Carmichael Comments: Battle 4 Atlantis Bracket Breakdown

Last week, the Battle 4 Atlantis unveiled the bracket for the 2024 women's tournament, completing the final pieces of the non-conference schedule puzzle for the Carolina Women's Basketball team for 2024-25. In case you missed it, we broke down the opponents on the bulk of the Tar Heel schedule with a special edition of Carmichael Comments, and now we're back to do it again!

As to be expected with a marquee early-season tournament such as Atlantis, the field is stacked. All eight teams headed to the Bahamas from Nov. 23-25 are postseason teams from last season. Five of the eight reached the NCAA Tournament a season ago. Three of those won at least one game – Carolina included – and Baylor and Indiana reached the NCAA Sweet 16.

Here's a bit more on each opponent and the résumé-boosting opportunities for the Tar Heels in the Caribbean in November:

Nov. 23 vs. Ball State (First Round)
2023-24: 28-6, 16-2 MAC (Lost in MAC Semifinals vs. Kent State, 65-50; Lost in WBIT First Round vs. Belmont, 77-59)
Series Record: First Meeting
Last Meeting: N/A
Coach Banghart Record: First Meeting

The one certain matchup in the tournament for the Tar Heels is the opening round clash with Ball State on Saturday, Nov. 23. The inaugural meeting for Carolina and Ball State will see the Tar Heels take on a team that that has posted three straight 20-win seasons, and a pair of 25-win campaigns. The Cardinals, under the leadership of 13^th-year Head Coach Brady Sallee, have not been able to get over the hump to the NCAA Tournament, though, falling in the MAC semifinals each of the past two years and the MAC championship in 2022. They'll chase that elusive March Madness berth this year with the team's top three scorers returning – G Ally Becki averaged 13.0 PPG last season while also landing on the MAC's All-Defensive Team. F Madelyn Bischoff garnered third team All-MAC honors by scoring 11.8 PPG and shooting nearly 38% on over 200 three-point attempts. Her three-pointers (both made and attempted) per game ranked in the top 50 nationally. F Alex Richard also chipped in over nine points and nearly five rebounds per game and returns for 2024-25 as one of the team's go-to inside threats. Ball State's ability to shoot the three and a propensity to take long shots will keep the Cardinals in most any game they play.

Nov. 24 vs. Texas A&M or Villanova (Second Round)

Texas A&M
2023-24: 19-13, 6-10 SEC (Lost in SEC Quarterfinals vs. South Carolina, 79-68; Lost in NCAA First Round vs. Nebraska, 61-59)
Series Record: First Meeting
Last Meeting: N/A
Coach Banghart Record: First Meeting

One of the two potential Day 2 opponents in Atlantis is Joni Taylor's Texas A&M Aggies. Taylor, who took Texas A&M's SEC-rival Georgia to four NCAA Tournaments in six completed seasons, enters year three in College Station fresh off her first NCAA Tournament trip with the Aggies. Taylor replaced legendary head coach Gary Blair, who guided Texas A&M to the 2011 National Championship and retired in 2022. The Aggies hung their hat on defense last season, ranking top 60 nationally at 58.7 PPG, a stat that enabled Texas A&M to earn 19 wins despite not having a single player selected to an All-SEC team in postseason awards. Among returners for 2024-25, leading scorer G Aicha Coulibaly's 13.6 PPG are a welcome start for the Aggies. Two other starters – G Shara Jones and F Lauren Ware – are projected to return. If Ware's name rings a bell, she began her college career at Arizona and was a starter on the Wildcats team that Carolina beat in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Villanova
2023-24: 22-13, 11-7 Big East (Lost in Big East Quarterfinals vs. Marquette, 50-48; Lost in WBIT Championship Game vs. Illinois, 71-57)
Series Record: UNC leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: UNC wins, 63-56, in Las Vegas, Nev. on Nov. 27, 2004
Coach Banghart Record: Villanova leads, 4-1
Last Meeting: Villanova beats Princeton, 67-46, in Villanova, Pa. on Nov. 28, 2018

