Breakout player candidates for Wisconsin during 2019-20 season

The Wisconsin men's basketball team kicks off its season on Tuesday night in Sioux Falls, S.D., against No. 20 Saint Mary's.

UW will need to replace production from last year as Ethan Happ, Khalil Iverson and Charles Thomas all departed the program -- and the Badgers will need to especially find players to pick up the slack from the former two's contributions.

With that, BadgerBlitz.com unveils its top four nominees to break out for the 2019-20 campaign.

Yes, it was just an exhibition game against WIAC program UW-La Crosse on Friday, but King played well in dropping 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the win.

Last season after returning from a broken patella, he averaged just 4.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 19 minutes per contest. However, with Happ and Iverson gone, the opportunity will be there for King to assert himself as a consistent scorer and presence on the floor.

Though only scoring in double digits four times during his 2018-19 campaign, King recorded a career-high 14 points against Oklahoma in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament down in late November, while also scoring 13 against Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament.

King has that potential to be a three-level scorer and, according to redshirt junior D'Mitrik Trice, he also has played a bit of point guard.

"Kobe has developed a whole new asset to his game, I think," Trice said on Oct. 30. "The biggest thing for him is he's attacking the rim a lot more, and he's getting to the free throw line and making plays for others. That's the biggest thing that he's been working on is being aggressive, and it shows at times. Even when we put him on the point, he's finding other guys to get open. He's making the right reads and attacking when he needs to."

Reuvers' presence will be needed from both the inside and out this season, but the main area of focus could lie in the former. Happ led the team in rebounds (10.1 per contest) during the 2018-19 campaign and also was second on the team in blocks.

Last season, Reuvers asserted himself down low in that latter category (60 blocks in 34 games). He averaged 7.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, so he and others will need to scoop up those boards while replacing the All-American. The Minnesota native showed he could at times a season ago, which included a career-high 22 points and 10 rebounds in a road win against Illinois.

Reuvers also showed a bit of touch from three-point range, hitting 38.1 percent of attempts from deep.

"Nate's done a really good job with making sure that he's ready to step up," redshirt junior Micah Potter said on Oct. 30. "He's performed in practice and in scrimmages and all over the place, whether it be shooting the ball, finishing inside. He had a couple of finishes earlier today in practice, where he's done a really good job of getting his feet set, pump faking, and going up strong with the jump hook.

"I think that's probably the biggest thing that he's developed over the last couple of weeks is his ability to finish jump hooks rather than doing fade away jumpers, and that's really increased his game and his ability to score."

Not one person will be able to replace Happ's production down low, and Ford will be among those needing to step up after averaging 3.1 points and 1.9 rebounds in 2018-19. He shined in a Big Ten Tournament win over Nebraska last season where he scored 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting with six rebounds.

The redshirt junior normally was seen as more of an outside presence -- as though last season he connected on under 29 percent of his three-point attempts, he hit over 40 percent from deep during his redshirt freshman year in 2017-18.

Looking ahead, Potter sees work in the weight room paying off.

"I think the biggest thing is he didn't have an injury," Potter said of Ford last week. "He's healthy, he's got his confidence back because of that, and as many people have talked about, the way he changed his body over the off-season from even more from what he did before. I think it's pretty obvious he looks a lot more cut, a lot more defined.

"He's really put a lot of work in and with that, comes a lot more confidence. The more strength you have, the more confidence you have playing inside, banging around on defense, banging in the post, all of that kind of stuff."

For that matter, both Ford and Reuvers will need to stay out of foul trouble until Potter returns -- whenever that is -- as the front court is thin.

Depending upon when Potter is allowed to play -- which currently is the Dec. 21 game against Milwaukee -- he will immediately be factored into the equation to help the team inside and in the post.

Before transferring to Wisconsin, Potter played two seasons at Ohio State. That conference experience could be critical for the Badgers that is lacking depth with their big men.

On Friday, Nov. 1 after the exhibition win over UW-La Crosse, Greg Gard announced UW requested a telephone hearing with the NCAA Committee for Legislative Relief.

"We want to give Micah an opportunity, or we really feel strongly that Micah should have an opportunity to state his case verbally to the committee, each of those people individually," Gard said. "Obviously they will be on a conference call if it’s granted."

According to Wisconsin's head coach, the chair of the committee makes the call whether to grant this particular hearing and then there's a 10-day deadline to convene.

“It just went in earlier today, so that’s the next step that we’re at right now in terms of what we feel is right," Gard said. "You’ve heard me talk about it before and the right thing to do. I mean the kid’s going to graduate here this spring. He’s going to be in grad school next year. He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. He hasn’t played in a year. I’ve seen all these other waivers being approved where guys played last year.

"I know circumstances vary from player to player, from student-athlete to student-athlete, but hopefully with Micah and his representation and our university being able to really state the case and why we feel he should be eligible immediately, and they can hear that directly from the student-athlete themselves."