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The Breakfast Buffet: Armando Bacot, Dalton Knecht hits Rupp Arena, UConn/St. John’s

Here’s today’s installment of “The Breakfast Buffet”, a daily column that can be found here every single morning getting you caught up to date on everything that’s happened from the day/night before and everything that’s going to happen in the next 24 hours.

Mangia!

Things To Sample

North Carolina needs more out of Armando Bacot
The Tar Heels aren’t going to beat Duke tonight in Chapel Hill or advance to the Final Four for the second time in three seasons if they don’t start getting more mileage out of their fifth-year big man. The 6-11 Bacot is averaging just 6.3 points and 6.7 rebounds in his last three games. He’s also only grabbed 10 or more rebounds once in North Carolina’s last seven contests. Remember: Bacot averaged a double-double in each of the past two seasons as well as 15.3 points and 16.5 rebounds in six games during the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Dalton Knecht hits Rupp Arena
One of the sport’s biggest platforms will play host to one of the sport’s biggest stars as Kentucky hosts Tennessee tonight Lexington. The 6-6 Knecht enters tonight’s game averaging 32.6 points in his last five outings and is the heavy frontrunner to be the SEC Player of the Year. How the Wildcats handle him? It would help if they could get healthy as both D.J. Wagner (ankle) and Justin Edwards (knee) missed Wednesday’s overtime loss against Florida due to injuries. The loser of this game will be on a two-game losing streak.

UConn/St. John’s
A sellout crowd is expected at MSG for what is as high profile of a regular season game as the Red Storm have played in at least 20 years. The Huskies meanwhile, are on a nine-game winning streak and have a legitimate chance to be the first team to win back-to-back national titles since Florida did it under Billy Donovan in 2006 and 2007. St. John’s is in desperate need of a marquee win in an effort to cement its place in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. Another thing to remember? The head coaches in this game — UConn’s Dan Hurley and St. John’s Rick Pitino — aren’t likely to be meeting for a pre-game mimosa anytime soon. There’s a lot of big games today in college basketball, but given both the head coaches and the venue, this one has a little more sizzle than the others.

On The Side

  • Houston’s game today at Kansas is Kelvin Sampson’s first trip to Allen Fieldhouse since Feb. 5th, 2006, when he was at Oklahoma. That’s 6,572 days ago.
  • Memphis has 44 assists and 63 turnovers during its current four-game losing streak. The Tigers will try get things right today against Wichita State at FedEx Forum. Tip off is at 1 PM ET on CBS.
  • Does the Mountain West have a third All-American in Utah State’s Great Osobor? It’s very possible. America loves to highlight both Colorado State’s Isaiah Stevens and San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee, but don’t forget about Osobor. The Aggies’ burly big man is averaging 19.1 points and 9.6 rebounds entering today’s showdown with San Diego State in Logan.
  • Saint Mary’s has won its first eight WCC games by an average of 19.6 points entering tonight’s showdown with Gonzaga in Spokane.
  • TCU’s Trevian Tennyson has to be in any conversation that discusses the best shooters in college basketball. The 6-3 guard is shooting 46.4 percent from long distance entering today’s game against Texas in Fort Worth. Tennyson previously played at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

Daily Specials

  • UConn at St. John’s
  • Utah State at San Diego State
  • Houston at Kansas
  • Duke at North Carolina
  • Tennessee at Kentucky

Leftovers