One of the rare teams that Courtney Banghart has played more often than Carolina has, Villanova is two years removed from a Sweet 16 performance. Head Coach Denise Dillon made the short office move from Drexel to Villanova in 2020, returning to the school where she began her career as an assistant to Harry Perretta, whom she would later replace following his retirement at end of a 42-year career. Dillon had relatively quick success, snaring an NCAA berth in 2022 and following it up with a trip to the second weekend in 2023 on the shoulders of Maddy Siegrist, the third overall pick in that year's WNBA Draft. Without such a generational player in the 2023-24 team's lineup, Villanova regressed slightly but still qualified for the WBIT and reached the championship game before falling to Illinois. Headed into 2024-25, the 'Cats are in replacement mode again, with First Team All-Big East G Lucy Olsen departed via the transfer portal to Iowa (where she will be expected to step in for some player named Clark). That seems impossible, but consider that Olsen's 23.3 PPG last season accounted for over 35% of Villanova's team offense. G Maddie Burke is the team's lone returning starter and averaged only 4.0 PPG a season ago. Three true freshmen, including top-100 recruit G Jasmine Bascoe, and four incoming transfers form the core of the rebuilt Wildcats roster. There are a lot of unknowns for Villanova, but Dillon has coached a mere two losing teams in 21 years as a head coach.

Nov. 25 vs. Baylor, Columbia, Indiana, or Southern Miss (Third Round)

Baylor
2023-24: 26-8, 12-6 Big XII (Lost in Big XII Quarterfinals vs. Iowa State, 67-62; Lost in NCAA Sweet 16 vs. USC, 74-70)
Series Record: Baylor leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Baylor wins, 72-63, in NCAA Elite Eight in Tempe, Ariz. on Mar. 28, 2005
Coach Banghart Record: First Meeting

The marquee potential opponent on the tournament's final day, Baylor is ranked No. 9 in the ESPN way-too-early preseason rankings. Nicki Collen enters her fourth season as Baylor's head coach after taking over for Kim Mulkey following the latter's departure for LSU in the 2021 offseason. Collen has taken Baylor to three straight NCAA Tournaments, including a Sweet 16 this past March. Now, her fourth team seems to be the most talented on paper. Three starters return, including leading scorer G Sarah Andrews, whose 11.4 PPG was comprised largely of long-range shooting. She ranked third in the Big 12 with 75 made threes, good enough to land on the All-Big 12 second team. The roster is bolstered this season with the addition of C Aaronette Vonleh, who comes in from Colorado after earning all-conference recognition in the Pac-12 last season with a scoring average of 14.0 PPG. Two ESPN top 100 recruits – F Kayla Nelms (No. 51) and G Ines Goryanova (No. 73) – join the Bears as well. A win over Baylor would be a significant needle-mover for Carolina, and the Bears would represent one of the non-conference schedule's crown jewel games alongside UConn.

Columbia
2023-24: 23-7, 13-1 Ivy League (Lost in Ivy League Championship vs. Princeton, 75-58; Lost in NCAA First Four vs. Vanderbilt, 72-68)
Series Record: First Meeting
Last Meeting: N/A
Coach Banghart Record: Coach Banghart leads, 22-2
Last Meeting: Princeton wins, 65-59, in Princeton, N.J. on Feb. 23, 2019

A potential matchup with Columbia would be loaded with storylines. Head Coach Megan Griffith enters her ninth season as the head coach at her alma mater, having previously served as an assistant coach for four years under…Courtney Banghart. It's no surprise that that Griffith has taken the lessons learned from her boss and led Columbia to heights only achieved by Banghart's Princeton Tigers in the 2010s. Prior to 2024, the 2017 Princeton team was the lone Ivy League squad to earn an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, a factoid that changed when Griffith's Columbia Lions shared the distinction this past March. The trip to March Madness was a quick one, ending with a First Four loss to Vanderbilt, but marked Columbia's third straight postseason appearance after multiple deep WNIT runs. G Abbey Hsu was the Lions' leader a season ago by averaging 20.4 PPG, and soon after became the first ever Columbia player to be drafted into the WNBA by the Connecticut Sun in the third round. All four other starters return, though, headlined by G Cecelia Collins (13.7 PPG/3.9 APG) and G Kitty Henderson (12.1 PPG/4.0 APG), a pair of second team All-Ivy selections.

