NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 8 teams in 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis tournament

8) Southern Miss Golden Eagles

Unfortunately for Southern Miss, they are the very clear No. 8 team in a loaded field.

The Golden Eagles are coming off a 20-win season but have to replace three of their top five scorers and don’t have any clear fill-ins for them given how short their rotation was (311th nationally in bench minutes in 2018-19). It’s a tall order for any team, but especially one with a new head coach in Jay Ladner.

LaDavius Draine and Leonard Harper-Baker, last year’s leading rebounder and shot-blocker, will lead this group. That duo may get enough help for Southern Miss to make some noise in Conference USA, but the number of early question marks they’re facing will likely sink them against this level of competition.

However, playing this tough of competition right off the bat does give them three opportunities to pick up the kind of win (or wins) that can create serious positive momentum for the rest of their season.

7) Iowa State Cyclones

There’s a chance Iowa State will be a very good team by the end of the season – but things will be a struggle for them early on. Head coach Steve Prohm’s squad has to replace five of their top seven rotation players from last year and will be relying on unproven returners and unheralded freshmen to fill that void.

Michael Jacobson returns and should build on the quality season he had last year, yet sophomore Tyrese Haliburton looks like he’ll be this team’s leader. And, really, the Cyclones will only go as far as he takes them.

Haliburton started 34 games for the Cyclones in 2018-19 but played a minor role behind Marial Shayok, Lindell Wigginton, and Nick Weiler-Babb. He’ll be thrust into a starring role now and appears to be ready for it. As a member of the USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Cup Team this summer, Haliburton was one of the stars of the tournament. He led the tournament with 6.9 assists per game, had a 6.0 assist-to-turnover ratio, and was named to the tournament’s All-Star Five.

Those two will be fun to watch and could give some opponents headaches. However, I think the Battle 4 Atlantis will be more about discovering who else can step up and the rest of the Cyclones’ roster establishing their roles as opposed to competing for the tournament title.