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The Breakfast Buffet: UConn has no peer, Kentucky, the strength of the Mountain West

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

UConn has no peer
The Huskies and Purdue have clearly separated themselves as the two best teams in college basketball, but with every passing game UConn displays more and more that it’s in a class by itself. Saturday’s 81-53 win over Marquette — who was ranked fourth in last week’s AP Top 25 — was as impressive of a performance as any team has had this season. The Golden Eagles had previously won eight games in a row and averaged 82.6 points during that span. None of that mattered against the Huskies. It may soon be time to start having the conversation if whether or not this rendition of UConn is better than last season’s squad that ripped through the NCAA Tournament like a chainsaw through butter. During last season’s March Madness, the Huskies won six games by an average of 20 points.

Kentucky picked up its best win of the season at Auburn
Three days after the Tigers scored 101 points and beat South Carolina by 40 at Neville Arena, the Wildcats held Auburn to just 59 in an 11-point win. The victory was far and away the best performance of the season for Kentucky, who reiterated its long-term potential with the triumph. I’ve said it before and I’ll it again: This version of the Wildcats reminds me of John Calipari’s team during the 2013-14 season, who struggled with consistency issues all year, but wound up advancing all the way to the national title game despite only earning an eight seed on Selection Sunday. If Kentucky is good enough to beat Auburn at Neville Arena then it’s good enough to beat anyone anywhere.

The strength of the Mountain West stood out during Saturday’s early March Madness Bracket Reveal
Not only did six teams from the Mountain West appear in the projected bracket on CBS, but none of those teams — San Diego State, New Mexico, Colorado State, Utah State, Boise State, and Nevada — were projected as double digit seeds. That’s simply remarkable. We’re still four weeks away from Selection Sunday and there’s plenty of basketball left to be played, but the strength of this league has never been more magnified. The Mountain West doesn’t just have six teams in position to make the NCAA Tournament as of today — it has six teams comfortably in position to make the NCAA Tournament. This conference has never had more than five teams reach the bracket on Selection Sunday, which happened in 2013.

On The Side

  • Purdue is 34-4 over the past four seasons in games where Mason Gillis makes multiple three-point shots. The Boilers will visit Ohio State this afternoon. Tip off is at 1 PM ET on CBS.
  • Jared McCain’s 35-point performance in Duke’s win on Saturday at Florida State included eight made three-point shots, which was the most ever by a freshman for the Blue Devils.
  • Could South Florida win the AAC regular season title and not make the NCAA Tournament? It’s very much in play if it beats Florida Atlantic today in Tampa. The Bulls — who are currently in sole possession of first place in the AAC — are 18-5 in their first season under Amir Abdur-Rahim, but still don’t possess the requisites for an at-large resume.
  • Since losing at Utah by 46 points on Jan. 11th, UCLA has won seven of its last eight games, with the only loss coming at Arizona. The Bruins can extract revenge tonight when they play the Utes at Pauley Pavilion.
  • Northwestern’s Boo Buie is only 18 points away from tying John Shurna as the Wildcats’ all-time leading scorer. The Wildcats visit Indiana this afternoon in Bloomington.

Daily Specials

  • Florida Atlantic at South Florida
  • Purdue at Ohio State
  • Northwestern at Indiana
  • Seton Hall at St. John’s
  • Utah at UCLA

Leftovers