College Hoops Today

Serving College Basketball 365 Days a Year

The Breakfast Buffet: March Madness Edition

Mangia!

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.

Things To Sample

Purdue needs more out of Lance Jones
Why did Matt Painter add Jones out of the transfer portal last spring after he had a productive four-year career at Southern Illinois? For the next two games. Painter knew that both Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer would make significant jumps as sophomores, but 6-5 Jones was ultimately a guy that could take the Boilers to another level. He’s only scored a combined 15 points in Purdue’s first two NCAA Tournament games. If this program is going to get to the Final Four for the first time since 1980, Jones needs to be a bigger offensive threat this week against Gonzaga and then either Tennessee or Creighton if the Boilers are fortunate enough to advance. Purdue is 14-0 this season when Jones scores 14 or more points.

Armando Bacot could be in line for a big game against Alabama
The strength of the Crimson Tide does not lie in their interior defense and that could mean significant things for the 6-11 Bacot, who has played really well so far in the NCAA Tournament. In North Carolina’s two wins last week, Bacot averaged 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks while shooting 12-23 from the field. Those are the types of numbers that Bacot put up two years ago in 2022 when the Tar Heels advanced all the way to the national title game and lost to Kansas.

Louisville is officially on the clock
It’s been nearly two weeks since the Cards parted ways with Kenny Payne and they still have no coach. Scott Drew was a pipe dream and was never going to leave Baylor. Dusty May’s decision to pick Michigan over Louisville last Saturday was a gut punch. Where do the Cards turn from here? Charleston’s Pat Kelsey, New Mexico’s Richard Pitino, Indiana State’s Josh Schertz, and Seton Hall’s Shaheen Holloway have all reportedly been linked to this job, but as the days pass it feels more and more like the compass involved with this search is pointed in all different sorts of directions. Under Payne, Louisville was a combined 12-52 in two seasons. Before Payne, the Cards spent three and a half seasons under Chris Mack, but never won a game in the NCAA Tournament and only advanced to the bracket once during that span. Remember: Louisville hasn’t won a game in March Madness since 2017, which was the last year that Rick Pitino was this program’s head coach.

On The Side

  • North Carolina is now 7-1 in the NCAA Tournament under Hubert Davis.
  • If John Calipari was ever paid $33,375,000 — the current amount of his buyout — not to coach, it would be the greatest accomplishment of his career and one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of mankind. That’s saying a lot for someone who is in the Hall-of-Fame and has won a national title.
  • Creighton’s top four scorers — Baylor Scheierman, Trey Alexander, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and Steven Ashworth — are combining to average 80 percent of its points.
  • Barring an unforeseen set of circumstances, Duquesne is expected to promote Dru Joyce III to head coach, multiple sources told College Hoops Today. Joyce was an assistant under Keith Dambrot, who announced his retirement last week.
  • The transfer portal has completely augmented the urgency of head coaching searches in college basketball. The longer you wait, the better the chance is that your new coach has to put together an entirely new roster.

Leftovers