Live from Atlantis: Tournament notes

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Paradise Island is filled with Jayhawks, Hawkeyes, Jayhawks, others and Jayhawks. Kansas fans are spending their bowl money on a trip to the Bahamas and banking on a win at the eight-team Battle 4 Atlantis.

We've already had an altercation among coaches. In the Wednesday night banquet for athletes and coaches (and television talent but not print journalists), UTEP Coach Tim Floyd and USC counterpart Andy Enfield got into a heated discussion and their assistants were separated. CBS/BTN/Sports Ilustrated's Seth Davis was in the banquet and offered up the lowdown on the showdown. Here's his take:

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Conference realignment wreaked havoc on the tournament's seedings. Based on the teams entering the season, Kansas, Iowa, Villanova and Tennessee deserved the top four seeds. That's how it worked out. But with Xavier here, that's when the seedings became difficult.

Xavier should be seeded fifth, but that would put the Muskateers head-to-head against Villanova or Tennessee. Xavier already played Tennessee in its opener. Villanova and Xavier now compete against one another in the Big East and will play at least twice this year. That put Xavier against Iowa or Kansas. Well, Kansas deserves the top seed so the tournament's best opening-round game of Iowa-Xavier tips off at 6 p.m. on national television.

"In Iowa we see a team that plays very aggressively on defense," Xavier Coach Chris Mack said. "They change their defense from time to time, they're out in the passing lanes and our guys are going to have to really take care of the ball. They like to mix up their pressure, they'll zone press you, they'll trap you. Offensively, I see a team that tries to overwhelm you in transition. Challenges every team they play on the glass and they're a very, very big team."

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Iowa last played Xavier three years ago at the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands in Fran McCaffery's debut season. Xavier won the opening-round game 86-73. No Xavier players remain from that team, but Iowa has three players back. Melsahn Basabe started and scored 10 points. Zach McCabe came off the bench to score five points, and Devyn Marble played but didn't score.

"We played Iowa a couple of years ago in the Virgin Islands and I'm reading the scouting report and they still have players that played," Mack said. "So it's definitely interesting to see their freshmen and sophomores become juniors and seniors."

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No. 2 Kansas opens with Wake Forest in the opener and then faces the Villanova-USC winner on Friday. Kansas Coach Bill Self, who formerly coached against Iowa while leading Illinois for three years in the early 2000s, likes the tournament's makeup.

"I would think that this is probably as competitive a field as any of the preseason tournaments would be, anywhere," Self said. "I think the powers that be did a great job of putting together a field at the end of the year everyone will look at and have something where all teams will get something out of it."

"This is a brand new season, a new time for me and a new time for a new team that is very talented and can come out of here with a championship," Kansas forward Tarik Black said.

The highest-profile championship game would include Iowa and Kansas, the tournament's only ranked teams. Judged by the fans down here in Atlantis, it would fill up the arena as well. Iowa has to take care of business against Xavier and either Tennessee or UTEP before worrying about the Jayhawks.

"There's great teams like Kansas, obviously our first game against Xavier is a great program and they've got a great team so far," McCabe said. "Our goal is to go 3-0. It's not going to be a damper if we end up losing a game, but it's just something we can learn from. I think playing these teams just shows what we can do and what we need to do in the future."

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There is some history among the coaches with Iowa. Self was 2-2 against the Hawkeyes in his three seasons with Illinois. UTEP Coach Tim Floyd was 2-2 facing the Hawkeyes while coaching at Iowa State. Mack is 1-0 at Xavier, and Tennessee Coach Cuonzo Martin played against the Hawkeyes in the 1990s while at Purdue. Wake Forest's Jeff Bzdelik led the Demon Deacons on a 19-point home comeback to beat Iowa (and McCaffery) in the 2010 Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Villanova and Coach Jay Wright crushed Iowa 89-60 in 2006 in the Virgin Islands (Wright also led Villanova to a second-round win against McCaffery and Siena in the 2008 NCAA tournament). USC's Andy Enfield is the only one not to compete against Iowa.