Brown(#3), who was also named First Team All-ABA. He scored 579 points in the regular season, which was good for THIRD in the ABA! Two of the top 3 scorers in the entire league are Austin Bats.

Oh, but scoring points isn’t all that Ja’Michael does. Not even close. His 276 assists are tops in the league. His 199 defensive rebounds? Tops in the league. His 242 total rebounds? Third in the league. It’s unreal!

This man averages a triple-double in every game: 25.2 PPG, 12 APG, and 10.5 RPG. He’ll also steal the ball from you two or three times per contest, since his 59 steals led the team.

Have fun dealing with that, Bats’ opponents!

O’Neal Mims (#5) is a large man. He’s 6’10” for those of you scoring at home. You can probably imagine what the massive center does with that height and wingspan — he terrorizes opponents.

When Ja’Michael Brown wasn’t hogging up all the rebounds during the regular season, O’Neal Mims was there to collect 178 boards of his own, good for second on the team. He averages just over 11 rebounds per game.

He also has quick hands, which isn’t always the case with big men. His 24 steals on the year tied him for fourth on the team.

And then there’s the defensive equivalent of a slam dunk that gets crowds and teammates fired up — blocks. It’s hard to not get excited when Mims gets his gigantic hand on an opponent’s shot and sends that ball into the Colorado River.

Austin Bats fans must absolutely love the fact that Mims did that very thing 40 times this season — the fifth-highest total in the ABA. Once or twice a game, on average, O’Neal vaporizes a basketball on defense.

With these three guys, plus the rest of an amazingly talented roster, the Austin Bats are gonna be an absolute blast to watch in Atlanta!

Where to Find The Austin Bats

This is the second of a four-part series highlighting each team in the 2025-26 ABA Championship Weekend. You might also be interested in Everything You Need to Know About Championship Weekend because it will tell you how to get tickets to see the Bats in person or how to purchase the PPV to watch them from home.

Also check out:

• Why You Should Root for the Buffalo eXtreme
• Why You Should Root for the Silicon Valley Panthers
• Why You Should Root for the Nashville Aces