Indiana
2023-24: 26-6, 15-3 Big Ten (Lost in Big Ten Quarterfinals vs. Michigan, 69-56; Lost in NCAA Sweet 16 vs. South Carolina, 79-75)
Series Record: UNC leads, 2-1
Last Meeting: Indiana wins, 87-63, in Bloomington, Ind. on Dec. 1, 2022
Coach Banghart Record: Indiana leads, 1-0

The second team in the Battle 4 Atlantis that participated in the Sweet 16 a season ago, Teri Moren's Hoosiers battled eventual champ South Carolina down to the wire in Albany, N.Y. before falling by just four points. Indiana has reached the Sweet 16 or further in three of the last four years, and the one season they didn't, the Hoosiers were a No. 1 seed and were upset by Miami on their home floor in the second round. In that span, Indiana has gone 58-12 in Big Ten regular season play, taking home a regular season Big Ten title in 2023. That all being said, the Hoosiers enter 2024-25 in reload mode on the heels of their recent success. G Grace Berger was a WNBA first-round pick in 2023 by the nearby Fever, followed by All-American F Mackenzie Holmes heading off to the Seattle Storm this past offseason via a third-round pick. Sharpshooting three-point ace Sara Scalia is also gone, exhausting her eligibility after five years. Holmes and Scalia combined to account for 45% of Indiana's scoring a season ago, leaving G Yarden Garzon as the top returning scorer at 11.7 PPG. Garzon was an honorable mention All-Big Ten pick. Another key returner is G Chloe Moore-McNeil, a member of the Big Ten All-Defensive team. G Sydney Parrish also returns after averaging 10.8 PPG last season. The Hoosiers of 2024-25 may lack the proven star power recent years have boasted, but still represent a Big Ten contender. Any Carolina matchup with Indiana would be a quality game.

Southern Miss
2023-24: 20-14, 10-8 Sun Belt (Lost in Sun Belt Quarterfinals vs. James Madison, 77-49; Lost in WNIT Round of 16 at UL Monroe, 84-71)
Series Record: UNC leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: UNC wins, 69-62, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. on Dec. 20, 2015
Coach Banghart Record: First Meeting

Southern Miss and Carolina could clash for a third time in program history. The Golden Eagles are led by 1984 alum Joye Lee-McNellis, in her 20^th season as Southern Miss's head coach in 2024-25. Even without an NCAA Tournament appearance in her career in Hattiesburg (she went four times at Memphis in the 1990s), Lee-McNellis owns over 300 wins at her alma mater. Recent success includes a Sun Belt regular season title in 2023, a first such triumph since 1994 for Southern Miss. Last season, the Golden Eagles advanced two rounds in the WNIT. C Meliya Grayson was selected as a third team All-Sun Belt pick with 12.6 PPG and 8.4 RPG a season ago, and will return for a fifth season in 2024-25. Grayson led the Sun Belt in field goal percentage at 54%, a dominant inside threat. Two other starters – G Jacorriah Bracey (10.9 PPG/6.7 RPG) and G Morgan Sieper (5.3 PPG) – will return for Southern Miss as well.

The official bracket for the 2024 @badboymowers Battle 4 Atlantis Women's Tournament is here! Join us in November at @atlantisbahamas & on @flohoops & @espn as @BallStateWBB @BaylorWBB @CULionsWBB @IndianaWBB @uncwbb @SouthernMissWBB @AggieWBB & @novawbb compete in Paradise! pic.twitter.com/cofbtdjKEy — Battle 4 Atlantis (@B4AOfficial) August 29, 2024

Kayla McPherson, Lexi Donarski and Maria Gakdeng (left to right)

September 4, 2024 | Women's Basketball